Steak & Ale Pie

Steak And Ale Pie

While today many Americans would think of pies as being made with fruit or other sweet filling, meat pies have a longer history. Steak and Ale Pie (also made with stout, including the famous "Guinness") is well known in Britain, as well as in some former British colonies. I have included potatoes in this recipe, although they are not always used, but rather "steak fries" (called "steak chips," in Britain) are served as a side dish.

INGREDIENTS (for one 9 inch pie)
3/4 pound chuck steak, cut into bite size chunks
3 tablespoons flour
1 or 2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup mushrooms, chopped
1/3 cup carrots, diced or shredded
1/2 cup potatoes, diced
1 cup fresh kale or fresh spinach (loosely packed, it will cook down)
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 cup beef stock/broth (low sodium is fine)
1 cup dark ale
1 teaspoon Gravy Master
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 to 3 tablespoons of flour mixed with the same amount of water
2 sheets pie dough (ready made is fine)
1 egg, beaten (optional, for coating the pie crust for browning and for a nice sheen)
steak sauce for serving

Coat the meat in flour and fry in the oil over medium heat in a heavy pan until brown. Add the onions, garlic, rosemary and thyme, mushrooms, carrot, potatoes, salt and pepper, cook until the onions have softened. Add the tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce and stir well. Add the kale or spinach and let cook down just a little, before adding the beef stock, the Gravy Master and the dark ale. Let the stew come to a gentle boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally. Check the meat and potatoes for tenderness; allow for a few more minutes cooking time, if needed. Slowly add the flour and water mixture, stirring constantly, until the sauce is very thick. Cook for just a couple minutes more, uncovered. Meanwhile, line a 9" pie pan with the bottom crust and put the crust into the freezer for several minutes to firm and chill it. I used store bought frozen pie crust, sold in their own pie pan. They generally come 2 frozen pie crusts to a package, so you let the second crust thaw a bit, and when ready, remove it from its pie pan, and place on top of the filled crust. Seal around the edges and cut a few slits in the top of the pie. Brush with beaten egg. Bake at 350 degrees (F) for about an hour and fifteen minutes. Let cool a bit before slicing. Serve with steak sauce on the side.

I "squished" the piece of pie to show the dark brown sauce and filling.

WORD HISTORY:
Beef-This word, distantly related to "cow," goes back to Indo Eiropean "gwou/gwous," which meant "cow, ox." This gave its Italic^ offspring "gwos," with the same meaning, and this "seemingly" gave Latin "vos," which then became "bos," under influence of a dialect variant or another Italic language, the genitive form of which gave Latin the adjectival, "bovinus," meaning, "having to do with cows, oxen." This gave Old French, a Latin-based language, "boef," and this was borrowed into English as "beef," in the late 1200s as the name for the meat of  "cows and oxen," although later in American English "cowboy jargon," the word was used for a steer, often in the plural of "beefs" or "beeves."

^ Italic is a branch of the Indo European family of languages and includes Latin, Umbrian, Venetic, and others, most which have died out. Latin's limited use today is mainly because its forms evolved into several modern languages: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Catalan, Sardinian, and several others.