Open the oyster just before serving, and place on a plate beside your Beef and Guinness Pie.
Ingredients
- 700 g cheek of beef
- 2 (or one large onion) onions (peeled and chopped)
- 3-4 pints of guinness
- 4 carrots (peeled and chopped)
- 18 pearl onions (trimmed)
- 150 g celeriac (peeled and diced)
- 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 50 g plain flour (seasoned)
- 30 ml olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 6 fresh oysters
- for the puff pastry:
- 500 g plain flour
- 200 ml water
- 1 tsp salt
- 25 ml white wine vinegar or lemon juice
- 50 g melted butter
- 400 g chilled butter
- 1 beaten egg
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4.
- Trim the beef cheeks and place them with the carrots, celeriac, garlic, bay leaves, thyme and rosemary in a dish and pour over enough Guinness to cover.
- Cover and leave in the fridge to marinate for between 2-12 hours, or overnight.
- Remove from the fridge, drain the meat and pat with kitchen roll to remove excess moisture.
- Dust the beef cheeks with the seasoned flour, and heat the oil in a frying pan and sear each piece of beef in batches until golden on all sides.
- Bring the Guinness to the boil in a saucepan.
- Put the celeriac, carrots and onion in a roasting tray and place the seared beef cheeks on top.
- Cover with the reduced Guinness, add the pearl onions and celeriac, cover with the tin foil. Roast in the oven at 130C for 3 hours.
- Once cooked, remove from the oven and let it cool in the cooking juices.
- Remove the meat from the dish and strain the liquid into a saucepan.
- Reduce the liquid into a sauce and check for seasoning.
- For the Pastry:
- Sieve the flour into a bowl with the salt.
- Stir in the water, vinegar and melted butter.
- Mix until it forms a soft ball and then wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Remove the pastry from the clingfilm, flour the counter and roll the dough into a large square shape.
- Place the slab of butter in the centre and fold the pastry over the butter completely, wrap in clingfilm and leave to chill for 20 minutes.
- Roll the pastry into a narrow rectangle shape about half an inch thick.
- Fold one corner over to about one third of the length and then fold the remaining pastry over that, wrap and refrigerate again for 20 minutes.
- Repeat this process at least six times.
- The more the pastry is folded and the butter spread throughout the dough the lighter it will be.
- After final rolling leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before using it for your pies.
- To Assemble:
- Divide the beef into individual 6-inch oven-proof dishes and place the puff pastry on top.
- Add some of the pre-cooked carrots, pearl onions and celeriac and then place your chilled puff pastry on top into the individual 6-inch oven-proof dishes.
- Brush the sides of the dishes with a little of the beaten egg.
- Cut a round of puff pastry big enough to cover each dish and trim off the excess.
- Brush the pastry with the remaining beaten egg and place on a baking tray.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C until the pastry is golden.
- Open the oyster just before serving, and place on a plate beside your Beef and Guinness Pie.
