Here’s my photo essay of how to cook beef and Guinness pie according to Margaret Johnson’s recipe.

 
1. Ingredients assembled.

 
2. Ingredients prepped and ready to go.

The book tells you how to make pastry, but I’m not in the mood for that today. Yes, I can make pastry – but sometimes it’s just easier to buy it ready made.

Mr ND has naffed off with the Guinness so it’s not in there yet. When I manage to catch up with him I’ll throw some Guinness into the stock.

 
3. Don’t follow the book’s instructions to bung everything in. You’ll end up boiling the meat and it won’t be nice. First, you should seal the meat by frying it in very hot oil. This process browns the meat and it starts to make its own tasty gravy too. After you’ve sealed it, you can proceed to make your stew or pie filling. If you chuck it all in, meat and liquid together at once, it’ll boil and you’ll get grey, tasteless, and stringy lumps of meat. Don’t do it. I just don’t understand why a cookbook would tell people to do this. Crikey. I might as well set up in business as a driving instructor. I’d be at least as good at that as these people are at cooking.

What’s the pedal in the middle for?

 
4. Here’s a photo of the browned meat simmering in its own gravy. Much tastier this way, yes?

[Update - I should've said that I'd added the Marmite stock, after this stage. This goes in hot.]

 
5. The meat has been simmering for a couple of hours so now I’ll add a couple of sautéed mushrooms. I’ve managed to get some Guinness from Mr ND so I’ll add a splash of that too. (OK, I cheated and added red wine earlier. C’mon, recipes are only ideas. You don’t need to obey orders. ) Meanwhile, I’ve got the oven on and the pastry is ready to go.

I’ve mixed up a bit of cornflour with a little bit of water and am mixing it into the gravy to thicken it. It’s not how I would usually make this – it’s maybe better to throw a handful of plain flour into the pot after you’ve browned the meat and cook for a couple of minutes. I’m just trying to follow the recipe here, even if I don’t agree with a lot of the instructions. Mr ND is getting ratty. He wants to eat the food and stop faffing about with the photos. No pressure. We’ll proceed.

One teaspoon of cornflour isn’t enough to thicken it. I have to add more. And yet more. It would’ve been much more sensible to season and thicken as we went along. I don’t really like American cooking – a lot of it is about packets of this and powders of that. It’s best just to do things properly and the taste will be better too.

 
6. Here’s the pie. Not bad, eh? I’ve decorated it with little pastry hearts because it was made with love. LOL!

 
7. Oh, sh.., I forgot to put the Guinness in – but it won’t go to waste. Here’s Mr ND enjoying the Guinness. No problem, I manage to grab what’s left in the can and splash a bit into the pie filling. Delicious! You don’t want to put too much Guinness in anyway as it’s a very bitter drink. I love it! But it’s not to everyone’s taste and you need to go a bit easy on it if you’re putting it in food.

So, golly gee, Elmer. Buy a packet of home-made beef pie with Guinness today. Yawn.

If you’re interested in reading my review of this cookbook, please see The Irish Pub Cookbook - Margaret Johnson

This recipe is from The Irish Pub Cookbook by Margaret Johnson.

Ingredients

2lb stewing beef, cut into ½” pieces [Presumably they mean cubes.]
[I'm probably making about half the quantity. Despite being a food-freak, I'm only a seven-stone weakling and there are only two of us in this household anyway.]
4 cups Guinness stout [At around £3 a can here, I'll only use about half a can and drink the rest. The pie will taste fine without it, and after drinking the Guinness maybe we won't care anyway.]
1 clove garlic
2 bay leaves, split [I used to think that bay leaves were a bit of a faff, but they do make a difference to the flavour of things, so it's worth the effort to use them if you can.]
1 cup homemade beef stock, canned low-sodium beef broth, or 1 beef bouillon cube mixed with 1 cup boiling water [Or you can use that great standby if you can't be bothered to make stock - 1 tsp Marmite dissolved in boiling water.]
2 stalks celery, sliced [Nah.]
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced [No have.]
1 large onion, sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tbsp minced fresh flat-leaf parsley [I have to admit I've never heard of minced parsley. I'll chuck in some chopped ordinary parsley.]
1 bouquet garni (a cheesecloth [muslin] bag containing 3 sprigs fresh parsley, 1 sprig fresh thyme, 8 to 10 black peppercorns, and 1 bay leaf) [Yeah, right. If you want to add herb flavours then just ditch the stalks, chop 'em up and bung 'em in. No need for the bag.]

["Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda]

1 tablespoon cornstarch [cornflour]
½ cup cold water
3 to 4 large mushrooms, sliced (optional)

1. In a large bowl or nonreactive pot [What the heck is a nonreactive pot? My cooking utensils all behave themselves - or else!], combine the beef, 2 cups of the Guinness, the garlic, and bay leaves. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. Drain the marinade and discard the garlic and bay leaf.

[If you're slow-cooking something you don't need to marinade for 24 hours. Maybe it would improve the flavour? I didn't hang around to find out.]

2. In a stockpot or large saucepan over medium heat, bring the marinated beef, the remaining 2 cups of Guinness, and the beef stock or broth to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 1 to 1½ hours, or until the meat is tender. Skim off any foam that rises to the top. Add the celery, carrots, onion, salt, pepper, parsley, and bouquet garni and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are slightly tender. In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with ½ cup of cold water, and whisk until smooth. Stir into the filling, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the liquid is thickened.

[Foam? What foam? Do they mean you should skim off any scum?]

3. [I didn't use their pastry instructions.]

4. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove the bouquet garni, and transfer the filling to a 10″ deep-dish pie plate. Stir in the mushrooms, if using. Cover with the pastry, crimp the edges, and cut a few slits in the top to allow steam to escape. Brush the top with the egg wash. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top is golden and the mixture is bubbling.

[No need for all this faff. Just whap the cooked pastry on the top. Crimping? Hey, we're not at the hairdresser's. This is food we're talking about here. As far as I'm concerned, jail is the best place for Martha Stewart and anyone else who cooks like that.]

Please also see my photo essay