Valentine’s Day is approaching and for those loved up couples, it’s time to plan how you are going to treat your partner. At Butchers Equipment Warehouse, we recommend staying in and cooking a beautiful romantic meal.

Head down to your local butchers or supermarket and get some delicious beef and here is a recipe to make your evening so very special.

Our suggestion is the beef and beer pie. This offering is a comforting classic that is popular up and down the country and has gorgeous, dark rich gravy as well as succulent beef.

Ingredients

700G of beef steak from your local butchers.
1 Onion.
1 Celery stick chopped up.
2 tablespoons of butter.
2 tablespoons of plain flour.
2 beef stock cube.
2 spig thyme.
540ml can of dark ale or beer.
For the pastry
500g of plain flour.
350g vegetable suet.
1 egg, beaten

Method

First, pre-heat your oven to 160C/140C fan, Gas 3. Using a casserole dish to soften the chopped up onion and celery in butter. Follow by stirring in the flour until that disappears and then stir in the beef as well.

Crumble in the stock cubes and add the thyme and pour the ale or beer over the top and bring it to a simmer. Now cover the dish and cook in the oven for two and a half hours. When that is over, remove the lid and cook for another 30 minutes to thicken up the sauce.

Concerning the pastry, increase your oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6. Whizz the flour and the suet together with a teaspoon of salt until there are no suet lumps left. If you have whizzed it in a food processor, dribble in a tablespoon of water until the pastry joins together.

Finally roll out half the pastry and use a 20-22cm pie dish. Use a slotted spoon and spoon all the meat into the dish and pour the sauce over the top until the meat is covered. Roll the pastry over the top to cover the pie and trim the edges. Using those edge cuttings, make a small heart.

Brush the top of the pie and the heart with the beaten egg and dip the heart in poppy seeds and place it on the top. Bake the pie in the 30-40 minutes until the pie is golden brown and crisp.

We hope you enjoy your romantic night in.