Beef smore pie

A mashup of Australian meat pie & Eurasian smore

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Wex recently turned 31! To celebrate, I made him a birthday meat pie. Meat pie is something that we only got into after moving to Australia - our two favourites being Black Star Pastry’s lamb shank pie made with Young Henry’s beer, and a beef pie from Pure Pie at a farmers’ market. I decided on a beef smore pie, because it’s been awhile since I last made the dish!

Beef smore is something that I only learnt about in recent years. The dish is said to be of Dutch origin, as smore is thought to come from the Dutch word ‘smoren’, which means to stew or braise. In countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, where former Dutch presence has left a mark on the cuisine, you’d find some version of smore. If you’ve eaten/ cooked this dish before, I’d love to know more:

Like many other Eurasian dishes, it is European in nature, but tastes very Asian. In this particular version, based on Chef Damian D’ Silva’s recipe, the beef stew is flavoured with warming spices like cloves and cinnamon, ginger, and kecap manis. What truly sets it apart is vinegar and chillies at the end. The first time I made it, I was pleasantly surprised at just how good it tasted, and have been looking for opportunities to make it again.

Because I’m preparing the smore as a more reduced, concentrated pie filling, I’ve taken some liberties with the original recipe. Chef Damian called for marinating the beef with ground spices and kecap manis, but I skipped it in favour of browning the cubes of meat really well in oil:

Once well-browned, remove the beef and add diced onions. Sweat the onions gently until they turn translucent, then add kecap manis, ground spices, and ginger:

Finally, the beef goes back into the pot, with red wine and beef stock. I thickened the gravy up with a good amount of flour though, according to Chef Damian, some Eurasians thicken the stew with crumbled up leftover scones! Then comes my favourite part: adding vinegar and fresh chillies. It sounds wacky, but you have to taste it to believe it. This step completely transforms the dish, almost seeming to bring the disparate flavours together.

Here’s a fun fact: Aussie meat pies are made with two kinds of pastry - shortcrust for the bottom, and puff on top. I never knew! I got both from the supermarket and lined my 6” cake pan with shortcrust pastry. To blind-bake the pastry, a sheet of baking paper goes over the top, followed by beans to weigh the pastry down. Blind-baking the shortcrust is super important because the filling is rather moist, so you want the crust to be set at least, before you add anything to it.

After blind-baking, fill the crust with the cooled meat filling and top with puff pastry. Brush with beaten egg and bake until the pastry is golden brown!

Removing the pie from the cake tin surprisingly wasn’t much of a struggle. As soon as it cooled to just being warm, it pretty much slid out of the cake tin (I used a tin with a removable bottom). Wex declared it a success! It had just the right amount of ooze, and given that it has been a cold couple of days, the spices in the smore were particularly wonderful. It would be so perfect for Christmas! And of course, we enjoyed it with a drop of ketchup hahaha. I’ve put the recipe for traditional smore, and the recipe for the pie version down below. It’s really worth trying, even if you might be skeptical about ginger, spices, vinegar, and chilli in your beef stew/pie!

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Beef Smore Pie
3 + 1 tbsp oil
1kg beef brisket, cut into 3.5cm cubes
1/2 tsp salt
180g peeled and diced red onion
30g peeled ginger, cut into small pieces
4g star anise
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
2g cloves
4 tbsp flour
3 tbsp kecap manis
765g low-sodium beef stock or water
150g red wine
160g carrot, cut into small chunks
4 tbsp vinegar
1 red chilli, sliced
1 green chilli, sliced
1 shopbought sheet of shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten
1 shopbought sheet of puff pastry

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a pot on high heat. Season the beef with salt. Working in batches, add the beef and sear until well-browned. Remove the beef from the pot and add the onion. Fry on low heat until the onion is caramelised. Meanwhile, in a small blender or spice ginger, blend the ginger, and spices to a fine paste. Add to the pot, along with the remaining tablespoon of oil. Fry gently for a few minutes, then add the flour and kecap manis. Stir to coat the onions well, then add the stock, red wine, and seared beef. Bring to a boil, before lowering the heat to a simmer. Braise, covered, for 1h 30 minutes. Add the carrot and cook, covered for another 30 minutes. The gravy should be very thick at this point. Turn off the heat and add the vinegar and chillies. Cool completely.

Line a 6” cake tin with shortcrust pastry. Top the pastry with a large sheet of parchment, allowing for overhang. Add pie weights (beans/ rice/ sugar). Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes, then remove the weights and parchment paper. Bake for another 10 minutes or until the pastry is light golden brown. Fill the pastry with the beef smore. Brush the rim of the pastry with beaten egg and top with the puff pastry. Cut off excess pastry with a pair of scissors. Brush the pastry all over with egg, and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool the pie until just-warm before removing from the tin.

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Beef Smore
Adapted from Chef Damian D’ Silva’s recipe
Serves 4-6

8 star anise
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cloves
4 red onions, peeled and quartered
100g peeled ginger, cut into small pieces
1kg beef brisket, cut into large cubes
3 tbsp kecap manis
4-6 tbsp oil
4-6 tsp salt
4 potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 carrots, cut into bite-sized pieces
4 tbsp vinegar
2 red chillies, sliced or cut into small pieces with a teaspoon
2 green chillies, sliced or cut into small pieces with a teaspoon

Grind the star anise, nutmeg, cinnamon, 1 of the red onion and ginger to form a fine paste. If you do not have a powerful blender, you can grind the spices separately in a coffee grinder or pound them to a fine powder with a pestle and mortar. Mix spice paste with beef and kecap manis. Set in the fridge for an hour at least to marinate.

Heat the oil in a pot until the oil shimmers. Add the remaining onion and fry until soft over medium heat. Add the marinated beef and allow to cook for a further 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Top up with enough water to barely cover the beef and bring to a boil. Simmer on low heat for 2 hours or until the beef is almost fully tender (the original recipe called for 1h of cooking, but it wasn’t enough). Add the potatoes, carrots and vinegar. Top up with sufficient water to barely cover the vegetables and meat. Simmer for another hour or until the vegetables and meat are fully tender. The gravy should be thick enough to smother the meat and vegetables. If at this stage the gravy still looks watery, you can bash up some cream crackers and stir it into the gravy to thicken. Garnish the dish with the green and red chillies.