Slow-braised short rib, shredded and packed into butter-heavy shortcrust pastry. A proper pie, built for a rainy day and a good freezer stash.
Braised Beef Short Rib Pie
Ingredients
For the Pie Dough
- 500 g flour sifted
- 250 g butter cubed
- 15 g salt
- 15 g sugar
- 140 ml milk
For the Braised Short Rib
- 1.5 kg beef short ribs
- 8 shallots halved
- 4 cloves garlic
- 8 sprigs of thyme
- 3 sprigs of rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 star anise pod
- 500 ml lager
- 1 lt chicken stock
- 30 g corn flour
- 1 egg
- Salt, pepper and red wine vinegar to taste
Instructions
For the Pie Dough
- Combine the cold butter with the flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it’s broken down into pea-sized pieces.
- Add almost all the milk and knead until the dough comes together, adding the rest of the milk as needed.
- Once the dough just comes together, split into two pieces and shape each into a disk. Wrap in cling film and chill for 20 minutes.
For the Braised Short Rib
- Preheat the oven to 150°C.
- Halve and peel the shallots. Peel and thinly slice the garlic.
- Bundle the bay leaves, rosemary, thyme and star anise together with kitchen twine.
- Cut the short rib into large pieces using the bones as a guide. Don’t remove the bones.
- Place a heavy-bottomed pan or Dutch oven over high heat. Add a splash of neutral oil, season the beef with salt, and brown well on all sides, 3-4 minutes per side. Work in batches to avoid crowding the pan.
- Once browned and removed from the pan, deglaze with 150ml of the beer and scrape up the browned bits. Let it reduce slightly, then pour over the reserved beef.
- Wipe out the pan, return to high heat, and add the shallots flat-side down with a splash of oil and a pinch of salt. Let them char for 5 minutes, then remove and reduce the heat to low.
- Add the sliced garlic and cook 2 minutes, stirring, until lightly coloured. Return the beef and shallots to the pan with the herb bundle, the rest of the beer, and all the chicken stock.
- Top up with water if needed so the beef is mostly submerged. Transfer to the oven and cook for 3 hours.
- Check every hour, topping up liquid if needed and giving it a stir and a taste.
- Once the beef pulls apart with a fork and the liquid has mostly reduced, remove from the oven and let it come to room temperature.
- Remove the bones and shred the meat with a fork or your hands.
- Return the pot to the stove over medium heat until the liquid has mostly reduced.
- Combine 30ml of corn flour with 30ml of water and stir into the pot. Bring to a boil, stirring, until thickened.
- Reduce to low and season to taste with salt, pepper and a few drops of red wine vinegar.
- Chill the meat mixture until completely cool.
Finishing the Pastry
- Roll one pastry disk into a circle roughly ½cm thick. Use your pie pan (upside down) as a guide to cut a circle just wider than the pan’s circumference.
- Store the disk in the fridge on a lined tray, covered, and save the dough trimmings.
- Roll out the second disk to the same thickness and lay it into your pie pan.
- Use a small ball of the reserved dough trimmings, lightly floured, to press the pastry into the edges of the pan.
- Trim the excess pastry hanging over the lip. Save the trimmings, wrapped, for decoration. The lined pan can rest in the fridge anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight, covered.
To Assemble
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Fill the pastry base with the meat mixture and flatten lightly. Top with the second pastry disk and crimp the edges shut with a fork, or decorate with reserved pastry.
- Cut slits or a hole in the top to let steam escape.
- Beat the egg and brush it over the surface of the pie, getting into the folds. Sprinkle with finishing salt if you like.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown, rotating halfway through. Tent loosely with foil if any spots colour too fast.
Equipment
- Cast Iron Skillet
- Mixing Bowl
- Measuring cylinder
- Weighing Scale
- Chef’s Knife
- Chopping board
- Pot
- Twine
Recipe Notes
Letting the dough rest and cool gives it a better texture, keeps the buttery flakiness, and holds its shape better once baked.
From the Chef
This is what every steak-and-ale pie dreams about growing up to become. The short ribs braise low and slow with caramelised shallots and beer until they fall apart, and the pastry stays buttery and flaky around it.
It freezes well too, so it’s worth doubling the batch. Future you will be glad of it on a bad-weather day.