Slow-Cooked Beef, Black Beer & Cheddar Pie

Slow-Cooked Beef, Black Beer and Cheddar Pie.jpg
  • Prep time:1 hour
  • Cooking time:about 3 hours all up
  • Recipe serves:6

Pie Day Friday.....Oh yes please in the heart of Winter! Brrrrrr chilly days and chillier nights means hunkering down to delicious slow cooked pie with farmers market vegetables, local Harmony organic beef and of course that deep pleasure of dark malty black beer in the form of Stoke Dark which is NZ's first unsweetened beer and is 100% naturally brewed using organic hops (which has roasted coffee, dark chocolate & caramel notes) plenty of fresh bay leaves, spunky spices of cumin, fennel, cinnamon & chilli, plump raisins, kumara cubes & a dash of dark bitter chocolate with gorgeous pockets of sharp melting cheddar! I mean does it get any better than that??

Ingredients

  • For the Beef filling:

  • 1.2 Kg Organic Blade Steak (or similar)

  • Himalayan Pink Salt

  • Fresh Black Pepper

  • ½ Cup fat (either dripping left over from your bone broth, or coconut oil)

  • 3 Cups Onion, diced

  • 6 Cloves Garlic, smashed and diced

  • ½ tsp Black Pepper Corns (ground)

  • 4 fresh bay leaves

  • 1 tsp Cinnamon (ground)

  • ¼ tsp Cloves (ground)

  • 1 tsp Cumin Seeds toasted & ground

  • 1 tsp Fennel Seeds toasted & ground

  • 2 Tbl Sesame seeds, toasted

  • Pinch Chili Flakes

  • 2 330ml Bottles Stoke Dark or similar black beer

  • 1 400gm Can Whole Organic Peeled Tomatoes (crushed)

  • 2 Tbl Tomato Paste

  • 1 Cup of Bone Broth or Beef Stock

  • 1/3 Cup Ground Almonds

  • 1/3 Cup Raisins

  • 1 Cup Fair trade Dark Chocolate (80%) or higher

  • 3 Cups Kumara, diced

For the Pies

  • 800gms Puff or Flakey Pastry
  • Beef filling
  • 250g Sharp cheddar to crumble
  • 2 Organic Eggs (beaten)
  • Poppy seeds and pumpkin seeds to sprinkle

Method

Slow cooked Beef Pie filling:

Cut up the blade steak into ‘stew’ size pieces, season with pink salt and fresh black pepper.

Place a large cast iron casserole dish on high heat with some of your bone broth dripping or coconut oil, and brown the beef in small batches until caramelised and set aside.
 
Reduce heat and add the chopped onion and garlic. Sweat for ten minutes then add all the spices and sesame seeds. Stir through, cook for another 5 minutes then add the black beer, , bay leaves, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and bone broth or stock. Add back the caramelized beef, followed by the ground almonds, raisins and chocolate, stir. Cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally until the beef is soft and tender (about 2 hours).
 
Once cooked, toss in the cubed kumara and cook for 5 minutes. Taste and season accordingly with salt and fresh black pepper before removing from the heat. Cover and cool to room temp before refrigerating.

Making the Pie(s):

Dust a clean work surface with liberal amounts of flour. Roll out the pastry to thickness of 2 to 3 millimetres. You could make individual pies or one large family size pie at this point.

Lay your pastry out in a pie dish and place the beef filling on top.  Crumble in your cheese and make little pockets to stash the sharp cheddar goodness. Liberally brush the pastry edges with egg mix. Carefully place the pastry lid on top of the pie filing and crimp around the edges. Brush again with your egg mix, scatter over your poppy and pumpkin seeds
Refrigerate the pie until ready to cook.

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees.

Place in the centre of the oven and cook until golden and flakey. This should take about 30 to 40 minutes. Check after 15 and turn the tray for even cooking. Once cooked stand for 10 minutes before eating. Enjoy with a vibrant green salad xox