Oven Baked Beef Brisket, Stout & Mushroom Pie With Crushed Potatoes

Before you begin...

This recipe takes around 5-10 min to prep, so get your casserole dish and all your ingredients ready, then wash your fruit and veg

Note: Make sure your dish is oven-proof and safe to use on the hob. Don't have one? Start cooking in a large, wide-based pan then transfer to an oven-proof dish and cover tightly with tin foil

Now, let's get started!

Preheat the oven to 220°C/ 200°C (fan)/ gas 7 and boil a kettle

Heat a large, wide-based hob-safe oven-proof casserole dish with a matching lid with a little drizzle of vegetable oil over a medium-high heat

Peel and roughly chop your brown onion[s] into wedges

Crush your garlic open by squashing it with the side of a knife and discard the skins

Once hot, add your chopped onion

Tear your white cup mushrooms roughly into the dish

Add the crushed garlic with your tomato paste, stout paste and 1 tbsp [1 1/2 tbsp] [2 tbsp] flour and give everything a good mix up

Add your slow cooked beef brisket and your bay leaf[ves] with your beef stock mix and 400ml [500ml] [650ml] boiled water and bring to the boil over a high heat

Cover with the lid and put the dish in the oven for 45 min or until the sauce has thickened – this is your beef brisket, stout & mushroom pie mix

Meanwhile, chop your potatoes in half

Add the chopped potato to one side of a baking paper-lined baking tray (or two!) with a large piece of tin foil, then drizzle over a large splash of boiled water

Scrunch the foil around the potato to form a tightly sealed parcel and put the tray[s] in the oven for an initial 20 min

Tip: Cooking for 4 or more? Make 2 separate parcels!

Once the potatoes have had 20 min, dust your work surface with a generous sprinkling of flour

Unwrap your puff pastry, roll it out to approx. 0.5cm thickness with a rolling pin and cut into rectangles (1 per person!), then score a cross in the middle

Remove the tray with the potatoes from the oven and add the pastry rectangle[s] to the other side, then return the tray to the oven for a final 20-22 min or until the pastry is puffed up and golden – these are your cooked potatoes and pie lids

Once everything is ready, transfer the beef (keep the sauce in the pan!) to a clean chopping board and pull it apart using two forks – this is your pulled beef

Return the pulled beef to the dish with a generous grind of pepper and give everything a good mix up – this is your pulled beef brisket, stout & mushroom pie mix

Transfer the cooked potato to a heatproof bowl with a small knob of butter and a pinch of pepper, then crush lightly with a fork – these are your buttery crushed potatoes