Beef and Guinness Pasties

Pasties are one of our goto fall/winter favorites. We fell in love with these hand pies on our honeymoon trip to Great Britain and brought these flavors home with us as a lovely memory. Make sure to use Guinness Extra Stout as it gives a much more robust and savory flavor. I tend to under salt all my dishes. However, oversalting kind of ruins the flavor. In this instance less is more (you can always sprinkle some salt on the egg wash).

Ingredients

• 1 TBsp vegetable oil

• 1 large onion finely chopped (about a cup)

• ¼ swede (rutabega), chopped into small cubes (about a cup)

• 1 large potato, cut into small cubes (about a cup)

• 1lb ground beef

• 1 TBsp tomato purée (blended tomato)

• 1 heaped TBsp plain flour, plus extra for dusting

• 2 tsp tomato ketchup

• 1 TBsp Worcestershire sauce

• 200ml Guinness Extra Stout (4/5 of a bottle, drink the rest!)

• 200ml beef stock, hot

• 150g frozen peas

• 2 packages all-butter puff pastry (or 2 pie doughs)

• 1 egg, beaten for dusting on top

Method

Make the Filling

1. Saute onion, carrot and rutabaga. Remove from pan, set aside

2. Brown the beef

   1. Drain some of the fat. I cooked it undrained one time and it mixes well, but it becomes a little too soupy.

3. add tomato puree, cook 1 min

   1. Peel a tomato, Cut out the core, blast in a food processor until liquid. Throw it in

4. Stir in flour, cook 1 min

5. Lower heat to medium-low

6. Add ketchup, Worsteshire sauce, Guinness, Stock, Stir

7. Add potato

8. add salt and pepper to taste

   1. I add salt first, 1 pinch at a time, then stir. Stop once you can start tasting the salt (3-6 rounds)

   2. Sme with pepper. Go light (1-3 rounds)

9. Bring to boil

10. Add cooked vegetables back to the pan,

11. Cover Pan, Simmer 15-20 minutes until sauce has thickened, and potato is soft

    1. Periodically check it, and stir it around a bit. If it starts getting dry lower the heat and continue

12. Stir in frozen peas

13. Remove from heat. Let cool completely (about 2 hours)

Make the Pasties

Do not begin this step until the insides have mostly cooled.

1. Use short crust pastry (ie pie crust). You can also make this with puff pastry, but the puff doesn’t maintain itself in the liquid

Remove the Puff Pastry 1 hour before you are going to make these so they thaw

1. Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface to the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut out 8 x 20cm circles using the base of a 20cm cake tin as a guide. Divide the cooled beef mixture among the 8 pastry circles, piling it along the middle. Brush the perimeter of the circles with beaten egg. Bring up the pastry circles from either side to meet in the middle, then pinch together to make a crimped, scalloped edge down the centre. Make 2 slits with a sharp knife on either side of the ridge so that the steam can escape through the pastry during cooking, then brush all over with beaten egg.

2. Open-freeze the pasties on a baking tray, then transfer them to a freezer bag or container with strips of baking paper in between, and freeze for up to 3 months.

Cooking Instructions

1. Cook at 420

   1. From Frozen: 25 minutes

   2. From Fresh: 20 minutes

2. Let cool 5 minutes

Serving Suggestions

• Pairs well with a basic arrugala salad (arrugala, olive oil, salt)