I have decided to take a break from my French cooking, and go British tomorrow night. We are having friends for dinner who enjoy England as much as we do, and I've decided to fix our family's favorite English dish-- steak and ale pie.
I'm looking at a variety of recipes on the internet, but wondered if anyone has a recipe that they recommend. (No kidneys please, we're not that brave!)
Kathy, I have never tried steak and ale pie, and don't even remember seeing it when we were in England. I guess all those years as a vegetarian has been a factor. But it does sound interesting, especially as now I have added some meat back into my diet (short explanation: low iron).
Krista, I did the google thing and ended up with about ten possible recipes. I saw the one with the Yorkshire pudding crust and decided that seemed too "artsy." I wanted a real pub-type steak and ale pie, just like the ones we had almost every night while walking across England last summer.
Anyway, I decided to use this recipe as my inspiration. I bought top sirloin steak and made it in a tall round pie dish instead of the individual dishes. I didn't do the baby onions (just chopped onion) but used two kinds of mushrooms. For the ale, I used Newcastle Brown Ale from England.
This dinner was a big success with our group of six, and the Steak and Ale pie is going into my repetoire for company meals. For side dishes I had mashed potatoes (fixed ahead of time and then cooked in a casserole dish) and broccoli sprinkled with grated peccorino cheese.
Steak and Ale pie is kind of a savory beef stew served with a pastry crust on top. It was a great do-ahead meal and something a little unusual, especially for an autumn or winter meal. (The side dishes in this person's food blog look pretty interesting too!)
Perhaps for my next British meal I'll tackle another favorite... bangers and mash. Think I can find Cumbrian sausage in Knoxville?
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