Steak, Oysters and Ale Pie

This quite traditional steak and ale pie is given an extra touch of luxury and flavour with the addition of Oysters and brown chestnut mushrooms. This recipe can be used with most medium to dark beers or stouts including Guinness or even substitute with red wine. I prefer to use a good brown ale.This meal can be cooked in a money saving way, just switch gas and electricityswitch gas and electricity suppliers to get the best deal.

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Ingredients

1 kilogram of Rump Steak
12 Oysters
250 grams of brown chestnut mushrooms
2 medium sized onions
2 tablespoons of fresh thyme leaves
300 millilitres of beef stock
300 millilitres of brown ale, beer or red wine
45 millilitres of extra virgin olive oil
30 grams of butter
2 tablespoons of plain flour
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
400 grams of Puff Pastry
1 egg

Method

Place the flour in a bowl or plastic bag. Add the sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season. Cut up the rump steak into 2 inch pieces and toss around in the flour so that all sides are coated.

Heat up 25 millilitres of the extra virgin olive oil and 15 grams of the butter in a flame proof casserole dish or large pan. Fry off the meat chucks in small batches until all pieces are browned on all sides. With all the steak removed from the pan, add the remaining butter and extra virgin olive oil. Peel and chop the 2 onions and brown them off in the pan over a medium heat. Then put the steak and any juices back into the pan. Add the beef stock and the brown ale or red wine and the 2 tablespoons of fresh thyme leaves. Put the pan or casserole back onto a medium heat and bring to the boil. Pre-heat the oven to 300F/150C/Gas2. put the lid on the casserole or cover the pan and cook in the oven for 90 minutes.

At the end of this cooking time, take the casserole out of the oven and sieve out the pieces of steak and onions with a slotted spoon and put them in a 3 pint pie dish. Reduce the remaining liquid down to approximately 1 pint. Shell the oysters and cut the brown chestnut mushrooms into quarters. Add the oysters and mushrooms to the steak in the pie dish, distributing them as evenly as possible and pushing them down into the gaps. Then pour over the reduced liquid.

Roll out the puff pastry to a size about 1 inch bigger than the size of the pie dish. Cut off a 1/2 inch strip all the way around. Beat up the egg in a small bowl and using a pastry brush, lightly coat the rim of the pie dish before putting this strip of pastry around the edge of the dish. Egg wash the top of this strip before laying on the sheet of pastry and crimp down the edges with a fork. Egg wash over the top of the pastry and just put a knife through the very middle of the pastry to let the steam out while it cooks or use a pie funnel. Put the pie back into the oven and cook for around 40 minutes when the pastry should have risen and turned a golden brown.

Serve with new potatoes and steamed seasonal vegetables.

Enjoy!