Tony Singh’s New Year steak pie recipe

EATING steak pie at New Year has been a tradition in Scotland for a number of years, with a wide variety of explanations as to how it became a staple of Ne’er Day food.

Edinburgh-born chef Tony Singh. Picture: Ian Rutherford

One such explanation is that the vaguely circular shape of a steak pie symbolises the end of one year with the seamless beginning of the next, and that because New Year’s Day was not traditionally a Scots holiday, families were too busy to cook and so bought big steak pies from the local butcher instead.

Of course, some cynics suggest steak pies are rather adept at soaking up the alcohol consumed on Hogmanay, but we’ll let you make your own mind up as to the origins of the steak pie tradition.

Tony Singh

Born in Leith, chef Tony Singh is a leading force on the Scottish food scene, running three restaurants in the Capital - Oloroso, Tony’s Table and Roti - and pushing the boundaries of culinary innovations thanks to his distinctive style; combining his Sikh upbringing with his love of Scots produce.

Tony is now an ambassador for the country, with a focus on promoting Scotland and its delicacies on a global scale, and is a member of the Craft Guild of Chefs, the Scottish Chefs association and the Master Chefs of Great Britain.

Here, he shares his recipe for steak pie with an exotic twist - star anise, a spice similar to aniseed in flavour.

Star steak pie

You will need...

Scottish Rape seed oil

4 small red onions, sweeter and stronger in flavour than big Spanish ones ,diced into 2 cm dice

3 teaspoons garlic puree

2 carrots (diced)

250g Button Mushrooms cut into 1/4

1 kg Scotch Silverside, cut into 2cm cubes

8 star anise ( count them in and count them out )

25g thyme tied together with string so you can get it out again in a oner

salt

pepper

1 and ½ bottles red wine reduced to 400mls

150g plain flour

puff pastry to cover

egg wash

Preparation and cooking

Pop the oven on to gas 5.

Cover the bottom of your pan with the oil, tun up the heat.

Add the onions and fry till they have a wee bit of colour on them, before adding the garlic, diced carrots and the mushrooms.

Mix everything together.

Stir in the beef, thyme, a pinch of salt and pepper and the star anise.

Fry for 3 or 4 minutes, then pour in the reduced wine.

Stir in the flour - make sure you do not have any lumps - the meat and everything else sould be just covered by the liquid, if not, top up with some beef stock.

Bring to a simmer, cover the pan with a lid and place in the preheated oven for about 2½ hours, checking and stirring every 30 minutes.

When the meat is very tender and the stew is rich, dark and thick, it is ready to cool down.

Check seasoning once cold, take out the 8 star anise and the tied up thyme.

Pop it into your pie dish and cover with your bought (or made) puff pastry; egg wash it and pop it on the bottom of the oven for 45 minutes, until the pastry is cooked, puffed and golden.

• Recipe reprinted with kind permission of Tony Singh. You can visit his website at tonysingh.co.uk.