Beefsteak Pie (Pâté de Biftecks)

Ingredients

• 1 kilo 500 lean beef
• 10 grammes salt
• 1 gramme pepper
• A little nutmeg
• 1 spoonful chopped onion
• A pinch of chopped parsley
• 400 grammes potatoes
• Water
• Pâte à foncer
• Pâte à foncer or puff paste

Instructions

1. Cut the lean beef into escalopes one centimetre thick.
2. Season them with the salt, the pepper and a little nutmeg, and add the chopped onion and parsley.
3. Line the sides of an English pie dish with the escalopes.
4. Turn the potatoes into olives and arrange them in the middle.
5. Fold the edges of the escalopes back over them and moisten with water just to cover.
6. Moisten the edges of the dish lightly and stick a band of pâte à foncer around them.
7. Cover with a sheet of pâte à foncer or of puff paste and seal it.
8. Decorate with details of the same paste, gild and score the top.
9. Bake in an oven of moderate heat: 1 hour three quarters to 2 hours if the escalopes are taken from the fillet, 2 hours and a half if the meat comes from another part of the beef.