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| Photos by Steve Shanahan |
First published Canberra Times 6 August 2014.
With leftover slow cooked beef cheeks languishing in the freezer,
and below zero temperatures outside, came a powerful craving for the cosy
comfort of a rich beef pie. The sticky and gelatinous nature of slow-cooked
beef cheeks makes the perfect filling for a hearty, crispy-lidded pie to warm
the winter cockles.
Not only are the rich beef cheeks a feature of this pie, but the
flaky, buttery pastry encasing it is an absolute corker, and if prepared
correctly will have your family queuing to nibble away at the pastry. While a
lot of people shy away from making pastry from scratch, this recipe is very simple
to follow, only needing a little forethought, and the use of a food processor
or Thermomix machine.
With a nod to Julia Childs, this pastry does come with its own
warning; if you are afraid to use butter and cream, give it a wide berth. Even
so, we can be left feeling somewhat virtuous, as this meal is a sugar-free
zone.
If melt in your mouth meat is what you are aiming for, then the
beef cheeks should be cooked the day before and allowed to cool before filling
the pie as hot pie fillings and cold pastry don’t provide the best result. The
beef cheeks can be pre-cooked in a slow cooker for four to six hours or in a
lidded casserole pot in a slow oven for three hours.
The quantity below easily serves 6 people, if cooking for less,
halve the ingredients to make a smaller pie. Alternatively, any leftovers will
freeze perfectly well and can be reheated slowly in a warm oven. If the pastry
starts to brown too much during reheating, cover the top loosely with aluminium
foil.
Slow cooked beef cheeks
3 or 4 beef cheeks, approximately 300g each. These can be
purchased from good butcher shops.
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 leek, the white part only, rinsed and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 large beetroot, peeled and roughly chopped
4 tbsp plain flour
2 cups red wine
2 tbsp tomato paste
500 ml beef stock
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 bay leaves
2 thyme sprigs
salt and pepper
Remove the prepared beef cheeks from the fridge about an hour
before cooking to bring them to room temperature. Dry with paper towels to
remove any moisture and season with salt and pepper.
If using the oven, preheat to 140C.
Heat half of the oil in a large, lidded oven and stove-top proof
casserole dish over high heat. Cook the beef cheeks, browning on each side for
about five minutes. Remove the beef to a dish.
In the same pot, add the carrot, onion, leek and celery and cook
for ten minutes. Add the flour, mix well
and cook for two minutes until the flour is slightly browned. Add the wine and
bring to the boil and cook until the liquid has reduced by half the amount,
this will take about five minutes. Add the tomato paste, stock, garlic, herbs
and beetroot and mix well. Return the beef cheeks to the pot. Check for
seasoning, adding salt and pepper if necessary.
If using a slow cooker, follow the above method, and add all the
contents of the casserole dish to the slow cooker pot. Set to cook slowly for
four to six hours, checking the meat for tenderness, when tested with a fork
the meat should break away easily.
If using the oven method, place the beef filled casserole pot with
the lid fitted, into the oven and cook for three hours. Check periodically for
liquid evaporation, and adding stock or water if necessary. Also check for
tenderness by testing with a fork.
When the meat is cooked strain the liquid sauce from the solids
by tipping the meat and vegetables into a strainer or colander over a saucepan
to catch the juices.
If the sauce requires thickening, heat it in the saucepan over a
medium heat until bubbling and add two to three tablespoons of plain flour
mixed with a little water to form a thin paste and mix into the hot sauce. Add
more flour and water if necessary until reached the desired thickness.
Place the strained meat and vegetables into a large clean bowl
and pour over the thickened juices and mix together. Leave the pie filling to
cool overnight in the fridge ready to assemble the following day.
Sour cream pastry
200g cold unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces
½ cup of sour cream
250g plain flour
one beaten egg mixed with a tablespoon of water for eggwash glaze
Place the butter and flour into the bowl of a food processor or
Thermomix bowl and pulse until the mixture looks like lumpy breadcrumbs. Add
the sour cream and pulse again until the dough just comes together and forms a
ball. The secret of this pastry is to not work it too much. Remove the dough
from the mixing bowl and form into a ball, then wrap in cling wrap and place in
the fridge for about half an hour to rest. You should have small pieces of
butter still semi-solid in the dough. This will create the flaky texture of the
pastry.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
When the pastry is rested remove from the fridge and cut into
two pieces, one a little larger than the other. The dough will be hard, so
using a rolling pin gradually roll the larger piece of dough out to about a
five millimetre thickness on a floured benchtop. This does take a bit of work
to do. Line the greased pie dish with the dough to form the base of the pie. The
pastry should come up and over the sides of the pie dish and overhang a little
by about two centimetres. Roll the remaining piece of dough to make the top of
the pie in the same way, measuring the top of the pie dish to fit. Place this
piece of dough onto a flat oven tray and chill both the dough in the pie dish
and the dough on the oven tray in the fridge for about twenty minutes.
Pie assembly
Remove both the pastry top and bottom from the fridge and the
prepared beef
cheeks.
Remove the bay leaves and thyme sprigs from the beef mixture.
Spoon the beef mixture into the pie dish, until the mixture almost reaches the
top of the pie dish, mounding the centre slightly.
With a pastry brush paint the beaten egg wash around the rim of
the pastry. Place the top piece of rolled pastry over the pie mixture pressing
down on the rim to stick both the pastry top and bottom together. Using a small
sharp knife go around the sides of the pie and trim the pastry to the outside
edges of the pie dish. Pastry has considerable shrinkage, so do not trim any
closer than the outside edge of the pie plate. Cut two or three slits in the
top of the pastry lid to allow steam to escape and brush with the eggwash.
Bake the pie for approximately twenty minutes in a hot oven or
until golden.
Vegetable parcels (serves
4)
1 bunch asparagus, peeled
1 bunch Dutch carrots, peeled and trimmed
2 tsp butter
salt and pepper
Aluminium foil
Tear off four pieces of aluminium foil approximately thirty
centimetre square each. Place two pieces on top of each other to give a double
layer protection from leakage. Put the asparagus on one foil square and the
carrots on the other. Bring both sides and ends up of the foil packets to form
a dish adding two teaspoons of water and a teaspoon of butter to each,
seasoning to taste, and wrap both to seal.
Place the two foil vegetable parcels on an oven tray and bake
for twenty minutes. These can be cooked at the same time as the pie.
