Comfort Food Friday: Make this classic Scotch beef steak and mushroom pie

By Brian Stormont

March 5 2021, 12:00 pm

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With this week being British Pie Week, there really was only one choice for today’s Comfort Food Friday recipe, a tasty beef steak pie.

Quality Meat Scotland have kindly provided us with this recipe for a Scotch beef steak and mushroom pie which is a surefire winner.

The best and sumptuous Scottish beef combined with mushrooms and a smooth and velvety gravy is a comfort food classic.

It’s a dish you will come back to again and again – and one which will no doubt leave you with plenty of leftovers.

If you have missed any of our other Comfort Food Friday recipes, you can find them all here.

Happy British Pie Week!

Scotch beef steak and mushroom pie

(Serves 8)

Ingredients

20g dried mixed wild mushrooms, soaked in 200 ml boiling water
1.5kg Scotch Beef braising steak cut into 3 cm cubes
3 tbsp plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 medium onions, peeled and thickly sliced
6-8 large flat mushrooms cut into quarters
1 litre hot beef stock (made from cubes if you wish)
3 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
500g ready-made puff pastry
1 small egg, beaten (to glaze)

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 °C/150 °C fan/gas mark 3. In a small bowl cover the dried mushrooms with 200 ml boiling water, set aside. Heat some of the oil in a deep saute pan and gently fry the onions for five to 10 minutes till softened then with a slotted spoon transfer to an oven-proof casserole.
Toss the cubed meat in the seasoned flour, shake off any excess then fry the meat in the remaining oil in the saute pan, you will need to do this in batches, using a little more oil as necessary, till all the beef is well browned.
Pour the beef stock and the mushroom soaking liquid into the frying pan and stir to gather up all the sticky bits from the bottom. Pour this mixture over the beef in the casserole dish along with the soaked mushrooms, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to the boil then cover with a lid and cook in the oven for about 1 1/4 hours or until the meat is tender. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
Lightly saute the quartered mushrooms in a little oil and set them aside until the meat is cooked.
Stir the mushrooms into the meat mixture then spoon it into a two litre traditional pie dish with only a minimum of the gravy and allow the meat to cool completely. If the gravy is a little thin, set the casserole over a medium heat, bring back to the boil then simmer for five to 10 minutes without the lid for the gravy to reduce and thicken. Spoon some of this into the pie dish to just sufficiently coat the meat and reserve the rest to serve with the pie.
When the meat is cool, set the oven to 200 °C/180 °C fan/gas 6. Roll out the pastry to the thickness of a pound coin (3-4 mm), cut two strips to stick to the thumb-rim of the pie dish, stick by wetting the rim with water and placing the strips of pastry to cover it. Then cover the whole dish with pastry, moistening the base pastry first, and press to seal all round with the side of your thumb. Trim off any excess pastry and use to decorate the top of the pie.
Lightly brush with the beaten egg, pierce a hole in the top with a sharp knife, to allow steam to escape, then cook for about 50 minutes until the pastry is nicely risen and golden brown, and the filling piping hot. Reduce the oven temperature to 180 °C/160 °C fan/gas 4 after the first 15-20 minutes cooking. Cover the pie loosely with a double sheet of baking parchment if you feel the pastry is browning too quickly.