Rosemary’s Steak and Kidney Pudding

      

This is my version which I have been working on – The red wine herbs and garlic really enhances the flavours. I made a big one (8 servings), so doubled up on everything apart from the stock which I added about an extra 200 mls of, the amounts below are for 4 servings.

For the filling

110g (4oz) Kidney (Pork / Beef / Lamb) chopped coarsely – white bits removed

450g (1 lb) Stewing steak (cubed to about 1.5 / 2 cm size) – dipped in seasoned flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

Small  to Medium onion finely chopped – About 110 grams (4oz)

110g (4oz) sliced mushroom (optional)

2 carrots sliced

1 clove garlic – minced

425 ml (¾)  a pint of beef stock

2 Bay leaves

Small glass red wine

Put everything in a slow cooker and cook on low for 10 hours until meat is tender, check seasoning  and leave to cool.

Alternatively fry off the onions in the oil, fry off the meat, add all the other ingredients mix it all through, cover and simmer for about 2 hours until the meat is tender, check seasoning. Leave to cool.

Suet Pastry

It is always half fat to flour so easy to increase the amount if you want to

225g (8oz) self raising flour

¼ teaspoon salt

110g Suet

Mix it through with a fork and add water a bit at a time (it doesn’t need much), to get a nice pliable dough consistency.

Now to put it all together …

Butter a suitable heatproof deep bowl, about a 2 pint one will be perfect.

Take about one quarter of the dough and put to one side. Roll the rest out to more or less the size needed to line the bowl. Using a bit of dough press it to shape (don’t break the dough, it must stay intact – Long nails are not good, hence using a ball of the dough to help shape it!) Bring it right to the top of the dish. Fill with your meat mixture to about an inch from the top. Then roll out the rest of the dough to make a lid and gently press to seal the edges.

Now for the tin foil … Rip a decent sized piece off,  to cover the dish to about 2 inches  down the sides, making a pleat along the middle to give space for the pastry to rise.  Make sure it is well sealed as you do not want water getting into the dish, by tying string around the top, and then make handle out of either string or a good length of foil folded a few times so you can lift the pudding out of the water when cooked.

In a deep pan, bring about 3 to 4 cms of water to the boil, when boiling lower in the pudding using your string / foil handle …. cover and simmer …. Keep the water level to about half way up the sides of the bowl, top up as and when necessary, and simmer for about 1.5 – 2 hours.

Alternatively, use a pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for about 40 minutes, using the same amount of boiling water as above.

When cooked, remove the foil and you can either tip it out upside down to serve, or wrap it in a white tea towel and take the whole pudding to the table, which is the traditional way of serving!

Enjoy and let me know how you get on …. Rosemary x