73. Beef Pie with Cheesy Potato Topping

• March
• 13

10:32 pm Beefeater, Dinner, Home Cooking, Just out from the oven, One pot dinner

Made this pie ages ago. OK. Not ages ago, but couple of years ago while we were still in England. What prompted me to try this was the fact that I had been lazy in trying out new things.

I would cook the usual thing over and over again. Getting mighty tired of eating the same thing, so I made this.

It was good. Easy and good. I did not follow any specific recipe, just wing it out after consulting few recipes online.

I don’t know what happened to other photos that I had for this recipe, so I guess I had to use this one.

BEEF PIE WITH CHEESY POTATOES TOPPING

Ingredients

• 500g cubed beef
• 3 TB oil
• 1 onion, chopped roughly
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• I heaped TB tomato puree
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 TB chilli powder
• 2 TB flour
• 400ml hot beef stock
• Salt and sugar to taste
• About 1/2 cup plain flour to coat the beef

Sliced/cubed thickly:

• 2 carrots
• 2 celery sticks
• 1 bell peppers

Method

1. Roll the diced beef in the plain flour to coat. Then using a heavy based pot, brown the beef on all sides, using just about 2 TB oil. Set aside.
2. In the same pot, add the onion and crushed garlic cloves. Soften on medium heat for just about 5 minutes, taking care not to burn. Then add the sliced carrots, bell pepper and celery stick.
3. Saute for a couple more minutes, then add tomato puree, bay leaves, 2 TB flour, and 1 TB chilli powder. And 1 TB more oil if the mixture is too dry. Stir fry on medium to low for a minute more.
4. Add the hot beef stock to the pot, and keep on stirring because the mixture would get lumpy in the beginning. Quick stirring would help make it smoother.
5. Let this mixture to come to a simmer, then add the brown beef cubes. Cook on medium high from 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the beef is tender.
6. Then adjust seasoning. I did not add any salt whatsoever in the beginning because the stock that I used was already seasoned, anyway.
7. I did, however, add 2 TB of sugar to balance out the heat from the chilli powder that I used. Set aside to cool, and prepare the mashed potatoes and grated cheese.

Mashed potatoes 500g floury potatoes, boiled then drained 3 TB butter 3 TB hot milk Salt and white pepper Mashed everything together to a smooth consistency while the potatoes are still piping hot. Set aside. Then grate about 4 oz (240g) of mature cheddar cheese, or whatever that you have at hand. Variation Grate the potatoes instead of mashing it. To do this, the potatoes must not be boiled till soft, just about 1/2 way through, then let it cool. Or better yet, chuck it in the freezer for 30 minutes to make grating easier. But, allow a little bit more baking time if this is the way that you wanted to top off your beef pie.

To assemble Pour the cooled stew inside a deep pie dish. Then topped it off with the mashed potatoes, then with the grated cheese. Another way is to mix the grated cheese with the mashed potatoes, and then only top the whole mixture atop the stew. Bake in a preheated 170 C oven just until the cheese melted and turned golden brown.