Question 1

What can I serve it with?

Accepted Answer

I love to serve this pie straight onto the table, so people can dig in and spoon their own luscious portions on their plates. While you could serve it on its own, a couple of side dishes are recommended. You can add either a crisp green salad or some roasted or grilled vegetables with it. You could also add a potato dish.

Question 2

What kind of meat should I use?

Accepted Answer

While the recipe name mentions steak, there is no need to rush out and buy a great quality, expensive piece of beef for this recipe. As the dish is slow-cooked a cheaper, tougher cut works great as it will transform into meltingly tender pieces while cooking. 

Ideally, look for chuck steak for this recipe. This contains a fair amount of intramuscular fat which packs a ton of flavour. You can also use silverside or skirt steak which are both lean and tough cuts that become irresistibly tender when slow-cooked. 

In the supermarket, you will often see braising steak, stewing steak or sometimes casserole steak. While they typically don't specify which type of meat they use, these packs consist of cuts of beef that are geared towards slow cooking. They are also usually already cut into chunks which makes prep a little easier. Try and find pieces that aren't too fatty or gristly to get a better end result.

Question 3

Do I have to use puff pastry?

Accepted Answer

Puff pastry adds a buttery and luxuriously flaky dimension to this pie. It's also easy to buy pre-made and tastes just as good. However, you can use shortcrust pastry instead. While denser, this is a 'sturdier' pastry that isn't as crumbly. Although this pie only uses the pastry as a top layer so this isn't as much of an issue. 

If you want to make your own pastry then shortcrust pastry is an easier way to go. It's straightforward and easy, which is certainly not true of puff pastry.

Question 4

Can I make it in advance?

Accepted Answer

While this pie is best served fresh, leftovers can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months in a sealed container. Defrost thoroughly before reheating and reheat in the oven to help crisp the pastry up. 

If you want to make it in advance to ease prep at the time of serving then you can prepare the pie up to a day ahead of time (without baking). Store it covered in the fridge and make sure that you don't top the pie until the filling is cooled as it will melt the butter in the pastry and stop it puffing up as well. You could also make the filling up to 2 days in advance and then top with the pastry when you bake it before serving.

Question 5

Do I have to brown the meat first?

Accepted Answer

Technically you can place the meat straight into the slow cooker rather than browning it first. If you do this you will need to whisk the flour into the sauce before adding it to the slow cooker as this helps to thicken the gravy in the pie. 

However, it is strongly advised to not skip the step of browning the meat. While it is a myth that this helps lock in the juices, the browning process actually adds flavour to the dish, not to mention that the beef will look a lot more appetising with a dark sear on the surface.

Slow Cooker Steak Pie

Description

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Nutrition