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Serves: 6
Prep time: 30 minutes

Some of you might find making a meat pie from scratch a bit of a jobsworth, as the filling for this pie is cooked long and slow to tenderise the beef and allow the flavour to permeate it. You could prepare the filling and the pastry for that matter, a day in advance to make life easier. The heady bit comes from the star anise and cloves which make the dish, well, that little bit more heady. You’ll see what I mean when you cook it!

750g beef shin, cut into bite sized cubes
Freshly ground salt and pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp tomato purée
200ml Good ale, (light or dark are both fine)
300ml Red wine
15 small shallots, peeled
4 garlic cloves, peeled
a few sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
1 star anise
3 cloves
2 x portions of my shortcrust pastry, (simply whiz up 2 batches of it)
1 free-range egg yolk mixed

Season the beef with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the beef until browned. It’s important to get a good rich colour on the meat as this will be where the stew gets its colour and flavour. You will need to do this in batches to get the best colour. With a slotted spoon remove the meat and set aside while you get on with the rest

Throw the shallots and garlic cloves into the pan and give them a whiz around for a couple of minutes, scrapping all the meaty residue from the bottom of the pan, until they start to colour.

Add the flour and tomato purée and cook for 1 minute, stirring well. Then pour the ale and wine in slowly. Put the meat back to the sauce, along with the herbs and spices, then season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 1½ hours. L eave the filling to cool and remove the bay leaves and star anise before filling the pie.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Roll out 2/3 of the pastry on a floured surface then line a 20cm pie dish. Pour the beef filling into the middle of the pie then roll out the remaining pastry and cover the pie, sealing with a bit of egg wash. Scrunch the pastry to the edge of the dish and trim the excess from around the edge. Brush the top with the egg. You can use the excess pastry to make some pretty shapes for the top. Pierce the top 3 times. Transfer to a baking tray and place in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes and serve immediately.