CHALLENGE V2.0: DAY ONE

So we bring ourselves to series two of the one week challenge.  There's nothing especially more challenging this time around, apart from the fact housemate and I have thought up some different dinner ideas to what we usually recycle when our brains fail us.  Seeing as this weekend was very lazy and we had many hours on our hands this glum Sunday just gone, we decided to kick things off with a hearty pie.

This one is especially good as it uses a few chorizo sausages to bring flavours to the next level.  It's a must-try pie. 

beef and chorizo pie

pastry

  50g butter, softened

  2 cups plain flour

  2tsp baking powder

  1tsp salt

  1/2 cup milk

filling

  1/4 cup olive oil

  1kg braising beef steak, trimmed and diced

  3 chorizo sausages, sliced

  1 onion, sliced

  5tbsp flour

  1 cup red wine

  3 cups beef stock

  3tbsp tomato paste

  1 tbsp thyme, chopped

  salt and pepper, to taste

  1 egg, to glaze

To make the pastry, place the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and rub in the flour until crumbly.  Slowly add the milk until it forms a smooth dough.  Knead lightly, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

To make the filling, heat a quarter of the olive oil in a large casserole dish and brown the beef and chorizo in batches.  Remove meat from the dish and add the remaining olive oil, garlic and onion and lightly fry over a medium heat until slightly browned.  Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.  Remove dish from the heat and stir in wine and stock until it forms a smooth liquid.  Return dish to the heat and boil until the mixture thickens.  Stir in tomato paste and thyme and add beef & chorizo.  Simmer on a low heat for a further 45 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper as necessary, remove from heat and leave to cool.

Spoon filling into a large capacity pie dish.  Remove pastry from the refrigerator and roll out until approximately 3mm thick.  Cover top of pie dish with the pastry, trimming off any excess.  Place dish in refrigerator for 20-25 minutes to chill.

Heat oven to 180 degrees celsius.  Glaze the pie with the lightly beaten egg and bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.  Serve immediately.

*recipe courtesy of Julie Le Clerc | more simple cafe food