We live in a beautiful part of the world in the South West of Victoria which has a rich Irish heritage stemming from the early 1800’s.
The Irish settlers saw a little bit of home in the area and started farming traditional crops and raising livestock, dairy farming and vegetables such as potatoes and onions were staples.
The community of Koroit celebrate all things Irish every year at their Koroit Irish Festival, where much fun is had over this particular weekend with singing, dancing, story telling and if you are lucky sampling some good old Irish cooking.
Several years ago when our children attended St Patricks Primary School in Koroit I developed a recipe for Beef and Guinness Pies that we then made and sold at the festival as a fundraiser for the School. Those pies sold like “hot cakes” as they say, and we had customers coming back year after year for them, selling out each time.
This is that recipe which can be made in various sizes, Mini for finger food, Individual for lunches and Family sized for a main meal. Topping the pie with mashed potato is also a lovely variation. I always make a full batch and freeze individual pies for quick and easy lunches.
Beef and Guinness Pie
Ingredients
- 1 kg Diced Steak Stewing Steak
- 1 Large Onion, peeled and finely diced
- 2 Carrot, diced
- 4 Sticks celery, diced
- 2 Potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 Sweet potato, peeled and diced
- 2 Bay leaves
- 600 ml Can Guinness
- 400 gm Can crushed tomatoes
- 3 Tbsp Gravox
- 3 Tbsp Plain flour
- Pinch Salt
- Pinch Pepper
- 2 Sheets Shortcrust pastry
- 2 Sheets Puff pastry
- 1 Egg, beaten
Instructions
- Season the beef generously with salt and pepper and place the meat and vegetables in the slow cooker.
- Combine flour, gravox, tomatoes and Guinness, mix until smooth, and pour over beef and vegetables.
- Cook on low 6-8 hours in slow cooker or 3-4 hours in the oven at 150C, until the meat is tender and the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally.
- Cool at least 2 hours or overnight.
To Make Pies
- Preheat the oven 190 C
- Using shortcrust pastry line the base of a pie plate then spoon filling into the pastry shell.
- Wet the edges of the shortcrust pastry then place the puff pastry on top and trim the pastry and seal the edges, either with a fork or rolling the edge over itself.
- Brush the pastry with egg and cook for 40-50 minutes or until golden.
- If making individual pies in the pie maker use shortcrust for the base and puff for the top (you don't need the egg) and cook for approximately 10-12 minutes.