Maybe it was just me?

As promised this week I cooked up a batch of piping hot "Good Old Steak and Guinness Pie"! For those following along recipe is on Page 26 of Jamie Oliver's "Happy Days with the Naked Chef" book. I was really looking forward to this as a friend of mine is famous for making these and they sure are a winner! The thought alone of feasting on one of these babies as the temperature begins to drop had me salivating, so I defrosted my meat and started cooking.

I followed the recipe very closely and browned my floured and seasoned meat; added my finely diced celery, carrot, onion, parsnip and herbs stirring for 4 minutes before pouring in the key element, Guinness, along with some tinned tomatoes. This concoction was then allowed to simmer and flavours to meld for 2 hours on a low heat.

Sadly 2 hours later as promised in my recipe the sauce would be intensely flavoured, nope, so added more Guinness and let to cook a little longer to thicken. Hmm still not a winner. Ok well the recipe did say that this mixture would be safe to keep in the fridge for 5 days to improve the flavour, so that is what I did, I left it for 3 days in the fridge to help improve this bland stew. On Thursday night I gave it a whirl, instead of the pie another suggestion Jamie offered was to have it with mashed potatoes as a stew, so again tried it once more. It was ok, nothing to rave about, if anything I think my creamy garlic mash saved the night.

Round 2, I had the rest of the mixture still in the fridge and thought I'd give it a try 5 days on. I made up the pie using puff pastry and blind baked the base to help it crisp, warmed the filling on the stove, tasted...yep still bland! Arhhh what am I to do? I rummage through the cupboard and stumble across the smoky flavoured barbeque sauce, ok squirt a whole lot in, taste... a thousand times better... so squirt more and more! I fill up the pie with my amended recipe, pop on the top and fold in the edges, slap on the egg mixture and add some artwork.

Roughly 20 minutes later, I unleash my creation gathering the family around to see my Master Chef efforts, hope it tastes good! The judges agree it was a winner! Hooray, but hubby certainly commented that I must have added something to improve it, thank goodness for that sauce!

So all in all, I really was disappointed with this recipe. I will give it another go sometime down the track, but it certainly won't be Jamie guiding me with the Guinness. Not sure if it was just me cooking that made it fail dismally, so give it a try and let me know how you went!