Irish Stew Pie
By: Blogtastic Food
Tags: Recipe, Baking, Delicious, St Patricks Day, Cooking

Hey friends!! So, St Patrick’s Day is coming up, and how cool would it be to celebrate that day by having an Irish stew pie!? It would be pretty awesome right? Read on to learn how to make this bad boy.

Yes, that’s right, all of the Irish stew ingredients and flavours bubbling away under crispy puff pastry. Super comforting, and yes of course, you don’t just have to serve this on St Patties Day, it’s a very comforting and filling dish so there is no doubt in my mind that it’s the perfect recipe for a cold winters day.

Now, we must keep in mind that this isn’t just a stew, it’s a filling for a pie. Now some of may be thinking “well duh”, but allow me to explain what I mean in further detail because it’s important.

THE FILLING

So, the only thing we really have to make sure of here, is that filling is nice and thick, so quite a gravy-like consistency. If the filling is too thin, it may spill out of the sides and/or it could make the pastry go too soggy.

Also, when you cut into a comforting savoury pie like this, you want to see that nice, dark, thick, rich filling. Not a filling that is too thin and liquidy, especially when you’re trying to serve it with crispy puff pastry.

So how do we make the filling thick enough? Ok, so before I add my beef stock to deglaze the bottom of the pot or pan, I added some flour to coat the frying onions and carrots to soak up all of the oil (as the oil can interfere with the filling). With most stews or casseroles that I make, one tablespoon of flour is usually fine, however, in this case, I added 2 tablespoons to make the filling extra thick.

I didn’t add too much liquid to the filling (which in this case is the stock and water). I added enough to almost coat all of the ingredients, which was a good amount for me. From there, I like to simmer the stock and let it reduce. This will not only thicken the mixture but will also intensify the flavour of it as well.

THE EGG WASH

So, not long ago I made meringues, which, as I’m sure most of you know, only require the egg whites. So, instead of wasting the eggs yolks, I decided to store them away until there was a good opportunity to use them.

And because I knew I was going to make this pie at the time I thought to myself “hmmm, I wonder if egg yolks alone would be a good egg wash…”. So, I started doing my research, and I found an article that shows you how to prepare different egg washes (I have linked the article at the bottom of the post) and it was super helpful.

It turns out that egg yolks and cream mixed together makes a fantastic egg wash that will give the pastry a beautiful golden brown shiny presentation.

Not only that, when you brush this egg wash around the rim of the pie dish, the pastry will stick and seal the edges much more effectively due to the fact that the egg wash is much thicker.

And because the mixture is quite thick, it’s more difficult to brush on the pastry. So I decided to add a little more cream than just a splash to thin the egg yolk out a bit.

I’m not implying that this is the only egg wash that will work. If you would rather just whisk an egg, go right ahead. It’s just something to try or to keep in mind.

MAKING THE PIE IN ADVANCE

Ok, so when it comes dishes that involve puff pastry, the best time to serve the dish is ASAP, straight after it’s cooked. So I would avoid cooking the pie, then keeping it in the fridge for later and heating it up when you’re ready to serve because the pastry will lose its quality.

Now, you could freeze the pie, then heat it up until the pie is thawed out and hot again. However, there is an easier and more effective way to go about doing this, and that is just to not cook the pie at all until you’re ready to serve it.

So, you fill the pie dish with your filling, put the pastry over the top, egg wash the pastry etc. Then just leave it in the fridge until you’re ready to cook and serve it. That way, you can make the pie in advance, and you can serve it fresh!

Pretty easy right!? And you’ll be able to serve the pie just like this:

Now, if you would like to make this pie, click this link and you’ll be taken straight to the recipe. Thank you so much for reading through my post, and have an amazing day!