Gary Mehigan's really sexy Beef onion and Guinness pies

Makes 6 pies

Filling:
100ml normal olive oil, plus extra for greasing
5 onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
4 sprigs thyme
3 fresh bay leaves (or about 1-2 dried bay leaves)
2 tablespoons plain flour
1.5kg trimmed chuck steak, cut into 5cm pieces
Salt flakes and freshly ground white pepper
1 carrot, cut into large chunks
440ml can Guinness
2L home-made beef stock (I used store bought!)
1 egg, beaten

Maggie Beer’s Sour-Cream Pastry:
200g chilled unsalted butter, chopped
250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
½ cup sour cream

Equipment:
1 jumbo 6-cup muffin tray


1. Preheat your oven to 180°C fan-forced or 200°C conventional.

2. To make the filling, add 40ml olive oil to an enamelled cast-iron casserole, then add the onion, garlic and thyme and cook over low heat (use a simmer mat, if necessary) for 40 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent. Stir occasionally. Increase the heat to medium-high, add bay leaves and cook until the onion is  caramelised. Add the flour and cook stirring often for 3-4 minutes.

3. Season the beef generously with salt flakes and ground white pepper. Heat remaining 60ml of the olive oil in a large frying pan over high heat, then cook the beef in 2 batches until browned on all sides. Add the carrot and cook for 5-6 minutes. Add ¾ of the Guinness and cook for 5 minutes. Tip beef and Guinness into onions. Use remaining Guinness to deglaze the beef pan, scraping all the brown bits from the bottom, add to the onions.

4. Pour enough beef stock to cover the beef and vegetables and bring to the boil. Cover with a tight fitting lid, then transfer to the oven and cook for 2-2.5 hours or until tender. Leave to cool to room temperature. Remove the chunks of beef and carrot to a board and chop into 1cm pieces, then return them to the onion gravy. Refrigerate until cold.

5. While it's refrigerating, make the sour cream pastry. Place the butter and flour and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle or food processor, then blend until the mixture resembles large breadcrumbs. Gradually add the sour cream, mixing until the pastry just comes together. Shape into a disc, then wrap in plastic wrap then chill for at least 20 minutes.

6. Grease 6 holes of a muffin pan with a little olive oil. Roll out the pastry to 3-5mm thick, using a little extra flour for dusting. Cut out six rounds about 4cm bigger than the muffin holes for the pie bases and six rounds 2cm bigger than the muffin holes for the pie lids. Place a pie base in each hole, then press in in lightly with your fingers, and draw the pastry up the mould a little so the pastry is 1cm above the mould. Fill each hole with some of the beef mixture, brush edges with water, then top each with a pastry lid and crimp the edges to seal in the filling.

7. Brush the pastry tops with beaten egg, cut a small hole in the centre of each pie for steam to escape. Bake for 25 minutes or until pastry is golden. Remove from the oven and leave to stand for 5 minutes. Turn out and serve with tomato sauce, if desired.

* This recipe was taken from the Masterchef Australia website. What an awesome show! 

Maggie Beer's Sour Cream pastry is pretty good. However, I think the amount is slightly too little. I'd make a little extra just in case. Especially if you pie is really dense and heavy, you'll need more pastry to hold it up.