Monday, December 13, 2010

Beef Pot pie

Maybe it's just me, but it seems that I often buy a package of refrigerated pie crusts for something (ie making a tart, etc), and only use one and then I'm stuck with one left in the package.  Or I'll make dough from scratch, and end up with one left over afterward.  That happened yet again this week, so I decided to see what I could throw together from that crust and a few other things I had around the house

Beef Pot Pie


1 pie crust
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 pound beef stew meat (or chuck steak cut into bite-sized pieces)
2 medium red potatoes, cubed
2 medium carrots, sliced
1 beef bouillon cube
1 roma tomato, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 packet gravy mix


1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Spread pie crust into a cool 9" pie pan and set aside
2.  Put the olive oil in a pan over medium heat.  Add stew meat and onions, and cook until browned, stirring occasionally.  Salt and pepper to taste
3.  Put potatoes, carrots, and bouillon in small sauce pan with enough water to cover by 1" and bring to a boil.  Cook until tender
4.  When stew meat and onions are cooked, put them in crust, spreading to cover the bottom.
5.  Put the tomato and celery over the meat and onion mixture, then drain potatoes and carrots and add to the pie pan.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over all.
6.  In the pan that you used to cook the meat, prepare the gravy mix as directed.  Spread 1/2 cup of gravy over the pie and put in oven.
7.  Cook for approximately 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown
8.  Enjoy!

Feel free to use this as inspiration for other types of pot pies, or even just as a more basic prompting to try to adapt something like a leftover pie crust, which some people might throw away, into the base (literally), for a great meal!