Beef in Guinness pie

First, make way too much stew, so that when LOML invites three extra guests at short notice there is still lots of stew left over the next day.
Next, make your favourite flaky pastry: mine is from Jacques and Julia's cooking at home, and I've told you how to make it recently: chill the dough. Pre-heat the oven to 375 or 400: after an hour of resting, take the pastry from the fridge, roll out two disks, one slightly larger than the other: place the larger in a pie plate, fill with cold stew, top with the smaller disk, seal, brush with egg if desired (gives a nice colour), cut a couple of slashes for steam to escape, place in the oven on a middle rack (with a baking sheet beneath to catch drips) and bake until golden, and the pastry is cooked.

As always, if you try it, let me know!
N.