Jamie Oliver's Aussie Humble Pie

Yes, yes yet another one of Jamie's specials and a long standing share from my side. 





I had used the filling two ways, one in a recipe I have already shared with you - A Tribute to my Inspiration, my Mummy - Pie Meat & Mushroom buns with Sesame and the other as the pie filling to Jamie's Aussie Humble Pie.

This make was a delightful  and savoury one both to my little one and my hubby. 

I simply love the golden crunchy crust. Thanks Jamie for yet another delicious dish.

I halved the recipe as the original was for 8 servings. This recipe calls for two of  some of my favourite treats Beef and Pie. 

Although Jamie had used pale ale in his recipe, I did my own subsitutions as ale was not available.

You can substitute it with chicken broth, ginger ale or white grape juice. 

I did a combination of chicken broth and ginger ale. 

Pale ale is a beer which is made by warm fermentation using pale malt mainly. The lighter colour of the ale is owing to the higher propotion of pale malt.

Recipe source : Jamie Oliver


You need:

For the filling:

• 1/2 kg beef cum into 1 cm chunks (ideally beef skirt - cut of beef from the 'Plate'. See image)
• Black Pepper
• Olive oil
• 1/2 whole nutmeg, grated
• Salt
• 1 large carrot, peeled
• 1 red onion, peeled
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked
• 125ml pale ale (learn more here)
• 1/2 tbsp full of plain flour
• 1/2 tbsp tomato pureé
• 125 gms button mushrooms
• 1 medium egg yolk, beaten
• Drinking water
• Cold water

 For the pastry:

• 300 gms plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 75 g cold unsalted butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing
• 75 g Cheddar cheese

The Make:

Serves : 4 adults | Preparation Time: | Resting Time: 3 hrs - overnight | Cooking Time: up to 1 hr, 43 minutes

1. Place the beef chunks in a large bowl. Add a heaped tsp of pepper, salt to taste or a good pinch of it and 2 tbsp of Olive oil.

2. Grate in quarter of a nutmeg, toss well and coat all chunks. Set aside. Roughly chop the carrots, onions and rosemary leaves.

3. In a wide, medium sized pan/wok, heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat. Add the beef chunks and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the meat is browned all over and any liquid has evaporated, stirring frequently.

4. Meanwhile, heat another medium pan over a medium heat. Add the chopped vegetables and a drizzle of olive oil and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until softened and caramelised, stirring frequently. Set aside.

5. Add the ale or the ale substitute to the beef, turn the heat up to high and allow the liquid to boil and bubble away, stirring and scraping all those lovely sticky bits from the bottom of the pan.

6. Next stir in the flour and tomato pureé and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until it forms a thick paste. Add the softened vegetables into the pan and pour in 1 litre of cold water. Roughly slice and add the mushrooms, then bring to the boil. 

7. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer for 11/2 hrs then take off the lid and simmer for another 30 minutes, or until thickened and reduced and the beef is nice and tender, stirring occasionally. Season to taste, transfer to a bowl and allow to cool completely for a few hours or preferably overnight in the fridge. 

8. Meanwhile, make the pastry. Combine the flour and a good pinch of salt in a bowl, then grate in the Cheddar and rub into the flour along with the butter, until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

9. Gradually add 125 ml of cold water, stirring continuously to combine, then use your hands to bring it together into a rough dough – be careful not to work it too much. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge until needed.

10. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. You can either serve this individually as Jamie did or as I did as one baked pie dish. For a single dish do the process of the pastry just once. For the individual pie dishes: Grease 4 individual pie dishes (roughly 15cm x 10cm) with a little butter and dust with flour. Divide the pastry into 4 equal-sized pieces, then roll out a portion on a flour-dusted surface to the thickness of a pound coin. Place 2 of the pie dishes side-by-side, roll the pastry around the rolling pin, hold it over the dishes and carefully unroll the pastry to cover. Gently press the pastry into the sides of the dishes, then rough ly cut away the excess so you end up with 2 lined pie dishes. Repeat with the remaining pastry, reserving the excess for later.

11. Equally divide the steak and ale filling between the dishes and brush the edges with the beaten egg. Divide the excess pastry into 4 equal-sized pieces, roll out to the thickness of a pound coin and place over the filling. Trim away any excess, crimp the edges with a fork and with the tip of a sharp knife or kitchen blade cut a little cross into the top. Brush over a little more beaten egg, then place in the hot oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden and piping hot through. Serve warm with a dollop of ketchup or favourite sauce, your favourite seasonal greens and your favourite chilled drink.

Bon Appetit!

*Veg option:
You can make this same recipe using a vegetarian option of cottage cheese / paneer. 
1. Cut the cottage into cubes. You can easily reduce the cook time by half as paneer does not take that long to cook.  However I would suggest you play this by trial. Reduce the initial saute time to 10 minutes. 
2. Make sure to first saute the chopped vegetables and then the cottage cheese. 
3. Also the bake time can be reduced to 15 minutes or until the pastry is golden. 
4. Also instead of the egg wash over the pastry, brush the pastry with a tad bit of milk.