Buttery puff pastry filled with steak and onions, perfect on-the-go snacking.
There is a shop in the UK called Greggs which sells something called a Steak Bake. That is a puff pastry case with steak and gravy inside. I have eaten them a couple of time and found them to be very tasty. Supermarkets sell something similar, and I have tried them too. I decided that I would like to try to make something similar myself, using homemade puff pastry( I will post a blog entry and video of making that soon too).
Of course, shop bought puff pastry, particularly the ‘all butter’ versions would be ideal and would simplify the process considerably.
I believe that the sheets of shop bought puff pastry differ in dimensions. They seem to be larger in the USA and Canada than here in the UK. But even in the UK the sheet sizes vary too. So, for simplicity in the recipe below I simply say to cut each of two sheets into 6 equally sized rectangles. Rolling out homemade puff pastry you can do the same. The important thing is that you need two rectangles of equal size for each steak slice.
Making the filling takes time, since the steak meat has to be slow cooked for at least a couple of hours. Again there are alternatives, either cook on the stove top or in the oven. It is your choice.
My steak slices turned out very well indeed. My puff pastry rose dramatically, showing lots of layers and the filling was just about the right mix of steak pieces and rich, thick, gravy. They tasted so good.
I like them hot or warm, just as a snack. But I am also quite partial to eating them cold too. They can be served with vegetables too for dinner.
For a similar recipe, but to serve the whole family you might like my Beef Steak Pithivier
Steak Slice
Steak Slices – Video
Ingredients:
- 400g(14 oz) stewing steak or skirt steak, finely diced
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 18g(2 tbsp) plain flour
- salt and pepper to taste
- 500ml(2 cups) beef stock
- 10 ml(2 tsp) Worcestershire Sauce(optional)
- 600g(21 oz) puff pastry, or 2 sheets( In USA maybe only 1 1/2)
- 1-2 tbsp oil
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 egg, beaten with a little water, to brush over the slices
Method:
- Add some salt and pepper to the flour and then add the flour into the steak and toss everything around until the meat is coated.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan, on a medium heat.
- Fry the meat in the pan(I did this in two stages) turning frequently, until it is browned, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the onion and continue to fry until it is softened and transluscent.
- Add the bay leaves. stock and Worcestershire sauce and bring to the boil.
- Turn the heat down, cover and simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until the gravy has reduced and thickened and the meat is tender(or place in a preheated oven, at 180C/350F in a covered casserole for the same time). Taste for seasoning and add more if required.
- Remove from the heat and transfer the meat and gravy to a bowl to cool down, removing the bay leaves.
- When the meat is cooled preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/375 F.
- Roll out the pastry(if using 600g block cut in half and do the rolling out twice) to about16 inches(40cm) by 10 inches(25cm). If using shop bought, roll out each sheet a little thinner if necessary to that size.
- Cut the sheet in half lengthwise, to leave two strips 16 inches by 5 inches.
- Cut each strip into 3 pieces, 5 1/3 inches, leaving you with 6 pieces(12 in total with two sheets).
- Take one rectangle and brush some water around the edge.
- Place about 2 tablespoons of the steak mixture onto the centre.
- Take another rectangle of pastry and place that on the top of the meat and press down around the meat to eliminate air.
- Press all around the edge to seal the top layer to the bottom layer, then use the tines of a fork(floured) to press all around too, making a good seal.
- Repeat the process with the remaining rectangles.
- Brush over the pies with egg wash.
- Using a sharp knife score diagonal lines into the top of the pie, about 1/2 inch(1 cm) apart.
- Place the pies onto parchment line baking trays and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, until the pastry has risen and gone a nice golden colour.
- Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool, if not being eaten immediately.
- These slices can be wrapped and frozen. They can then be cooked from frozen when required, but they will need to be cooked for at least 40 minutes.
Love to know where you. Live?? Re I discovered u , I spend more than 9 hours lessen and reading your art cooking, you are ver talent
No problem Geoff! Thank you for letting me know.
Hi Linda. There isn't an easy way of making the recipes printable using Blogger as I do. I had to change the layout to what it is now to make it more suitable for mobile devices. I am looking into possibly creating some sort of downloadable file with the recipes in, but I can't say when I may have something ready for that.
It should be quite simple to copy and past the recipe into a word processing program, such as Word, and change the font colour.
Hi Geoff! Is there a way to make your recipes "printable"? I'm still old-school and keep a recipe book of those I take off various baking pages. The last time I printed one of your recipes I had to paste it into a Word document and then change the font colour because yours is white. It was rather tricky. Just a suggestion. Cheers!