Recipe: Old-Fashioned Beef Pot Pie

Old-Fashioned Beef Pot Pie
alt.cooking-chien: Cryambers

This is a recipe I usually make several times every winter. Sometimes I use a
premade pie crust instead of making the one in the recipe, and I sometimes bake
them in foil pie/tart tins instead of the cast-iron skillet. Just realized I
haven't made this yet this winter. pat

Recipe By: Family Supper for 8 (Scott Cohen), New York magazine, 10/18/93
Servings: 8

1 cup sweet butter -- softened
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sour cream
salt and pepper
2 pounds beef shank -- or chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons Hungarian paprika
6 tablespoons peanut oil
2 red onion -- diced
1 cup carrot -- diced
1 cup yellow squash -- diced
1 cup zucchini -- diced
1 cup turnip -- diced
1 red bell pepper -- diced
2 cloves garlic -- crushed
1 pinch thyme
1 bay leaf
16 ounces beef stock -- or veal stock
1 egg -- beaten

In a stainless-steel bowl, rub butter into 3 cups flour until walnut-sized balls form. Add sour cream, 1/2 cup water, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Mix to form a large ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes..

Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly dust beef with remaining flour and paprika. Place 4-quart Dutch oven over high heat and add peanut oil. Saute beef until browned. Reduce heat to medium-high and add onions, carrots, squash, zucchini, turnips, pepper, and garlic; cook, covered, until vegetables are slightly soft. Add thyme, bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste. Add stock until barely covered. Bring to a simmer and place in oven uncovered for about 1 1/2 hours. If stock evaporates too quickly, add more. Adjust seasoning. Cool and reserve.

Grease a 10- or 12-inch cast-iron skillet. Cut dough in half and roll out each half 2 inches larger than diameter of skillet. Place bottom layer in skillet so edges overlap rim and brush edges with egg. Add beef filling. Cover with second layer of pie dough, and crimp edges. Make small hole in center. Brush top of pie with egg and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until crust is golden brown.