Now that Masterchef Australia is over, and I no doubt will experience some a lot of withdrawal symptoms, I thought I would have a Masterchef inspired week. This year, Masterchef decided to be sneaky and cut all the exciting episodes in half. Majority of the good recipes come from the challenges faced by the top 12. This year, the top 12 was whittled down to a two week time period, with 3 contestants going home each week until the finals at the end of the second week. I was not happy about this announcement. Why not cut the top 24 episodes in half, weed out the extreme amateur cooks over a short space of time and draw out the top 12? This is a question that will no doubt never be answered and one I hope they change in the next season of Masterchef (yes, I’m already thinking of the next season). Anyway, I’m off topic. In one week there were 3 great recipes I had to try – Gary Mehigan’s Beef and Guiness Pies from Masterclass, Pork Lasagne from an Italian group challenge and Chocolate Mousse Tart from a magazine cover challenge (look out this week for other posts).
I decided to start with the Beef and Guiness Pies because I’d heard a few people rave about how good they were (although it was nice of Masterchef to tell me the day after I cooked them that they had gotten the recipe wrong!).
This is a great recipe to make when you have nothing to do one Sunday afternoon because the meat cooks for about 2 hours. I’ve split the ingredients and recipes into their sections e.g. pie filling, pastry, assembly.
What you will need for the pie filling:
100ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil, plus extra for greasing
5 Brown Onions, sliced
4 Cloves Garlic, smashed and peeled
4 Sprigs Thyme
3 Fresh Bay Leaves
2 Tablespoons Plain Flour
1.5kg trimmed Chuck Steak, cut into 5cm pieces
Salt flakes and freshly ground white pepper
1 Carrot, cut into large chunks
440ml Can Guinness
1 Litre Beef stock
1 Egg, beaten
Preheat your oven to 180°C fan-forced.
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| Pie filling ingredients |
For the pies, add 40ml olive oil to an enamel or heavy set casserole (think Le Creuset style casserole dishes).
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| My heavy set casserole dish |
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| Onions when they first are in |
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| Soft and translucent onions with bay leaves |
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| Onions with flour |
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| Beef |
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| Carrot |
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| Add Guiness |
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| Transferred into casserole dish |
Pour beef stock over the beef and vegetables and bring to the boil. Cover with a tight fitting lid, then transfer to the oven and cook for 2-2.5 hours or until tender.
A couple of things to note here: 1) I didn’t wait for anything to come to room temperature or cool completely. It’s up to you if you want to do these steps: Leave to cool to room temperature. Remove the chunks of beef and carrot to a board and chop into 1cm pieces, then return them to the onion gravy. Refrigerate until cold. 2) When I made this recipe there was an error on the Masterchef Australia website, which is why I have too much stock in my pot above. Originally the recipe called for 2 litres of beef stock, not 1 litre. So if yours doesn't look as full as mine, don't worry. In saying that, the mixture still turned out great.
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| With beef stock |
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| Getting the filling ready |
What you will need for Maggie Beer’s Sour-Cream Pastry:
200g chilled Unsalted Butter, chopped
250g Plain Flour, plus extra for dusting
½ Cup Sour Cream
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| Pastry ingredients |
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| Butter & Flour |
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| Half completed pastry |
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| Pastry |
Grease 6 holes of a muffin pan with a little olive oil. Roll out the pastry to 3-5mm thick, using a little extra flour for dusting.
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| Rolled out pastry |
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| Pastry cutouts |
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| Pies ready for the oven |
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| Beef and Guiness Pies |
The pies were super yummy and the pastry was flaky and melts in your mouth. Serve with mash and your favourite vegetables. In my opinion, you really don’t need tomato sauce with these pies, there’s enough flavour in the filling and pastry.
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