Cork Beef Pie

“The Only Thing to do with Good Advice is Pass it On”

Oscar Wilde

Clodagh McKenna’s Cork Beef Stew from The Irish Farmer’s Market Cookbook is a real favourite of mine and is a frequently made winter warmer of a dish. Generally I’d served a big bowl of it alongside some fluffy mashed potatoes or colcannon and that itself is heaven on a plate. How could it not be? Succulent, tender beef in a thick stout (Guinness) based gravy is a fabulous food, if I had to pick a last meal it would be this – you can keep all the fancy delights for another time, thank you very much. Guinness is a stout beer and not only adds a delicious malty flavour to the stew but helps tenderise the meat too.  I used chuck steak but shin beef would also be perfect here and although the recipe said to cook for a couple of hours I left it in the slow oven compartment of my range for around seven hours and it was pure gorgeousness on a plate.

This weekend though, I fancied a change. Instead of a stew, I went for pie! A subtle change I’m sure you’ll agree, but a change all the same.

I served the pie with roast potatoes and carrots. There’s something wonderful about the combination of crunchy spud with succulent gravy, I’m sure you’d agree. Carrots? Well don’t a few carrots enhance any pie or stew with their delicate sweetness?

I used a very rich and ‘short’ shortcrust pastry here, but puff pastry would work well also. I’ve gained somewhat of a reputation for this pastry, and until now had guarded the recipe closely, listen carefully now – the secret is extra butter and double cream. Yes really, double cream. The result is melt in the mouth, tender pastry. Go on, give it a try.

Another trick to having really crisp pastry with your pie is to cook it separately. Genius, no?

My favourite way to cook roasties is the ‘Nigella Way’. By that I mean I follow here three crucial steps, I think they make the difference: the first is the heat of the fat (and it’s got to be goose fat)- if it’s not searingly hot, you don’t stand a chance; the second is the size of the potatoes – they need to be relatively small, so that the ratio of crunchy outside to fluffy interior is optimised; and, finally, maybe the most important, dredging the potatoes in semolina after parboiling, then really rattling the pan around to make the potatoes a bit mashed on the surface so they catch more in the hot fat, aiding in that most satisfying crunch.

Cork Beef Stew/Pie Filling:

• 2 tablespoons dripping
• 150g bacon, rind removed, cut into thick strips
• 300g shallots
• 1kg stewing beef steaks, cut into 4cm pieces
• 1 litre stout
• 1 pinch salt and black pepper
• 1 bouquet garni, made up of 1 bay leaf, 3-4 parsley stalks, and a sprig of thyme
• 1 tsp butter
• 400g mushrooms

1. Preheat the oven to 110C or the equivalent.
2. Place the dripping in a hot frying pan and add the bacon. Stir and fry for a minute before tipping in the shallots. Cook for a further 5 minutes, until the onions have browned.
3. Transfer the bacon and onions to a large ovenproof casserole dish, but leave the dripping in the pan.
4. Add the beef to the same frying pan and sear until coloured. Transfer to the casserole dish.
5. Pour the stout into the frying pan, while still on the heat, and scrape the sediment from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil and pour the stout into the casserole dish, over the other ingredients.
6. Put the frying pan back on the hob, over a high heat. Melt the butter and toss in the wild mushrooms. Season, and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms have softened. Tip them into the casserole dish, season with salt and pepper, and add the bouquet garni.
7. Cover the casserole pot and cook the stew in the oven for at least 5 hours or until the beef is very tender.

The ‘Shortest’ Shortcrust Pastry

• 225g plain flour
• 160 butter, cut into small cubes
• Double cream or gold top milk

1. Begin by sifting the flour into a large bowl.
2. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips only and being as light as possible. As you gently rub the fat into the flour, lift it up high and let it fall back into the bowl, which helps incorporate more air, but do this just long enough to make the mixture crumbly with a few odd lumps here and there.
3. Now sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cream in, then, with a knife, start bringing the dough together, using the knife to make it cling, adding more cream as needed. Then discard the knife and, finally, bring it together with your fingertips. When enough liquid is added, the pastry should leave the bowl fairly clean.
4. Now place the pastry in a polythene bag and leave it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to rest.
5. Use the pastry as directed in your recipe. To cook ‘plain’ roll to about 1cm thickness and cut into sheets, bake at 200C or the equivalent for about 20 minutes or until golden and crisp.

Roast Potatoes the Nigella Way

• 100g goose fat
• 500g potatoes, such as King Edward’s
• 1 tablespoon semolina

1. Preheat the oven to 250C or the equivalent.
2. Put the fat into a large roasting tin and then into the oven to heat up, and get it incredibly hot: 20-30 minutes should do it.
3. Meanwhile peel the potatoes, and cut each one into 3 by cutting off each end at a slant so that you are left with a wedge or triangle in the middle.
4. Put the potatoes into salted, cold water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil, letting them cook for 4 minutes.
5. Drain the potatoes in a colander, then tip them back into the empty, dry saucepan, and sprinkle the semolina over.
6. Shake the potatoes around in the saucepan to coat them well and, with the lid clamped on, give the pan a good rotate and the potatoes a proper bashing so that their edges fuzz and blur a little: this facilitates the crunch effect later.
7. When the fat is as hot as it can be, tip the semolina-coated potatoes carefully into it (they splutter terrifically) and roast in the oven for an hour or until they are darkly golden and crispy, turning them over halfway through cooking.

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Tagged as: bacon, beef stew, chuck steak, Clodagh McKenna, colcannon, Cork, double cream, Guinness, Irish, meat, Nigella Lawson, Oscar Wilde, parsley, pastry, Pie, Potato, Potatoes, Recipe, roast potatoes, semolina, shortcrust pastry, slow oven, spud, Stew, stout, tender pastry, thyme, winter