British Meat Pie

My friend from childhood made this delicious beef pie for her husband yesterday. She graciously gave me permission to post her picture and also to share her recipe.  So without further ado, here is Lisa Morton Mills' recipe as given to me in our own words.  Thank you Lisa!

My recipe was created from talking to my husband, looking online at British Meat pie and my mother in law, so here goes and realize it is my own creation:

1/2 of a large sweet onion

1 lb. cubed meat (recipe I found called for ground beef but I'd already been told that real British pie is made with small chunked beef)

6 small red potatoes chopped to thumb size

Chopped carrots

2 small stalks chopped celery

1 teaspoon crushed fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons of ketchup because I did not have something called "marmite"

1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon of thyme

A "shot" of Worcestershire

I browned the meat and onions and then put it on to boil about an hour before I wanted to make the sauce.

This allowed me to chop all the vegetables. They aren't supposed to be large like in a stew, but thumb size. I cooked this mixture in a two quart boiler not a Dutch oven, so that gives you an idea of the size the mixture makes.

I allowed it to cook down by half, then I added in all the veggies and set it to a low simmer.

Real British Pie uses something called marmite, which I didn't have.  It’s a brown gravy thickener, so I used a tablespoon of brown gravy powder but my sauce had already cooked down pretty thick.

I bought a premade pie crust because I never roll mine out far enough.  Poured into a corning casserole and baked at 400 degrees until golden brown....HUBBY loved it!  Very "Foyle's War"!

PS......red potatoes hold a better shape when cooked, so don't substitute those, and you can leave off the shot of Worcestershire.  We didn't taste it. But I was trying to copy marmite.