Cooking corner – Perfect pie

Ingredients

500g Quality Mark beef steaks

Cross-cut blade steak, cut into 3cm pieces

2 tbsp seasoned flour

i25g butter softened

500g pumpkin fresh, cubed

1 onion chopped

1 carrots sliced

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

i1 cup beef stock

1/2 can canned tomatoes crushed

1 bay leaf

Pastry

2 sheets short crust pastry

2 sheets puff pastry

Filling

Preheat the oven to 160°C

2 Roll the beef in seasoned flour

3 Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat, add a dash of oil and brown beef in batches

4 Transfer beef to an ovenproof casserole dish as you go

5 Lower the heat and add another dash of oil to the pan

6 Add the onion and cook until soft, then add the pumpkin and carrot slices

7 Pour in the red wine, allow to bubble and reduce slightly

8 Add the stock and tomatoes and stir well. Season.

9 Add to the casserole dish with the bay leaf

10 Cover meat with a piece of baking paper, cut to fit

11 Cover with lid and cook for 2½ hours, until the beef is tender

12 Remove from the oven and thicken the sauce with a small amount of butter and flour paste (mix together 25g softened butter with 2 tablespoons flour until you have a paste)

13 Discard the bay leaf, add a splash of red wine vinegar and leave beef to cool completely

Assemble
1 Preheat the oven to 190°C

2 Place the shortcrust pastry sheets, one on top of the other, and roll a little more to fit a 23cm pie tin, leaving the overhang

3 Lightly prick the base with a fork

4 Spoon in the cooled filling

5 Brush the edge of the pastry with egg wash

6 Roll flaky pastry out as above, to fit pie

7 Place the pastry top on, cut away excess pastry and crimp the edges

8 Make a few slits in the top with a knife for the steam to escape

9 Brush the top with egg wash and place in the oven

10 Cook pie for 45 – 50 minutes until the pastry is well browned and the filling piping hot