Beef Pot Pie

It’s time for the hearty meals of Winter! Slow cooked, rich, beef pot pie is so comforting on a cool night after a long day. I have always loved a beef pot roast, pot pie, beef stew or even the fancy Beef Bourguignon, they are all twists on the classic slow braised beef. Beef Pot Pie simply adds a pastry crust to the already delicious stew.

This recipe is one of my favorites for a hearty delicious meal that is also perfect for company! It was my favorite dish as a child and what my mother would make if she wanted to make something extra special for me. It’s not hard or expensive to make but you need several hours to cook it. It works great as a “do-ahead” dish. You just need to heat it before serving. 

I recommend allowing the beef to brown (rather than just throwing it into a crockpot or Instapot) because the gravy will get its color from this step. In America you can buy a coloring agent for soups and stews called  “kitchen bouquet”. But a few years ago I was cooking out of a “Cancer “ cook book for a friend and I discovered a healthy alternative to coloring agent. The trick is to cook the onion scraps from cutting up the onion. These ends and “papers” will make a beautiful color for the beef stew gravy. I use this tip for all soups and gravies that I make!

Beef Pot Pie

Ingredients:

1 lb beef cubes (you can also buy any piece of meat that you chop into cubes such as London Broil, chuck roast or just an inexpensive steak, the smaller you cube the meat the shorter the cook time but 1” inch cubes work nicely)

2 cloves garlic

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon salt and cracked black pepper

1 yellow onion chopped

fresh sage, rosemary and thyme (4 sage leaves, 1 Rosemary sprig, several sprigs of thyme. Remove from stem and chop finely or bundle them with twine and throw it into the pot, then you can fish it out later when the cooking is done)

optional: 1 lb of white mushrooms, cleaned

2 cups red wine

2 cubes beef boullion or good quality beef broth to equal 5 cups (you can make your own and add the onion paper skins for color and vitamins) 

4 carrots peeled and chopped, I like 1 inch cubes for more hearty texture

4 pealed chopped potatoes in 1 inch cubes

1/3 cup of flour mixed with 1/3 cup of water

optional: frozen peas

Sauté the beef cubes in olive oil with salt and pepper until richly brown, add the onions and continue to cook until they also are richly brown. The flavor will come from this step so make sure everything is rich golden brown. You can add wine if you need more liquid in the pan. Add the fresh chopped spices (or bundle) and garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add red wine and simmer down. Add the beef broth or boullion, bring to a simmer, reduce to low and cook until the meat is tender, about 1-3 hours, depending on how large your chunks of beef are. (Less time if you are using a pressure cooker)

In the last half hour of the cooking time, when the meat is almost fork tender, add the potatos and carrots and peas if desired. When the potatoes and carrots are fork tender you can make the roux.

Roux: In a separate bowl add the flour and water together, adding the water slowly and stirring so there is no lumps, you can add more water to thin it out and whisk so there is no lumps. Add the flour mixture to the beef mixture to thicken the gravy. Add peas if desired and allow to simmer.

Top with pie pastry and finish baking in the oven at 350 degrees until top crust is brown (about 20 minutes). (Search Pie Crust in my search button for my pie crust recipe).

An alternative is to omit the potatoes and serve the beef stew over mashed potatoes or create individual pies and pipe the mashed potatoes on the top, return to the oven and gentle brown on top.