Evening gents. Our UK members will recognise this product instantly. Good old Bisto. I've used it these last few years for all sorts of things but especially beef pies. Lordy how I love beef pies. And pork pies and...oh well, you get the drift. The problem is that Bisto is quite expensive here in the States. A 270g can cost between $5-6 U.S. I use up a good half a can with one of my mince pies. I like the gravy thick around the filling. So what I need is a more cost effective alternative. Now two things come to mind. It may be nigh impossible to find a suitable substitute. Bisto is pretty good stuff for packaged gravy mix. I have not used any U.S. brand that is its equal. Trying to gather up enough beef stock from roasts and such is hard at my house. With the price of beef being what it is, we don't get big roasts too often! I am not against making a gravy of some sort myself so if you have a good suggestion I would like to hear it. BTW, I will list the ingredients for my mince pie below if you would like to try it.
For the filling:
1-2 lbs. of lean mince(ground beef)
1 medium onion chopped fine
3/4 to 1 cup carrots diced in small pieces
1-2 potatoes, cooked and diced into small pieces
1/2 cup dark ale(Guinness please) or if you prefer, 1/2 cup red wine
Butter
Bisto gravy mix to suit. I use about 1/2 of a 270 g can per large pie
Brown the mince thoroughly and drain the fatI(I detest "hamburger" grease but am willing to listen to suggestions for its use). Put the cooked meat in a 3-5 ltr. sauce pan along with the potatoes and set aside.
Melt about 2Tbsp. of butter in a large skillet over medium low heat. A 10-12" cast iron is perfect. Add the carrots and sweat them for about 15 minutes to soften them up. Add the onion all at once and sweat the combined ingredients for another 5-10 minutes until the onions go soft and slightly yellowed.
Turn up heat to medium and add the stout or wine. De-glaze the skillet and cook gently till the liquid is reduced to thickish sauce. If it boils reduce heat till it just bubbles every so often. When you like the consistency, take off the heat, add to the cooked mince and diced potatoes and scrape the skillet well. The liquid this makes is very flavourful. Don't waste it.
After adding to the mince, bring the mixture up to medium high heat and add the Bisto powder to the desired consistency. It takes a good bit of heat to really get the Bisto powder to mix well. You may need some hot water added to get it to mix well. Just don't make it to wet. If you get a watery consistency in the bottom of the sauce pan, don't add more Bisto till you cook off some of that water. As I said, I wind up using half a can to make a really thick, dark brown sauce. You are now ready to bake the pie.
Crust. Okay, there is a fast and easy way or a slower but slightly more rewarding way. The quick way, which is quite suitable for a comfort food dish like this, is to buy two prepared pie crusts from the grocery store. Lay one in a 9 inch metal pie tin, add the mince filling and cover with the other crust. Seal the two crusts together and trim the excess from the edges. Cut two or three slits in the top crust for venting steam. Done. Cook the pie for 35-45 minutes at 350F/175C/gas mark 2. Remove from oven and let rest for 15-20 minutes. Serve hot.
Okay, the more difficult crust technique. This just involves making your favourite pastry crust. I use butter for the fat in my crusts. Many prefer lard or suet or a combination of butter and one of the other two. All work well but I like the texture of butter crusts. One caveat. Pastry(pie) crusts can be extremely frustrating. Ask me how I know. My wife makes the best you will ever eat. Flaky yet crusty. Melt in your mouth tender. Taste that is incredible for something she makes with Crisco, salt, flour and water. Here is how I do it. I found this on FoodNetwork's Alton Brown site.
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
Two sticks of UNSALTED butter.
1/2 tsp sea salt(okay any fine grained salt)
ICE water.
I don't follow his instructions to the letter but fairly close. If you have a large food processor(9-11 cups)you can do the crust mix all at the same time. I don't so I need to do it in two halves which is fine because you are going to roll out two crusts anyway. Add the flour and salt to the processor. Pulse a few times to mix them well. Chunk up the butter and add to the flour. I cut my sticks in about 1/2" thick pieces and then quarter them. Pulse this till it is crumbly and mixed pretty well. Don't just run the processor. Pulse it avoid burning the flour or melting the butter. When it is to your liking, add the ice water ONE Tbsp. at a time. Pulse while you are adding it and pulse the mix 5-10 times after each addition. When you can reach into the mix and pinch up a walnut sized piece of dough that will still break apart fairly easily, STOP adding the water. Pulse once more and pinch up some dough again. If it seems okay, pour the "dough" onto a large piece of plastic film. It will look like it is not going to hold together. This is exactly how you want it too look. Press the mix/dough together tightly with your hands and be quick. You don't want to melt the butter with too much hand heat. Wrap the film tightly around the dough and pop it in the bottom of the fridge. Let it sit for a good 30 minutes. If you made one ball of dough, take it out of the fridge and halve it. If you made two pieces leave the second half in the fridge. Re-wrap the half you cut away and return to the fridge whilst you attend to the other half.
Roll out the crust to about 12-13" in diameter. Roll it gently around the rolling pin and then "roll" it back out evenly into the tin. (You may want to stash the pie tin in the fridge while the dough is resting in there too. COLD is what you want in a pie crust.) Attend to the other crust in like manner. Lay it over the top of the pie and seal the edges well. Trim excess as with the store bought crusts and add the slits. Baking is the same as well.
I hope this has been helpful and I hope to get some useful information about gravy powders. Especially from our Limey pals.
You lot get to buy Bisto any time you want it. We have to search for it and pay through the nose.
Regards, Todd
For the filling:
1-2 lbs. of lean mince(ground beef)
1 medium onion chopped fine
3/4 to 1 cup carrots diced in small pieces
1-2 potatoes, cooked and diced into small pieces
1/2 cup dark ale(Guinness please) or if you prefer, 1/2 cup red wine
Butter
Bisto gravy mix to suit. I use about 1/2 of a 270 g can per large pie
Brown the mince thoroughly and drain the fatI(I detest "hamburger" grease but am willing to listen to suggestions for its use). Put the cooked meat in a 3-5 ltr. sauce pan along with the potatoes and set aside.
Melt about 2Tbsp. of butter in a large skillet over medium low heat. A 10-12" cast iron is perfect. Add the carrots and sweat them for about 15 minutes to soften them up. Add the onion all at once and sweat the combined ingredients for another 5-10 minutes until the onions go soft and slightly yellowed.
Turn up heat to medium and add the stout or wine. De-glaze the skillet and cook gently till the liquid is reduced to thickish sauce. If it boils reduce heat till it just bubbles every so often. When you like the consistency, take off the heat, add to the cooked mince and diced potatoes and scrape the skillet well. The liquid this makes is very flavourful. Don't waste it.
After adding to the mince, bring the mixture up to medium high heat and add the Bisto powder to the desired consistency. It takes a good bit of heat to really get the Bisto powder to mix well. You may need some hot water added to get it to mix well. Just don't make it to wet. If you get a watery consistency in the bottom of the sauce pan, don't add more Bisto till you cook off some of that water. As I said, I wind up using half a can to make a really thick, dark brown sauce. You are now ready to bake the pie.
Crust. Okay, there is a fast and easy way or a slower but slightly more rewarding way. The quick way, which is quite suitable for a comfort food dish like this, is to buy two prepared pie crusts from the grocery store. Lay one in a 9 inch metal pie tin, add the mince filling and cover with the other crust. Seal the two crusts together and trim the excess from the edges. Cut two or three slits in the top crust for venting steam. Done. Cook the pie for 35-45 minutes at 350F/175C/gas mark 2. Remove from oven and let rest for 15-20 minutes. Serve hot.
Okay, the more difficult crust technique. This just involves making your favourite pastry crust. I use butter for the fat in my crusts. Many prefer lard or suet or a combination of butter and one of the other two. All work well but I like the texture of butter crusts. One caveat. Pastry(pie) crusts can be extremely frustrating. Ask me how I know. My wife makes the best you will ever eat. Flaky yet crusty. Melt in your mouth tender. Taste that is incredible for something she makes with Crisco, salt, flour and water. Here is how I do it. I found this on FoodNetwork's Alton Brown site.
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
Two sticks of UNSALTED butter.
1/2 tsp sea salt(okay any fine grained salt)
ICE water.
I don't follow his instructions to the letter but fairly close. If you have a large food processor(9-11 cups)you can do the crust mix all at the same time. I don't so I need to do it in two halves which is fine because you are going to roll out two crusts anyway. Add the flour and salt to the processor. Pulse a few times to mix them well. Chunk up the butter and add to the flour. I cut my sticks in about 1/2" thick pieces and then quarter them. Pulse this till it is crumbly and mixed pretty well. Don't just run the processor. Pulse it avoid burning the flour or melting the butter. When it is to your liking, add the ice water ONE Tbsp. at a time. Pulse while you are adding it and pulse the mix 5-10 times after each addition. When you can reach into the mix and pinch up a walnut sized piece of dough that will still break apart fairly easily, STOP adding the water. Pulse once more and pinch up some dough again. If it seems okay, pour the "dough" onto a large piece of plastic film. It will look like it is not going to hold together. This is exactly how you want it too look. Press the mix/dough together tightly with your hands and be quick. You don't want to melt the butter with too much hand heat. Wrap the film tightly around the dough and pop it in the bottom of the fridge. Let it sit for a good 30 minutes. If you made one ball of dough, take it out of the fridge and halve it. If you made two pieces leave the second half in the fridge. Re-wrap the half you cut away and return to the fridge whilst you attend to the other half.
Roll out the crust to about 12-13" in diameter. Roll it gently around the rolling pin and then "roll" it back out evenly into the tin. (You may want to stash the pie tin in the fridge while the dough is resting in there too. COLD is what you want in a pie crust.) Attend to the other crust in like manner. Lay it over the top of the pie and seal the edges well. Trim excess as with the store bought crusts and add the slits. Baking is the same as well.
I hope this has been helpful and I hope to get some useful information about gravy powders. Especially from our Limey pals.
You lot get to buy Bisto any time you want it. We have to search for it and pay through the nose.Regards, Todd
