Irish Beef Cheek Pie with Stout

Family Meal, Comfort Food, Great Leftovers

SERVES: 4 to 6

This is Anne-marie Ramo’s modern-day upgrade of the Irish pub standard, steak and kidney pie. Cooking the beef cheeks slowly melts the fat and softens the collagen, creating a silky sauce with succulent bites of meat. The sauce gets a boost of flavor from richly flavored stout, vinegar, and Worcestershire. This hearty one-dish meal needs only a salad and maybe some Irish soda bread for soaking up the sauce.

INGREDIENTS:

• • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons sweet Hungarian paprika
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
  • 3 slices thick-cut bacon (about ¼ pound), cut crosswise into ½-inch-wide strips
  • 2½ pounds beef cheeks, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • ½ cup sliced shallots
  • 2 cups thinly sliced leeks (white and pale green parts)
  • 1 pound mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 12-ounce bottle Guinness or other stout or porter
  • ¼ cup malt vinegar or cider vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 3 fresh thyme sprigs
  • 2 cups homemade beef stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth

PIE DOUGH

• • 1½ cups self-rising flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • ½ cup lard (preferably homemade) or nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening
  • 2–4 tablespoons cold water
  • 1 large egg yolk, mixed with 1 teaspoon milk

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. 1. Combine the all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon salt, 2 teaspoons pepper, the paprika, and chopped thyme in a shallow bowl; set aside.
   2. Cook the bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until just brown and crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Dredge the beef cheeks in the seasoned flour, shaking off any excess, and brown on all sides in the bacon fat, 5 to 10 minutes. (You may need to do this in batches.) Remove the meat from the pot and set aside.
   3. Drain all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pot. Add the red onion, shallots, and leeks and cook until soft and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Return the bacon and the beef to the pot and add the mushrooms, stout, vinegar, Worcestershire, bay leaves, thyme sprigs, and stock. Bring to a simmer, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Cover and simmer for 2 to 3 hours, or until the meat is tender.
   4. Remove the pot from the heat. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. If the sauce is too thin, remove the solids and boil to slightly thicken. Degrease the sauce, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Return the solids to the pot and reheat, then transfer to a 10-inch deep-dish pie plate or an 8-cup casserole dish and allow to cool, or cover and refrigerate overnight.
   5. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
   6. Dough: Place the self-rising flour in a large bowl and add the salt and pepper. Cut in the lard until it is in pea-sized pieces. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons water and mix. Add more water if needed to form a soft dough. Cover with a towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
   7. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough ⅛ inch thick with a diameter 2 inches greater than your pie dish. Cut a 2-inch round from the exterior of the pastry circle and lay it around the rim of the pie dish. Dampen it with water, then put the pastry lid in place. Trim and crimp the edges. Cut a few small steam holes in the center of the crust with a sharp paring knife and brush with the egg yolk mixture.
   8. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350°F and bake until the crust is golden, 30 to 45 minutes more. Serve each guest a chunk of crust and some of the filling.

ALTERNATIVE CUTS:

• • Any cut of beef chuck, short ribs, brisket, or shank meat cut from the bone. Adjust the cooking time accordingly, testing after 2 hours. This recipe works very well with tough cuts of bison or grass-fed beef, also.

COOK’S NOTES:

• •  If you are looking for a more traditional steak and kidney pie, substitute 2 pounds cubed boneless chuck roast and ½ pound cubed beef kidneys for the beef cheeks (reduce the cooking time to 1½ to 2 hours).
  • The dough is excellent for any savory pastry, such as homemade potpie or meat filled pasties or turnovers. Make a double or triple recipe, divide, shape into disks, and freeze the extra dough for quick use when you have leftover roasted or braised meat to convert into another meal.