Interlude: Amber's Steak & Ale Pie

Hey kids! Wanna cook along with Amber?

Here’s the recipe for Amber’s Steak and Ale Pie

Stew

• 1.5 lbs of Beef chuck

• Salt and pepper
• One large onion, diced
• 2 tbs of tomato paste
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 potato, diced
• 1 cup of minced mushrooms (It looks like more than it is; they cook way down)
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• 1 12 oz can/bottle of ale. 312 Urban Wheat is my weapon of choice, but something English is probably more traditional
• ½ tsp of rosemary
• 1 cup of good, quality beef stock
• 2 tbs of flour
• 1 tbs of butter

1.Place a splash of olive oil into a cold cast iron skillet or dutch oven; just enough to coat the surface. Add in the beef and place on medium heat. This will render out the fat. Give all of it a good salting and peppering.

1. Brown beef on all sides.
2. By now you’ll have a fond in the midde; the crusty brown stuff from the meat. Dump in your diced vegetables. Let them stem for a minute and then scrape the pan vigorously with a wooden spoon. The water coming out of the veggies should deglaze the pan.
3. Drop in the garlic and tomato paste. Continue to simmer.
4. When the onions are translucent and the carrots softened, make a well in the center and melt in the butter. Once melted, add the flour directly to the butter and stir together into a paste.
5. When said paste smells like baked pie crust, dump in your bottle of beer and beef stock. With a wooden spoon, vigorously stir it all together.
6. Bring mixture to simmer, then drop heat to medium low. Simmer for 30 minutes covered, then 15 minutes uncovered.

Pie Crust

• 2 sticks of butter, frozen

• 3 cups of all purpose flour

• Enough water to make it into a dough

1. Cut two sticks of butter into small cubes. Freeze overnight.

2. In a food processor, add flour and now frozen butter. Pulse until a sandy mixture forms.
3. Place mixture in a bowl and add half a cup of water and knead together. Continue kneading together and adding water until a tacky dough forms.
4. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45-60 minutes.
5. Generously (and I damn well mean generously) flour your work surface and rolling pin. Take your dough and roll it out into a fine sheet.
6. Roll sheet onto pin and drape into a 9 inch pie dish. Press to fill the crannies. Cut off excess and roll into pie top.
7. Place pie dish in the freezer for roughly 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 450 F
8. Remove pie from freezer and poke holes in the bottom to prevent puffing. Bake for 12 minutes.

Mash potatoes

This part’s not complicated. Peel two big russet potatoes and cut them into fat cubes. Boil them in water until tender. Grate up 4-6 ounces of aged English cheddar, preferably with a microplane but use whatever you’ve got. Add the cheese, about a tbs of butter and a splash of milk to the potatoes and mix them until they’re in a fine mash.

Final Assembly

1. Remove pie crust from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

2. Spoon in all solid filling and enough gravy so the filling is mostly submerged.
3. Place pie crust over top of filling. Crimp the top and crust together to seal it, and because it looks pretty.
4. Punch holes in the top of the crust. This will allow steam to escape and prevent the pie from exploding.
5. Beat up 1 egg with some water and brust over the crust.
6. Bake for 15 minutes.
7. All the pie to cool for at least 20 minutes lest it melt the inside of your face.
8. Cut out a slice and serve with a heap of your cheddar mash beside it. Drizzle both in leftover gravy.

Enjoy with that special, mind controlled sex kitten in your life <3