serves 6
A proper pie with pastry absorbing all the juices underneath and flaky, crispy baked crust on top (you can just do the top if you wish).
1kg casserole steak beef
1 onion sliced
400g beef kidneys, as fresh as possible, cored and cut into forkable chunks
1 tbs tomato ketchup
A little oil or fat
1 tsp English mustard
Up to 50g plain flour, seasoned with salt & pepper
1 bay leaf
1 glass red wine
About 750ml beef stock or water
Salt and pepper
350g open-cup mushrooms (optional), thickly sliced
500g puff pastry
First check the size of your pie dish (preferably a tin one approx. 1.2 litres capacity) by piling in the raw meat. It should mound to a good inch or so above the dish.
To make the filling, heat a little oil or fat in a large, heavy frying pan until fairly hot but not smoking. With floured hands, toss a couple of handfuls of the beef in the seasoned flour, shaking off any excess, then transfer to the pan and brown well on all sides. Brown all the meat like this, including the kidneys, in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. Transfer the browned meat to a large saucepan as you go. Add an extra knob of fat between batches, if the pan needs it.
When all the meat is browned, deglaze the empty pan with half the wine, scraping any burnt crispy bits with the edge of a wooden spatula. Add the deglazed juices and the rest of the wine to the meat in the saucepan. Heat a little more oil or fat in the now clean frying pan and sweat the sliced onion in it for a few minutes, until softened. Add to the meat, then add the ketchup, mustard, bay leaf and just enough stock or water to barely cover the meat. Stir gently. Bring carefully to a very gentle, tremulous simmer and cook for about 1 ½ hours, until the beef is fairly tender.
Check the seasoning towards the end of the cooking and adjust as necessary, then leave to cool. At this stage the pie filling can be left, covered, in the fridge for a day or two, or even frozen. If you like mushrooms in your pie, fry them gently in a little oil for a few minutes to let the juices run, then add to the filling before you make up the pie.
Cut the pastry into 2 rectangles, one slightly larger than the other. Roll out the larger piece to about 5mm tick and use to line a lightly greased pie dish, right to the edge of the flat lip of the dish, trimming off excess pastry. Roll out the smaller piece so it will more than cover the top of the pie. Spoon in the meat until it is at least level with, preferably mounding just a little higher than, the top of the dish. Ladle in enough of the juices to come 2cm short of the top of the pie so not quite covering the meat.
Brush the edges of the lining pastry with the beaten egg yolk and cover the pie with the rolled-out lid piece, crimping the edges with your thumb so the lid is well glued down to the lining. Make up any decorations with the pastry trimmings stuck on with egg yolk then brush the remaining yolk over the whole pie. Make 2 X-shaped vent holes in the pastry at either end of the pie.
Bake in a moderately hot oven (190C/Gas 5) for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown.
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