Beef and Guinness Pie with Mushrooms

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A delicious savoury pie filled with fall-apart tender beef, loaded with mushrooms and cooked in a thick and luscious sauce made from Guinness, beef stock and fresh herbs. If you are looking for supper inspiration for St Patrick’s Day on 17th March, look no further! This is an ideal dish to make ahead, so you have time to sit back and relax on the day and celebrate St Patrick in true Irish style! I even decorated it with some pastry shamrock – just in case you didn’t recognise them!

We all have very special memories of Guinness in this house – our dog that is! Our first black Labrador was called Guinness. The girls were aged 3 and 4 when we got him so they all grew up together. Wherever the girls were, that is where you would find Guinness. He was happy to feature in all of their games, be dressed up if necessary and run around the garden. He was particularly happy if the games involved food or a trip to the Common, ideally both!

The Common was his favourite place. Not only is it full of lady black labradors (lots of nightmare stories!) even better for a Labrador, in the summer, it is full of people having picnics. Even more nightmare stories about mostly unhappy picnicers, who’d lost their lunch to a naughty, greedy dog with a slightly hysterical owner. For all that, he was the girls’ best friend and we wouldn’t change a thing!

How to make Beef and Guinness Pie with Mushrooms

Collect all the ingredients together:

• braising steak such as blade or chuck cut into 4 -5 cm (1½ – 2 inch) chunks
• fine salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• plain/all-purpose flour
• vegetable or sunflower oil
• unsalted butter
• small button mushrooms, trimmed
• onions, thinly sliced
• sugar
• Guinness
• beef broth/stock
• sprigs of fresh thyme
• bay leaves
• Worcestershire sauce

Topping:

• chilled pre-rolled puff pastry
• a little beaten egg for brushing

How to make this amazing pie:

1. Season the beef with the salt and pepper and toss with the flour.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large pan and brown the meat in batches until well coloured. Set aside.
3. Add another tablespoon of the oil, half the butter and the mushrooms to the pan and fry briefly. Set aside.
4. Add the rest of the oil and butter and the onions and fry over a medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring from time to time. Add the sugar and cook for a further 5 minutes until lightly browned.
5. Add the mushrooms and beef back to the pan and add any remaining flour, the Guinness, stock, thyme, bay leaves and Worcestershire sauce.
6. Stir well, cover and simmer gently for 2 hours or until the beef is fall-apart tender.
7. Ladle the liquid out of the pan and into a saucepan. Bring to the boil and reduce until you have around 500 – 600ml.
8. Remove the bay leaves and thyme twigs from the stew. Put the meat, onions and mushrooms into a pie dish. Barely cover with sauce. Leave to cool.
9. Strain any remaining sauce to serve on the side with the pie.

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Top with pastry:

1. Use the pie dish as a stencil to cut out the pastry. If the pastry is not quite the right size, as you can see here, patch some pastry on from the remaining pastry, to create the correct shape. You won’t notice when it is cooked!
2. Cut out 1 cm strips from the remaining pastry and keep all scraps.
3. Wet the edges of the pie plate with water and use the 1 cm strips of pastry to cover the rim.
4. Add the pastry top and seal the edges with a fork and trim with a knife.
5. Brush the pastry with egg wash.
6. Use remaining pastry scraps to decorate the pie. Brush these with egg wash also.
7. Make 4 small slices in the pastry before cooking. Cook in the centre of a preheated oven for 40 – 45 minutes, or until everything is piping hot and the pastry has risen and is golden brown.

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Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.