Being British means loving a good savory meat pie, and nothing is better than this British Steak and Ale Pie. English meat pies are popular pub grub and perfect comfort food. The filling for this pie only uses onions and carrots, but you can fill meat pies with anything you like, root vegetables, mushrooms or peas, whatever is in season.
The ale in Steak and Ale Pie
What gives British steak and ale pie its rich, characteristic richness is the use of ale. Good, dark brown English ale is a must to get a deeply infused flavor. If you can’t find it, Guinness will also work. Braising the beef in the ale and other ingredients makes it beautifully moist and tender that comes together to make a delicious, saucy filling. Cooking the meat is a little combination cooking of braising stewing the meat and similar steps to beef stew.
The importance of good pastry
The pastry is just as important as the pie filling so they come together as the perfect marriage. This easy shortcrust pastry recipe is my go-to for all my pies, like this minced beef and onion pie, as well as homemade sausage rolls.
Pie Crust in the Food Processor
An easy alternative to hand mixing the dough is making it in the food processor. This serves two purposes. It’s quick and easy (we love that), and by not using my hands, it prevents the cold butter from warming up. As an alternative to using dried beans, if you place a sheet of foil over the crust and weight it with an oven-proof dish that would it in the center (picture example below). This pie is by no means diet-friendly, but everything is good in moderation because this is British comfort food at it’s best. But it doesn’t stop there; this pie is just a delicious warmed up the next day. Just put the leftovers in a 350°F/175°C degree oven, uncovered for 20 minutes and this will heat it through and get the crust nice and crispy.
Using leftover roast beef (Sunday roast)
I have been asked a few times about using beef leftover from Sunday roast or roast beef dinner. This will also tenderize any overcooked beef. Start the recipe at step 6 (cooking the vegetables) and then go on to step 7. On step 8, cook the vegetables in the beef stock (without the beef) for about 10- 15 minutes or so until the carrots are tender. Remove from the heat, then stir in the beef right before you add the filling to the pie and continue per the rest of the recipe. If you’ve tried this British Steak and Ale pie or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how it turned out in the comments below. I love to hear from my readers! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see daily recipe updates. Taste your stock, if it is salty, you may need to adjust the amount of salt in the dish
