Healthy steak pie
Probably the fastest steak pie you’ll ever make! Cooking the pastry topping separately to the filling saves time and helps keep the beef tender and delicious.
Ingredients
- 320g/11½oz sheet ready-rolled puff pastry (you will only use half)
- 1 tsp milk
- 3 tsp sunflower oil
- 250g/9oz thin frying steaks, cut into roughly 2cm/¾in pieces
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 500g/1lb 2oz chestnut mushrooms, halved or quartered if large
- 4 tsp plain flour
- 1 tsp garlic powder (or 1 garlic clove, crushed)
- 350ml/12fl oz beef stock (made with 1 beef stock cube)
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Unroll the pastry and cut in half. Re-roll one half, wrap in foil and set aside or freeze for another time. Cut the remaining piece into 10–11 long strips.
Place the pastry strips on the lined tray, weaving in and out to make a criss-cross lattice. Turn a 1 litre/1¾ pint pie dish or tin upside-down on top of the lattice and cut around it, leaving roughly 2cm/¾in on each side to allow for shrinkage.
Remove the dish or tin, brush the pastry with a little milk and bake for 15–20 minutes, or until well risen and golden-brown.
To make the filling, heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Season the sliced beef all over with freshly ground black pepper. Fry the beef for just 2 minutes, or until lightly browned, and transfer to a plate.
Return the pan to the heat, add the remaining oil and fry the onion and mushrooms for 5–6 minutes, stirring regularly until lightly browned. Sprinkle over the flour and garlic powder (or crushed garlic) and stir well.
Slowly add the stock, just a little at a time, stirring all the time. Add the tomato purée, Worcestershire sauce and dried herbs and bring to a simmer.
Cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly, then stir in the beef, heat through for a few seconds and immediately remove from the heat. (As the beef is very lean, it is important not to overcook it at this point.)
Spoon the beef filling into the pie dish (see Recipe Tip below), top with the cooked puff pastry and serve.
Recipe Tips
Using frying steaks, usually sold in packs of 2–3, make this pie cost-effective and quick. They are very lean, so only need to be cooked briefly. You’ll find frying steak in most supermarkets, or your butcher will be able to cut them for you.
If you don’t have a large wide-based frying pan, you may need to cook the mushrooms in a couple of batches and then return them to the pan before sprinkling over the flour.
If using a ceramic pie dish, warm briefly in the oven before spooning in the hot filling. This is less important if using an enamel or metal pie dish.
You can reduce the calories further by using spray oil for frying if you like.
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