Steak Pie

It seems to me like I’ve only been sharing meat meals in the last while. Reality is I just haven’t been a very good blogger and haven’t been sharing as many recipes as I could be. I love to try new recipes and when they become favourites I usually like to blog them. There are a lot of reasons my blogging habit has follow off lately including renovating my house with plans to put it on the market. We are getting very close to our goal! I think the meat meals have been getting special attention because they’re so uncommon.

This steak pie was outrageously rich and all kinds of yum! I had bought a couple no hormone, no antibiotic steaks and organic beef stock at the grocery store recently and wanted to try something different. Cam’s not a fan of meat though; he won’t eat pork (and other than local bacon, I don’t either) and he’s not huge on beef. He was willing to try this pie and loved it from the first bite!

This recipe is best started earlier in the day. The filling needs to simmer for a couple hours and then you’ll want it to cool a bit before putting it in the pie crust. It will then cook for about 30-40 minutes so keep all this in mind if you plan to make this crazy delicious pie.

Here’s what I did:

Pie Crust

• 1 cup cold Unsalted Butter, cubed into 1 inch pieces
• 2 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 cup Almond Milk

1. Put the cubed butter in the freezer to chill for about 15 minutes. Measure out the almond milk and pop it in the freezer for a few minutes too.
2. Mix together the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor with the dough blade in place. Take the cold butter from the freezer and process it with the flour mixture until lumpy. Don’t over process.
3. While the machine is processing, add the cold almond milk. Once the dough has come together, wrap the dough well in wax paper in disc shape and put in the fridge for an hour (or while you are making the pie filling). I like to make one disc a bit larger than the other. The larger one being for the bottom of the pie and the smaller for the top. The dough can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Steak Filling

• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 Onion, diced
• 1/2 cup Carrots, diced
• 1/2 cup Celery, diced
• 3 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp Thyme
• 2 tsp Oregano
• 1  14 oz can Diced Tomatoes
• 1/4 cup Wine (I used a red I had open.)
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Cracked Pepper
• 1 1/2 lbs Sirloin Steak, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (I used a sirloin and a boneless ribeye)
• 1 tbsp Flour
• 1 1/2 cups Beef Stock
• 2/3 cup frozen Peas
• 1 Egg
• 3 tbsp Water

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and sauté the onion until softened. Add the carrot, celery, garlic, thyme and oregano and cook for a further 5 or 6 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes, wine, salt and pepper. Stir in and simmer for another 5 minutes.
2. Add the cubes of beef, stirring to combine and then add about 1/2 cup of the beef stock. Simmer for 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes. You may need to add more stock as you go to ensure the mixture doesn’t dry out and burn. I ended up using about a total of 1 1/2 cups of stock.
3. After the mixture has simmered for 2 hours, turn off the heat and sprinkle flour over the mixture. Stir well to incorporate, and the residual heat from the mixture will allow any cooking liquid to reduce and thicken. You are after the consistency of a Bolognese sauce. If you need to add more stock, do. Fold in the peas, and let the residual heat defrost them. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. Set the pan to the side to cool.
4. Preheat oven to 400’F and in a small bowl whisk together the egg and water. Set aside.
5. After the mixture has cooled slightly, take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll the discs out into circles big enough to line a cast iron skillet or deep dish pie pan.
6. Transfer the pie filling mixture to the pie shell and pinch the crust edges together with your fingers or a fork. Brush the top of the pie with the egg wash, and cut a few slits into the crust to allow steam to escape during the baking process.
7. Bake at 400’F for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350’F for an additional 20 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.