Twiddly Guinness Pie

Got the heads up on this little number from Karyn at work. It’s a corker, and so very simple, even if it does seem to involve every pan in the drawer. I make it more complex by slow cooking the meat, but you could just cook it in the saucepan if you like.

You will need:

half kilo of beef, diced
1 cup of Guinness
1 cup of beef stock
teaspoon garlic
1 onion, diced
1 teaspoon plain flour
1 teaspoon cornflour
Several sheets of puff pastry
Teaspoon of milk

Brown the beef in a pan. Set aside.

In same pan add onion, garlic and plain flour. Heat for a couple of minutes, stirring as you go.

In a slow cooker, add browned beef, onion mix, Guinness and stock.

Walk away. Read a book, wash the windows or watch a season or two of QI on YouTube. You’ve got the time because you need to slow cook for hours, until the beef is tender. I had it in for three hours today, but it could stand six or eight hours and still not be overdone. That’s the beauty of slow cookers. And YouTube.

Mix cornflour with a little tap water. When all lumps are gone, add this to the slow cooker and mix.

Cut puff pastry to size and line them in the cups in a muffin tray, firstly buttering the cups or spraying them with a light mist of oil. Fill cups with beef mix. Top cups with pastry and paint with a little milk.

Cook in moderate oven until pastry is light brown. They come out looking all rustic and imperfect, just the way they should.

Plate up (love that expression – makes me feel like a contestant on Master Chef or MKR) with mash and peas (frozen peas heated up with a little butter does the trick).

Kids were coming into the kitchen while the smell from the slow cooker was permeating the house, begging for a taste. You know they like it when they ask for a second one.

When not typing away over here and checking his stats every two minutes Bruce Devereaux hangs out at his ‘BIG FAMILY little income’  Facebook Page.

 ’raising a family on little more than laughs’