A traditional recipe for St. Patrick’s Day, Irish Beef and Stout Pie becomes especially rich and savory when you add my secret ingredient: extra sharp cheddar cheese. Thanks to Cabot Creamery Cooperative for sponsoring this recipe.
I love pies and I love hearty stews, so it is no surprise that I really love a pie filled with a hearty meat stew. Anyone who reads as many British novels and watches as many British period shows as I do is certainly familiar with the many kinds of meat pies available in the British Isles. Aren’t characters in British dramas always making steak and kidney pie or something similar? Or how about those game pies they make on “The Great British Baking Show” with hot water crust or suet pastry? What’s that about? They look like something out of Downton Abbey.
Well, steak and kidney pie might be a bit too authentically British for us Americans. But do you know what meat pie I think we can all get behind? A classic Irish beef and stout pie. The filling of this pie is similar to a French beef bourguignon, but instead of red wine, the stew is made with a dark Irish stout, like Guinness. Beef and stout stew is classic Irish pub food. Put the stew in a pie, and now you are really talking about comfort food.
For this dish, you first simmer the stew slowly on the stove to allow the beef to become tender and the gravy to thicken and reduce. You can do this part a day in advance, which will both break up the work and allow the flavors additional time to develop. To make the pie, you pile the stew into a pie pan, cover it with some puff pastry and bake until the pastry is golden brown and the filling bubbling. Can you imagine a better dish for St. Patrick’s Day than this traditional Irish pie? I certainly cannot.
The problem with beef stews is that they can sometimes be bland. Hearty and filling, yes, but not very flavorful. The key is to build flavor as you go and to include ingredients with lots of umami. For this dish you start by browning the beef, which adds the first level of flavor – because of those little browned bits that form on the bottom of the pot, which you then scrape up and stir into the stew.
I also always season my ingredients as I go. So when I add the onions, for example, I season them with salt and pepper. Then, when I add the celery a few minutes later, I add another pinch of salt and so on. Season as you go.
The last piece to our flavor puzzle is including ingredients with umami, like tomato paste and mushrooms. And, of course, my secret ingredient: sharp cheddar cheese from Cabot. The cheddar actually does double duty in this recipe. The sharp bite of Cabot’s aged cheddar perks up the flavors of the stew plus, when the cheese melts into the sauce, it gives it an especially luscious, silken texture. You will be scraping your plate to get every last bite of that delicious gravy, trust me.
As you know, Cabot is the only cheddar I will even consider buying. Yes, this is an Irish recipe, but I am sticking with my Vermont cheddar, thank you very much. Not only does Cabot Creamery make the best-tasting cheddar in the world, it is a company with a heart. A certified B Corporation, Cabot Creamery is a co-operative owned by farm families throughout New England & New York. That means that all the profits go back to the farmers themselves. And right now is an especially challenging time for American farmers, as it is for us all.
Not only is there a hefty dose of Cabot cheddar in the beef stew, but I also fold some into the puff pastry that tops the pie. Have you ever had puff pastry cheese straws? It’s the same idea. You sprinkle some cheddar over the puff pastry, fold the pastry in half and then roll it out. The cheese gets incorporated into the puff pastry and adds nice flavor and a rich golden color. Cheese in the stew and cheese in the pastry!
Now, I freely admit that this recipe is a project. Beef and stout pie is not a quick weeknight dinner. But, it is a satisfying, enjoyable cooking project for a leisurely winter weekend – when the snow is falling outside and you want to make something that will warm your family from the inside out.
And if the work seems intimidating, try making the stew on one day and the pie the next day. It breaks the work up into much more manageable chunks and it won’t hurt the final dish. If anything, it will only make it taste better.
What’s on your St. Patrick’s Day menu this year?
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless beef chuck cut into 1-inch cubes (or 2 pounds beef stew meat)
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2-3 TB vegetable oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 1 cloves garlic, minced
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 TB tomato paste
- 4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 8 ounces button mushrooms, halved or quartered depending on the size
- 12 pearl onions, fresh or frozen, peeled OR 6 cipollini onions, peeled and halved
- 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 2 cups Irish stout, such as Guinness
- 1/ 2 cup beef broth
- 1 TB Worcestershire sauce
- 8 ounces sharp cheddar, such as Cabot Seriously Sharp, grated
- 1 cup peas, fresh or frozen
- 1 sheet puff pastry, preferably all-butter pastry, such as DuFour, thawed
- 1 large egg beaten with 1 TB water
Instructions
- Dredge the pieces of beef in the flour and shake off any excess.
- Heat the oil in a large, heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add approximately 1/3 of the beef to the pot, so as not to crowd it, and brown the pieces on all sides. Remove the browned pieces to a plate. Repeat two more times until all the beef has been browned. Set aside.
- Add the onion to the pot and scrape up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Season the onion with a pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté the onion over medium heat until softened, about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add the garlic and celery and another pinch of salt and pepper and sauté the aromatics for an additional 5 minutes, until the celery is softened. Add the tomato paste and sauté an additional minute until fragrant.
- Return the meat and any accumulated juices to the pot. Add the carrots, mushrooms, pearl onions and herbs and stir to combine. Add the stout, beef broth and the Worcestershire sauce; the liquid should mostly cover the meat but not not submerge it. If the liquid is too low, add another splash of beef broth. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.
- Bring the stew to a boil. Then, turn down the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the beef and vegetables are tender and the liquid is reduced. (May be done up to a day in advance. Transfer stew to a covered container and refrigerate until needed.)
- Set aside 1/2 cup of the grated cheddar and stir the remaining cheddar and the peas into the stew. Allow the stew to cool slightly.
- Transfer the stew to a large, deep pie plate and mound it up in the center. Preheat the oven to 400.
- Place the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle the reserved cheese over the puff pastry, then fold in half. Roll the pastry out until it is slightly larger than the pie plate. Moisten the edges of the pie plate with water, then drape the puff pastry over the stew in the pie plate. Trim off any excess pastry from around the edges, then press the edges against the rim of the pie plate to seal it closed. Make several cuts in the pastry for venting. Brush the pastry with the egg wash and place it on a cookie sheet to catch any drips.
- Bake the pie in the preheated oven until the pastry is browned and crisp and the filling is bubbling, 35 to 45 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before slicing and serving.
Full disclosure time: Cabot Creamery Cooperative sponsored this post and I received compensation for my work. All opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.
