Make a few little slits in the centre of the pie, place on the hot baking tray. Trim the edges, crimp the pastry, then re-roll your trimmings to make a decoration, for example, pastry leaves.Brush the edges of the pastry in the dish with 1 beaten egg yolk, then cover with the pastry lid. Roll out the remaining pastry to a thick round big enough to cover the dish.If you have a bit too much, set it aside. You want the filling to be slightly higher than the rim of the dish. Add the braising steak to the dish using a slotted spoon so some gravy is left in the container, as you don’t want too much sauce in the pie.Roll out the pastry to a thickish round that will easily line the pie dish with an overhang, then line the tin. Cut a third off the pastry and set aside.Heavily grease a 24-28cm pie dish and dust well with flour. When you want to make the pie, heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7 and place a flat baking tray in the oven.
The pastry can be made up to 2 days ahead and kept in the fridge or frozen for up to a month.
Knead the pastry, then wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hr. This can be done in a food processor if you want. Crumble 650g plain flour and 250g cold diced lard or butter, together with a generous pinch of sea salt until completely combined, then add up to 200ml ice-cold water to make a soft dough. Make the pastry up to 2 days before you want to assemble the pie. Can also be frozen for up to 3 months and defrosted when needed. Leave everything to cool completely – better still, make this up to 2 days in advance and keep it in the fridge as the pie will be better if the filling is fridge-cold when added. Remove from the heat and, when the stew is cooked, stir them through. Turn up the heat, add 200g halved chestnut mushrooms and cook for 4 mins until golden. While the stew is cooking, heat a drop more vegetable oil in a frying pan and sizzle 200g smoked bacon lardons for 3 mins until crisp. Cover with a lid and place in the oven for about 2 hrs, until the braising steak is really tender. Season the stew, tuck in a small tied-together bunch of thyme, bay leaf and parsley, and bring everything to a simmer. Pour over 300ml dark ale, 2 beef stock cubes mixed with 400ml boiling water and the porcini mushroom soaking liquid, discarding the last few drops. Tip the braising steak and any juices back into the pan and give it all a good stir. Add the soaked porcini mushrooms, sizzle for 1 min more, then scatter over 2 tsp golden caster sugar and 4 tbsp plain flour, stirring until the flour turns brown. Add a drizzle more vegetable oil, then cook on a low heat for 5 mins until coloured. 
Add 2 large onions, roughly chopped, and 4 large carrots, chopped into large chunks, to the pan.Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a large casserole dish, brown 1kg large chunks of braising steak really well in batches, then set aside. If you’re using the porcini mushrooms, cover 10g of mushrooms in boiling water for 20 mins, then squeeze out but keep the soaking water.
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