Course: Main
Servings: Four hungry people
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: Three hours in oven at low hear
Ingredients:
500g of stewing steak or beef skirt
225 g of good beef sausages
Lard or dripping for frying (no veggie options here)
1 large onion
2 tbsps plain flour (enough to coat the beef)
Salt and pepper
2 beef stock cubes.
1 bottle of Tushkar Oatmeal Stout from the Lerwick Brewery. Or two, if you plan to drink and cook at the same time.
Pre-packed puff pastry and flour for rolling
Instructions:
Chop the beef into cubes, season the flour with salt and pepper, and coat the beef in it. Brown the onions in the dripping or lard, then add the coated beef and fry until brown all over – best done in a big open pan I think your Instant Pot may be up to the job.
Add the stock (cubes), the stout and a lot of black pepper. Make sure it’s liquid enough to sustain pressing that ‘stew’ button on the IP, or if you’re cooking it in the oven, transfer to a casserole dish and keep an eye on things to make sure it doesn’t dry out over the two or three hours it will need, at a low heat, adding more stout or water if necessary. Again, if the ‘stew’ programme doesn’t result in soft enough beef, just fire up the Instant Pot again until it is tender. Making sure there’s enough liquid in there.
Now, you will have noted the absence of the sausages, traditionally deployed in poorer households to bulk up a lack of actual meat. They are added late. You do not want them falling into a slough of savoury despond. Fry them until they’re deliciously brown. Then add them to the stew and cook on the stove top for about 15 minutes, careful watching that liquid quotient. You know what you want to find inside the steak pie. Go for that consistency.
Once cooked, the stew can be kept overnight, or just cooled sufficiently not to attack the pastry with its juices as you make the actual pie. Roll out some pre-packed puff pastry on a floured surface and make it thin – about 3mm. Pour the stew and sausages into the ashet, pastry over the top. Press down the edges and trim.
Coat the top with beaten egg, poke a couple of holes to let the steam out, and then into the oven for about 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Serve with neeps (turnips or swede) and tatties. Or chips.
It strikes me that you could do all of this in an old-school pressure cooker, and that modern versions are likely to be less dangerous than my mum’s. You are welcome to try but keep a long-handled brush handy to get at the ceiling. Or a stool so you can lick the residue.