With British Pie Week and St Patrick’s Day both happening this month, there’s only one thing for it – mash them up with a banging Guinness pie like this one from Mann’s Got Munch. As Sophie says, “Slow-cooked melt-in-the-mouth beef, earthy black pudding, and sweet baby pickled onions to cut through the richness is a match made in heaven. I use a combination of shop-bought shortcrust and puff pastry to save you the faff of making your own and if you’re extra like me then why not grab some bone marrow from your local butcher to give it that lil’ extra summin summin; I mean who doesn’t love bone marrow!” The below recipe makes two medium pies and each pie serves two. Freeze your second pie and just add another 5-10 minutes to the cooking time.
What You Need
2tbsp olive oil
300g shop bought puff pastry
300g shop bought shortcrust pastry
400g chuck beef or a stewing beef of your choice cut into chunks
150g black pudding cut into chunks
200g sweet pickled baby onions drained
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 sticks of celery cut into 1cm slices
2 carrots cut into 1cm rounds
2 bay leafs
4 sprigs of thyme
1 heaped tbsp tomato puree
500ml beef stock
500ml Guinness
4tbsp plain flour + extra for dusting
2tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1tbsp brown sugar
Black pepper
Salt
2 pieces of bone marrow cleaned and patted dry (optional)
1 egg beaten
What You Do
1. Season the beef generously with salt and pepper and brown in a hot large saucepan with 2tbsp of olive oil. Don’t overcrowd the pan, it’s important you get some deep caramelisation on the meat.
2. Remove from the pan and in the remaining fat toss in your drained pickled onions, cook for around 5 min until caramelised. Remove from the pan.
3. Reduce the heat (add dash more oil if needed) and add in the carrots, celery, thyme and bay leafs to sweat off for 5 mins before adding in the black pudding for a further 5 min. Add in the garlic, cook off for a few min then add in the tomato paste.
4. Stir in the flour and cook off for 2 minutes then deglaze with the Guinness, bubble off some of the alcohol whilst you scrape all the gnarly bits from the bottom of the pan – FLAVOUR.
5. Then add in the stock, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and season generously with black pepper and a little salt.
6. Bring to the boil then simmer on low with the lid on for around 2hours until tender (stir occasionally). Remove the lid and reduce for 30 min until thick and the meat is super soft. Taste and season to your liking with sugar, salt and pepper. Remove the bay leaves and thyme. Shred some of the beef chunks and keep some whole. Then cool completely and pop in the fridge until your ready to fill in the pies. This can be done a day in advance.
7. On a floured surface roll the shortcrust pastry out to 5mm thick. Cut out to fit each pie tin leaving a little over hang as the pastry will shrink slightly. Grease the pie tins lightly before pressing in the pastry. Pop in the freezer for 10mins to firm up.
8. Preheat the oven to 200C, remove the pastry from the freezer and cover with some baking paper and then baking beans or rice to weigh it down. Blind bake for 10-15 min until lightly golden.
9. Carefully remove the baking paper/beans and pop back in the oven for a further 5-10 minutes or until golden all over. Allow to cool slightly before dividing the cooled filling between the pies, try not to overfill to avoid leaks. If you are using the bone marrow then stand one in the centre of each pie and season the top.
10. Roll the puff pastry out to between 5mm-1cm thick and cut out the lids to size. Brush the rims of the blind baked pastry case with the egg wash and pop the lids on (if using bone marrow cut a cross in the middle so the marrow can poke out). Use a fork the seal the edges, then brush the pies with the remaining egg wash. Cut a vent in the middle if you’re not using the marrow.
11. Bake for 25-30 minutes until they are puffed up and golden all over. Serve with mash, greens and a pint.
