A Steak in Guinness Pie Recipe for St Patrick’s Day

Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up this Wednesday on March 17, the one day of the year when the Irish kick up their heels and paint the town green. And anyone’s welcome to join in the fun. Its one great day to party!

All in honour of St Patrick, the patron Saint of Ireland who converted most of Ireland to Christianity and banished the snakes. He did a good job. You’re more likely to find a leprechaun than a snake causing mischief in Ireland these days.

I called in at Florrie McGreal’s along Hurstmere Road in Takapuna (my local Irish Pub) last week to find out their plans for St Patrick’s Day. I’d never set foot in an Irish pub before so it was a new kind of experience!

It was late afternoon and in the dark panelled room the candles had already been lit. From one of the walls an almost life-sized photograph of Florrie, the owner’s grandma, holding her little grandson by the hand, smiled sweetly down at me. Through the door at the back I could see The Grain room, in which the walls are lined with old whiskey barrels and posters.

It looked like a great place to hang out and share a few pints. The service was very friendly and if it's Irish food you’re after you must sample one of their Steak in Guinness pies served with a creamy pea and mint mash and crisply fried golden potato chips, all presented on a large wooden platter. I did and it was a real treat.

Underneath the crisp pastry topping the chunks of beef in the pie were juicy and moist. And there were lots of them surrounded by a thick and tasty gravy with the flavour of the Guinness coming through clearly.  Be warned, its a bloke sized helping that took quite some  time to devour, so be prepared to take your time, to sip a dark ale alongside and to enjoy the background Irish music.

Florrie’s General Manager Colm McNeil- O’Keefe (who hails from Ireland but has made New Zealand his home for the last eight years) assured me that on St Patrick’s Day,

March 17, they’ll be open by 7.30am for a traditional Irish charity breakfast that will benefit the Guide Dog Services Foundation for the Blind.

“St Patrick’s Day is one of the biggest parties in the world and a great celebration for those with an Irish heritage. And it’s also the day when Irish Bars have the biggest turnover of the year and so we thought we’d give away some of the day’s takings to a good cause,” he said.

They’re expecting a large crowd so they have teamed up with two neighbouring bars, the Belgian Beer Café and the O’Copper room and with council permission they’ll be declaring the pavement in front of them a green zone for the entire day. Breakfast will be served from 7.30am onwards.

So what kind of traditional Irish breakfast will this be? I was told it would include sausages, mushrooms and toast and that famous traditional Irish dish of black pudding which is stuffed with a mixture of pig’s blood, suet, pork fat and oats/barley. A dish not for the fainthearted! But black pudding is loved by the Irish as much as is haggis by the Scots. So it’s a must have for St Patrick’s Day.

By mid afternoon they’ll put up a stage for live Irish bands and dancers and the fun will go on ‘till late in the evening. Along with the Murphys, Jameson, Guinness, Baileys and Powers there’ll be plenty of genuine Irish Food like corned beef and cabbage, Irish stew, Guinness and beef pies and soda bread warm out of the oven.

For no extra charge the chef kindly divulged the recipe for his Steak in Guinness Pie. It makes 30 pies so I have scaled it down for a family of 4 and simplified it somewhat.

They weren’t that hard to make, especially as I used ready-made flaky pastry. I served them with a small bowl of mashed green peas (into which I had stirred a couple of tablespoons of crème fraiche and some freshly chopped mint) and oven chips for dipping. It all went down a treat. With autumn now around the corner and a chill in the air we’ll soon be having them again.

To find out more or to make a St Patrick’s Day breakfast booking at Florrie McGreal’s email colm@burnbrae.co.nz

Steak in Guinness Pie

Ingredients:

1 kg of diced chuck steak

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

1/3 cup of flour

 1 small bottle of Guinness (330 ml)

2-3 tablespoons of Wattie’s tomato paste

2 cups of beef stock

1 large onion (about 250 gm sliced)

1 large carrot (about 250 gm cubed.)

3 stalks of celery (sliced)

100 gm mushrooms

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

Ready rolled puff pastry

1 beaten egg

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

Sauté the beef in 1 tablespoon of oil until brown

Stir in the flour and cook for another minute.

Add the Guinness, tomato paste, beef stock, mushrooms and brown sugar.

Gently fry the onion, celery and carrot for a couple of minutes till soft and fragrant

(Do not allow them to brown)

Add to the stew.

Simmer until the meat is tender and the sauce is thick. This can take up to two hours.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Heat the oven to 200 degrees C

Divide the stew into four 250 ml ramekins.

Cover each with a pastry circle.

Press these firmly onto the rims. If you wet the rims with water first this will help the pastry to stick.

With a pastry brush glaze the pies with beaten egg.

Lightly make a crisscross pattern on top if you wish and glaze again.