Beef & Guinness Pie

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To celebrate, I bought some Guinness Extra Stout and decided to make some goodies with it this week.

The first dish I tried is Beef and Guinness Pie. It's a thick, meaty beef stew covered in puff pastry. Delicious!

Preheat oven to 350*. Pat beef dry. Stir together flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Add beef, turning to coat, then shake off excess and transfer to a plate.

Heat oil in a wide 5-6 quart oven proof heavy pot or deep iron skillet over moderately high heat until just smoking, then brown meat in 2 to 3 batches, turning occasionally, about 5 minutes per batch. Transfer browned meat to a bowl and set aside.

After meat is browned, add 2 tablespoons butter to the pan and melt.

Add mushrooms and onions to the melted butter in the pan and saute until onions are translucent and mushrooms are lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Quickly mix together tomato paste and ½ cup beef broth; set aside. Add garlic to the pan and saute lightly until an aroma develops.

Stir in beef with any juices accumulated in bowl, remaining beef broth and tomato paste mixture, stirring to combine.

Stir in beer, Worcestershire sauce and thyme leaves and bring to a simmer, then cover and transfer to oven. Braise until beef is very tender and sauce is thickened, about 1 ½ hours.

Cool stew completely, uncovered, about 30 minutes. (If stew is warm while assembling pies, it will melt uncooked pastry top.) Put a shallow baking pan on middle rack of oven and increase oven temp to 425*.

Divide cooled stew among bowls (they won't be completely full). Roll out pastry dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13 inch square, about ⅛ inch thick. Trim edges and cut dough into quarters. Stir together egg and water and brush a 1 inch border of egg wash around each square. Invert 1 square over each bowl and drape, pressing sides lightly to help adhere. Brush pastry tops with some of remaining egg wash.

(I didn't have enough oven proof bowls to make this, so I just made it right in the iron skillet...it worked out great!)

Bake pies in preheated shallow baking pan until pastry is puffed and golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Reduce oven temp to 400* and bake 5 minutes more to fully cook dough.

Note: Stew (without pastry) can be made 2 days ahead, cooled completely, and chilled, covered. Bring to room temp before using.

Beef & Guinness Pie

2 lb boneless beef chuck, cut into 1-inch pieces

4 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon salt or kitchen salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

¼ cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons butter

2 (10-oz.) pkgs whole cremini or baby bella mushrooms, quartered

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 ½ cups beef broth

1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste

1 cup Guinness or other Irish stout

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

1 (17.3 OZ) box puff pastry dough, thawed (used: Pepperidge Farm)

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon water

8 (14 oz) deep bowls or ramekins similar-capacity ovenproof dishes

Preheat oven to 350

Pat beef dry. Preheat oven to 350*. Pat beef dry. Stir together flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Add beef, turning to coat, then shake off excess and transfer to a plate.

Add garlic to the pan and saute lightly until an aroma develops. Stir in beef with any juices accumulated in bowl, remaining beef broth and tomato paste mixture, stirring to combine.

Stir in beer, Worcestershire sauce and thyme leaves and bring to a simmer, then cover and transfer to oven. Braise until beef is very tender and sauce thickened, about 1 ½ hours.

Bake pies in preheated shallow baking pan until pastry is puffed and golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Reduce oven temp to 400* and bake 5 minutes more to fully cook dough.

Note: Stew (without pastry) can be made 2 days ahead, cooled completely, and chilled, covered. Bring to room temp before using.

Makes 8 main-course servings.