Ingredients:

Steak and Ale Pie

Steak and Ale Pie

  • 1 Knorr Rich Beef Stock Pot
  • 1tbsp olive oil
  • 4 onions, roughly chopped
  • 500ml dark ale
  • 900g neck of beef, or for a healthier option, lean braising steak, cut into very large chunks
  • 1tsp cornflour mixed with 25ml cold water
  • 400g shortcrust pastry (home-made or shop-bought)
  • Egg wash, made by beating 1 egg yolk

Method:

  1. First make your stock by dissolving the Knorr Rich Beef Stock Pot in 400ml of boiling water. Stir until thoroughly dissolved and set aside
  2. Pre-heat the oven to 140C/Gas Mark 2
  3. Heat half the olive oil in a large, heavy-based casserole dish. Add in the onion and fry, stirring often, until it turns golden-brown - this should take around 15 minutes. This process drives out the water and brings out their natural sweetness
  4. Meanwhile, heat a large, heavy-based frying pan until very hot. Have the confidence to make the pan really hot. Add in the remaining olive oil and heat through
  5. Add in the chunks of beef and fry until browned on all sides. Large chunks of beef will caramelise much better than small cubes. Cook in two batches if necessary
  6. Remove the browned beef from the pan and add it to the casserole dish with the fried onion. Add the ale into the pan that the beef was fried in, bring the ale to the boil and cook until reduced by half. This is important otherwise you'll have too much liquid.
  7. Add the reduced beer and the Knorr Beef Stock to the beef and onions in the casserole dish
  8. Bring all the contents to the boil, simmer uncovered until reduce slightly then stir in the diluted cornflour, mixing in well. Add in as much or as little cornflour as you like depending on how thick you like your gravy
  9. Cover the casserole and transfer to the pre-heated oven. Bake for 1 hour 40 minutes to 2 hours, until the beef is very tender
  10. Once cooked remove the beef and ale mixture from the oven, transfer it into a 24cm pie dish and allow to cool. It's very important that you cool the pie filling before putting the pastry on
  11. Pre-heat the oven to 170C/Gas Mark 6. Roll out the shortcrust pastry to around 3mm thickness
  12. Brush the egg wash around the top edge of the pie dish. Place the rolled out pastry over the pie dish and press it down firmly around the edge to seal the pie, forming a lid. Trim it but leave an overhang of pastry around the edge of the dish
  13. Brush the pie with the remaining egg wash and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown
  14. Take the pie out the oven and there you have it - a British classic.

Recipe courtesy of Knorr.

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