Recipe for Steak & Kidney Pie

A mixture of beef and beef kidney with onions is one of the very best fillings for a savoury pie (double-crust, of course) or for a steamed suet pudding. A pudding needs to be steamed for ages, so the filling goes in raw and will cook with the pudding; but a pie usually calls for a ready-cooked filling, as the baking time for the pastry is much shorter.

I usually prepare enough filling to make a pie and a pudding and divide it between them. While the pudding steams, I cook the rest of the filling and then chill or freeze it for another time; that way, I can enjoy a proper pie in a little more time than it takes to bake. I’m usually cooking for two, so 800 g of meat (600 g beefsteak and 200 g beef kidney) is about right.

I make individual puddings (in traditional Mason Cash 54S pudding basins (capacity ½ pint or 284 ml)) and as suet pastry is best rolled quite thickly, there’s only room for slightly less than half of the filling. I bake individual pies in traditional enamelled pie dishes. Mine are 18 cm by 13 cm (including a flat rim) and they’re 4 cm deep – they’re a generous size for one serving – so they easily take the rest of the filling. In the recipes, below, I assume that the filling has been divided by about 2:3, but in practical terms, I fill the puddings first and then cook whatever is left for the pies, so these quantities are not set in stone.

The puddings are made with suet pastry, and while you can use it for pies too, I prefer a flaky pastry made with a mixture of beef dripping and butter. This simple flaky pastry uses a higher proportion of fat (4:3) than shortcrust (2:1), and the fat is grated directly into the flour. It doesn’t require repeated rolling and folding, so it’s a quicker and simpler alternative to puff pastry. For the meat, I look for a cut that has a good marbling of fat for the best flavour. I usually use shin, but chuck steak can be good too. I never buy those supermarket packs of anonymous braising or stewing beef. I want to know what I’m getting, and having got it I’ll trim it and cut it myself.

On this page:

• Steak & Kidney Pie
• Steak & Kidney Pudding

Steak & Kidney Pie

Ingredients (for 2)

• For the filling:
  • 360 g shin of beef, cut into 20 mm cubes
  • 120 g beef (ox) kidney, cut into 15 mm cubes
  • 120 g onion, peeled and chopped
  • 1½ tsp plain flour
  • 285 ml beef or other light stock
  • Dash of Worcestershire Sauce
  • Salt & pepper
  • 1 tsp vegetable oil (or beef dripping)
• For the flaky pastry:
  • 200 g plain flour
  • 100 g beef dripping
  • 50 g butter
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • Cold water to mix
  • 1 tbsp milk or egg wash

Method

1. Prepare the filling. Trim the meat of any excess fat and cut it into bite-sized cubes, the kidney slightly smaller than the steak. Peel and chop the onion and combine it with the meat in a mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the flour, stirring well to coat the surface of the meat. Heat the oil/fat in a saucepan (one that has a lid) over medium heat and fry the meat and onions for a few minutes, stirring regularly, until the meat is starting to brown.
2. Add the stock and Worcestershire Sauce, stirring to dissolve any caramelised meat juices from the bottom of the pan. As soon as the stock boils, reduce the heat to a very slow simmer, cover the pan and cook the filling for about 2-2½ hours, stirring from time to time. Set the filling -aside to go completely cold. It can be refrigerated (and kept for up to a week) or frozen for later use.
3. Make the pastry. Weigh out the two fats, cold from the fridge, and then put them in the freezer for 30 minutes to get really hard. Put the flour and the salt into a mixing bowl and using a coarse grater, grate the fats directly into the flour. Alternatively, if your food processor has a coarse grating disc, use that (which has the advantage that you don’t have to handle the fat, which will stay cold, but you do then have something else to clean).
4. Add all the grated fat to the flour and using the blade of a blunt knife, mix the fat into the flour until it is evenly distributed. Don’t handle it: you’re not trying to rub it in, just to coat the pieces of fat in flour so that they remain separate.
5. As soon as the fat is reasonably evenly distributed start adding cold water, a little at a time, just until a dough forms incorporating all the flour. Finally, bring it together with one of your hands to form a compact mass, and then wrap it and rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
6. Once it has rested, use a little extra fat to grease your pie tins and put the block of cold pastry on a floured surface. Roll out the pastry to a rectangle big enough to cut into four: two pieces to line the base and sides of the tins and two smaller pieces that will cover the top. It should be about 3-4 mm thick. Line the tins with the larger pieces, leaving the edges to overhang and divide the ready-cooked filling between the tins. Then wet the rim of the pastry with a little water and put on the lids, using your fingers to press the pastry layers together. You can pinch the pastry all around the rim to make a decorative edge, and then trim off any excess overhanging pastry with a knife.
7. Brush over the top of the pies with milk or egg wash (but it’s hardly worth breaking an egg for the quantity required) and make a small hole in the middle of each lid to allow steam to escape. Put the pies onto a sturdy baking tray and then into a pre-heated oven to bake at 190ºC for about 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and crisp.

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Steak & Kidney Pudding

Ingredients

• For the pastry:
  • 225 g self-raising flour
  • 112 g beef suet
  • Pinch of salt
  • Cold water to mix
  • A little fat to grease the basin
• For the filling:
  • 240 g shin of beef, cut into 20 mm cubes
  • 80 g beef (ox) kidney, cut into 15 mm cubes
  • 80 g onion, peeled and chopped
  • 1 tsp plain flour
  • 175 ml beef or other light stock
  • Dash of Worcestershire Sauce
  • Salt & pepper
• For the basin:
  • Baking parchment
  • Kitchen foil
  • Kitchen string

Method

1. Prepare the filling. Trim the meat of any excess fat and cut it into bite-sized cubes, the kidney slightly smaller than the steak. Peel and chop the onion and combine it with the meat in a mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the flour, stirring well to coat the surface of the meat.
2. Make the pastry. I usually use a food processor for pastry-making as it is so quick and avoids overhandling the dough (which makes it tough). Put the flour and salt into the bowl and pulse the motor a couple of times to mix them and to aerate the flour. Add the suet and pulse again to incorporate the fat throughout the flour and then start adding cold water. Continue to pulse the motor, adding a little water each time, just until the mixture comes together into a ball and then stop.
3. Use a little fat to grease your pudding basin and then set aside ¼ of the dough for the lid and form a neat ball with the rest on a floured work surface. Roll out the pastry to a circle just bigger than the width of the bottom of the basin plus the height of both sides. It should be quite thick. Line the basin with the pastry, using your fingers to even out the dough thickness around the sides, leaving a small overlap.
4. Carefully fill the lined basin with the seasoned meat mixture until it is completely full. Shake a little Worcestershire Sauce over the meat and then pour in enough stock to come just level with the top of the basin. Roll out the remainder of the pastry for a lid. Wet the rim of the pastry and carefully press the join to seal it. Roll the overlapping pastry in to form a slightly raised edge and then cover the top of the pudding with baking parchment and then kitchen foil. Tie kitchen string around the rim of the basin and then take it right under the basin and back over the top, before tying it off to form a handle.
5. Lower the basin into a steamer with plenty of water, bring the water to a boil and then reduce the heat to low, steaming the pudding for 4 hours. Check the water level, from time to time, and top it up from a boiled kettle if necessary.
6. When the pudding is cooked, take it from the steamer, cut the strings and carefully peel off the foil and parchment. Loosen the pastry around the sides of the bowl with a knife and it should turn out whole. Serve.

Note

• A good insurance against any risk of the pudding sticking to the basin is to cut a circle of baking parchment the size of the rim of the basin. Draw a 2nd inner circle the size of the base of the basin, then use a pair of kitchen scissors to snip from the outside edge to the inner line all around (I do 16 cuts, starting with 4, and then cutting again between them, and then again between those). You can place the circle in the bottom of the basin before you put in the pastry and then the pudding can’t stick. It easy to peel off the paper once you have turned out the steamed pudding.

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This is the last article in a short series devoted to British pies. The others include recipes for Meat & Potato Pie and Pork Pie.