COMFORTING STEAK AND MUSHROOM PIE

Pies have always been a favourite of mine ever since childhood. My mother used to make pies so full of flavour with crusts that melted in the mouth, both savoury and sweet. I now know what she meant when she always said she had ‘pastry hands’. Light as a whisper, soft as a baby’s cheek with no hint of tough or rubbery textures, her pastry was a delight.

My favourite pastry crust pie of all time is Chicken and Ham in a creamy white wine sauce, topped with puff pastry which must have the ‘gloopy bit’ as my son calls it, the layer of soft white pastry under the crust. On equal terms with my affection is a good fish pie with creamy potato top, which must include salmon, a smoked white fish and boiled eggs to make me happy.

My father, being a Yorkshireman through and through, still regales us of stories of his mother’s meat and potato pie which is one apparently I can’t beat. My wonderful Aunty Rita, still carries on this tradition and by all accounts still makes the best meat and potato pie in Sheffield, if not Yorkshire.

This steak and mushroom pie is simple to make, I don’t usually bother to make individual pies but I had the time to fiddle about with the pastry and thought the boys (husband and son) would appreciate the extra effort. There is something very special about having a pie all of your own.

I used a bought puff pastry for the lid, ready rolled for even more convenience, which covered the three pies perfectly and will cover a large pie easily.

When making a meat pie, I cook the filling a few hours previous, giving it plenty of time to cool. This is not only better for the pastry (if you put  raw pastry on top of a hot pie filling it will go soggy) but makes the actual process of making supper really stress free, only leaving the pastry lid to be put on top. I am not prissy about what goes in with the meat, as long as plenty of onions are included. We all like steak and kidney but on this occasion I had a big bag of mushrooms that needed using up so this is what I used. Any meat pie can be livened up with a splash of soy sauce, not only does it add flavour but the rich brown colour also darkens the gravy.

The key to producing  a delicious filling with melt in your mouth meat is to cook it for a long time. No matter how inviting a pie looks if the first mouthful contains a lump of chewy, gristly meat it puts me off eating the rest so slow and long cooking is the order of the day.

Do make sure you use a pie funnel, or blackbird as I always call them, to help keep the pastry from falling into the centre of the dish. Don’t do what my mother did when she was trying to impress her new mother-in-law the first time she visited for lunch. After hours of stressful cooking, my young mother proudly put the steaming pie on the table, waiting for her mother-in-law’s approval (this was the queen of the meat and potato pie makers). The knife went in to cut the perfect pastry crust only to be met with a melted plastic egg cup.

She must have done something right that day as my mother and father have just reached their sixtieth year of marriage.

The recipe below is for one large pie which will feed 4-6 people. Use a pie dish an inch or so smaller than the pastry sheet.