Christmas is approaching and Winter is here! It's a wonderful time of the year. Cold, giving, festive, decorated, and cold. Did I mention cold?

Here in the mountains of North Carolina, the weather has shifted from "Hmm, I need a jacket" to "Holy crap, where are my gloves?" and that means I am ditching the sweets to talk about how to warm up from the inside out. One of my family's favorite recipes are my Beef Pot Pies. With a nice serving of Guinness cooked into the meat and veggies, the tang of Worcestershire, and a buttery flaky crust, it is everything warm and inviting about winter cooking. Even my kids will eat the mushrooms in this! 

Pot pie is a hearty and adaptable dish, which makes this a great base for a fridge clean out, too. Throw in those carrots, green beans, or peas that need to be eaten. Chop up potatoes to make the mix go further. But THIS is by far the best base for a beef pot pie that I have ever had the joy of making. 

These individual puff pastry pies have a well developed sauce of meat stock and stout. As I mentioned, I use Guinness- which the Irish hubby claims is the only dark ale any self-respecting Irishman will use for cooking beef. You can use other stouts, or even a different ale entirely, but keep in mind that it will lose some that dark, warm quality with a lighter ale.

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients:

3-4 tbsp. All-purpose flour, seasoned to your taste with salt and pepper

2 lbs. Boneless chuck steak (or other lean beef like eye of round or London Broil) cut into 1-inch pieces

Vegetable oil for frying

1 ¼ c. Beef stock or broth

1 Onion, coarsely chopped

8 oz. Cremini or button mushrooms, stemmed and quartered

1 tbsp. Tomato Paste

1 tbsp. Balsamic Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. Chopped fresh thyme (or 1 tsp. ground thyme)

1 c. Stout (AKA Guinness)

1 lb. Store-bought puff pastry*

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

Instructions:

1. Toss your beef pieces in the seasoned flour until evenly coated.
2. Heat 3 tbsp. of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and sear off the beef pieces in batches, putting them in a high-heat casserole dish or dutch oven as they finish. Between batches, deglaze the pan with a couple tbsp’s of stock, pouring the liquid and bits into the casserole as well.
3. When done, heat another 2 tbsp of oil, reducing the meat to medium, and cook down the mushrooms and onion until tender- about 6 or 7 minutes. Add the cooked mushrooms and onions, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and stout to the casserole, mixing well.
4. Heat the casserole over medium-high until boiling. Reduce and simmer with the lid slightly askew for 1 ½ hours.
5. Strain the meat mixture into another pot, allowing meat and liquid to cool separately before proceeding.
6. Preheat the oven to 425°F and put a baking sheet in the oven to preheat with it.
7. Divide the meat mixture evenly between 4- 1 ¾ c. ramekins or pie plates with a wide rim. Pour in enough liquid to not quite cover the filling. **
8. Dampen the rims of the pie plates. Cut the pastry into quarters and roll out each piece until it is about 1 inch bigger than the pie plates. From each quarter, cut of ½ inch strip and press it onto the dampened rim.
9. Brush the strip with the egg yolk mixture then drape the pastry quarter over the top so that it covers the pie plate. Trim the top and press the edges with a fork to secure to secure it. Make a few slashes in the top of each pie so that it vents. You can decorate the top with the trimmings, then brush with egg yolk.
10. Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 400°F and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Serve steaming hot and conquer the cold. Enjoy!

For prep in the crock pot, keep steps 1-3 the same but instead, pile all those ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Siphon off fat with a solid basting spoon (or Spadle) and let the mix cool.

Pick up at step 6 once mixture is cool, using a straining spoon (or Holey Spadle) to put the meat in your pie plates first before adding the liquid, then complete as the recipe says.

* This pie is done with puff pastry and only the top is covered, however, it can be done as a traditional enclosed pie with homemade or store bought uncooked pie crust. For this, preheat your oven to 425°F still and lay out your bottom crust in the pie plates. Spoon in your mixture hot instead of cold, then cover, crimp and vent with your top crust. Bake for 30-35 minutes until crust is golden brown. I recommend using a pastry brush to brush the crust with butter in the last 5 minutes.

** This can also be cooked as a single large pie by following the same steps, but baking for an additional 5-10 minutes, being careful the edges don't burn. To avoid that, you can press tinfoil around the edges or use a pie shield.