Christmas Recipes > Luxury Christmas Pie

This recipe is part of the December 2005 Recipes Menu.


Starter - Prawn and Dill Avocados
Main Course (Meat) - Luxury Christmas Pie
Main Course (Vegetarian) - Celeriac Christmas Roulade
Dessert - Christmas Syllabub

How to make luxury Christmas pie:

Instead of having a turkey for Christmas lunch, why not try this luxury Christmas Pie. This can be made in advance and placed into the freezer until the day before the meal, then taken out to defrost for the Christmas lunch.



Ingredients

2 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 large onion, peel and sliced
2 cups button mushrooms sliced
3 cups tightly packed lean braising steak cut into strips
1 clove garlic crushed
4 rashers streaky bacon or pancetta chopped
2 ribs celery chopped
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 pint cider, ale or stock
2 tablespoons crème frâiche (half fat can be used if wished)
enough puff pastry for your chosen pie dish
1 egg
(see measure conversions for more information)

Method

- Heat the oil in a large pan.
- Fry the onion, garlic and bacon for 3-4 minutes to soften.
- Add the strips of meat.
- Cook until browned all over.
- Add the flour and stir well.
- Heat the cider, ale or stock and add the Worcestershire sauce.
- Whisk in the crème frâiche.
- Pour into the pan with the meat and stir well.
- Bring to the boil and simmer, covered for 1 1/2 hours stirring occasionally.
- Preheat the oven to 200oC/400oF/gas mark6.
- Add the sliced mushrooms and celery to the meat in the pan.
- Stir and turn off the heat.
- Place the meat filling in a pie dish.
- Roll out pastry on a floured surface.
- Cut a strip to be placed around the rim of the pie dish.
- Brush the rim of the dish with water and press on the pastry strip.
- Brush the strip with water and top with the pastry lid.
- Make a stream hole in the pastry and decorate with trimmings.
- Beat the egg and brush over the pastry.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is puffy and golden.




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