RealGravy

Onion Gravies

Onion Gravy for Steak Pie

A deliberately thick, heavily reduced onion gravy made to fill a pie without turning the pastry to mush, cooled completely before the lid goes on.

  • Contains meat
  • steak pie
  • thick gravy
  • pie filling
  • make ahead
  • reduction
Illustration of Onion Gravy for Steak Pie
Prep
15 min
Cook
1 hr
Total
1 hr 15 min
Serves
6
Difficulty
Medium

Pie gravy has one job that plate gravy never has, which is to stay put. Too thin and it soaks into the base, lifts the lid off and floods the tin the moment you cut it. This one uses more flour, less liquid and a hard reduction, and it goes into the pie stone cold. That last part is not optional.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml of thick gravy, enough for one large pie

Scale

Kit

  • Heavy casserole
  • Wooden spoon
  • Shallow tray for cooling

Method

  1. Melt the butter and dripping in a heavy casserole over a medium low heat, add the onions with a pinch of salt and cook for 30 minutes, stirring, until dark and thoroughly softened. Slice them thick, because they need to still be identifiable in a pie rather than dissolving into the filling.

  2. Pour in the wine and turn the heat up. Let it reduce by two thirds, about 4 minutes, scraping the base as it goes.

  3. Scatter in the flour and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Three tablespoons is half as much again as a pouring gravy and it will look like a thick dark paste. That is what you want.

  4. Add the hot stock in three goes, stirring hard each time until smooth. Add the Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves.

  5. Simmer gently, uncovered, for 20 minutes. It should reduce by about a fifth and become properly thick, the sort of thickness where a spoon dragged across the base leaves a channel that holds for a second or two.

  6. Take it off the heat, remove the bay leaves and stir in the mustard. Season firmly, remembering that a pie needs bolder seasoning than a plate of food because the pastry is bland.

  7. Spread it out in a shallow tray and cool it completely, ideally in the fridge for an hour. Warm gravy melts the fat in pastry and gives you a soggy base, so it must be cold before it meets the pastry. Fold in your cooked steak, fill and bake.

Tips worth knowing

  • Cold filling, cold pastry. It is the single biggest difference between a crisp pie base and a grey one.
  • If you are cooking the steak in the gravy rather than separately, brown it first, then simmer it in the gravy for two hours before you reduce, and expect to add another 200ml of stock along the way.
  • The gravy will look too thick in the pan. It thins slightly in the oven as the meat releases juices, so resist loosening it.
  • For an alcohol free version, use 100ml of extra beef stock plus a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar in place of the wine.

Change it up

  • Add 200g of quartered mushrooms fried separately, and fold them in once the gravy is cold, for a steak and mushroom pie.
  • Swap the red wine for stout and add a teaspoon of black treacle for a steak and stout pie filling.

Keeping and reheating

Fridge for 4 days, which is useful because it needs to be cold anyway. Freezes for 3 months. Do not freeze it inside an uncooked pie unless the pastry is designed for it, as it can weep on thawing.

Questions people ask

How thick should gravy be for a pie?

Thick enough that a spoon dragged through it leaves a channel that holds for a second or two, which is noticeably thicker than a pouring gravy. It loosens in the oven as the meat gives up juices, so a filling that looks right in the pan will end up too thin in the pie.

Why is my pie base soggy?

Almost always warm filling. Warm gravy melts the fat in the raw pastry before the oven can set it, so the base absorbs liquid instead of crisping. Cool the filling completely, ideally in the fridge, and bake on a preheated baking sheet.

Can I use this gravy to cook the steak in?

Yes. Brown the meat first, add it after the stock goes in, and simmer covered for two hours with an extra 200ml of stock. Then uncover and reduce as written. The meat juices make the gravy considerably better.