Ingredients (e.g. Grocery List)
Filling
2 pounds beef loin choice sirloin tips, or other sirloin cut. My favorite is top round roast as there is no fat to cut away. Find a roast or meat cut stew that is on sale, that is the point of this historical Irish-British recipe from the home land...
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 ½ cups onion, diced very small
1 ½ cups carrots, peeled and diced very small
8-ounce package white button mushrooms, diced very small (optional)
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
Few grinds fresh nutmeg
1 tablespoon tomato paste (get the one in the toothpaste tube, for future use leave in fridge)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 quart beef stock
2 cups water
Crust
Purchase Pastry sheets for enough coverage of four to five 6 inch Ramikens
If making from scratch see below
Bottom crust
*** Buy Pie Pastry Crust / Sheets or Make from scratch with this:
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 sticks cold butter cut into pieces (1 cup)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
6–8 tablespoons ice cold water
Aged Cheddar (Make in to Crumbs)
Top crust
2 puff pastry sheets (one box will yield 6 portions) – we used a Pepperidge Farm 17.3 ounce package
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
Cut the beef into 2” cubes and place in a medium bowl.
Cover with the flour and pepper and toss to coat. Set aside while you work on prepping the other ingredients.
Heat to medium in a large pot with lid, add oil to hot pot to ensure oil gets hot with minimum time to preserve flavor. Sear the beef on all sides for flavortown.
Once all of the beef has been seared pull off and set aside.
Add the remaining oil or use butter along with onion, carrots, mushrooms (optional), and slow cook for 20 minutes. Slow cooking converts sugars in the carrots and onions to give this recipe balance. Stir as you go every 5 mins, a wide wooden spatula works best. At 15 mins add nutmeg, rosemary sprigs, and garlic (your aromatics).
Put the Rosemary sprigs in a metal tea infuser, as the sprigs will fall off if you don't like that texture.
Clear a spot in the center and add tomato paste and cook for one minute.
Add vinegar and stir, scraping up and brown bits, then add Worcestershire sauce.
Add beef stock, water and the seared beef, bring to a boil then lower to a low boil or high simmer for 90 minutes uncovered.
During the final 30 minutes, make sure that the water doesn’t all evaporate. (You don’t want the mixture to stick.) Add a little more water as needed to finish with a thick sauce as needed l.
Remove from heat. If making ahead, cool, cover and chill. But reheat before filling ramikens.
Pick out all the pieces of beef with a slotted spoon and add to food processor and pulse 4-5 quick pulses to break the meat up into small shreds. Do not pulse too long, just enough to break up the meat. Add back to the liquid and stir. The filling should be thick.
While the beef is cooking, make the bottom crust by adding flour to a food processor along with the salt and cold butter pieces. Pulse to break up the butter into pea sized pieces.
Add 5 tablespoons of water and pulse to combine and then slowly add more water as needed until the dough starts to come together but is still a little crumbly. This can also all be done by hand until flakey, Jamie Oliver shows and explains this well.
Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and pour dough contents into center. Then use edges of plastic to push the sides into a ball. Wrap tightly and flatten into a disc and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
If frozen, remove pastry sheets from freezer and lay out to thaw for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. and place a rack in a sheet pan and place into the oven to heat up along with the oven.
We used 8-ounce ramekins that were 2” deep and 4 ¼” wide. You will need six of these plus one more to use as a guide to cut out the tops. Also have on hand a circle that is 8” across to cut out the bottoms. I used a soup bowl.
Flour your counter and roll out the bottom crust dough 26”x18”. Then use the 8” bowl as a guide and cut out six circles.
Press these into the six ramekins pressing the overlapping dough into the sides. Let the excess flop over the top.
Fill each ramekin up to the brim with warm to hot filling.
Lay out the two pastry sheets and using the fith ramekin, cut out three tops on each sheet. Use a plate bottom or something as guide for bottom marks
Beat the egg with the water and brush over each overhanging edge of each ramekin then top with a puff pastry top and squeeze the two doughs together until they stick. Use a pair of scissors and cut around the edge to remove excess dough. Use a brush and brush off any excess flour.
Brush the tops with the egg wash then using a paring knife, make a vent hole in the top of each.
Open the oven door and place them on the preheated rack and pan and bake for 10 minutes then lower heat to 350 degrees and bake for 15-25 minutes longer, or until tops are puffed and golden brown.
Remove and serve hot, and to be traditional. Will be really hot out of the oven.
Plastic wrap any extras for the fridge.
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