A go-to winter favourite in our house, ultra indulgent and proper comfort food at its best this pie packs a rich and deep red wine gravy with slow-cooked tender beef brisket that just pulls apart, alongside some classic winter veggies, with a crispy pastry lid.
I make these in individual pie dishes I think it's always the diner's prerogative to break their own pastry lid! And they keep well in the fridge this way for a good few days, just don't glaze them with the egg wash until you are ready to cook them.
As for the beef brisket, don't be put off by how fatty it can be, we will trim most of this off and it's going to slow cook so what's left will render out. Brisket is easy to get, most butchers or supermarket butcher counters have Brisket, you just need to ask.
Ingredients (Makes 3-4 individual pies):
500-600G Rolled Beef Brisket
3-4 Tbsp Plain Flour Seasoned well with Rock salt and Black Pepper
Olive oil
Knob of salted butter
1 x Large White Onion
2 x large carrots
1 x Turnip
5 - 6 x shallots
3 x Garlic Cloves crushed
2 x Tbsp Tomato Puree
A packet of fresh Thyme
2 x Bay leafs
400ml Merlot
300ml beef stock
Bunch of fresh Flat Leaf Parsley
Puff Pastry Sheets - Make your own or buy the pre-made ones
Method:
Take your rolled Brisket, unroll and trim off any excess fat or sinu, then chop the brisket into decent-sized chunks. Once the beef is cut into chunks, toss it with the seasoned flour and set aside to come up to room temperature. Peel and chop the Carrots and Sweede down into chunks around half the size of the brisket pieces. Peel and chop the onion and shallots roughly and smash the garlic cloves.
Pop a glug of olive oil into a large pan or Creuset pot and fry the beef chunks on a medium-high heat for 6-8 mins to get some colour on them. Once they are lightly coloured, set aside and drain off the excess fat. Add another glug of oil back to the same pan, a knob of salted butter and add the veg, onions and garlic. Cook these for 10-15 mins on low-medium heat until they are caramelised. Season well with rock salt and black pepper.
Once the veg, onions and garlic are ready, add the tomato puree for 1-2 mins to cookout, then the red wine, a good bunch of thyme and 2-3 bay leaves. Add back the beef and bring to a simmer. Let this sit for around 10 mins to cook out the red wine, then add the beef stock. Season well with rock salt and black pepper, bring to a simmer, pop a lid on and then place in the oven @ 150c for 3 hours.
Give this a good stir every 45 mins - 1 hour, and around 20 mins before the time is up, crack the lid a little to help thicken up the sauce. Once ready, take out of the oven and let this sit for 20-30 mins to cool down. Take your pastry out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. Remove the Thyme stalks and Bay Leafs, and decant into pie dishes, you don't want to overfill these, as you want to leave space for the lid, and let it sink in a little in the middle.
Lightly dust and roll out your pastry. Cut around the bottom of your pie dish to get a piece of pastry slightly bigger than the dish. Place this on top, push in around the edges and run a fork around the outside to seal. Egg wash, sprinkle with rock salt and bake at 190c for 20 mins or until golden and bubbling.
