Herb-Crusted Beef Pot Pie

You can make this beef pot pie in a jiffy using jars of your Home-canned beef stew . Serve it pub-style in individual serving deep dish pot pies.

This is a “suggested usage” recipe from the Ball Blue Book, based on their recipe for home canning jars of beef stew .

The question is always, what do you serve with a pot pie? Ball suggests a fresh side salad or fresh fruit. We’re not sure ourselves how many people want a side of fruit salad with their meat pie; so we’d suggest the salad, or some steamed veg and mash, or roasted tatties or other veg that people can dunk into the sauce.

(To be clear, this is a “Cooking with Canning you have already done” recipe. This is not a recipe for canning.  )

This recipe uses:

Home-canned beef stew

The recipe

Yield: 2 servings

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Oven temperature: 175 C / 350 F / Gas Mark 4

5 from 1 vote

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Herb-Crusted Beef Pot Pie

You can make this beef pot pie in a jiffy using jars of your home-canned beef stew .

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword Beef

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Yield 2 pies

Calories 277 kcal

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (aka cornflour in the UK)
• 1 half-litre jar beef stew (1 pint jar)
• 350 ml liquid (from jar of stew. 1 ½ cups / 12 oz)
• Kitchen Bouquet (optional)
• 125 g flour (¾ cup / 4 oz)
• 1 teaspoon parsley dried
• 1 teaspoon basil dried
• 1 teaspoon thyme dried
• ¼ teaspoon salt (or salt sub)
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 4 tablespoons butter (or margarine, shortening, lard, etc)
• 2 tablespoons milk (or water)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

1. Whisk together together the water and cornstarch in a semi-large microwave-proof jug or dish. [Optional: a small splash of Kitchen Bouquet for a deeper colour.]
2. Open the jar of beef stew; pour liquid into a measuring cup. If you are short of 350 ml (1 ½ cups / 12 oz), then add some tap water, beer, wine or stock, etc, to top up.
3. Add this liquid to the cornstarch mixture. Whisk.
4. Zap in microwave for 1 minute.
5. Whisk, then zap in microwave for another 2 minutes. Remove, stir, set aside.
6. Start heating the oven to 175 C (350 F / Gas Mark 4.)
7. Mix together everything from the flour down to and including the baking powder.
8. Add the fat, and cut it in to the texture of coarse sand.
9. Add the liquid to bind the flour together to form a ball; add a bit more liquid if needed.
10. Divide the beef mixture between two small oven-safe casserole dishes that will hold about 1 cup (250 ml / 8 oz) each, or a bit more.
11. Divide the dough mixture into two balls, and roll out each one on a floured surface. Cut a few slits in each one, then use to cover the baking dishes with, pressing the sides down.
12. Brush with milk or spray with cooking spray if desired (optional, for a browner colour.)
13. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until crust is cooked and browned.
14. Remove from oven. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe notes

• You can double this recipe;
• Instead of making the beef mixture in the microwave, you can do it in a pot on the stovetop. In which case, cook until thickened, and then proceed with spooning into baking dishes and top with crust, etc;
• You can use any dried herbs you wish. You could use instead 1 tablespoon (which equals 3 teaspoons) of a mixed dried herb such as Italian seasoning, etc.

About the crust

We found making the crust to be problematic. Low-fat shortcrusts, such as this admirably aims to be, can come out rock hard — and this one did. Add only as much liquid as is needed, or the crust will get hard. Handle the dough mixture only as much as needed, or it will get hard. All that being said, the crust has very little fat in it, so it may just come out hard whatever you do. You may wish to add more fat, or, just simply use your own trusted pie crust recipe, adding a bit of baking powder and dried herbs to it.

Alternatively, use a few layers of thawed, frozen phyllo-pastry for a delicious, flakey (and low-cal) crust. Or use a layer of biscuit dough from your DIY Biscuit Mix.

Recipe source

Herb-crusted Beef Stew with Vegetables. In: Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 177.

Corrections: The edition cited immediately above calls for 350 ml (1 ½ cups / 12 oz) of water to make the cornstarch mixture.  That makes it soupy. We checked with Ball, that’s a transposition typo that has crept in over the years (see history.)  It should read 3 tablespoons, and subsequently topping the jar liquid up with tap water to 1 ½ cups if needed. ^[1]Ball to Randal Oulton via Facebook. 12 October 2017. https://www.facebook.com/BallCanning/posts/1452088894839095?comment_id=1454360184611966&notif_id=1507820305442044&notif_t=feed_comment

History

From the records we have, this recipe appears to have first been published in Ball’s Blue Book in 1998 (page 65.)

Their food stylist at the time admittedly did a somewhat fancier looking crust than we did!

Nutrition

Per  1 pie

• 277 calories, 345 mg sodium

* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com