WITH St George's Day nearly upon us, The Hideaway is serving up its serious steak and ale pie. It sells out as soon as they make it, and it is served with mash and gravy.

Ingredients

• 1/2 tbls Oil

• 1kg Braising Steak stripped of big fatty pieces and cut into chunks;

• 2 Garlic cloves, crushed

• 1 Large onion chopped roughly

• 2 Large carrots chopped into discs

• 500ml strong British ale

• 4 Beef stock cubes

• 1 Vegetable cube

• 1/2 tsp Chilli powder

• 2-3 tsp Thyme, or a small handful of fresh thyme if preferred

• 300g Ready-to-roll puff pastry

• 1 Egg, beaten lightly, to glaze

• pepper and salt to taste

• You may also want to use mushrooms, peas, potatoes or any other desired vegetables in this pie — depending on what you are serving with!

Method

1 Heat the oil in the pan with the onion and garlic for 1 minute.

2 Add the steak — I usually cut the steak gradually into the pan. Cook until the meat is seared all over and there is no pink left. By this time there will be some juice in the pan and this should be sizzling.

3 Pour in half the ale and allow to simmer for a minute, then pour in the rest with the thyme, chilli powder salt and pepper.

4 Crumble in the Oxo cubes — both the beef and the vegetables (you may want to use more or less cubes depending on how thick you like the gravy). Add in the chopped vegetables.

5 Simmer for 10 minutes and then transfer to a large casserole pot. If the gravy does not cover the meat then add some water and mix in.

6 Pop the dish into the oven at gas mark 3 or 4 and leave for at least 1 hour 30 mins.

About 20 minutes before you want to serve, roll out the pastry to the size of the casserole dish and put on as a lid return the the oven for the remaining time.