Fancy a pint?
Welsh beef and ale one-pot pie recipe
There are certain scents or smells that have the power to transport you in an instant to a particular time or place. The particular aroma of pancake batter hitting a hot frying pan greased with lard and I’m in my Nanna Lena’s kitchen. The scent of dried peas bubbling up on the stove whisks me back to Nannie Gwen’s kitchen on Sundays. And then there’s the comforting malty perfume of beer brewing, which places my mind firmly on Cardiff Central Station.
I live quite near a brewery now, and whenever I head out of the door in the early morning – if the breeze is right – I get a waft of the barley being roasted. In that second, I am getting off the train in Cardiff, ready to go to work in the capital – something I haven’t done for at least seven years. The Brain’s brewery was so close to Cardiff Central that the scent was impossible to miss. It’s got a hint of bread baking about it, a touch of Ovaltine, and just a slight sourness to the end. I wonder if breweries have thought of turning their hand to candle-making and would whip me up a toasting malt brew version to burn at home?
The brewing of ale in Wales goes back to at least the 7th Century if not earlier, when it was known for its distinctive smoky quality, which came from the barley being kilned (heated up). This is where my beloved biscuit scent comes from. It was often mixed with spices and honey and was known as bragot. As with everything, times change and traditions are influenced by new developments, and from about the late 18th Century, the flavour of ale started to be drawn from the water used when brewing. Wales having such fine water, means it has a distinct taste, and indeed, every brewery big or small, homebrew or commercial has a different tasting brew depending on their water source. The aforementioned Brain’s even had their own well on the premises.
Welsh people like a drink, to celebrate, to commiserate, to socialise, to hydrate – and perhaps this pleasure gained from sharing food and drink is why as a nation we are considered so hospitable. Even Gerallt Gymro (Gerald of Wales), the 12th-Century Cambro-Norman archdeacon and historian said, “No one of this nation ever begs, for the houses of all are common to all; and they consider liberality and hospitality amongst the first virtues. So much does hospitality here rejoice in communication, that it is neither offered nor requested by travellers, who, on entering any house, only deliver up their arms”.
Besides the Temperance Movement of late 1800s (of which Lady Llanover was a part), Wales has continued to enjoy a tipple of beer or lager and it could be, as Bobby Freeman suggests in her book First Catch Your Peacock, the national drink – alongside tea. And while Brain’s might have sold their central Cardiff brewery building (a crying shame in my view, as I think it would have made a great museum a bit like the Guinness Factory in Dublin), brewing is big business in Wales, whether that’s the big brewers or all of the fantastic micro-breweries that have popped up over the last 10 years, from Felinfoel (which in 1935 became the first brewer in the UK to put beer in cans) and Wrexham Lager, to Tiny Rebel and Tudor. Sounds like a reason for a toast to me – Iechyd da!
The Recipe
Welsh beef and ale one-pot pie
Alcoholic drinks, whether it’s wine or beer, can add a great depth of flavour to dishes, and this one-pot (less washing up, hooray!) beef pie really benefits from the ale. You could top this with shortcrust pastry or mashed potato, but I like it with the buttery layers of puff pastry. I use a deep cast-iron casserole for this but you could cook it in a large saucepan to begin with and then transfer to an ovenproof dish and cover with foil until the pastry needs to go on.
Ingredients (serves 2 amply with leftovers)
2 tbsp olive oil
500g Welsh braising/stewing beef, cut into bitesize chunks
1 large onion, roughly chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped into rounds
150g small chestnut mushrooms, halved
1 small leek, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves (or about 1 tsp dried)
2 beef stock cubes
2 tbsp plain flour
500ml dark Welsh ale
1 tbsp runny honey
1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry
1 free-range egg, beaten (or a drop of milk)
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a deep flameproof casserole over a medium heat and gently brown the beef – you’ll have to do this in batches. Once browned remove to a bowl for later.
Add 1 tbsp of oil to the pan and have a good scrape around with a spoon to loosen any little bits of meat stuck to the pan. Tip in the onions, carrots, leeks and mushrooms and stir. Cook these for a few minutes stirring all the time.
Add the bay leaves, thyme and crush over the stock cubes and stir. Sprinkle over the flour and mix once again and cook until the flour starts to turn a light brown.
Pour in the ale and add the honey. Give everything one last good stir before clamping the lid on a putting in the oven for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, the meat should be tender and liquid reduced. Take out of the oven and leave to cool slightly. Meanwhile turn the oven up to 200°C/390°F/Gas Mark 6.
Unravel the pastry and cut a rough circle – you can use a dinner plate to help you. Carefully place the pastry disk on top of the pie filling in dish, tucking the sides in or tacking them to the wall of the pot. Brush the top with the beaten egg and place back in the oven for about 12 minutes until the pastry has puffed up and is golden brown on top.
Remove from the oven serve immediately (although watch you don’t burn your mouth) with crusty bread.
If you try it out, don’t forget to tag any photos with #mywelshkitchen
The Playlist
To me, cooking and music go hand in hand, whether that’s singing at the top of your voice using a wooden spoon as a microphone while waiting for pasta to boil, or dancing around with the oven gloves on as the oven timer counts down. Here are this week’s ideas for your Welsh Kitchen playlist.
This week we have a piece by the Welsh indie-rock-pop band from Anglesey, Fleur De Lys, and the debut single of singer-songwriter CATTY. But first, this week I spotted this video from Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who last year bought Wrexham Football Club. In their typical humour, they fall foul of a Welsh interpreter during a promo for their new docu-series about their story of buying the Welsh club.
Wyt Ti’n Sylwi? by Fleur De Lys
Bella Donna by CATTY
The Pantry
Good food is nothing without good ingredients and thankfully there are plenty of fantastic Welsh products on the market. Here is where you’ll find recommendations to stock up your cupboard, fridge or fruit bowl.
Tomos Watkin
Their strapline is ‘The Great Ales of Wales’ and they’re not kidding. Tomos Watkin brews up some stellar beers and ciders from their family-run brewery in Swansea. Try their original mixed beer case for eight of their finest examples, with names such as Blodwyn’s Beer, Delilah, and their award-winning Cwrw Braf.