Pat your diced chuck with a paper towels and place in a bowl.Add 2 - 3 tablespoons of plain flour, loads of cracked pepper and some sea salt and toss the beef chuck so they are lightly covered.
In a casserole dish, on medium heat, add a tablespoon of oil and add the chuck to brown the meat (you may need to do it in batches so as not to overcrowd the dish). This should take approx. 10 mins.
Once all the meat is browned off, add it all back into the casserole dish and pout in your beef stock. Make sure it covers the beef so you may need to add a little more stock of water.Using a wooden spoon, scrape the bottom of the casserole dish to get off all the lovely brown sticky stuff that may have caught the bottom when browning the meat off. This gives flavour.Add some more cracked pepper (if you want it peppery).Bring to the boil, then pop the lid on, and transfer to the oven for 3 hrs or until your chuck is tender.
Once done, take out of the oven and let cool for an hour or longer (Grandma G does the cooking the day before then assembles the pit the next day... this does give it time to deepen in flavour).
Once cooled, take your pastry and assembled your pie (we don't blind bake the base, but feel free to).Egg wash the lid and pop into the oven for
Shortcrust pastry
In a mixer (or use a bowl with cold hands to mix), put the flour and chilled cubed butter and slowly mix until crumb-like, adding a little water until you get a pastry texture (don't add too much).
Take the pastry and form it into a ball, then place covered in the fridge for approx 1hr.
Pie assembly
Pre-heat oven to 200 C fan / 220 C.
After 1 hr (or when chilled), on a flat work surface dusted with plain flour, divide the pastry into 2/3rds for the casing and the final 3rd is the lid.Roll out thinly your 2/3rds pastry to the size of the pie dish (approx 20 cm dish). Then roll out your lid.
Gently lay your pastry casing into the pie dish and push it into the sides.*If you prefer, blind bake the pastry now. We don't as we enjoy the base soaking up the pie juices.
Add the cooled beef mix and lay the lid on top and pinch the pastry all the way around to close it. Make a small incision in the middle so steam can escape, then white wash with a beaten egg.