Steak Pie ... perfect for a snowy night! food

It's bitterly cold out, snow is on the way, and it seemed like the perfect day for an old-fashioned steak pie.

I learned how to make a pie crust from my grandma, and while making this, I realized how much the recipe doesn't tell you. So I decided to add all those little learned tips that make such a difference. Those of you who are better cooks than I, please add in bits I can also learn from!

Ingredients are largely determined by what I have around the house. For the pie filling:

• 1.5 lbs beef shoulder roast


• 8 oz fresh mushrooms


• 2 oz dried morel mushrooms


• 4 oz merlot


• 1/2 sweet potato


• 1 white potato


• 1 stalk celery


• 2 carrots


• 1/2 mild yellow onion


• 3 cloves garlic


• 2 tbsp olive oil


• 2 cups beef bouillon


• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce


• fresh-ground black pepper


• two bay leaves


• 2 tbsp dried basil

Put the morels in the merlot to rehydrate, and set aside. Slice the fresh mushrooms.

Peel the potatoes and dice into 1/2" cubes. Slice the celery thinly. Cut the carrots into small pieces.

Finely dice the onion and garlic.

Take the time to trim the meat out carefully; get rid of fat and gristle. Then dice it all into small pieces.

By this time, the morels should be rehydrated. Remove the mushrooms from the wine; then pour the wine through a sieve lined with a coffee filter. Throw away the crud in the filter but keep the wine.

Heat the olive oil in a large deep skillet. Add the beef and raise the heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until all the pieces are nicely browned, but not burned. If you buy a cheap cut of meat, like I did, you may have to drain off some water. If you don't, you'll steam the meat, and that's not what you want. You want that nice rich caramel brown color on all sides.

Reduce heat to medium, and add the onion and garlic. Keep cooking and stirring, for a few minutes, until the onion is nice and soft, and lightly browned as well.

Add the fresh mushrooms, morels, and wine. Turn the heat back up, stir and cook until mushrooms soften and begin to brown.

Add the bouillon, Worcestershire, and spices. Cover, reduce heat, and let simmer on low-medium heat.

Now it's time for the pie crust. Ingredients (9" double pie crust):

• 2 cups all-purpose flour


• 3/4 tsp salt


• 2/3 cup all-vegetable shortening


• 6 tbsp water

It's only three ingredients plus water, but as I learned from Grandma, it's all how you put it together. When you're making bread, you work the dough, knead it, handle it a lot. Pie crust requires the opposite of that. Touch it only as much as you have to. Cold is also good (which is why the heat of your hands is not a good thing), and water really isn't -- again, only as much as you absolutely have to. The shortening should have been refrigerated (I store mine there). For the water, put a bunch of ice cubes into a cup, and add water to that.

Mix the flour and salt together. Then add the shortening. Use a mixer on a low speed, until the shortening is in little lumps the size of a small pea.

Add the water one tablespoon at a time, stirring with a fork just until it sticks together into a crumbly, rough ball. Separate into two pieces, one slightly larger, mold into balls, wrap with saran wrap, and put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Again, thanks Grandma -- now's a great time to clean up the kitchen, get those dishes washed up, get ready for the next steps. Preheat the oven to 375F. Check your steak filling mixture. If it's too watery, mix a tablespoon of flour with 4 oz cold water (stir it up with a fork until it's all dissolved). Add that to the mixture, stir thoroughly, let cook a few more minutes. You don't want it soupy, but you don't want it too dry, either. Turn off heat, remove and discard the bay leaves, and let sit.

Any clean dry surface can be used to roll out your pie crust, but what I find works best is one of those thin flexible plastic cutting mats. Lightly dust the surface with flour, and also rub flour all over your rolling pin. Take the larger piece of dough, press it roughly flat with your hands, then put it on the mat. Use short, brief strokes with the rolling pin, and change location/direction frequently. Re-flour the rolling pin as needed -- you don't want anything to stick. Work the dough into a thin circle large enough to fill a 9" deep-dish pie pan.

Set the pie pan upside-down over the dough; holding the pan and mat, flip it right-side up. Your dough is now neatly inside the pie pan. If the circle's not perfect, tear off bits where it's too big, and use those to patch up spots where it's low. Trim any surplus. Take a fork and poke rows of holes into the bottom crust.

(note: If you don't have a flexible mat, and you're using a counter or table, then you will need Grandma's rolling pin trick, which is explained below, to move your crust).

Take the second half of the dough, and roll out the pie top. Cut some slits into the top (these let steam escape while the pie is cooking, so it doesn't get soggy inside). To move the crust without tearing or damaging it, my Grandma always used her rolling pin. Just gently hold the rolling pin right above the dough, lift an edge, and begin to roll the dough over the pin. Once most of it's on the pin, it's easy to pick up the whole thing, set it over the pie pan, and unroll it right into place.

Fold the top crust over the bottom, scalloping the edges together. If you want a shinier crust, brush the crust with some egg white.

Put the pie into the oven, and bake for 50 minutes.

Pour a glass of that merlot, cut a slice of steak pie, watch the snow fall outside, and savor every bite. Hope you enjoy!

Submitted February 16, 2015 at 08:22AM by __tmk__ http://ift.tt/1CyHrmH food