Aussie beef and beer pie (that failed as a pie)

This recipe comes from Woolworths The good taste Collection COOK! book.

I do love a good meat pie but I've never made one so when I saw this recipe I decided to give it a go.

Cast of characters

• 4 (about 650g) beef scotch fillet steaks, cut into 2cm pieces
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 brown onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 250ml (1 cup) beer
• 1 sheet (29cm x 29cm) frozen pastry, just thawed
• 1 egg lightly whisked
• 2 sheets (25cm x 25cm) frozen puff pastry, just thawed
• Fountain Spicy Red Sauce, to serve

Step 1
Place beef in a large bowl and sprinkle with flour. Season with salt and pepper. Gently toss to evenly coat.

Step2
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion, garlic and thyme, stirring for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the beef and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until browned.

Step 3
Stir in the tomato and beer. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low. Cook, covered for 55 minutes or until the beef is tender. Set aside for 30 minutes to cool.

Step 4
Preheat oven to 220°C. Place baking tray on the middle shelf. Cut the shortcrust pastry into quarters. Line 4 round 3cm-deep, 12cm (base measurement) pie tins with shortcrust pastry, allowing the sides to overhang. Brush edges with egg. Divide the beef mixture evenly among the pastry cases.

Step 5
Cut each puff pastry sheet in half diagonally. Top the pies with the puff pastry and trim excess pastry. Press the edges with a fork to seal.

Step 6
Brush the pies with egg. Cut a small cross in the centre of each pie. Bake the pies on the tray for 25 minutes or untilgolden and puffed. Serve with the spicy red sauce.

WHAT I DID

When I got to the end of step three I decided the mixture was way to sloppy to put into pies so I cooked some rice and fresh French cut beans and served them with the meat mixture.

Review
Despite the fact that I didn't make the pies the actual meat mixture was really delicious and I will definitely make this again and call it a casserole and not bother trying to make it into pies. To be honest this tasted a lot fancier than regular aussie meat pies and I'm now on the hunt for a regular meat pie recipe :)