When I was in the UK last year I had a lot of wonderful pies. I particularly remember a great one at the Hand in Llangollen: it was beef in beer served with mushy peas. I have made a few since I came back and had planned that the next one I experimented with would be a chicken and mushroom pie or a kangaroo in shiraz.
But during the week I grabbed some lamb at the supermarket one night after work and once I opened it I thought it looked a bit tough and needed simmering for a while. So I left it to cook until the weekend and this pie was the result. I used ready prepared puff pastry from the freezer and ready prepared tomato sauce. You can, of course, start from scratch for both of those items. I used an Amontillado sherry but you can use whatever you have on hand. And the sherry measurement is a sherry glass not a tumbler! I cut the lamb into strips but you can cube it if you prefer. I made one pie but you can use the same ingredients to make individual pies in souffle dishes: you won't need to use the egg cup in those.
Ingredients
660 gr lamb
1 onion
olive oil
1.5 glasses sherry
Couple teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Couple tablespoons ready prepared tomato pasta sauce
2 carrots
1 sheet puff pastry
Mode
Chop onion roughly
Cut lamb into strips roughly half an inch by three inches
Heat olive oil in frying pan
Quickly fry onions and add to large saucepan
Seal the lamb in oil in batches and add to saucepan as done
Add sherry, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato sauce to lamb and onion mixture
Bring to the boil
Cook vigorously for 15 minutes then reduce to a simmer
Place a simmer mat under the pot and simmer for about an hour
Meanwhile peel and slice carrots
Add carrots to the mixture and simmer for another half hour (or longer) until everything is tender and yummy
Preheat oven to 200c
Take pan from heat and spoon into pie dish after placing upturned egg cup in centre
Using a pastry brush paint water around the rim of the pie dish
Place the pastry sheet over and trim
Seal the edges to the dish with the water
Gather the remains of pastry sheet and roll
Use to decorate top as desired
Place in oven and bake for about 30 minutes
I served it with sweet potato and peas cooked in cumin but mushy peas would be good too :)
