British steak and ale pies
Recipe
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20 minutes
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255 minutes
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275 minutes
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4 persons
The filling for these classic British savoury pies from the Big Green Egg includes flat iron steak. Before you gently simmer the steak in the Dutch oven, you’ll first grill it on the cast-iron grid in your kamado to enhance the flavour of the filling.
If you’re making a large pie, you need to make a vent in the top or use a pie bird to allow any steam to escape and prevent the top from cracking. However, for these individual pies, you don’t need to worry about that. They’re only filled three-quarters of the way and the baking time is shorter than for a large pie, which means you’ll be eating them in no time!
INGREDIENTS
Suet pastry
- 125 g cold butter + soft butter for greasing
- 500 g flour, plus extra for dusting
- 150 g suet
- 150 ml water
- 5 g fine salt
Filling
- 500 g flat iron steak
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 onions
- 2 cloves of fresh garlic
- 200 g large mushrooms
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 bay leaves
- 100 ml veal stock
- 200 ml Guinness beer
Egg wash
- 2 egg yolks
- ½ tbsp flour
- 1 tsp water
IN ADVANCE
- Light the charcoal in the Big Green Egg and heat with the Cast Iron Grid to a temperature of 220°C.
- To make the suet pastry, chop the butter into cubes. Mix all the ingredients and knead into a pliable, elastic dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- For the filling, place the flat iron steak on a cutting board. Remove the leaves from the sprig of thyme and the needles from the sprig of rosemary and chop finely. Mix the herbs with the olive oil and rub into the meat.
PREPARATION
- Place the flat iron steak on the grid for about 2 minutes. Turn the steak a quarter turn and grill for another 2 minutes. Turn the steak over and grill again for 2 x 2 minutes. Close the lid of the EGG after each step.
- Place the steak on your cutting board. Remove the grill, insert the convEGGtor and place the Stainless Steel Grid in the EGG. Place the Cast Iron Dutch Oven on the grid and wait until it’s hot. Meanwhile, peel and cut the onions into thin wedges. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Clean the mushrooms, cut off the stems and chop the stems and caps into slices. Cut the steak into slices of around 1 centimetre wide.
- Melt the butter in the Dutch oven and add the onion, garlic, mushrooms, bay leaves and steak. Stir, add the veal stock and deglaze with the Guinness ale. Close the lid of the EGG and bring the temperature to 160°C. Allow the filling to stew for 1½ to 2 hours until the meat is tender.
- Remove the Dutch oven from the EGG, allow the filling to cool and remove the bay leaves. Heat the EGG to 220°C. Meanwhile, grease four round pie tins (approx. Ø 11 cm) with butter. Dust with flour and tap out the excess. Divide the dough into four equal portions. On a floured worktop, roll out the dough into circles large enough to cover the tins with a 2-centimetre overhang. Use an upside-down plate or another round object to help you cut out neat circles; these circles must also be large enough.
- Line each tin with a pastry circle. Fill the lined tins with filling three-quarters of the way. Knead the trimmings of the dough into a compact ball and divide into four equal portions. On a floured worktop, roll out each portion into circles of at least 15 centimetres in diameter and cut them into neat circles. These are your pie tops.
- For the wash, beat 1 egg yolk with the flour and use it to coat the edge of the pastry in the tin. Cover with a pie top, press the overhanging edges together firmly and fold the overhanging pastry edges under the pie tops so that the filling is sealed airtight. Beat the second egg yolk with the water and brush the tops with it. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes to taste.
- Place the cold Baking Stone on the grid and place the tins on it. Close the lid of the EGG and bake the British pies for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove the pies from the EGG and let them cool in the tins for about 10 minutes. Carefully remove the pies from the tins and serve hot.
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