Steak and kidney pudding differs from a pie in that it’s made in a deep dish and not a flat pie dish -it’s made by enclosing diced steak and kidney chunks in gravy with a suet pastry. If you don’t like kidneys, simply leave them out and serve a Steak Pudding instead.  A pudding is not baked, it’s steamed for good many hours until cooked unlike the pie when the meat is usually cooked before and the baking is mainly to cook the crust.  With Steak and Kidney pudding, the bowl is lined with the pastry and it is in this that the  uncooked steak and kidney mixture is placed with the various flavourings.

The ‘lid’ is then place on this, sealed well and covered with a muslin cloth and then the pudding is put in a  covered saucepan and steamed for about 4 – 5 hours until the pudding is cooked. It is so popular in England that no look at the food of the country would be complete with including a recipe for a Babby’s Yead – a word used for the pudding in some parts of England.

Ingredients

Filling

• 700 g stewing steak, cut into large chunks
• 200 g  beef kidneys, cut into large chunks
• Seasoned flour, for dusting
• Sunflower oil, for frying
• 175 ml  Madeira wine
• 25 ml brandy
• 1 onion, chopped
• 100 g champignons, halved
• 1 fresh bay leaf
• 10 allspice berries, finely ground
• 2 tbsp1Worcestershire sauce
• 3 tbsp oyster sauce
• 500 ml  beef stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Crust

• 225 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 115 g suet (this is available in supermarkets everywhere)
• 30 g fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp salt
• 100  ml water
• butter, for greasing

Gravy

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 200 ml good hearty red wine
• 25 ml brandy
• 100 ml homemade beef stock
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce (optional)
• Malden salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

• Place the  steak and kidney pieces in a Ziploc bag with the seasoned flour, close the top and then shake a few times, remove  any excess and set aside for use.
• Heat a little sunflower oil in a large, heavy based frying pan and fry the meat and kidneys in small batches until browned all over, adding more oil if necessary with each batch – transfer the cooked pieces to a clean pan.
• Deglaze the pan in which the meat and the kidneys were cooked with the Madeira wine and brandy and pour over the beef and kidneys.
• Wipe the first pan with an absorbent kitchen towel, add a little oil and fry the chopped onion until translucent at which point you add it to the pan with the meat.
• Now fry the mushrooms in the frying pan for a few minutes and add it to the main sauce pan with the bayleaf, the allspice, the worcestershire sauce, the oyster sauce and just enough stock to cover the meat, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, stir and allow to a simmer.
• Cut a piece of greaseproof paper into a circle the same size as the pan, dampen the paper and  then cover the stew with the dampened greaseproof paper, put on the lid and simmer for one hour and 30 minutes or until the meat is just tender, remove from the heat and leave to cool.
• For the crust, mix the flour, baking powder, suet, breadcrumbs and salt together in a bowl and gradually mix in enough water to form a soft dough – it may not be necessary to utilise all the water.
• Roll out  ¾  of the dough to a 5 mm thick circle and a little larger than a 1.2 litre pudding basin – butter the basin and press in the dough, making sure there is some overhang from the edges.
• Spoon the steak and kidney into the pudding basin and pour in enough gravy to come just below the top of the meat.
• Roll out the rest of the dough into a 5 mm thick circle, moisten the edges and put over the top of the basin, pinching  the edges firmly together and trimming off any excess.
• Cut out a circle of greaseproof paper or aluminium foil about 5 cm larger than the top of the pudding and grease one side – lay it greased side down over the pastry.
• Attach the paper to the pudding with string, making a handle over the top so that it is easy to remove it from the pot/pan later – don’t  pull the cover tight over the top – you have to leave a little to balloon up because the pudding swells up while it is cooking.
• Steam in a covered steamer or pot that’s half full of simmering water for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until the pastry is cooked through (and that takes a bit of time – remember raw pastry tastes disgusting).
• To make the gravy, heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onion, frying on low heat for 15 minutes, or until the onion is golden-brown but not burnt = pour in the wine, the brandy and the stock and reduce the heat,  allowing it  to simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by half.
• Stir in the mustard and check and correct the seasoning.
• Pour yourself a glass of wine before serving – you deserve it after this.