Guinness Pie

Make this. Soon.

I usually use a puff pastry or pie crust to top savory pies, but this pastry – wow. It’s a little more “biscuit” and little less “puff” than my all-butter pie crust. It’s mouth watering and scrumptious and I really think you ought to make this right now.

This recipe is from NY Times Cooking (which I love). I made a roughly 2/3 version of this recipe (based on 2 pounds of stew meat) and it fit perfectly in my 9″ deep pie dish. I would have had leftover filling had I made the entire recipe (although that would not have been a hardship). I made the whole recipe for the pastry and rolled it thick. I hope you love it, too.

Ingredients:

FOR THE STEW (again, I made 2/3 of this…)

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 large red onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 10 mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
• 3 pounds stew meat, chopped into bite-size pieces
•  Kosher salt
•  Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 sprig rosemary
•  About 4 cups (2 cans) Guinness or other stout
• 8 ounces freshly grated Cheddar

FOR THE PASTRY

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) very cold unsalted butter, diced
• 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten, to brush on before baking

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large, ovenproof pan fitted with a lid, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the carrots, celery, mushrooms and remaining 2 tablespoons butter and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms are dark in color and the moisture released by them has evaporated, about 15 minutes.
4. Season the beef pieces all over with salt and pepper. Add the beef, flour and rosemary to the pan and cook over high heat, stirring often, for about 5 minutes.
5. Add enough Guinness to just cover the beef. Cover the pan and put it in the oven for 1 1/2 hours (1 hour for the 2/3 recipe). Remove from the oven and stir. Return to the oven and cook for 1 hour more (30 minutes for the 2/3 recipe). If it remains thin, set the pan over medium-low heat, remove the lid and reduce the liquid. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Fold in about half of the Cheddar.
6. While the stew is cooking, prepare the pastry: sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Using a pastry cutter or your hands, quickly work the butter into the dough until it is the texture of coarse meal. Add ice water, a splash at a time, until a firm dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
7. Place the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and, using a rolling pin, roll to the thickness of a computer mouse pad. Pour the stew into an 8-inch-square, 2-inch-high Pyrex dish or a deep 9-inch pie pan. Scatter the remaining Cheddar across the top. Place the dough on top of the pie and pinch it closed around the edges using the tines of a fork, then slash the center lightly with a knife. Brush with the egg yolk, place on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, or until the pastry is puffy and golden.