Beef Biscuit Pie

Our cuisine tends to be fairly eclectic - we make a lot of curries, improvised pasta sauces, pilafs, pulaos, and Peruvian delicacies. Most of these are improvised, and sometimes involve ingredients we've never actually used before. We mix cultures, and sometimes have no particular cultural cuisine in mind while we cook. Sometimes we do this.

But sometimes, you just want some beef and gravy. And biscuits. That was the simple craving that led to us making this particular dish, which is, essentially, a pot pie of sorts. Everybody loves pot pie, right?


There are a couple different ways we know to make a pot pie. One involves actually making a two-crust pie from ordinary unsweetened pie dough. This will lead to a literal pie, with a flaky crust. These are okay - I like them. But I also think they're sort of a lot of work, especially for the sake of the bottom crust, which frequently comes out sort of soggy on account of all the meat, sauce, and vegetables sitting on top of it while it bakes. There are ways to combat this, of course, but they usually involve a lot of fat, which I also don't like.

The other, and I think, better way to make a pot pie is to give up on the bottom crust altogether, and just focus on getting a good top crust. And since we've only got the one crust, it might as well be big and thick, or else it's not worth the trouble. Biscuit dough, plain and simple, is an excellent way to top a casserole dish full of whatever pot pie filling you like. We make our own biscuit dough because it's pretty easy, as far as doughs go, but you could probably get good results from Bisquick mix or canned Pillsbury dough if you're even lazier than we are.

Beef Biscuit Pie

Ingredients

• 1 lb stew beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1/2 - 1 cup milk
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped carrots
• 1/3 cup frozen corn
• 1/3 cup frozen peas
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/4 cup beef stock
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tbsp dried savory
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1 recipe biscuit dough (below)

Cooking Directions

1. Heat 1 tbsp of the butter in a Dutch oven or large non-stick pan. Over high heat, brown the beef slightly - don't try to cook through. 30 seconds on each side should be enough.
2. Transfer the beef to a bowl or plate to rest. In the meantime, add the rest of the butter to the pot and begin making a roux from the flour over medium or medium-high heat, stirring continuously. Over medium-high heat, the onions and garlic may be added directly to the roux to cook. The roux will change consistency immediately when the vegetables are added - don't panic. Just keep stirring to prevent sticking or burning. Continue cooking the onions for about three or four minutes.
   
3. Slowly add the milk a splash at a time to build up a white sauce. Keep stirring. Add as much milk as you like to get a sauce of an appropriate consistency. Remember that some liquid will cook off in the following steps, so make it runnier than you want. The carrots may also go in at this point. Cook on medium-high for three minutes.
   
4. Add the beef stock, corn, peas, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, herbs, pepper, and allspice. Cook over medium or medium-low to reduce the sauce to the desired thickness.
   
5. When the sauce has achieved the desired thickness, add the beef back to the pot and mix well. Turn off the heat and transfer the mixture to a 2 1/2-quart casserole dish. Place the dish uncovered in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes.
   
6. Remove the dish from the oven, and lay over the top a 3/4-inch-thick layer of biscuit dough large enough and of the correct shape to completely cover the filling. The biscuit dough recipe presented below is just enough for this task, assuming you don't have a really weirdly proportioned casserole dish. If you're using dough from a mix, a can, or a different recipe, enough dough for about a dozen 2-inch biscuits is a good rule of thumb.
   
7. Turn the oven up to 450 degrees F, and replace the dish back inside for an additional 12-15 minutes. In general, this last step will take longer than the typical baking time for biscuits because you are essentially baking one enormous biscuit over the top, so don't worry if this seems like a long time for biscuits or is longer than the recommended time for whatever biscuit dough you're using. The top should become golden brown and crisp.
   
8. Allow to cool for five minutes before serving - but don't wait too long! The biscuit topping is best when very fresh!
   

As with our previous post about making stuffed turkey without stuffing a turkey, this is more about technique than the specific recipe. There are a million ways you could fill this pie - this is a very good one, of course, but this could just as well be a chicken pot pie seasoned with tarragon or even some sort of vegetarian leek-carrot melange. As long as it's creamy, hearty, and goes well with biscuits, it'll probably work about the same way, and taste excellent.

Yogurt Biscuit Dough

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4-5 tbsp cold butter
• 1 scant cup yogurt

Cooking Directions

1. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Cut the butter into small bits and drop them into the dry ingredients. Mix gently with your hands, taking the bits of butter and rubbing them between your fingers to break them down and mix them with the dry ingredients. The mixture will begin to resemble bread crumbs or corn meal in consistency, and may be flaky.
   


3. Mix the yogurt in with a spoon just until the mixture becomes doughy. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface or a piece of plastic wrap and knead gently about ten times. Don't knead too much! The more you knead, the more breadlike will be the finished product.
   
4. To make biscuits, spread the dough out to about 3/4 inch thickness and cut 2-inch rounds with a drinking glass. Bake these on an ungreased sheet at 450 degrees F for about 8-10 minutes, until golden brown. If using further in another recipe, do as instructed.