Dragon Pie - Trying out my Dad's Recipe on the BBQ!

This is the fifth and penultimate episode of the Love Logs winter BBQ... if you're new here, this series is all about BBQ food we can cook over charcoal & wood all through winter, with the bare minimum time spent outside.

This is one of my dad's old recipes from when I was a kid, so it's properly nostalgic, but I've never cooked it on the BBQ before so this was a coming together of new and old.

It's a super simple dish with a huge, tasty payoff; let's get into it...

30 minutes total active prep & cooking time

3 hours on the BBQ, 2-3 hours on the hob, 20 minutes in the oven

1. Use a tablespoon of quality sea salt to dry brine the beef, ideally the night before if you can, then add freshly grated black pepper to taste
2. Smoke the beef indirect at around 150°C for 3 hours
3. Start preparing the ingredients for the braise with 20 minutes left of smoking the beef, roughly chopping the onions, chillies and garlic - don't worry about fine dicing!
4. Fry the onions in a tablespoon of high heat oil (I use cold pressed British rapeseed oil) in a large pot for around 5 minutes, add the chillies and garlic and cook for another 3 minutes, and finally add the tomato puree and cook for a minute before pulling from the heat
5. Add the two cans of IPA and the beef stock to the pot then go get your beautiful smoky beef shin off the BBQ, and add that into the braise
6. Return to the hob and cook until the beef reaches 95°C internal temperature - this will probably be done in less than an hour but this is a dish where time's your friend, so I'd give it 2-3 hours
7. Trim your pastry sheet to fit your chosen pie dish
8. Loosely pull your beef into bite size chunks and tip it into your pie dish; taste for seasoning & balance, mine needed a large pinch of sugar (to bring the spice level down a touch) and about half a tablespoon of red wine vinegar (to elevate the existing flavours in the dish)
9. Top the beef mixture with your puff pastry and egg wash it with a beaten egg, before pricking several holes through the pastry for steam to escape
10. Bake at 200°C for 20 minutes or until you're happy with the colour of the pastry
11. Use the baking time to prepare any sides & sauces you want
12. Pull the pie out of the oven, slice & serve - and think of my old man while you enjoy it!