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Slow-cooked, comfort food

For comfort eating this beef shin pie is the perfect dish to cook.

  • Serves: 4 – 6
  • Prep: 15 mins
  • Cooking: 3 hours, hands -off
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Ideal for: casual family/friends meal, weekend meal
  • Budget: £

Beef shin

Beef shin comes from the foreshank of the animal.

It’s full of connective tissues because it’s a working muscle which makes the meat very tough. 

This means shin benefits from being cooked low and slow in order to break down all the fibres.

This will turn it into unctuous, gelatinous meat which in turn thickens the sauce in which it is cooked. 

Beef shin is generally a very cheap cut because of the long cooking time which people sometimes don’t want to bother with.

But believe me, the results are well worth the wait.

And it’s hands-off cooking so you’re not chained to the stove.

I always like a bit of slow-cooking in the weekend.

You can get on with other jobs or relaxing while a wonderful meal is blipping way on the hob.

It’s perfect for a stew and amazing inside a pie.

Beef shin pie

Different types of pastries and when to use them

If you’ve read any of my other posts, you’ll know by now I’m not trying to be Delia Smith or Heston Blumenthal. If I can ‘cheat’ a little bit to save time, then I will.

Pastry’s a bit like that. Some pastry is so simple, you may as well whip it up yourself. 

But others like filo… forget it. 

I’m not rolling, folding, rolling, folding… I’m hungry,  they’re hungry!

Let’s start with my favourite go-to pastry:

Shortcrust pastry 

In my opinion it’s the most versatile. You can use it for savoury and sweet pies, quiches, tarts and flans.

It’s made up of flour and fat which gives it a crumbly texture, rather than a flaky one. So it’s great when you need to make robust cases for pies and tarts with either wet or dry fillings.

For this beef shin pie, I used shop bought (sometimes, you just need to keep things simple) short crust and topped it with shop bought puff pastry.

For Grandma G’s easy short crust recipe, see below.

Puff pastry

The King of pastries! 

This is a rich, flaky pastry created by layering dough and fat and air. As the trapped air rises between the layers it lends the pastry a flimsy, airy, light and crisp finish.

Use it for topping savoury pies, wrapping meat like a Beef Wellington and as a simple base for a tasty pizza-type quick meal.

BTW, I never make puff pastry, it’s alway shop bought.

For more info on types of pastry, visit here.

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Grandma Gunstone’s Short Crust Pastry

Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Cost £

Ingredients

Pastry – this is enough for a small pie (or Makes 170g/6oz) so just double or triple for bigger dishes

  • 125 g plain flour (or 4 ounces)
  • 55 g cubed chilled butter (or 2 ounces)
  • 30-45 ml cold water (or 2-3 tbsp)
  • pinch of salt

Instructions

  • Put the flour, pinch of salt and chilled cubed butter in a bowl and with light fingers, crumble to biscuit crumb size
  • Make sure butter us rubbed into flour, then slowly add cold water and mix it in
  • Roll into ball whack it in fridge for an hour
  • After it's been in the fridge, sprinkle your table with flour and use a rolling pin to roll to the shape you need
  • Then follow the instructions of the recipe you're following. (You will usually be told to blind bake first before adding any liquid filling)
Print Pin

Beef shin pie

Course Main Course
Keyword beef, beef pie, beef shin pie, grass-fed beef, puff pastry, shortcurst
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 3 hours
Total Time 3 hours 15 minutes
Servings 4 people
Cost £

Ingredients

  • 1.5 kg (grass-fed) beef shin, cut into chunks
  • 3 tbsp plain flour
  • oil
  • 2 onions, diced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 1 celery stick, diced (optional)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 sprigs of fresh thyme, remove the stems
  • 1 litre beef stock
  • 150 ml red wine
  • salt and pepper for seasoning

Instructions

  • Toss the beef shin in the flour so it's coated
  • In a large, deep pan or casserole dish, add some oil and in batches (don't overcrowd the beef), brown the meat, then set aside.
  • In the same pan, add the red wine and a little beef stock and with a wooden spoon scrape pff the brown bits on the bottom of the pan and mix together.
    Add the onion, carrots, celery, herbs, beef and the rest of the beef stock. Season and pop the lid on and allow to gently cook for 1.5hrs.
  • After 1.5 hrs, take the lid off and cook for another 1 -1.5hrs on a low heat or until tender. (you may beed to add a little water of you think it needs it).
  • Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
    In a pie dish add your short crust pastry and blind bake.
    Add the beef shin mix and lay a puff pastry (or short crust) lid and brush with a beaten egg.
    Pop into the oven for approximately 20 – 30 mins or until golden.
    Serve.

Video

Recipe inspired by: BBC Good Food