The Walkhampton Inn's Steak & Ale Pie Recipe

Steak & ale pie

At The Walkhampton Inn, we pride ourselves on our homemade steak & ale pies. They are a staple on the menu and a hearty, flavoursome, traditional country dish. We serve our pies with either homemade skin-on, triple-cooked chips or creamy mash, green peas and gravy. Our head chef has kindly adapted the recipe for readers to make at home.

Ingredients:

1 white onion

300g diced stewing steak

I pint of ale

½ tsp garlic puree (1 diced clove)

1 tbsp of tomato puree

Jus-Rol shortcrust pastry

1 egg

Method:

Dice the onion finely, fry until soft in a dash of oil and set aside.

Combine the beef stock (either a tbsp of granules or approx. half a Knorr beef stock cube) with the ale (the darker the better).

In a separate pan, fry the diced steak until brown on the outside ensuring the steak is evenly spread in the pan. Then combine with the onions, ale and stock and put back on the hob.

Stir in the garlic puree or diced clove and tomato puree and add a pinch of salt and pepper.

Simmer the mix for around 1 hour until it has reduced and the meat is tender. Then set aside to cool.

Roll out two sheets of shortcrust pastry, one 100g and one 30g, to roughly the thickness of a 2 pence piece. Butter a 450ml pie dish and line the bottom and sides with the larger pastry sheet, making sure to overlap the edge of the dish.

Add the cooled mixture to the pie dish (ideally cool it to room temperature, but slightly warmer will be fine) cover the top of the pie dish with the other pastry sheet and crimp around the edge to seal. Make a couple of holes in the top and egg-wash the lid. Bake the pie at 180 degrees for 50 mins. Remove from the dish and serve.