Credit Crunch Dinners, A Meal For 6 For 8 Quid - Steak, Vegetable and Poacher Pie By Mark and Mo

The other night I went over to Marks place in Reading to do a second in the series of Credit Crunch dinners; Steak, Vegetable and Poacher pie with mashed potatoes. Self taught 'chef', Mark, a postman describes this dish as 'A rustic combination of winter flavours, all British local ingredients, ideal for coming home to after a hard day delivering for the Royal Mail. At a cost of about 8 quid, it comfortably feeds 6 people or makes a light hors d'oeuvre for John Prescott.'

Here are the ingredients: 28oz Sirloin Steak, from the local Farmers Market - £4.00 2 bottles of Poacher Ale - £3.00 2 Onions, 6 Carrots, 1 red pepper, 2 potatoes, 1 tin of sweet corn and some mushrooms - about £1.00 400gm Plain flour, 2oz salted margarine and an egg maybe - 10p. Some extras are Garlic, 4 chillies, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and English mustard from the cupboard.

Saves time if you can multitask and kick off a few items at the same time. If you're a bloke, don't worry any sequence is fine, the key is preparation. Peel the potatoes, chop them up and set to boil in water and a pinch of salt, similarly for the carrots except use a pinch of sugar instead of salt as that enhances the carrots sweetness.

Bruce.

Chop your mushrooms and chili pepper.

Chop the two onions finely and add to an oiled pot on a low heat. Add some salt, garlic and a couple of chopped chilies (to your taste), sweat up the onions on a low heat with the pot covered. Drain, trim and dice the sirloin steak, leave some fat on as it adds flavour. Put the diced steak into some four and toss to fully cover the meat. Add some salt and pepper.

Remove the chopped sweated onions into a second pan and add the steak covered in flour and seasoning into the main pot with maybe a little more oil. Brown off the steak, keep stirring so it doesn't burn. Once brown and sealed to hold its flavour, add the chopped mushrooms, chili pepper and when they are ready, the carrots.

Add a pint of beef stock mixed with hot water (don't use a beer glass as Mark did - it cracks) and the two bottles of Poachers ale, sweet corn, Worcestershire sauce and a spoon of English mustard to the pot. Place on a low heat with the lid on for at least an hour to slow cook the steak.

Have a taste as it reduces down. When its richness is to your taste empty it all into an oven dish.

For the short crust pastry, add 150ml water to a mix of hard flour a pinch of salt; a little margarine and sun flour oil in a bowl and mix with your hands to make a firm dough by squeezing it through your fingers to remove the air for about 10 minutes, adding more water if it's still crumbly.

Beat an egg and brush over the top of the pie pastry.

Finally, use the knife to pierce the pastry a few times to let out the steam and stop the pastry form going soggy. Place the pie in the oven at 180 degrees (gas mark 4). This final step may take between 20 and 40 minutes, just check every 10 to make sure the pastry is golden brown and not burned. By this time the potatoes will be well cooked (maybe that was a while back) so add some horseradish and mash up with salt and some pepper. Then just plate it up and you have Steak, Vegetable and Poacher pie with mashed potato, enough to feed six all for about £8.00, now that's taken a bite out of the Credit Crunch. Enjoy the vids.

Credit Crunch Dinners, A Meal For 6 For 8 Quid - Steak, vegetable and Poacher pie

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