Ingredients
500g beef mince
1 tbsp oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
300ml beef stock
2 tbsps marsala or Madeira, or red wine or coke *
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 egg, beaten
1 packet of ready rolled shortcrust pastry
1 packet of ready rolled puff pastry

Equipment Needed
22cm metal quiche or cake tin
Sheet of baking paper or parchment
Baking beans or lentils or rice 

Method
In a large frying pan add the beef and cook over a medium heat until the beef juice has come out of the beef and then cooked away again, expect this to take at least 10 minutes but possibly closer to 20.  Take the beef out of pan and put to one side.

Put the oil into the pan and add the onion, cook over a medium heat for 3-5 minutes until soft and translucent without any colour.

Once the onion has cooked, add the minced beef back to the pan and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes until everything is hot again. Stir in the flour, and cook for a minute or two.

Preheat the oven to 180c and put a baking tray into the oven to heat.

Slowly add the beef stock, stirring thoroughly as you add it, the flour will thicken the sauce and you don’t want any lumps.  Once the stock has all been added, add the marsala* and Worcestershire sauce to the pan and a put in a good grinding of freshly ground black pepper, stir and then simmer on a medium low heat for 20 minutes until the gravy is thicker and everything looks unctuous.  Check the seasoning and put to one side.

Unroll your shortcrust pastry into your dish.  Gently push the pastry into the edges of the dish and leave the pastry overhanging the edges as it will shrink.  A thing to note here, the pastry might not be big enough to fit into your dish properly, it is fine here to ‘patch’, just ensure that the pastry overhangs slightly on all sides.  To patch, just slightly overlap where you want to patch and with your thumb push together.  Remember this will be hidden so it doesn’t have to look perfect but you don’t want the join too thick and you definitely want no holes.

Line your pastry dish with baking or parchment paper (I cut off the amount I want and then scrunch it up as it behaves better when you put into your dish).  Put the paper on top of the pastry and then fill with your baking beans and put into the oven for 15 minutes. 

After 15 minutes, remove the paper and baking beans and put back into the oven for 10 minutes until the base is set and the pastry no longer looks wet.

Remove from the oven and with a serrated knife, carefully cut off any pastry that is overhanging so that the top is neat, take care as you cut. 

Put the mince filling into the pastry case.

Take the puff pastry and cut the pastry lid to fit the top of the pie plus a cm extra on the diameter as you need to ensure the top and the bottom pastry stick together.  Brush round the edges of the bottom pastry with the beaten egg and put the pastry lid over the filling, pressing the top and bottom pastries together to seal. I try to tuck the top pastry down the side.  Brush the top generously with the beaten egg.

Put the pie into the oven on the baking tray and cook for 30-35 minutes until golden and beautiful.

This eats perfectly with creamy mash potatoes.