Pepper Steak Pie

Ingredients:

1 kg stewing steak

2 onions, chopped

1 tablespoon oil

1 1/2 teaspoon freshly crushed garlic

3 bay leaves

3 cloves

3 allspice

100g sago

1 - 2 teaspoons cracked black pepper

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon black pepper

Water as needed

1 kg puff pastry

1 tablespoon butter

1 egg (beaten for glazing pie pastry top)

200-250g mushrooms, chopped (optional- stir in at end of cooking while mixture is cooling)

Method:

Wash and dice up steak into 4 cm cubes.

Heat a large saucepan. Add oil. Cook onion until golden brown over medium heat and add garlic after a few minutes, stir well. Add the steak & water to cover, stir through.

Add and mix in the pepper. Whilst the steak is cooking soak the sago in water to cover.

Gently bring to boil then reduce heat & simmer on low for 1 - 1 1/2 hours or until steak is nice and tender. Stir occasionally to stop burning, check because you may need to add some extra water. Add the soaked sago and cook a further 15 minutes. Allow your pepper steak filling to cool completely before using. (Stir in the mushrooms at this point if using.) Leaving mixture overnight in fridge will result in more tender steak.

When you are ready to cook the pie, preheat oven to 180C. Roll your pastry out on a lightly floured work surface. Using your pie dish as a guide, cut the pastry 1 cm wider than edge of pie dish and set aside. This will be the base. Cut lid for pie, make this same size as pie dish and set aside.

Grease the pie dish by rubbing butter liberally over the base - this helps later for removing/serving pie after baking. Line base of pie dish with the pastry bottom and press all around to edges of pie dish. Spoon in the cooled pepper steak mixture, (removing bay leaves, allspice and cloves as you do this) spreading it out evenly to edges. Brush lip of pastry around pie dish with beaten egg.

Put pastry lid on and press edges all round pie dish. Decorate with fork to create 'crust edge'. Brush all over with beaten egg. Make a small sliced opening in middle of pie before putting in oven - this lets steam escape as it cooks. Transfer to oven and cook for 15 minutes. Rotate pie around and cook for a further 15 minutes or until top is lightly browned. Let cool for 15 minutes, after cooking before serving - this way the pastry sets and makes it easier to serve or flip on to a plate

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