I don't know about ya'll, but these brutally cold New England temperatures are putting a total damper on my mood. I'm making up for it by cooking all the cold weather meals I can think of. I've never been a huge fan of beef stew, but we were treated to an amazing Vegetarian Pasteten on Christmas Day, and it made me want a good, rich, beef pot pie. I couldn't find a recipe that I liked, so I combined several different recipes to come up with this one. I'm not a huge pie fan, so I leave out the bottom crust and simply top it with one.
If you - like us - are gearing up to be stuck inside tomorrow, make sure you have the supplies to make this. It's perfect for these insanely cold, dark winter nights ... and come tomorrow, you'll be so glad you can whip this one out and warm up!
Ingredients
1 pound beef tips, beef kebobs, steak tips, or any other beef you want to use.
1 cup wine
4 Tbsp butter, separated
2 Tbsp bacon grease (or olive oil or more butter)
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup water or beef broth
1 tsp beef bouillon (if using water. I use Better than Bouillon because it's SO yummy)
2 tsp fresh garlic, minced
4 peppercorns
1 small bay leaf
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water
2-3 cups of roasted veggies (mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, winter squash, beets would all work well)
1 pie crust (I cheated and bought one at Trader Joe's)
Preparation
I roasted my vegetables the day before I made the pot pie and used potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and butternut squash. You can also do it the day of - you can put them in to roast at the same time you put your beef in to marinate.
Cut your beef into bite size pieces. Marinate in 1 cup of red wine for at least an hour. Mine marinated for about 4.
In a large pot, saute the onion in butter until tender. Remove the onion from the pot and set aside. Put bacon grease and remaining butter in your pot to melt.
Roll half of the meat in the flour to coat. Brown meat over medium-high heat in your pot. Once your meat is browned, add the remaining meat to your pot along with the wine and water/broth. Stir in the garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme, salt and onion. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 hours. If the sauce goes lower than the beef, add a little more water, broth, or wine in order to keep meat covered.
Once your meat is done, get it out of the pot with a slotted spoon and put it in a bowl. Go ahead and put your roasted veggies in the same bowl. Whisk cornstarch with warm water until dissolved, and pour into your pot. Mine thickened almost immediately, but you may need to cook it a few minutes until it's the consistency you like. If it's too thick, add some water. Remember it will thicken a little in the oven - so don't make it too thick! Taste the gravy and adjust salt/pepper as needed.
Pour gravy over your veggies and meat and mix well. Pour it into your pie pan - I usually use a cast iron skillet for pot pie. Top it with pie crust, making sure to cut some vents in the top before putting it in the oven.
Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until brown on top and warm all the way through. Serve with a good red wine and you just might embrace that big snowstorm coming your way!