Beef & Guinness Pasties or What's the Best Meat?

In order to afford my artist life... I have a day job. I'm a very lucky person as I actually love my job... I thought I'd start sharing a bit of this in my blog. Butchery is a complex trade but it's not gory as a lot of people seem to think. When YOU are in your kitchen slicing up a bit of something to stir fry, just think that what I do is the same, just on a larger scale. There is no spurting blood or cows heads looking at me at work... just really really big bits of meat to cut up. I LOVE to cook, so it makes my job even more fun. A great deal of my time is spent advising customers and helping with recipes and ideas they have... Here's something fun and yummy and a few tips to get the most out of your meat buying...

Beef & Guinness Pasties

People ask me what the very best meat is. FULL STOP. Well there is NO ANSWER because they haven't finished the question. The question is... "What is the best meat for the recipe I am cooking?" Some people think if they make their stews etc with more expensive cuts that they will produce superior dishes. Well it just doesn't work that way. Meat cuts are not cheaper because they are inferior, it's a combination of factors. The major one being the amount of the cut on the body, another is it's popularity and then the amount of bone/fat. I'll go into all this another time. It just so happens that those very tender cuts are also short in supply and high in demand

Science Lesson: Meat is muscle and the harder a muscle works, the tougher it becomes, the big bonus is the TASTIER it also becomes. Eye fillet sits up there on top of the cow, not doing much other than watching the paddock. You can cook it in a few minutes in a pan and it really does melt in the mouth. BUT it is the blandest cut. Hence the usual need to add a sauce.

Gravy beef or Osso Bucco, Shin on Bone (all the same cut) comes from the lower leg. If you had to lump around a cow all day you would be working pretty hard, am I right? All that work makes a piece of meat toughen up as I said and BUT it makes it really tasty. You can still have your melt in the mouth texture, you just have to cook it for a lot longer to break it down. Bonus? Rich flavoursome meat! So your shin area meat is fabulous for soups, stocks, casseroles, stews etc. Another hard working area is the neck. Have you seen how big a cows head is? All that looking around for nice grass, swinging from side to side as you stroll around the farm = hard work for the neck.

Whole Chuck

The meat that comes from this area is CHUCK. The GREAT thing about chuck is that is has that amazing 'fall apart, shredding texture that is great in pies and a preference for some (me included!) in their casseroles and stews. Chuck is NOT an inferior meat. It comes in plentiful supply and just takes a bit of time to deliver the goods.

Diced Chuck So go to your local Butcher... don't you dare go to the Supermarket... support the local guys & girls... and grab some DICED CHUCK.

Beef & Guinness Pasties Makes 6 Prep 20mins Cooking time 3 hours 700g chuck steak diced in 2.5cm squares 200g bacon, rind off, roughly chopped 1 brown onion, coursly chopped 1/4 cup tomato paste 2 tbs plain flour 1 x 440ml can Guinness Beer 1 cup beef stock 2 tsp chopped fresh thyme 1 tbs brown sugar 3 sheets (25 x 25 cm) frozen puff pastry - thawed 1 egg, lightly beaten

Season beef with a little salt and pepper. Brown in small batches over medium to high heat in olive oil. Transfer to a bowl. Reduce heat of oil and add bacon and onion, cook until onion is soft. Reduce heat and add tomato paste and flour, cook for about 5 mins, stirring. Gradually add Guinness, stirring all the time, until mixture thickens. Add beef, stock, thyme, and sugar, bring to a simmer. Then reduce to very low. Cook, stir occasionally for 3 hours.

Set aside to cool completely.

Line baking trays with baking paper. Cut 12 discs from pastry approx. 11cm. Place 1/3 cup of the filling on each of 6 rounds and top with another round. Press edges together. Brush with a little beaten egg.

Bake in a preheated oven (220C) for about 20mins or until golden.

My tips?

*Go with the recipe on size of diced pieces, don't stress, they look big but will cook down.

*If it's in the window, have a look. Make sure it looks lean. A few white lines are ok (more on this another time), but not big areas of fat.

*Not in the window?... SMILE and just ask. Tell him (or HER) what you are using it for, it really helps us. - You want lean diced chuck steak in a 2.5cm dice to make pasties please. :) and do that again :) because we hate grumpy customers.

*Stew the meat the day BEFORE you are baking the pasties. It will really infuse that flavour through the meat.

*Go on off you go...

Get the best out of your meat... ask you butcher for help, that's what we are there for AND HAVE FUN!