Lonely Sidecar Steak and Guinness Pie

In New England, there are two main topics that are considered newsworthy at any hour.

The Weather and the Patriots.

If you made an ordered table of contents of the 6 o'clock news hour, it would look like this:

Introduction: Upcoming storm in our system - will it or won't it affect the upcoming game against the Giants?

Chapter 1: Where is this Storm Coming From (the Midwest, obvi. All tragedy in New England can be directly traced back to St. Louis)?

Chapter 2: What other tragedies can we anticipate from this Patriots team?

Chapter 3: Randy Moss: He's not pulling a Big Papi, is he?

Chapter 4: How is Giselle doing with all this snow? Does she need any help shoveling? Because Joe the Weatherman is here to help!!!

Chapter 5: What is the anticipated effect of this Weather on Eli Manning, the Poor Man's Peyton?

Chapter 6: Actual Weather Time: Looks like this storm is so bad that it's going to keep you from going to work on Monday. So you know what that means...

Chapter 7: BLIZZARD TAILGATE IDEAS FOR THE PATRIOTS GAME

Conclusion: The Giants are going to look like even bigger pansies in all this snow! Forecast: Pats 744, Giants 0.


And look, before the Giants fans out there start whining that I'm pulling a Newt Gingrich and writing some revisionist history here, just remember that I choose to live in the Veritable Igloo of Boston, where the weather is a balmy 12 degrees today. Expect me to be somewhat delusional, ok?

Anyway, there is nothing better than some good old comfort food for when the weather outside is frightful. And so as the Lawyer from Southie and I pulled our own little shut in over here, we made this dish - a steak and Guinness pie adapted from a recipe by Jamie Oliver. I've used brisket in the past, and it works incredibly well, but seriously, I live in the most Irish neighborhood in the world. You ask for brisket, they ask you if you mean corned beef. Seriously. What the hell? Next you're going to be asking us for falafel.


Lonely Sidecar Steak and Guinness Pie

3lbs bottom round beef (or similar pot roast quality meat), cut into bite sized pieces
3 onions
3 carrots
4 celery stalks
4 portabello mushrooms
1 can Guinness
2-3C reduced sodium beef stock
1 sprig of rosemary
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 package of frozen, store bought puff pastry (thawed)
1 egg for washing
flour for dusting
Salt and Pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Chop onions, carrots, celery, and mushrooms into larger bite-sized pieces. In a large Dutch oven, heat 2T of olive oil on medium heat. Add onions, garlic, chopped rosemary, and other vegetables. When onions are translucent, add the meat and brown.

When meat has incorporated into the vegetables and is browned, coat everything with flour and stir well. I find it generally takes about 3T of flour. When everything is coated, add 2T butter and 1 can of Guinness. Don't forget - one for the pot, one for you. Enjoy responsibly. Add beef stock and cover, put Dutch oven into oven for 2.5 hours.

Take out stew from oven. It should be thicker than a regular stew - if not, add more flour and stir well.

Roll out one sheet of puff pastry and lay it on the bottom of a baking dish. Fill the dish with the stew, and don't worry about filling it up to the brim. Roll out the second sheet of pastry and place it over the top of the pie, rolling up the sides and scoring the top. Bake for 40 minutes at 350, or until browned. You can choose to paint the dish with an egg wash - half the time I do, half the time I don't. It looks beautiful either way. The original recipe calls for cheese, but I generally just serve grated cheddar on the side.

This dish is just as good on the second, third, and fourth days, so happily make one pie if there are just the two of you.