Steak Pie Recipe Made Easy

Tender meat, rich gravy and golden pastry, there is something comforting and reassuring about a good steak pie. Served with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables it makes a hearty family meal. Individual sized pies are just as easy to make, for a picnic or packed lunch to savour.

To make a good steak pie you need to cook the meat slowly first until tender, just as if you are making a stew. Then it gets extra time in the oven with its pastry lid, getting even more succulent and tasty. Steak pies also freeze very well before you bake them and can be cooked straight from frozen, making a great supper with no fuss.

Recipe for Steak Pie

Ingredients
675g / 1 ½ lb stewing or braising steak
1 tablespoon plain flour
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 onion
1 carrot
4 stalks celery
bay leaf
sprig thyme
500ml / 2 cups beef stock
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
1 x 500g packet puff or shortcrust pastry
1 egg

Put the flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper. Cut the steak into bite sized pieces and roll it in the flour till coated.

Brown the meat in 2 tablespoons oil. Set aside on a plate, then cook the onion in the same pan until softened. Add the carrots, celery and herbs and cook for a few more minutes until starting to soften. Return the meat to the pan.

Add the tinned tomatoes and stir. Add the stock. Bring to simmering point and cook over a low heat for two hours or until the meat is tender.

Check the gravy for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Leave to cool slightly, while you prepare the pastry.

By all means make your own pastry, using a shortcrust pastry recipe with lard as the main fat. The pie works perfectly well with bought pastry too, if you want to make things easier. Choose puff pastry or shortcrust, depending on your own preference.

Roll out the pastry to fit, overlapping slightly, one big or six small, individual pie dishes. Spoon the meat filling into the pie dishes, making sure that the liquid doesn’t come more than 2/3 of the way up the sides of the dishes.

Brush the rim of the dish with a little beaten egg and lay the pastry over the top. Press the pastry down around the edges to seal. Brush the pastry with beaten egg and make two or three small slits in the top to allow steam to escape, so the pastry will crisp nicely.

Bake at 190C / 375F for 40 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the filling is sizzling. Let the pie rest for 10 minutes before serving your delicious steak pie.

Variations
Use a bottle of Guinness instead of the stock for a really deep, rich flavour.
Add mushrooms for a steak and mushroom pie.
Replace a third of the steak with an equal weight of kidney for steak and kidney pie.

Longing to bite into a perfect steak pie right now? Make for the Lord Nelson restaurant in Nottingham.