Beef and potato pie

Beef and potato pie
Originally uploaded by Cakelaw

After a run of relatively warm weather (well, warm for Melbourne in winter!), it has turned chilly again today. Accordingly, warm, rich comfort food is what the doctor ordered to keep out the cold. The Winter 2006 edition of Donna Hay Magazine features a selection of delicious pie recipes, so I dug out my copy and selected the Beef and Potato Pie for my dinner tonight.

This pie is non-traditional in that, instead of a pastry crust, it has a crust of thinly sliced baked potatoes. The beef filling is also unusual in that its key flavour comes from seeded mustard, giving the filling a distinctive smell and tangy flavour. Other ingredients accompanying the mustard flavoured beef are onion, garlic, mushrooms, bay leaves and beef stock. The filling takes one hour on the stove top to simmer (half an hour with the lid on, half an hour with the lid off), followed by 45 minutes in the oven to bake the potato topping. Once the filling has reduced on the stove top, you are left with a thick, tangy, flavoursome pie filling. However, I wasn't so keen on the potato topping, which seemed rather bland to me.

This recipe tells you to put the oven on to warm up at the start, despite the fact that the filling takes over an hour to prepare before it goes into the oven (grr...). Next time, I would also season the potatoes (the recipe doesn't call for this), or use a pastry crust for the delicious filling. However, the filling recipe is very good, and I would make it again.