With winter on the horizon, now is the season for butter laden pastry and hearty meat & veg fillings, topped with a deliciously glossy gravy. Shibden Mill Inn, one of The Great Inns of Britain, have taken pie week even further with a whole month of menus dedicated to pies!
Serving four people the inn’s comforting Salt Beef Pie is the perfect winter warmer.
Ingredients:
Filling:
- 1kg of diced Brisket, salted for 24 hours & washed in cold water
- 1 large onion
- 3 Large Carrots
- 2 Sticks of Celery
- Rapeseed oil & 50g butter
- 500ml red wine
- 250ml beef stock
- 250ml chicken stock
- Thyme and rosemary
- 5 bay leaves
- 50g plain flour
Pastry:
- 250g suet
- 500g plain flour
- 30g salted butter
- Picked thyme
- Salt and white pepper
- 20/30ml warm water
Method:
- For the best result salt the brisket in rock salt overnight.
- Make the pastry by rubbing the suet, butter, thyme & flour together in a large bowl and slowly add the water till it comes together in a dough. Lightly flour a surface and knead the pasty for 1 – 2 minutes until all incorporated.
- Cover and place in the fridge for a couple of hours.
- For the brisket, take a large thick based pan, slowly cook off the onion, celery and carrot (which have been diced to about 10mm) in the butter and rapeseed oil on a low heat – should take around 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes mix in the flour and cook out for another 5 minutes, finally adding the salted meat, wine, stock and herbs and cooking for 1 hour on a medium heat, making sure to stir every 15 minutes so all of the flour is incorporated and the sauce begins to thicken.
- After the pie mix is cooked and cooled at room temperature, transfer to a large pie dish or roasting tray and cover with the rolled-out suet pastry and cook for 45 minutes until the crust is golden brown.
- Serve with roast potatoes & Yorkshire pudding for an authentic finish!
Enjoy!