Birthday Meal - Steak & Oyster Pie

It was my partner A's birthday last week.  He requested a pie.  This request became my first weekly recipe.  I looked at 'England's Finest Heritage Food and Cooking.  My criteria was:
1.  Puff pastry (personal preference)
2. Not chicken (I don't like how it re-heats)

Anyway, found the recipe very quickly and didn't look at any more books.  I planned to make the pie filling the night before, so all I would need to do was top it with the (ready made) pastry the following day.  This is even mentioned in the recipe.  This decision raised the question... shall I add the oysters the night before as well - I don't consider giving food poisoning an appropriate birthday present!!??  I even asked the fishmonger who said it would be OK but A was unhappy.  We reached a compromise - A shucked the oysters the following morning leaving them in a sealed tub.  I added them in the evening when I was making up the pie itself.

Making the pie filling was no real problem.  Much like making a stew.  I really wanted to add chopped bacon as I find it adds to this sort of food but resisted as 'it was not in the recipe'.  I used Old Speckled Hen ale for no other reason than we had it in the house, out of date but I thought it tasted OK.  Obviously not as worried about food poisoning when it comes to alcohol!!!!!. 

It was all very straight forward. My main comments are:
- I did not reduce the sauce to the quantity stated in the recipe.  It looked like there was the right amount already and I was hoping there would be enough to make into gravy.
- I do not own a large pie dish so made two smaller pies from same packet of puff pastry (which used more than if making one large pie).
- After cooking the pie itself, I would have liked the sauce thicker so would add flour / cornflour next time.  But that might just be a personal preference.
- Interestingly the oysters stayed very plump and soft despite being cooked for an hour in the pie (from cold).
- I liked it cooked in ale.  You could add red wine which I have added to stews in the past.  I found the addition of ale did not overwhelm the taste the way red wine can.
- The recipe was for six and there were five of us.  There were left-overs, which were happily eaten by A over the following two days.