Beef & Guinness pie, with marmite & porcini pastry
If this isn’t the heartiest, most deeply comforting pie you eat all winter we’ll eat our hat. We rarely eat beef (or hats) but when we do, we strive to source high welfare, grass-reared beef and really make the recipe and eating experience count - “less meat, better meat” is a food mantra of ours which is part of our vegcentric philosophy.
You know we love to lace additional flavour into the pastry and here we’ve gone for marmite & porcini… Marmite is a rare disagreement between the two of us, but even Katy - an ardent marmite hater - agrees that it adds great savoury depth and seems to beef up the overall ‘meatiness’ of this pie.
We found shin of beef and ox cheek at our local farm shop and used a mix of the two, but shin on its own would be equally great. Carrots and onions add a little sweetness, mushrooms lend umami depth, and boiled, buttered skin-on spuds and simple greens are the way to go here in terms of accompaniments.
For other flavoursome pastry recipes please take a look at our Pear, roquefort & walnut Bakewell with rye & rosemary pastry, and our Squash, goats’ cheese & sage tart with Parmesan & hazelnut pastry. All of these recipes offer a wine pairing suggestion too; they were originally written for our friends Liebherr who have kindly allowed us to share these with you here. If you are on the lookout for a new fridge or a wine fridge we can attest to Liebherr’s brilliance.
And the wine pairing?
A mighty Bordeaux (also known as Claret). We love the structure of a Bordeaux, particularly one that’s more Cabernet Sauvignon dominant (Read more here). Younger Bordeaux’s will offer dark fruit flavours such as blackcurrant and deep purple plums, as well as some graphite and cedar notes from oak-aging; and older Bordeaux’s can take on earthy notes of wet gravel, mushroom and forest floor. Either way, a Bordeaux will have mouth-drying tannins which soften when paired with powerful, savoury dishes such as this.
Prep time: 3.5 hours (to slow-braise the filling)
Cook time: 45-60 mins (to cook the assembled pie)
Recipe sufficient for 4 servings, or a medium sized-pie dish
For the pastry:
100 g whole grain rye flour
150 g light spelt flour
130g cold butter, diced
1 heaped tablespoon porcini powder
1 heaped tablespoon marmite
2-4 tbsp cold water
½ tsp flakey sea salt
1 egg yolk - keep the white for brushing the pastry
For the filling:
4 tbsp rapeseed oil
600 g diced beef shin (or a combination of chin & cheek)
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp English mustard powder
1 tsp flakey sea salt
½ tsp cracked black pepper
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 knobs butter
2 large brown onions (3-4 if small)
4 anchovies
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs of thyme
4 carrots
220 g chestnut mushrooms
1 tbsp porcini powder
1 tbsp tamari
2 tbsp lea & perrins
1 can Guinness
½ can water
Method:
Start by making the pie filling, and if you’ve got the time this best made a day ahead. Trim and dice the beef, chunky chop the onions, chunky chop the carrots, and halve or quarter the chestnut mushrooms depending on size.
In a large mixing bowl tossed the beef with the flour, english mustard powder, salt and pepper.
Fire up two hobs simultaneously; place a heavy-based casserole dish on a medium/low heat and add 2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil and 2 knobs of butter. Once hot, start gently frying the chopped onions for 12 minutes, stirring often.
Simultaneously, heat 2-4 tablespoons of rapeseed oil in your largest frying pan and when smoking hot fry off the beef in batches trying not to crowd the pan. Allow the meat to caramelise and take on a dark colour, even a little char. Tip the browned beef onto a plate as you go.
After 12 minutes preheat the oven to 150C then add the anchovies, bay leaves, thyme leaves (stripped from their stalks), carrots and mushrooms to the onions, and continue frying for 8 minutes on a low heat.
After 8 mins add the browned beef, any remaining seasoned flour, the porcini powder, tamari, Lea & Perrins, Guinness and water. Bring to a gentle simmer over a low/medium heat then pop on the lid, and place in the middle of the oven for 3 hours.
Meanwhile make the pastry. Sieve the flours and sea salt into a large mixing bowl. Rub in the diced butter, marmite and porcini powder with your fingertips until the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Now add the egg yolk and 2-4 tablespoons of cold water - just enough to bring the pastry together. Try to handle things as little as possible to avoid the pastry becoming tough. Keep the egg white to egg wash the top later. Wrap the pastry in cling film and hold in the fridge until needed.
After 3 hours check your pie filling - the beef should collapse when punished with a wooden spoon. If things look a touch dry add a cup of water, and if they look a little wet remove the lid and return to the oven for 20 minutes. Once cooked, allow it to cool then transfer the mix into your pie dish or skillet.
Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough until roughly 0.5 - 1 cm thick, no thicker. Aim to roll it in the same shape as the pie dish, with an extra 3 cm in each direction. Roll it back around the rolling pin, then unroll this over the dish. Use your finger and thumb to ‘crimp’ the edges, then poke a hole through the centre. Pop in the fridge until you're ready to bake.
Preheat the oven to 180C and egg-wash the top using the leftover egg white, lightly whisked. Bake in the middle of the oven for 45 - 60 minutes until golden on top and bubbling at the edges. Meanwhile open and decant the Bordeaux.
Allow your pie to cool for 10 minutes before serving with some boiled and buttered spuds and some blanched greens.