While I was home in the UK recently, I did a lot of cooking and baking. I also made super yummy cute character steak pies using my mum’s recipe for Boeuf en Croute (beef in a crust). Not only is this a delicious, easy meal, it’s also loads of fun to make!
Begin by making the pie filling. In mum’s words: In a mixture of butter (butter gives good flavour) and olive oil (helps to stop it burning) fry very finely chopped onion or shallot at medium heat ’til golden. Then add very finely chopped mushrooms and cook gently ’til all the liquid has disappeared. Pour in just a splash of brandy and cook ’til liquid has disappeared again. Add chopped fresh thyme and lots of freshly-ground black pepper. Make sure it’s cold before using else it will make the pastry soggy. This filling is called duxelles.
This is how it should look once it’s ready. Make sure it’s not too wet or your pies will flop. Put it aside to cool.
Then, sear the fillet steaks over high heat for half a minute each side, just to brown the outside for flavour, not to cook them.
This is how seared they should be on each side.
And this is how they should look once they’re ready! Line the tray with baking parchment so the puff pastry doesn’t stick to the baking tin. Pat the steaks with kitchen roll. Keep any juices to add to the gravy. Then, place the steaks on the pastry leaving plenty of room all around each one.
Top each steak with a thick layer of the filling. Be careful not to allow any to drop over the sides. Pat it down with a spoon to make sure it stays put.
Add a second sheet of pastry over the top and gently pat down around the steaks. Then, cut around each steak leaving a wide margin of pastry.
Here comes the fun part: decorating! I made myself a Rilakkuma (my favourite Japanese character).
For my mum, I made Hello Kitty, and I made my dad a tortoise since he likes them. Be aware that the features will become exaggerated on baking (I should have made Kitty’s whiskers thinner and used less dough for the tortoises’s limbs and eyes, but it doesn’t really matter!)
Coat the pies with egg wash, making sure not to miss any of the cracks and crevices. Egg wash will make your pastry golden brown. Alternatively, use milk.
Put the pies in the oven at 230 degrees for around 15-25 minutes, depending on the thickness of the steaks and how well you want them cooked. This recipe is just a guideline so adjust accordingly!
The finished, golden Rilakkuma pie!
Hello Kitty looking sort of like a crab.
Does it even look like a tortoise..?
We had the pies with vegetables (longstem broccoli and red cabbage) and gravy.
The pastry was crisp and flaky outside, soft and fluffy inside, and the steaks were juicy and tender.
I can’t wait to make this again in Japan once I buy a proper oven for my kitchen!
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