Steak & Kidney Pudding 2 – profoodhomemade

Steak & Kidney Pudding

How to make an incredibly tasty Steak & Kidney Pudding, a true British classic, Easy step by step instructions, from start to finish.

Ingredients

Method

The Pudding Pastry:
170g / 6oz Plain or all-purpose flour
90mls Milk, (full or half fat)
30g / 1oz Butter
55g / 2oz Beef suet
4g / 1tsp Baking powder
50g / 2oz Leek (finely chopped)
The Beef filling:
500g / 18oz Stewing beef
140g / 5oz Lamb kidney
I medium onion (chopped)
570mls / 1pt Beef stock
15g / 1tbls Tomato puree
2tsp Corn flour/starch
2 Bay leaves (optional)
Salt & Pepper to taste
15mls / 1tbls Olive or Vegetable oil

Making the steak & kidney filling:
In a large frying pan, on a high heat, stir-fry the diced steak until it has some colour, once browned, add the diced onions and fry for a further 2 minutes.
Transfer the meat and onions to a medium size saucepan.
Time to add your beef stock, if you don’t have any natural beef stock, use stock cubes instead, bring that to a steady boil, then add the tomato puree, stir in until melted.
Add 1 large or 2 small bay leaves, these are an optional extra, but do release an amazing flavour.
Now season the recipe to your taste, I like to add a ¼tsp each of salt and black pepper.
Give it a good stir and place the lid on, turn the heat down to a simmer, and set your timer for 1 hour.
After the first 45 minutes, stop the timer, you can now add your diced kidney to the pot, give it a good stir, bring it back to a simmer, then restart your timer.

After the time is up, your meat should now be tender enough to carry on with the recipe.

Next step, ladle off half of the beef stock, this will be used to make an incredibly tasty gravy later on, remove the bay leaves.
Time to mix up some thickener, add 2 heaped tsp of corn flour/starch, to 40mls of cold water, and give it a good mix, this should be enough to thicken the gravy too.
Add a little of the thickener to the pot, and give it a good mix, add more if you think it needs it, you’re filling should now be thick enough to use as the pudding filling.
Now cover the pan with the lid, and allow it to completely cool, you can make this well in advance.
Making the suet/pudding pastry:
Add the flour, baking powder and butter, to a bowl, and rub them together.
Add the suet and leeks and mix them in. (if you can’t get suet where you live, simply add extra 55g / 2oz of butter to the stage above.
Add the milk to the bowl, and cut it all together, you should now have a slightly sticky dough, form it into a large puck shape, cover the bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes.
Grease an average size pudding basin (see the video).
Turn out the pastry onto a floured surface, cut off 100 grams, and set it aside for the lid.
Form the rest back into a puck shape, and roll out a circle, 23 x 0.6cm or 9 x ¼inch.
Roll out the lid of the pudding, to a circle 0.6cm / ¼” thick.
Cut a small wedge out of the large pastry and line your pudding basin with it (see the video).
Take your now cooled meat filling, and fill the bowl to just short of the top of the pastry in the bowl.
Place the lid on top of the meat filling, brush water all around the edge of the lid, and the wall of the pastry, and using a small knife fold the wall of the pastry over the lid, and blend it in, until you have a completely sealed pudding.
Cover the top of the bowl with a pleated parchment paper, and fasten in down with string or an elastic band.
Place the bowl in a steamer, and steam for 1 hour.
Alternatively: sit the bowl in a pan of shallow boiling water, but only cook for 30 minutes, when using this method.
Once the time is up, remove the paper, and carefully turn the bowl upside down on a large plate, and carefully lift off the bowl, leaving the pudding sitting on the plate.
Making the gravy:
Pour the stock that you removed from the meat earlier, into a small saucepan, bring it to a simmer, add a couple of small knobs of butter (this will give the gravy a nice glaze).
Mix in the rest of your cornflour from earlier, a little at a time, until you reach the required thickness.
Slice and serve your pudding with vegetables and mashed potatoes, and lots of that wonderful gravy.
Enjoy.