Pie Filling... does it need more liquid

HappyIdiotTalk

I'm making a jamie oliver beef stew, which I intend to use as a pie filing. Its been in the oven for 2 hours of its 3 hours. However, just been in to check it and have noticed that there is not much liquid left in it. I've turned the oven down a bit to 150 from 180, but am still concerned its going to burn or dry out completely. Its starting to look quite dark as it is... Advise please, what should I do? And how could this happen? I've followed his blummin recipe to the T...

geordie_joe

I would add more liquid, quickly!

You don't have to put all the liquid in the pie, so it won't matter if you have too much in the pan.

HappyIdiotTalk

Done! I followed your advice, so thanks for posting! It looked better immediately after I tipped some boiling water into it and stirred it around, no damage done I dont think... although it was starting to catch a little. I snuck a quick taste of the beef too and it seemed fine, and also had that falling apart quality to it. Lovely.

HappyIdiotTalk

Just eaten some of it as a stew. Interestingly the beef was not as nice as it was earlier when I sampled it. It seemed to have dried out a bit. Theres a learning experience, longer cooking does not seem to make beef tenderer!

jac29

Hi,
Don't know if this is of any use for next time but i make meat pie from scratch. My boys are the biggest food critics in the universe and they ate it! I only used stewing steak, as it's cheap!, and cooked it in the pressure cooker with only a stock cube. Was a bit concerned that it didn't look too appetising when cooked but took off some excess stock and thickened what remained with some bisto powder to make a thick gravy. Resulted in a truly tasty pie. 1kg made two huge pies that each fed six well along with new pots, veg and lovely gravy made from the drained off stock.