Beef & Guinness Pies

with Roasted Honey & Cumin Pumpkin, Smashed Rosemary Potatoes & Steamed Beans with Garlic Butter

Well Saturday night was a another birthday dinner for me with my  gorgeous daughter Amy & her fiancé Ant. And as it was SO freezing I decided on a nice warm dinner full of comfort food :) 




Beef & Guinness Pies 
SERVES: 4 
PREPARATION: 15 MINUTES 
COOK: 2 1/2 HOURS


Ingredients 
1/4 cup (40g) plain flour
800g beef chuck steak, cut into 3cm pieces (I used gravy beef)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 large brown onions, cut into thick wedges
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
440ml Guinness Draft Beer
1 1/2 cups (375ml) beef stock
2 dried bay leaves
8 fresh thyme sprigs
1 25cm sheet ready rolled puffed pastry
1 egg, lightly whisked

Method
Place flour in a large bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Add beef and toss to lightly coat. Heat half the oil in a large flame-proof casserole dish over high heat . Add one quarter of beef and cook, turning occasionally, for 5 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Repeat in 3 more batches


Heat remaining oil in pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until lightly golden. Add garlic and cook, stirring for 1 minute or until aromatic. Add beef, beer, stock and herbs and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to very low and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for 1- 1 1/2 hours or until beef is tender and sauce thickens slightly. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper. Set aside for 30 minutes to cool slightly. 


Preheat oven to 200C. Spoon beef mixture evenly amongst four 1 1/2 cup (375ml) oven-proof dishes. Cut the pastry into quarters and lightly brush with egg. Place piece of pastry over each dish and use a small sharp knife to cut a small slit in the top of each pie to help release steam. Place on an oven tray and bake for 15 minutes or until pastry is puffed and golden. 

My Notes 
I found there was far too much liquid in this recipe and had to thicken at the end, I would definitely make some version of this pie again, I have heard the Jamie Oliver recipe for Beef & Guinness pie is sensational! this one just lacked a little depth of flavour but it was still really good!


Reserve the left over gravy from the beef & Guinness mixture to serve over the vegies! 

This recipe came form a free magazine www.taste.com.au that I picked up when I bought another food magazine (I know I just have to stop! I bought 4 this week......) I have made a few things from this little mag this week, and nothing from the 4 new magazines that I paid for lol. 


Roast Honey & Cumin Pumpkin
SERVES: 4 
PREPARATION: 10 MINUTES
COOK: 45 - 50 MINUTES

Ingredients
1kg Queensland Blue pumpkin, peeled, de-seeded, sliced into 1cm thick wedges
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons cumin seeds


Method
Preheat oven to 200C. Place pumpkin in a slightly greased roasting pan. Combine oil, honey and cumin seeds in a jug, pour over pumpkin. Season with salt and pepper and turn to coat. Roast pumpkin for 45 - 50 minutes or until golden & tender. Serve. 


My Notes 

Well I didn't have Queensland Blue pumpkin I had butternut so that is what I used for this recipe, I also by accident used 2 tablespoons of honey...this is because I didn't have my glasses on lol. But it was really yummy! Oh also I microwaved the oil honey & cumin seeds for 30 seconds before I poured it over. 


This recipe also came from the www.taste.com.au freebie book and will also be a repeat dish on our table :) 


Smashed Rosemary Potatoes
SERVES:4
PREPARATION: 10 MINUTES
COOK: 2 HOURS

Ingredients
4 large new potatoes
tablespoon sea salt flakes 
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped 
1/2 cup olive oil


Method
Scrub potatoes until clean.


Boil potatoes in large pot until a skewer passes easily through potato (my potatoes were quite large and took around an hour) 


When cooked strain and set aside until cooled.


Preheat oven to 200C


Once cooled place potatoes onto a lined baking tray and gently smash and flatten potatoes until 2 - 3 cm thick with a potato masher.


Pour over olive oil


sprinkle with sea salt flakes & rosemary 


Place in oven and roast for 45 - 50 minutes or until golden and crispy

My Notes 
These potatoes have been a firm family favourite for over 20 years now but I hadn't made them in such a long time! I think I originally got the idea from Jill Dupleix many moons ago 




Steamed Green Beans with Garlic Butter
SERVES: 4
PREPARATION: 10 MINUTES
COOK: 5 MINS


Ingredients 


250g string-less green beans
50g butter
1/2 glove garlic, finely chopped 
1 teaspoon parsley, finely chopped


Method
top and tail green beans


mix butter, garlic and parsley together


place green beans into double steamer and cook until beans turn bright green


remove from heat and serve with garlic & parsley butter

Pumpkin Scones

Pumpkin Scones


SERVES: 16 
PREPARATION: 20 MINS 
COOK: 15 MINS 

Keeping with the theme of lying on the couch with a good book and a cup of tea this weekend, what better to go with the cuppa than a  batch of warm pumpkin scones with lashings of double cream and apricot jam :) I whipped out one of my tried and true cookbooks, there had to be a recipe for pumpkin scones in it? and hooray there was! Good on you trusty old Women's Weekly COOK :) 

Ingredients

40g butter

1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar

1 egg 

3/4 cup cooked mashed pumpkin

2 1/2 cups (375g) self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/3 cup (80ml) milk, approximately 

2 teaspoons milk, extra 

Method

Preheat oven to very hot (240C/220C fan forced). 

Beat Butter, sugar and egg in small bowl with electric mixer until combined (mixture will curdle at this stage, but that won't affect the finished scones). Transfer mixture to large bowl. Stir in Pumpkin, then sifted dry ingredients and enough milk to make a soft, sticky dough. 

Turn dough onto floured surface; knead quickly and lightly until just smooth. press dough out evenly to 2cm thickness; using cutter, cut out 5cm rounds. Place rounds in pans; brush with extra milk. Bake, uncovered, 15 minutes. Turn onto wire rack to cool. (I put them into a cane basket and wrap with a clean tea towel to cool) 

Tips

These are one of the great specialities of Australian country cooks, using the natural sweetness and moistness of pumpkin to create a wonderful homely treat. Enjoy them straight from the oven. The amount of milk you need to make a soft sticky dough depends entirely on the moisture content of the pumpkin. 




My Notes

The cookbook suggested that these be baked in 2 20cm round pans, I imagine they would have formed a flower like loaf. Pretty but I baked them separately on a tray to save washing up lol. 

I also found that I didn't have to add any milk, in fact I needed to add a little flour. 

next time I would also halve the amount of nutmeg to a 1/4 teaspoon, a bit rich for me. 

Oh and apparently when cutting the scone mixture you shouldn't twist the cutter! 

Roasted Pumpkin Kumara Shallot Garlic & Cumin Soup

Roasted Pumpkin Kumara Shallot Garlic & Cumin Soup
SERVES: 6 
PREPARATION: 15 MINS
COOKING: 1 1/2 HOURS


MMMMM it is that time of the week for Zuppa Depenzo! (depends what's left in the fridge!) I tend to just make these up as I go along. :) 

Ingredients
850g chopped & peeled butternut pumpkin
600g chopped & peeled kumara (sweet potato) 
5 large shallots (or 10 smallish ones) 
1 bulb garlic (cloves unpeeled)
1tsp cumin seeds
1/4 cup olive oil 
salt & pepper 
2 litres of chicken stock. (Home made is great!) 
parsley 
sour cream


Method
Preheat oven to 200C
Place all vegetables including garlic into heavy based roasting tray and toss with  olive oil and cumin seeds. Season with salt & pepper 
Roast in oven for 1 hour, turning at 30 minutes. Remove roasted garlic from skins. 
Place chicken stock and roasted vegetables into large saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes.
Remove from heat and cool slightly 
Place into blender until smooth. (keep your hand on the top when hot as the lid will BLOW off, and then you will have soup ALL over your kitchen!) Trust me I have done it lol 


Serve with chopped parsley a dollop of sour cream and crusty bread.