For His Master's Veneration: Pub-Style Steak Pie

My Master has many friends and memories from His travels to the UK, so to honor Him this savory steak pie is a classic British comfort food. However making it can be tedious. Slave has cut down some of the steps but left the flavor and texture of the authentic article. We skipped the traditional browning of the meat, which requires working in batches, and browned the mushrooms and onion instead, building a flavorful fond at the same time.

Adding flour early in the process and limiting the amount of stock we added meant that the gravy formed as the meat cooked so we could bypass the usual sauce-building steps. To make sure we didn’t limit flavor, we added bacon, garlic, and thyme. slave boosted browning with the addition of a small amount of baking soda.

Ingredients

Filling

3 tablespoons water

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 (1 1/2 lb) boneless beef top sirloin steak

½ teaspoon Salt

½ teaspoon pepper

2 slices bacon, chopped

1 pound cremini mushroom, trimmed and halved if medium or quartered if large

1 onion, cut into chunks

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 (14 1/2 ounce) can beef consume

1⁄8 cup Worcestershire sauce

½ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ cup all-purpose flour

Instructions

Do your cutting:

Rinse mushrooms and let drain well. Chop the onion, garlic, meat, carrots

Preheat oven to 350 with just the bottom rack in.

FOR THE FILLING: Combine water and baking soda in large bowl. Add beef, salt, and pepper and toss to combine.

Cook bacon in large Dutch oven over high heat, stirring occasionally, until partially rendered but not browned, about 3 minutes.

Add mushrooms and ¼ cup broth and stir to coat. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are reduced to about half their original volume, about 5 minutes.

Add onion, garlic, carrots, and thyme. Let cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened and fond begins to form on bottom of pot, 3 to 5 minutes.

Sprinkle flour over mushroom mixture and stir until all flour is moistened. Cook, stirring occasionally, until fond is deep brown, 2 to 4 minutes.

Stir in the can of consume and Worcestershire sauce, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in beef and bring to simmer, pressing as much beef as possible below surface of liquid.

Cover pot tightly with aluminum foil, then lid; transfer to oven. Cook for 1 hour.
Remove lid and discard foil. Stir filling, cover, return to oven, and continue to cook until beef is tender and liquid is thick enough to coat beef, 15 to 30 minutes longer.

Transfer filling to a 9 x 14 baking dish. (Once cool, filling can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 days.) Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees.
Lay out a sheet of wax paper and unroll the tube of croissants onto this.

Carefully invert this over the dish and peel back the paper. brush with an egg wash for a golden brown crust.
(it’s OK if filling is hot).

Place dish on rimmed baking sheet. Brush with a beaten egg to give a wonderful color.
Bake until filling is bubbling and crust is deep golden brown and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes. (If filling has been refrigerated, increase baking time by 15 minutes and cover with foil for last 15 minutes to prevent over-browning.) Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

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