2 lb. boneless beef chuck, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup beef broth
1 cup Guinness or other Irish stout
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons drained brined green peppercorns, coarsely chopped
2 fresh thyme sprigs
Rough puff pastry dough
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon water
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to a 350 degrees F. Pat beef dry. Stir together flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Add beef, turning to coat, then shake off excess and transfer to a plate. Heat oil in a wide 5- to 6-quart ovenproof heavy pot over moderately high heat until just smoking, then brown meat in 3 batches, turning occasionally, about 5 minutes per batch, transferring to a bowl. Add onion, garlic, and water to pot and cook, scraping up any brown bits from bottom of pot and stirring frequently, until onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in beef with any juices accumulated in bowl, broth, beer, Worcestershire sauce, peppercorns, and thyme and bring to a simmer, then cover and transfer to oven. Braise until beef is very tender and sauce is thickened, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Discard thyme and cool stew completely, uncovered, about 30 minutes. (If stew is warm while assembling pies, it will melt uncooked pastry top.) Put a shallow baking pan on middle rack of oven and increase oven temperature to 425 degrees F. Divide cooled stew among bowls (they won’t be completely full). Roll out pastry dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13-inch square, about 1/8 inch thick. Trim edges and cut dough into quarters. Stir together egg and water and brush a 1-inch border of egg wash around each square. Invert 1 square over each bowl and drape, pressing sides lightly to help adhere. Brush pastry tops with some of remaining egg wash and freeze 15 minutes to thoroughly chill dough. Bake pies in preheated shallow baking pan until pastry is puffed and golden brown, about 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees F and bake 5 minutes more to fully cook dough.
Cook’s notes:
- I trimmed the beef completely of visible fat before cooking.
- Thanks to Celia for the lessons on stout:D.
- I cooked the beef and puzzled — huh? No veggies? So I added some mushrooms, carrots, celery and more onions to the cooking pot, the last 15 minutes.
- I drained the beef and veggies after cooking, and degreased the cooking liquid — you can do this using a fat separator, or plan ahead and refrigerate the liquid overnight so you can scoop out the fat before continuing. Bring the meat/veggies to room temp before proceeding.
- This recipe was published last year in Gourmet. I found a shortened version of it here.
- There’s a rough puff pastry recipe in the same issue, which I used, but did not follow to the letter — you can use any rough puff pastry recipe really. The one they gave was for 4 pies, but even making it thicker than necessary I had enough for 5 pies. Had I rolled it thinner (my preference) I would have gotten enough for 6 pies or even 8. I didn’t follow the recommended chill times/number of turns — the 2 important things to remember when making rough puff pastry is that 1) the pastry has to be chilled enough so the layers don’t mesh together when you roll, and 2) you have to roll/fold several times to achieve the many layers that puff up as the pastry bakes.
- Clare of EatStuff has a version of this which she did last month. I found it when looking for the Gourmet recipe online.
- For more lessons on rough puff pastry, see Molly Stevens’ excellent article here.
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