The perfect beef pie

The best ever recipe for...the perfect beef pie

nmuGoiqogAG62qte9vHTqQ.jpg
beef pie

1lb braising beef

Small handful of dried

porcini, steeped for 10

minutes in boiling water

8 button mushrooms, sliced

Mushroom ketchup

8 small shallots, peeled

1 stick celery

2 garlic cloves, peeled

and sliced

Sprinkle of plain flour, salt and pepper, groundnut oil and butter

pint red wine

Fresh thyme, bay leaves, chopped parsley

Pack of puff pastry (or make your own)

1 beaten egg

Heat 1tbsp oil in a heavy casserole dish and brown the meat. Set aside. Add shallots to pan (with more oil, if needed) and brown. Turn down heat, add celery, garlic and half the butter. Sear until floppy. Return meat and any juices. Season, sprinkle with flour and stir until coated. Add cut-up porcini and their liquid, red wine, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to boil, then cover and cook in the oven on a low heat for two hours, stirring occasionally.

Cook mushrooms in rest of butter and add to casserole with parsley and a splash of mushroom ketchup. Fill a pie dish with meat (any left over will double as beef stew). Top with rolled-out puff pastry (leaving vent held up by little pie blackbird) and brush with beaten egg. Bake in medium-hot oven for 35 minutes or until pastry is golden.

Read more about British food

Country Life

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.