Beef and Mushroom Pies

Rainy weather makes you seek out something comforting for dinner.
For comfort food, there's nothing quite like home made pies. If you are not confident making pastry, buy ready made, it's almost as good.

You will need 8 x 340ml/12fl oz pie dishes, if making individual pies, or 1 large 2 litre pie dish.

Ingredients

1.5kg beef, diced
500g puff pastry
3tbsp plain flour
2tsp salt
25g parsley, chopped
300g small button mushrooms
1tbsp chopped Thyme
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
2 onions, sliced
400g carrots, roughly chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
250ml red wine
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2tsp paprika

Method

Place the flour, salt, pepper and paprika, in a large polythene bag. Shake to mix. Add the diced beef, toss to cover with flour.

Place the beef in an ovenproof casserole dish. Add the tomatoes, garlic, celery, onions, carrots, red wine and Thyme. Stir to combine.

Cover and cook in a preheated oven at 180C/gas4 for1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Remove from the oven and add the mushrooms, cook for a further hour until the sauce has thickened and the meat is tender.

Remove from the oven, stir in the Parsley and leave to cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 200C/ gas6

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface, to 1/8 in thick. If you are making individual pies, use one of the dishes to measure, mark and cut out the pastry lids. For a large pie cut to size using the pie dish.

Fill the pie dishes with the meat mixture and place the pastry lids on top, pushing down the edges. Make a couple of cuts in the middle of each pie and brush with the egg yolk. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is golden.

Serve with boiled new potatoes and steamed broccoli.