Steak pie is a traditional dish in Scotland, most commonly associated with Hogmanay (New Year's Eve) celebrations. Steak pie is traditionally eaten at this time, just after midnight, to welcome in the New Year, or even later on on New Year's Day. Although steak pie is associated with New Year, it is regularly consumed all year round and therefore the very first steak pie recipe on this site has to be the simple, traditional Scottish steak pie recipe that is made throughout the land. 

This traditional Scottish steak pie recipe is about as basic and simple as any steak pie recipe can be. There are no stocks, vegetables or herbal flavourings added - it is simply the meat, some water and the pastry.

Ingredients

1lb Aberdeen Angus stewing steak

4 beef link sausages

1.5 pints of water

1/2lb puff pastry

Beaten egg or milk for glazing

Method

Brown the steak to seal it in a dry pot, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Add the one and a half pints of boiling water and leave to simmer for one and a half hours. Add the sausages and simmer for a further half hour.

Put the oven on to pre-heat to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6. Place the steak, sausage and enough water to almost cover same in a pie dish. Roll the pastry out on a floured board until it is large enough to cover the dish. Grease the edges of the dish with a little butter, put the pastry on top and press around the edges to seal. Make a "+" shaped cross in the centre of the pastry, each arm about one inch long, to allow steam to escape during the cooking process. Glaze the pastry with the egg or milk and place in to the oven for thirty minutes.

Cottage Pie is not of course something which is traditionally made with steak - or mushrooms, come to that. This was an idea I came up with one day, however, when contemplating building this site and i decided to give it a try. It turned out every bit as good if not better than I had expected.

Ingredients

1lb stewing steak

6 small, closed cup mushrooms (halved)

1 medium sized carrot (diced)

1.5 pints of fresh beef stock (no cubes!)

1lb potatoes

1 tbsp soured cream

Method

Brown the beef in a large pot and add the heated beef stock. Bring to a simmer and leave for two hours stirring occasionally.

Peel and chop the potatoes and add them to salted boiling water after the beef has been on for one and a half hours.

Add the mushrooms and the carrot to the beef and stir well. Drain and mash the potatoes and stir in the soured cream.

Place the beef and vegetables in a casserole dish, with enough stock to almost cover them. Carefully spoon over the mashed potato mix.

Pre-heat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6 and cook for thirty minutes. If desired, brown the pie under a hot grill prior to serving.

Steak and red wine go very well together, even though the wine is usually served in a glass as an accompaniment to the steak meal. It is possible, however, to incorporate the red wine very successfully in the steak pie - as well as to reserve some for consumption along with same!

Ingredients

1lb stewing steak

2 small shallots (chopped)

2 cloves of garlic (crushed or finely chopped)

3/4 pint of beef stock

3/4 pint of red wine

1/2lb puff pastry

Method

As before, brown the beef in a large pot before adding the shallots, garlic and heated red wine and stock. Simmer for two hours.

Add the meat to a pie dish and enough liquid to almost cover. Roll and place the pastry on top, greasing the edges of the dish beforehand with butter. Glaze with beaten egg or milk and make a cross-shaped hole in the centre of the pastry.

Cook in a pre-heated oven (400F/200C/Gas Mark 6) for thirty minutes.

I served the pie in this instance with roasted potatoes. I first of all par-boiled the potatoes in the remainder of the stock, topped up with boiling water, for twenty minutes. I then put them on a heated baking sheet and in to the oven for the final fifteen minutes of cooking time.