St Patrick's Day recipe: Laoise Casey's Beef and Guinness Pie

Beef and Guinness Pie 

Tender beef chunks melting into a Guinness rich stew, topped with flaky puff pastry.

Serves 6

Ingredients

3tbsp. vegetable oil

2 medium white onions, peeled and finely chopped

2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1cm thick slices

3 celery sticks, peeled and cut into 2cm thick slices

300g chestnut or button mushrooms, sliced

3 gloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

4 sprigs thyme

1 sprig rosemary

1 bay leaf

150g streaky bacon, sliced

800g braising streak, cut into bite sized cubes (you can ask your butcher to do this)

40g plain flour

440ml Guinness

50ml port

200ml beef stock (you could use water instead if don’t have any beef stock)

Sea salt, cracked black pepper to season

1 sheet ready-made puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Heat 1tbsp. vegetable oil in a large saucepan on a low heat.

Add the onions and gently sweat for 10minutes. Try not to get too much colour on them, you are cooking them slowly to release their sweetness. Increase the heat slightly and add the carrots, celery, mushrooms and garlic.

Add the thyme, rosemary and bay leaf. Season well with salt and pepper and cook for a further five minutes. Remove the vegetables from the pan. Quickly fry the sliced bacon in the same pan, remove and mix with the vegetables in an ovenproof dish.

Heat 2 tbsp. vegetable oil in the same pan again and fry the beef in batches until all pieces are golden brown. Place all the browned beef into the pan and stir in the flour. Add the Guinness and port and bring to a simmer. Transfer the beef and liquid and mix with the vegetables and bacon in the ovenproof dish. Cook in the oven for 90minutes until the meat is very tender.

Preheat oven to 200C. Roll out the pastry lid. Cover the dish with the pastry and scallop the edge using the back of a spoon.

Brush with beaten egg to glaze. Bake the pie for 35minutes or until the pastry is cooked through and golden brown. Serve with fluffy mashed potato on the side or roast celeriac.

Laoise Casey is a chef at Paradise Garage in Bethnal Green and writes regular columns for the Evening Standard and Independent about one of her favourite subjects – lunch. In her former life she used to be an HR Manager in Ireland. Three years ago she moved to London to follow her dream to become a chef and writer and hasn’t looked back since. She is also the author of www.cuisinegenie.ie. Follow her on Twitter @cuisine_genie and Instagram @laoisecooks