Suet Crust Steak Pie

You can’t beat a pie to look forward to on a cold night, and this truth becomes even more obvious if the pie in question has a suet crust. There’s just something about the bouncy, airy suet crust that rings our bell! It’s more common in the north than the south, for example in the Lancashire/Yorkshire meat and potato pie, but we particularly like to use it on a steak pie to create one of the most comforting of comfort foods. Using the amounts in the recipe will give you around 550g of pastry, enough to cover comfortably a 2.5l pie dish – bear in mind the suet crust will be quite a bit thicker than a shortcrust one would be.

---

Ingredients

FOR THE FILLING
500g Braising Steak, cubed
1 large Onion, finely diced
2 Carrots, finely diced
2 sticks Celery, finely diced
a few Mushrooms, finely diced
1 tbsp Tomato puree
1 level tbsp Flour
Good Beef Stock

FOR THE PASTRY
375g Self-Raising Flour
175g Suet
Spice Mountain Wild Herb Mix

---

Method

1

Heat some oil in a heavy pan, and saute the onion, carrot, celery and mushroom for 15 mins, until softened and slightly caramelized.

2

Add the braising steak and give the whole thing a good stir, browning the meat. Add a shake of Worcester sauce, a good grind of pepper and the tomato puree, then a level tablespoon of flour, and mix well. Finally add enough beef stock to cover, bring to the boil and then simmer for an hour or so.

3

Transfer the filling to a large pie dish.

4

In a large bowl, mix the self raising flour and the suet, adding salt and pepper and a teaspoon of Spice Mountain Wild Herb mix.

5

Gradually mix in enough cold water to form a soft, slightly sticky dough. Leave to stand for five minutes.

6

Roll out the pastry to an even thickness, then place over the pie dish and brush with a little milk.

7

Bake the pie at 180C for 30-40 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown, and let the pie stand for 10 minutes before serving.

---

Products