Steak and Kidney Pudding

While you ponder on the best way to tackle cooking that great big turkey why not warm up with a good old fashioned Steak and Kidney Pud.

To feed six first cut up 900gms of really good, lean stewing steak together with 300gms of ox kidney. Brown the meat quickly in batches in hot oil. Remove each batch from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. Chop a large onion and a couple of shallots and a scrap of celery or celeriac if you have it. Deglaze the pan with a generous glass of red wine and about 300ml of stock or water. Return the meat to the pan, and cook gently for one and a half to two hours depending on the quality of your beef.

Meanwhile to make the Suet Crust mix 350gms of self raising flour with 175gms of prepared suet, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and salt Add enough water to make a stiff dryish dough. Take a 1.75 litre basin and line it with the suet pastry remembering to keep a piece for the lid. To line the bowl roll out a circle, flour it well and fold it in half. Push up the sides to make a flat bowl shape and continue to roll until it looks as if it will fill your bowl. Lift it carefully and open it up and put it into place. Press it gently against the edge of the bowl. Now roll out your lid and set aside.

When the meat is tender fry 275 gms of mushrooms in a little oil. Stir them into the cooked steak and kidney. This is the moment to add the oysters if you really want to be authentically Old English! Really delicious!

Now carefully spoon the filling into the basin and cover with the pastry lid, sealing well by wetting the rim.  To take a large piece of baking foil and fold making a large pleat to allow you pudding to swell during cooking. Cover the pud with this and a pudding cloth. Secure with string. Place it in a steamer if you have one or in a pan of water on a little trivet or top of an upturned saucer. Cover and simmer for 1 ½ hours. Wrap the pudding in a crisp white napkin, in the traditional way, and serve the pud from the bowl! Bon appetite!

Comments

[Jean M. Pitre]

Dear Sally, Thank you for those wonderful and most traditional recipes. I am about to prepare for the first time a steak and kidney pudding. Your instructions are quite straightforward, but I would like to know more about the foil and cloth wrapping. It seams, looking at your photos, that the pudding is both wrapped in aluminum foil and cloth during steaming. Is this correct? Thanks again for your help. Yours sincerely, Jean M. Pitre