9.22.2011

Beef and Stout Pot Pie

Ah, fall. The kaleidoscope of colors on the sugar maples. The sound of fallen leaves crunching as you walk on the sidewalk. The faint smell of firewood coming from your neighbor's chimney. The crisp feel of the air outside. The fuzziness of the sweater you're wearing for the first time. And, oh, the food! Hearty, comforting food that needs to cook for hours and makes your house smell so delicious. Yes, we love fall. And our first great fall dish this year was Beef and Stout Pot Pie.

In this dish, a basic beef stew meets Harpoon's smooth, rich, small-batch Island Creek Oyster Stout for a flavorful and satisfying meal. Island Creek is an oyster farming and distribution company out of Massachusetts. Typically, stouts make a great pairing when eating oysters. In this case, Harpoon's brewers put the oysters right into the beer during the brewing process, although the impact to the taste of the beer is minimal. The stout has hints of roasted barley along with a slight mineral brininess from the oysters, both of which add great flavor to the chuck steak we braised in it.

We reserved the water in which we had boiled the carrots and potatoes to enhance the vegetable flavor in the pot pie. And, instead of regular old onion and garlic, we used fresh cippolini onions and hard-neck garlic from the farmers' market. Refrigerated puff pastry dough topped the deliciousness inside the bowl, offering contrasting texture with its flaky crunch as well as a hint of surprise when you break through to the chunky, meaty stew.



 
Beef and Stout Pot Pie

Ingredients (for 4 individual pot pies):
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
4 carrots, peeled and diced
2 lbs. boneless beef chuck steaks, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 yellow cippolini onions, roughly chopped
2 hard-neck garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup water, reserved from boiling carrots and potatoes
1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup beef broth
1 cup Harpoon Island Creek Oyster Stout
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 sheets frozen puff pastry dough
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon water

Boil potatoes and carrots together until tender. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the water, and place in refrigerator to cool. Preheat oven to 350. Place chunks of beef along with flour, salt and pepper in a large zip-type bag; toss to coat. Heat oil in a large ovenproof pot over high heat, then working in batches, brown meat on all sides, about 4 minutes per batch; set aside. Add onion, garlic and 1/4 cup reserved vegetable water to th epot and cook, scraping the brown bits from the bottom of the pot, and stirring often until onion is softened. Add tomato paste and cook for one minute. Return beef to pot along with broth, stout, Worcestershire, and thyme. Bring to a low boil, then cover and transfer to oven. Braise for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and stir in the cooled carrots and potatoes. Allow stew to cool uncovered for 1/2 hour before topping with puff pastry (otherwise the pastry will melt). In the meantime, thaw the puff pastry dough and raise oven temperature to 425. When ready to assemble pot pies, cut circles in the dough 1/2-inch wider in diameter than the bowls you plan to use. Fill these individual oven-proof bowls with the stew then top with the pastry dough, pressing dough onto the rim of the bowl to help it adhere. Beat together the egg and tablespoon of water and brush the top of the pastry dough with this egg wash. Place pot pies on a baking sheet and bake until pastry is puffed and golden, about 20 minutes.  




7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, this is right up my alley, any pot pie is good in my book. Yours looks incredibly delicious, gotta try it some time. Thanks so much for sharing! =]

mjskit said...

What a perfect dish to welcome in the cooler weather! Love everything about this recipe!

Stephanie @ Eat. Drink. Love. said...

Pot pies are the perfect fall dish! This one sounds so tasty!

Jennifer said...

This beef & stout pie looks soooo good! I can't wait for cooler fall weather here in Texas so I can be in the mood to make more of these comfort foods!


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Eliotseats said...

Love cooking with beer. This looks like a hearty fall dish.

Anonymous said...

Pie, beef and beer...that is all I need to say. Awesome

Cheryl and Adam @ pictureperfectmeals.com said...

This is a perfect fall dish, and just mouth watering to look at. Beef and stout pair so well together. We'll put this on the fall menu for sure... a firelight dinner on a really cold night!