Beef and onion pie with a herby garlic and anchovy sauce

Preparation time
less than 30 mins

Cooking time
over 2 hours

Serves
Serves 4–6

By Matt Tebbutt

Ingredients

For the pie filling

  • 200g/7¼oz butter
  • 1kg/2lb 4oz piece rump steak, cut into steaks
  • 6 onions, thinly sliced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tbsp thyme leaves, finely chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves, peeled
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the pastry

  • 250g/9oz plain flour
  • 125g/4oz butter
  • 1 free-range egg, beaten
  • pinch salt

For the garlic sauce

  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 6 tbsp olive oil
  • 6 anchovy fillets
  • 2 dried chillies
  • 1 large bunch flatleaf parsley, finely chopped

Method

  1. To make the pie filling, preheat the oven to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 2.

  2. Brush a casserole dish with all the butter. Season the steaks with salt and pepper and lay in the dish. Add the onions, bay leaves, thyme and garlic and cook for 1½–2 hours with the casserole lid on.

  3. Meanwhile, to make the pastry, blend the butter, flour and salt with 3 tablespoons of water in a food processor, until well combined. Chill for 30 minutes.

  4. To make the garlic sauce, blend all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

  5. Spoon the cooked meat mixture into a pie dish and stir in the garlic sauce. Increase the oven temperature to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.

  6. Dust a surface and rolling pin with flour and roll out the pastry. Cut off a thin strip of pastry, the length of the circumference of the pie dish, and set aside.

  7. Top the pie with the pastry lid and brush the rim of the pie dish with water.

  8. Press the reserved strip of pastry around the edge of the pie dish to seal. Brush the pastry with the beaten egg and cut a small slit in the centre for steam to escape. Bake for 30 minutes until golden and bubbling.

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