Recipe: Beef Guinness Smoked Oyster Pie
Hearty winter pie with an old tale attached
The pairing of beef and oysters dates back to Medieval times when oysters were a primary cooking ingredient mostly used to bulk up beef pies as they were less costly than meat. A traditional recipe would include oysters, beef, bacon and peas as a filling in a suet pastry pie or pudding. The broth of oysters was also utilized by thickening it with flour and adding chives and parsley for a tasty thick gravy.
Beef and oyster pie history
These days acquiring oysters on short notice can be a little tricky and that is where smoked oysters come in as a wonderful substitute, providing that briny sea flavour that enriches beef sauce so well.
The added touch of Guinness also has its roots – Oysters were served alongside stout in taverns to keep punters’ appetites at bay and prolong merry drinking sessions. Put all three together and you have a very tasty pie.
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Beef Guinness Smoked Oyster Pie
Ingredients
- 1 large red onion peeled and grated
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
- 1 carrot chopped into small cubes
- 1 stick celery finely sliced
- 500 gm braising steak diced into bite-size pieces
- 1 tbsp flour
- 500 ml Guinness
- 500 ml beef stock
- Dash Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 heaped tbsp plain flour
- 2 sprigs thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
- Salt & pepper
- 1 tin smoked oysters
- Puff pastry
- Egg white beaten
Instructions
- Season beef with salt and pepper and fry in hot oil until browned on all sides (but not cooked through). Remove from pan and set aside.
- Using the same pan with beef juices, over medium heat fry onion, garlic, chilli, carrot and celery until soft.
- Return beef to the pan along with thyme leaves and flour, combine well and cook for 1 minute.
- Pour in Guinness, bring to the boil then simmer until half the liquid has evaporated
- Next add the stock and bring to the boil. Once boiling turn to simmer, cover with a lid and cook gently for 2 hours (check the mixture every half hour to make sure sauce has not dried out. Add small dashes of water if needed).
- Heat oven to 220°C (200°C fan-assisted). Lightly flour a work surface and roll puff pastry out to approx. 3mm thickness.
- Drain smoked oysters from tin juices and roughly chop. Stir them through the beef mixture, then spoon into a pie dish. Drape pastry over the edges of the pie dish and cut off the excess, leaving a centimetre or so of pastry overlapping the sides
- Pinch edges well to seal. At this point, you can decorate your pie by using leftover pastry bits to create leaves or other shapes.
- Brush with egg white and place in the oven for approx. 20 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Serve.
