Slow cooked beef cheek pies and vege parcels

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.  

Spanish cream pie, Panchineta

Photo by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 14 February 2014

Reliving travel experiences through food is a satisfying way to keep the memories and travel bug alive. So when our companions from a recent trip ask us to a Spanish themed lunch, I cast my mind back to our shared visit to Spain. 

Spanish desserts reflect its Islamic history, dominated by the tastes of North Africa, with almonds, honey, syrupy sugar, with fresh and dried fruits. Alongside this, there’s a strong representation of custard based sweets, often infused with the ubiquitous orange.

With orange trees planted in most home courtyards and a popular street tree, it’s little wonder that these juicy golden globes are a Spanish favourite.

The Panchineta, a traditional Basque dessert of Islamic origin, is a custard based pastry cream pie which bewitched both my tastebuds and my weight while we were in Barcelona, so it seemed only right that I revive this experience for our lunch party.

Although this dessert appears complicated, it’s very simple and elegant and can be served warm or cold.

In terms of timing, the pastry cream should be made first, preferably the day before and refrigerated overnight. The pie is best served on the day it’s made.

I tweaked the traditional and original recipe a little by adding slightly more cornflour and I baked it in a glass pie dish rather than straight onto a baking sheet. This was more to avoid the custard from running out of the pie and messing up my clean oven.

I served this with an orange ice cream made with sour cream to offset the richness of the tart.

2 sheets of frozen puff pastry, defrosted

120g ground almonds

150g castor sugar

1 tbsp butter

1 litre full cream milk

peel of 1 orange, peeled in a continuous peel

1 cinnamon stick

5 egg yolks

½ cup cornflour

200g chopped raw nuts

1 egg (extra) and 2 tbsp milk whisked together

1 tbsp raw sugar

icing sugar for dusting

Whisk together the ground almonds and the sugar in an electric mixer until they form a paste. Add the butter and continue beating about five minutes. Add the egg yolks, one by one, mixing until combined. Add the cornflour and mix well for thirty seconds.

Add a little of the milk to the mixture while mixer is off to loosen the mix, then whisk together on a low setting, adding the remainder of the milk slowly.

Pour the custard mixture into a large heavy based saucepan over a medium heat, adding in the cinnamon stick and orange peel. Mix constantly with a hand whisk to keep the custard moving over the heat and to stop it sticking and forming lumps. It should cook to a thick custard consistency. Remove from the heat immediately and pour into a dish and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for a minimum of three hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

When the custard is cooled remove from the fridge. Fish out the cinnamon stick and orange peel and discard. Prepare the pastry.

On a floured benchtop roll out the puff pastry sheets, so they are slightly larger, to fit the base and top of a greased, twenty-four centimetre round pie dish. Place the rolled base pastry sheet into the dish, pressing to fit. Trim the edges with a sharp knife leaving an extra small margin to allow for shrinkage. Paint around the edges of the pastry base with the egg and milk wash so the top pastry sheet will stick to it.

Spoon the custard evenly onto the pastry base and place the remaining pastry sheet over the custard, pushing down on the edges to stick to the bottom pastry sheet. Trim the edges of the top sheet. Using a fork, crimp down the edges of the pastry all the way around the top. Make a few slits in the top of the pastry to allow the steam to escape.

Paint the top of the pie with the remaining egg and milk wash and sprinkle the top heavily with the chopped mixed nuts and raw sugar.

Bake for twenty to twenty-five minutes until golden, checking the pie does not burn.

Remove from the oven and leave to rest for half an hour before slicing. Dust liberally with icing sugar.

The Panchineta goes down well with some tart orange ice cream and a small glass of Pedro Ximenez Sherry.

Venison pie with cumquat and star anise

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 Photo by Steve Shanahan

This column first published Canberra Times 8 September 2010 and  an updated version in November 2012.

This pie, now a family favourite started life as a simple and unadorned venison pie. Over the years I’ve modified the recipe to reflect the seasons and our changing tastes.  This recipe is by far my most popular post and still attracts the highest number of hits. The recipe has been scooped up by a number of foodies in the US and appears on websites as diverse as food history and game shooting. 

Venison is a sturdy meat that can be matched with bold and robust aromatics, and like other game meats has a tendency to toughen and tighten up. To avoid this, I generally slow cook my venison and I prefer to use the cuts from the shoulder or the rump, as when slow cooked it falls apart and melts in the mouth. These cuts deliver a rich and gamey pie topped with a crispy, buttery crust.

The Maggie Beer sour cream shortcrust pastry is the only pastry I would consider for this pie, as anything else would sell it short. The richness of the sour cream and the butter is a perfect match for the bold flavours of the meat. If you are a novice at pastry making this recipe is very forgiving and worth a try.

I find that I need to order the venison meat through my butcher as it’s not generally readily available. As this pie is worthy of a special occasion, it would be wise to check the availability of venison with your butcher. If you cannot get your hands on some deer meat, you could easily use beef and still have a delicious result. 

Venison pie is an exceptional special occasion meal, with an incredibly rich, complex and balanced set of flavours that can be served with a creamy mash or my new favourite, creamed cauliflower.  Broad beans or green string beans with a hint of butter and nutmeg work beautifully too. The perfect wine match is a rich Pinot Noir. 

If you cannot obtain cumquats, use 1/4 of an orange, including the skin and flesh. Remove before serving.

To make creamed cauliflower, blend cooked, hot cauliflower with 2 tbsp cream or butter, adding salt and nutmeg to taste.

Venison Filling

4 tbsp olive oil

250 g speck, diced

¼ cup plain flour

1.3 kg cubed venison

2 cloves garlic, chopped

10 golden shallots, diced

6 large mushrooms, sliced

375 ml red wine (pinot is good)

300 ml beef or veal stock

2 tbsp tomato paste

5 whole cumquats, halved and deseeded

½ tsp ground cloves

4 star anise

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 level tsp juniper berries

extra stock if needed

2 sprigs of rosemary

salt and pepper to taste

Ensure the venison is trimmed of sinew and diced into small pieces. Roll the venison in plain flour, shaking off excess and setting aside. Bruise the juniper berries, cinnamon and cloves in a mortar and pestle. 

Heat the oil on medium heat in a large saucepan then add the shallots and garlic, frying until transparent. Add the juniper, cinnamon and cloves and mix well. Then add the diced venison and speck cooking until browned for about eight minutes. Add the stock, wine, cumquats, star anise, rosemary and mushrooms and cook on medium to high heat until bubbling. 

Reduce heat to low, place the lid on the pan and cook for approximately two to three hours, stirring occasionally until meat is tender and sauce is thick and dark. Add seasoning to taste and set aside to cool. Prepare the pastry while the filling is cooking.

Maggie Beer's Pastry

200 g of chilled unsalted butter, chopped

250 g of plain flour

½ cup of sour cream

1 beaten egg

Preheat the oven to 200 C

Grease a 23cm deep pie dish. Place the butter and flour into the bowl of a food processor, then pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the sour cream and pulse again until the dough just forms a ball. Carefully wrap the dough in plastic film and leave to rest in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes. 

Place the cooled filling into the greased pie dish, filling till it is about one centimetre below the rim. Roll out the dough until it is about 5 mm thick, then carefully folding the dough back over the rolling pin, place it over the filled pie dish and press to seal the edges. Cut three slits in the top of the pie to allow the steam to escape. Chill the filled pie for about 20 minutes before cooking as this will reduce shrinkage. 

Remove the pie from the refrigerator and coat the pastry top with beaten egg. Cook the pie for approximately 45 minutes until warmed through and the pastry is lightly golden.