The Village Idiot
7383 Melrose Blvd., Los Angeles

We visited The Village Idiot Thursday @ 8:30 pm
Dish we will try to cook – Steak & Potato Pie $12

Restaurant Visit
While we started our second year of We Can Cook That cooking British cuisine, we’ll be honest and say that the food wasn’t one that we thought would really be very good. We all know that British food has a bad reputation. Most people think of bangers and mash or fish and chips as the most traditional dishes. On the plus side, there’s nothing quite like afternoon tea at a famous English tea room. With these preconceived notions, we entered the door at The Village Idiot expecting more of a pub than an actual restaurant, but soon discovered the establishment is more restaurant than pub. While there are a few seats around the central bar, to truly enjoy the night you need a table and a couple plates of food. To our surprise, at 8:30 on a Thursday night we had about a thirty-minute wait. The tables were booked from the moment we arrived until after we left around 10pm. While we waited, we enjoyed two glasses of wine but noted that they have 8 beers on tap and 8 additional bottled beers. There was also a list of bombers beers. The overall feel of the restaurant was a bit more San Francisco than LA, with tall ceilings and brick walls. The wall of childhood framed photos was very entertaining and lent the place that neighborhood feel.

The menu isn’t overly large but has a fair bit of variety. There are the traditional sections of soup and salad plus starters. Then it is divided into: No Face (vegetarian), Two Legs (poultry), Four Legs (beef, pork, sausage) and No Legs (fish). True British humor shines brightly with those categories. And of course, there are Sides and Desserts. Since our goal was to reproduce a traditional British dish, we choose the steak and potato pie $12, and the grilled pork sausage (caramelized onions, Yukon mash, port wine sauce) $13. We also ordered the crispy sunchokes (buttermilk gremolata) $7, for a starter.

The sunchokes were prepared as you would if using fried potatoes – cubed and fried brown. It wasn’t until the end of the bite that we tasted the differentiating sunchoke flavor. The sauce was similar to a sour cream with a hint of lemon. After a bit of a wait, service was sparse and not overly friendly, we were served our main courses. When we ordered the dishes, we thought we would prepare the grilled pork sausage since the traditional bangers and mash seemed the classic British dish. But upon tasting both dishes, we quickly changed our minds. We asked if they made their sausage in house and were told that they do not, they use Mad Mike’s sausage – disappointment number one. Not that we have anything against Mad Mike’s sausage, but it would be more authentic if they made their own. Disappointment number two was the Yukon potatoes. Maybe our British readers will set us straight, but the potatoes tasted like they were out of a box. Is this the traditional way of making “mash?” There was zero flavors, not creamy, salty, peppery, nothing. And if there were caramelized onions, we didn’t taste them. The dish was certainly eatable, but wasn’t anything you couldn’t throw together at home after a long day’s work.

Now the steak and potato pie on the other hand was simplistically deceiving. The name doesn’t sound fancy, but we both enjoyed the dish very much. On the outside was a golden, crispy crust that was easily cut with a fork to reveal almost a pot roast combination of steak, potatoes and gravy inside. On a surprising note, there was more steak than potatoes but those were pretty much the only ingredients. Nothing fussy about this pie. The sauce was a bit salty but there was also a surprising flavor of citrus, our guess was lemon, to the dish. This tangy flavor kept the pie from feeling heavy and kept the taste buds tingling. Our only complaint was the pie was only about the size of our palms; we wish it had been bigger.

While one dish was a hit and the other was a flop, we will certainly be hitting up The Village Idiot again in the future. Several tables ordered the fish and chips and we have no doubt that dish is satisfying. The crowd seemed mostly young, local professionals out for drinks after a long day of work. Keep the place in mind next time you’re craving a British pub with a bit of California flair.

Shopping
(prices reflect the cost of the package, not the portion we used.) The rest of the ingredients we already had in the kitchen.

Whole Foods
Lurpak Sweet Butter $4.39
Beef Stock, 2 boxes – 6 cups each $7.98
Beef Stew Meat $7.55
2 lb. bag of Red Potatoes $3.99
Yellow Onion $.95
Italian Salad Mix $2.99

Sur La Table
Round Cutter Set, 12 rounds $28
5 inch Pie Pans, 2 $3.90

Recipe
Below is our take on the traditional British steak and potato pie. While we have no idea exactly how they prepare theirs, we looked around online for recipes then combined that knowledge with the flavors we tasted in the original dish and went from there.

Makes 6 pies.

Steak and Potato Pie

Pie Filling-

1 1/2 lbs chuck steak, cut into 3/4” chunks
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus 1 TBSP
1 1/2 lbs red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2” cubes
6 cups beef stock
Zest from half a lemon
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and black pepper to taste

Pie Crust-

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded beef suet
1/4 cup butter, cubed, plus butter for greasing
2/3 cup water
1 egg, beaten

Hardware-
4 1/2” cutting ring
4 1/2” pie dishes

Salt and pepper the meat. In a pot, add 1/4 cup oil over high heat. Sift in flour and stir constantly using a wooden spoon for about 5 minutes. Be sure to scrape bottom and sides of pot to prevent burning. Mix in onions and cook until soft. Remove from pot and set aside. Add remaining 1 TBSP oil to pot, turn to high and add meat, browning on each side. Return onion mixture to pot, mix, add lemon zest and stock, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil then simmer for 1 hour. Add potatoes and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from heat. (Note: sauce should have a thick consistency. If sauce is too thin, add additional flour and simmer until sauce thickens). Allow to cool completely, then refrigerate and allow to chill for 2 hours up to overnight.

In a bowl, sift the flour. Add salt, shredded suet and butter. Add water and knead until forming a smooth dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and allow to chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a board, roll out dough to about 1/4” thick. Cut rounds out of dough with cutting ring. Grease pie dishes with butter. Lay 1 piece of cut dough on pie dish and work dough up sides of dish, creating an inner crust. Fill dish with chilled filling. Place another piece of cut dough on top and pinch both pieces of dough together, sealing the pie. Brush beaten egg on crust. Make a 1/2” slit on top of pie. Repeat process until all pies are made. Bake pies for 40-50 minutes, or until crust is a golden brown. Once done, remove from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Remove pies from pie dishes.

Plating
Place one pie on a round plate and serve with a side of mixed salad tossed with a light balsamic vinaigrette.

Rating- We give our dish 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Romeo jokes that we didn’t give ourselves a 5 because we bought prepackaged salad, but the real reason is because we feel our sauce in the pie was every so slightly off from The Village Idiots. It is super, super close to theirs but something lingers in our minds that a spice or two may be missing. The most interesting part of this recipe to us was learning what beef suete was and how it is used. I guess this is what people cooked with before Crisco? Who knew?

The pies are fairly simple to make yet look so much more exciting on a plate than simple pot roast. They also refrigerate well and are easy to reheat in a toaster oven or microwave. We hope you give this recipe a try yourself, loves. And be sure to pop in to The Village Idiot next time you find yourself on Melrose.

How would you rate our recipe? We look forward to hearing feedback from you guys. What’s your favorite British dish? Feel free to email us if you have any questions on the recipe and don’t forget to vote for next week’s restaurant!