Steak and Guinness Pie

Yesterday was Saint Patrick’s Day and we celebrated at my house with some homemade Steak and Guinness Pie. It was actually my first time making it so I was a little nervous. I wasn’t worried about cooking the steak properly or making the gravy. I was worried about the pastry crust for the top, which I have never made from scratch before. In Canada or America, we can very easily buy premade pie shells and tops, but not in Japan.

I bought a large piece of Australian beef and diced it. I roughly followed a recipe I found online. My baking dish is smaller than the one in the recipe so I had to adapt. The same went with the pastry top.


The meat, vegetables and gravy simmering.


I was easily able to get all the ingredients at my local Daiei supermarket. The beef and the can of Guinness were the priciest parts.


Comfort food from home is always the thing that gets me through nostalgic times of holidays while living abroad. This meal certainly fit the bill.


It turned out far better than I expected. My wife and I had a "back home" sort of feast!





In the short video you saw about the pie, you may have noticed my bread maker. In my last post, about the Isuzu Bakery, I mention that it is really difficult if not at times impossible to buy whole grain bread in Japan. Japanese people, who normally don’t consume much bread, prefer white bread. Coming from Canada, I tend to find white bread somewhat bland. The best way to solve the problem was to go out and purchase a bread maker. We were able to get one on sale for the equivalent of about $150.00 Canadian. With that, I can make whole wheat bread!