À table avec Julia

Steak & Stilton Pie

I've never made a pie before and when I saw photos of this specific pie my Maman had made, I just had to make it myself....with a little help from my Maman of course (since I recently had my folks over from France, yay!).

I love beef and I love cheese so this is the perfect pie dish for me. The original recipe is from Tom Kerridge but we've changed it up quite a bit so I guess it's now our own version.

The Stilton literally melts whilst cooking and the end result is this amazingly wine flavoured beef, with a Stilton wine sauce....honestly, I had a party in my mouth eating this!

My Maman made her own shortcrust pastry but you could use ready made if you are short for time or just don't like getting pastry stuck under your nails!

We served this with mashed potato and it was just pure heaven. I used individual pie dishes but you can use a normal sized pie dish and cut portions for each person.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

For the pie filling:

800g braising beef, cubed
500ml red wine
Olive oil
salt and pepper
1 shallot, peeled and finely diced
200g pancetta lardons
30g dried mushrooms
1 parsnip, peeled and cubed
100g stilton, crumbled
2 garlic cloves, crushed
6 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
2-3 tbsp plain flour

For the pastry:

450g plain flour
200g buetter, diced
Pinch of salt
milk

Add the beef to a tupperware box/bowl and add the red wine, whole garlic cloves and bay leaves. Leave to marinate overnight.

Once you are ready to cook, drain the beef and keep the red wine as you will use this later. Discard of the garlic and bay leaves.

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C.gas mark 4.

To make the pastry, sift the flour into a large bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Stir in the salt, then add 4-6 tbsp water and mix to a dough. Knead the dough briefly and gently on a floured surface. Wrap in cling film and chill while preparing the filling.

For the dried mushrooms, follow the instructions on how to prepare. Keep the juices once ready to use as you will add this to the wine.

In a deep sauté pan, fry off the pancetta until nice and golden. Once cooked, set aside on a plate. With the cooking juices still in the pan, fry off the shallots and garlic until softened. Then add the parsnips and cook until softened. Once ready, add to the plate with the pancetta and set aside.

Add the beef to the pan, season and cook until browned. Sprinkle 2-3 tbsp plain flour (this will make the sauce nice and thick) and ensure the beef is well coated and it's mixed in.

Add the pancetta, parsnips, shallots, garlic and mushrooms then pour the wine. Mix well and cook for about 20 minutes on a low heat. The beef will become tender and the sauce will thicken.

Roll out your pastry and you will need to cover the base of the pastry dish as well as covering the pie.

Beef filling added

Once your dish is lined, fill with the beef then top with the crumbled stilton. With some milk, wet the edge of the pastry so that the pastry case you place on top will stick down. Press down the edges to secure then crimp the edges with a fork. Make a small hole in the middle of the pie then wash the pastry with the milk (this will help it to get nice and golden).