Pies Forever

I had promised some friends a traditional steak pie for New Year’s Day, but for various reasons it didn’t quite happen. Instead we had a belated celebration of the New Year yesterday and with it a steak pie of some girth and magnificence..

Making a big pie is a bit of a marathon, especially if everything is built from scratch. but it’s so worth it.

Firstly the feather steak was sourced from a local, organic highland butcher – two one kilo pieces of shoulder steak, well marbled. This I trimmed and cut into proper sized chunks. None of the thin slivers and oddly shaped offcuts that you sometimes get with supermarket trays of stewing steak.

Next this was tossed with flour and seasoning and seared in a skillet, then popped into a baking tin in a slow oven with water, bay leaves, garlic, paprika and onions. It was covered and cooked on a low heat for two and a half hours. I would have used my slow cooker for this but I couldn’t fit it all in.

Meanwhile the pastry was being made. I chose a rough shortcrust for the base, sturdy enough to hold the filling together. This was rolled out, blind baked then glazed with egg wash and baked for a further five minutes to help create a waterproof coating for the pastry. We don’t want any soggy bottoms here..

The pie filling was thickened with cornflour and the seasoning adjusted, then cooled and tumbled into the pie crust . I can’t find my pie birds, still in the unpacked boxes in the shed I think, so I improvised a toot-toot chimney with greaseproof paper to release the steam.

The top was actually shop bought puff pastry. I could have made it but I really didn’t have the energy, and a good shop bought all-butter puff pastry is as good as anything I can make at home.

I like to add little embellishments to a pie with the offcuts of pastry that are left after trimming. Channeling my inner hedgewitch artist and all that. And so leaves, balls and curly things got added.

Et voila! Forty minutes later, bronzed deliciousness emerged. We ate it with roasted broccoli, carrots and lashings of gravy. All except Hugh, who bizarrely is not a gravy fan.

It was a huge pie. We have half of it left after four of us ate and even had second helpings.

I feel that we’ve marked the coming of the new year in suitably robust fashion now. Which is a good thing, as I probably won’t make a pie like this again for another year..