What’d You Do Last Weekend?
Want to try a gluten-free dessert that tastes anything but? How about hanging your lip on a Nanaimo bar? The recipe's from our neighbors up north, but the gluten-free graham crackers are a creation of Celiac Teen's Lauren. Unbelievable.
Beef & Guinness Pie with Irish Soda Bread
With the weather still a little cold, Todd was itching to try out a beef & Guinness pie recipe he'd seen on Saveur.com. I wanted to bake something, so I accompanied the pie with soda bread, and of course we did this the night before St. Patrick's. The pie was so-so - the crust was nasty (it was a nice store-bought puff that had been languishing in the freezer too long), and there was a lot of sauce that didn't have a great flavor. With some variation, I think this will be an excellent recipe for our files!
Beef and Guinness Pie
3 tbsp. tomato paste
3 1⁄2 cups beef stock
4 lbs. beef chuck, cut into 1" cubes (we used some rib eye as well as some smoked brisket)
1 1⁄2 lbs. white mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves, chopped
2 cups Guinness stout
1 1⁄2 cups flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
1 lb. frozen puff pastry, thawed
- Preheat oven to 325°.
- Put tomato paste into a large bowl, add stock, and stir until paste dissolves.
- Add beef, mushrooms, onions, garlic, thyme, and stout an
d stir well. - Sprinkle flour over beef mixture, season to taste with salt and pepper, and stir well.
- Transfer to a deep 10 1/2" × 12 1/2" baking dish set on a large baking sheet.
- Cover dish with foil. Bake, stirring occasionally, until meat is very tender, 3 1/2–4 hours.
- Beat egg and 1 tsp. water together in a small bowl and set aside.
- Roll puff pastry out on a lightly floured surface to a 1/4" thickness, 2" wider than baking dish.
- Remove baking dish from oven and uncover.
- Drape pastry over dish and brush with egg wash.
- Return baking dish to oven and bake until pastry is puffed and deep golden brown, about 40 minutes.
Garnish with spearmint sprigs, if you like.
Serves 6 - 8.
Irish Soda Bread (this recipe is courtesy of Baking with Julia)
4 c unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 c buttermilk
- Heat oven to 375. Grease an 8" pie plate or baking sheet and set aside.
- Put the flour, baking soda, and saly in a medium bowl and stir with a fork to blend. Add the buttermilk all at once and stir vigorously until the dough comes together.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for a minute (I just did this in a large bowl). The dough will be soft and sticky, but resist the urge to overwork it. Pat the dough into a disk and try to cut an X across the top. Place the dough in a greased pan (it won't touch the sides of the pan).
- Bake the bread for 50 minutes or until the slash has widened and the bread is golden brown. Transfer to a rack to cool completely then slice or wrap in a towel until ready to serve.
A nice nontraditional touch is to add a cup of raisins, currants, or diced dried fruits to the dough.
Makes an 8-inch round loaf.
