Beef and Mushroom Pie

It has started getting colder in Canberra this week and to me the cold is definitely pie weather. What is better than a warm and hearty meal when it is cold and rainy outside? I don't think I have ever actually made a savoury pie before (perhaps back in high school in food tech) but how hard could it possibly be? So I invented this pie and cooked it the other night. It is a bit of a cheat but I was not interested in making the whole thing from scratch on a week night so I used store bought pastry and red wine sauce. Of course you could make these yourself if you feel so inclined. This recipe makes a huge amount of pie! We ate it for 2 dinners and 2 lunches! Here is my recipe:

Ingredients

• ~ 750g blade steak cut into chunks
• 8--10 button mushrooms cut into chunks
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• red wine casserole sauce base
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 heaped tsp cornflour

To Bake 

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
• Separate out your pastry sheets so they thaw quicker (better yet have them defrosted before you start)
• Heat about 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large casserole dish and quickly fry the garlic in it. Then put the meat in to brown.
• Whilst the meat is browning put the line one large pie dish or 2 smaller pie dishes (anything can be a pie dish - I used a round tart tin and a square cake tin) with the puff pastry. Use a sharp knife to trim the overhanging bits. Prick the pastry with a fork all over and put in the oven to blind bake for ~15mins.
• Keep browning the meat and add the mushrooms cooking for about 2mins. Then add the red wine sauce and water. Give it a stir, put the lid on and go and put your feet up for the next 10mins or so. 
• Remove the pastry from the oven and push the pastry down gently with the back of a spoon if it has puffed up too much to make more room for your filling. 
• Check on your filling. The meat should be nicely cooked by now. If it is too saucy, add the cornflour gradually until it thickens to your liking. Once it is good fill up your pastry with it. Cover the tops of your pie with pastry, using a sharp nice to trim the edges. Return to the oven and cook for about 30-40mins or until the pastry is golden brown and your house smells really nice!
• Remove from the oven slice it up and serve. I like mine with tomato sauce :)

This is making my hungry again just looking at it!

Look at those lovely chunks of saucy beef - yum.