Guinness Meat Pie

Drunken Guinness Meat Pie with a rustic thick crust to celebrate St-Patrick’s day this year? A pie filled with tender meat, carrots, onions and green peas. A perfect pairing to a cold Guinness!

If you are one of those people who cannot resist a good Guinness on St-Patrick’s day, then this is the perfect meal to accompany your beer. Guinness beer isn’t just a great beer it’s also one of the highest quality broth out there, giving any stew or meat pie this deep and rich color and caramelize flavor. Also, Guinness pairs to perfection with one of my favorite sauce thickener; chocolate. Just a single piece of dark chocolate in the end of cooking, nothing too serious to impair its taste, will thicken the broth just enough and give the broth this richer color and thickness.

This recipe could easily be a stew or a meat pie! If you add a 200 ml of broth to the whole recipe and skip the crust end, you’ll end up with a great stew. Although since I’ve done a pie, I’ve added a simple pie dough but extra thick to make it more rustic looking. You can use a pre done pie dough/flaky from the market or make your own, which is frankly quite easy. (see below).

The pie dough

The secret here is to use cold ingredients, from the butter to the water. I’ve used a 400g of flour and 200g of unsalted butter and a good pinch of salt. Cut the cold butter  into small cubes and then mix it up into the flour with your hands until it become a sandy texture (5 minutes). Then, add a bit of water until it makes a unsticky dough (about 100ml). Cover with a plastic wrap and leave a minimum of an hour in the fridge. That’s it! When ready for use, flour the working space and make the dough a good 2mm thick to give the pie an extra thick feel. Finish it up with an egg wash to make a nice finish to the crust and a pinch of salt.

Let’s make this drunken pie!

Guinness Meat Pie

Makes 4-6 portions | Preparation: 2 hours| Difficulty: easy

Ingredients

• 500g of beef diced into 2 cm cubes
• 300ml guinness beer
• 200ml of beef broth
• 10 mini french onion (or 2 normal sized)
• 4 carrots sliced
• 1 garlic clove
• 10g of dark chocolate (80% or more)
• 1 laurel leaf, 1/2 anis star, thyme (in tea bag or strapped together)
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp of clarified butter or olive oil
• 50g frozen green peas
• flaky dough from the market or handmade (check above)
• 1 egg

Directions

1. Start by adding salt and pepper to the diced beef
2. In a pot, add the butter/oil and sear the pieces of meat at high heat until brown
3. Add the carrots, onions, garlic and spices to the meat
4. Add the Guinness beer and the broth and scratch the bottom bits off with the help of a wooden spatula or spoon
5. Bring to a light simmer and let simmer for 1h30, uncovered
6. In the end of cooking, add the frozen peas and the piece of chocolate to thickens the broth
7. In a deep oven proof recipient, add the meat mix and cover with the pie dough
8. Add a view holes on top of the pie and give it a egg wash with a last sprinkle of salt
9. Cook in the oven at 180°C (350F) for about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden
10. Serve

Happy St-Pat guys! Sláinte!