Steak & Ale Pie
When I moved to London over 5 years ago, one of my first culinary obsessions was pie. A good rich and satisfying pie is simply perfect. It’s fascinating to discover a great dish and to slowly learn the different recipes and variations.
My favourite pie will always be steak and ale pie. I find this rich combination irresistible. I am still a bit unclear about the difference in types of pastry that are used based on the filling. To be completely honest with you I haven’t had the courage yet to deal with hot water crust pastry simply because I am not a big fan of using lard. I’d much rather use butter and for this reason I went for a nice puff pastry lid.
Puff Pastry is a great weekend project but you can of course skip that part and use ready made puff pastry if you prefer. If you decide to give it a go, I promise that once you use home made puff pastry, you’ll never get ready made pastry again. The taste and richness is simply on a completely different level.
Classics
Ingredients
Puff Pastry
(Puff pastry recipe from Puff the Bakery)
Dough
250g strong white flour
62g unsalted butter
4g fine sea salt
6g white wine vinegar
112ml water
Butter block
185g unsalted butter
Egg for final eggwash
Meat
1kg of chuck steak
Olive oil
300ml beef stock
300ml brown ale
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
400g carrots
3 sticks of celery
1 shot of milk
salt & pepper
2 tbsp of tomato purée
knob of butter
Step by Step
For the dough
Place the flour, salt and butter in a mixing bowl and mix until the butter is fully incorporated in the flour and you can’t see it anymore
Add in the water and vinegar and mix briefly. Do not be tempted to over mix, the dough has to look rough
Wrap in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours
To prepare your butter block: Slice your butter and use 2 sheets of parchment paper and enclose the slices to form a square. Using your rolling pin bash your butter (not to strong!). This is required to make it more pliable and to make sure that all the slices come together nicely in a square. Your final butter block should be roughly 1 inch thick. Chill it in the fridge for a couple of hours
The lamination: Flour your surface and roll your dough into a large square. It has top be large enough to enclose your butter block. Place your butter in the middle of your dough square in a diamond shape (see image below for reference). Fold the corners of the dough to meet in the middle. It should look like an envelope. Seal the ‘envelope’ edges so that the butter can’t come out
Now roll the dough vertically. Move it around from time to time and keep it mobile. If it starts sticking, flour your bench
Roll it to the point that it’s long and narrow and roughly 1/2 an inch thick
Normally puff pastry has at least 6 folds. You can chose the combination you prefer. For this pie I decided to go for 3 double folds because I was a bit in a rush (you can do 6 singles or any combination you want).
You now have to perform your first double fold. Fold the top part of your dough so that the top edge touches the middle of your long dough sheet. Repeat the same movement with the bottom edge of your dough. Fold it so that it touches the middle of you long sheet. Now fold again your dough sheet so that the top edge touches the bottom edge and turn it 90 degrees on the bench. If you pick it up and hold it, it should look like a book (look at the pictures below!)
Wrap it in cling film and rest it for 1.5 to 2h in the fridge
Roll it out vertically and repeat another double fold. Rest in the fridge for 1.5 to 2h
Roll it out vertically and repeat another double fold one last time. Rest in the fridge until you need to roll it out for the pie
Prepping the meat
Chop the carrots, onion, celery and garlic cloves
Coat the meat with the flour
Put some olive oil in a deep pan and seer the meat. Do it in small batches so you can achieve a nice golden result.
Once you’ve seared the meat put it aside and add in the pan a little of the beef stock. Deglaze your pan
Add the veggies and sauté them for 10 minutes
Add in the meat and season with salt and pepper
Add in the ale and let the alcohol evaporate
Add in your remaining beef stock, knob of butter, tomato paste and milk
Let it simmer for 1.5h
Once cooked put it in a tray and let it cool down
Putting the pie together
Take your puff pastry out and let it rest 10min before rolling it out (4mm thick)
Place your meat in a pie dish (I used 2 medium ones)
Butter the sides of your pie dish and place of puff pastry all around the pie dish
Use water to wet your puff pastry rim and on place on top you puff pastry pie lid. The water will help you seal the pastry
Press the edges of the pie with a fork to seal it better. Don’t press too hard or you won’t get good layers
Eggwash your pie and place it in the fridge for 1h before you bake it
After 1 hour, eggwash again, score with a knife (optional) and bake in a preheated oven at 220 C for 20mins. Now turn the temperature down to 200 C and bake for another 20min
Enjoy!
Tips & Cheats
Puff Pastry is always seen as something difficult to make. The reality is that after you’ve made it once you’ll realise it’s not that bad and that it only requires good planning and a few tricks.
The biggest learning with puff pastry is that you have to make sure you keep the pastry as cool as possible. The butter shouldn’t melt or start oozing from your dough. This is one of the reasons why you have to put it back in the fridge every time you preform a fold.
If your dough starts becoming to sticky or shiny (butter melting!) put it back in the fridge and give it a break. Don’t rush to finish, just stop and put it in the fridge.
Try to work neatly. You don’t have to be as precise as a chef but the neater you are and the more you try to make sure your edges match when folding the better layers you’ll get.
Keep your dough mobile when rolling it out. Do that by flouring your working station. This will prevent the dough from sticking and the butter from escaping.