Sunday comes round again, and this week, to start to bid farewell to heavy winter meals before I start thinking of the clean air and bright greens of spring, I want to make a lovely pie. To make it extra-hearty, bone marrow and beef dripping will give it loads and loads of flavour.
Ingredients:
- 750g good quality beef shin, cut into cubes
- 1 piece of bone marrow (stocked by some supermarkets or ask at your butcher)
- 1 large onion, chopped reasonably fine
- 1 large carrot, sliced large
- 1 stick of celery, chopped into small chunks
- 2 cloves
- 2 tablespoons beef dripping
- 200ml red wine
- 500 ml beef stock
- 250g baby button mushrooms
- 1 few drops of Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- 1 pack of shop-bought puff pastry
- First, heat up an oven-suitable casserole pan and melt the beef dripping.
- Add the meat to the pan and brown on all sides before taking out and setting aside
- Add the chopped onion, celery and carrot to the pan and fry over a low/medium heat. You want to sweat them down without burning or browning the onions.
- When the vegetables are soft, add the sliced garlic and the button mushrooms and fry for a moment. If the mushrooms are very small, put them in whole. Slice them if they are larger. I have some porcini mushroom powder in my stock cupboard, now is a great time to add some.
- Turn the heat up and add the red wine. This will de-glaze the pan. Any burned bits stuck to the pan should come up nicely with a quick scrape with a wooden spoon when the wine is added. All good flavour!
- Add the beef back in, along with the tomato puree, a few drops of Worcestershire Sauce and stir. Next, add the beef stock and mix well.
- Now, the secret ingredient. Pop the marrow-bone into the pan and poke down into the sauce. The bone marrow is going to melt into the sauce and be unctuous and lovely.
- Pop the whole thing into a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees and cook for around 2 hours. You want the meat to be really tender but staying in chunks. Remove the marrow bone and stir well.Leave to cool and transfer to a pie dish.
- When cooled, roll out the puff pastry and put over top of the pie dish, trimming off the excess. Brush with a beaten egg and put into a hot oven for 30 minutes.
- Leave to cool and enjoy with mashed potatoes and some green veg. What a winter treat!
