BEEF AND BEER PIE

On those rainy days which I like to term as 'doona days', a rich and thick meal is always on the cards - especially when it's the start of the Easter break. Lately I have been feeling very thankful for my lot in life, and why shouldn't I? - sharing this tasty pie with my boyfriend reminded me that despite having some bad days as of late, we do enjoy each other's company....third-wheeled by some kind of delicious meal of course.

I only used 500 g of chuck steak, and used about half of a previously chopped onion, and only one carrot, but you do get more flavour to it if you used the two full onions. For the lager we used Bittburger, which made it slightly bitter but still good!

I should mention that we didn't have liquid beef stock at home....and I was about to send my boyfriend to the store to get some stock. Then we remembered that on account of it being Good Friday everything was closed. We therefore used 2 Oxo Beef Stock Cubes, stirred them through two cups of boiling water. The resultant mixture was quite rich but it does work.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup plain flour
•  800g beef chuck steak, trimmed, cut into 3cm pieces
•  2 tablespoons olive oil
•  2 medium brown onions, chopped
•  2 medium carrots, peeled, chopped
•  2 tablespoons tomato paste
•  1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
•  1 1/2 cups Campbell's Real Stock Beef
•  345ml bottle lager beer
•  1 sheet ready-rolled frozen puff pastry, partially thawed
•  1 egg, lightly beaten

Method

• Place flour in a shallow dish. Add beef. Toss to coat. Heat half the oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Cook beef, in batches, for 4 to 5 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a plate.
• Heat remaining oil in pan over medium-high heat. Cook onion and carrot, stirring, for 5 minutes or until onion has softened. Return beef to pan. Add tomato paste. Stir to coat. Add worcestershire sauce, stock and beer. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, partially covered, for 1 1/2 hours or until beef is tender. Set aside to cool.
• Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Spoon mixture into a 6 cup-capacity ovenproof dish. Top with pastry, trimming excess. Brush pastry with egg. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden. Serve.

I got this recipe from  a taste.com.au recipe book (Budget Gourmet) given to us by my boyfriend's mother. The online recipe is here! It says it serves four but if you're particularly peckish...then don't bank on it.