Cassie's Recipe of the Week

Steak and Kidney Pudding

This is for AL, who requested the recipe:

Ingredients

For the Suet Crust Pastry

• 12 ounces Self-Raising Flour
• 6 ounces shredded beef or vegetable suet
• Salt and freshly milled black pepper
• Cold water to mix

For the filling

• 1 and 1/4 lbs of chuck steak
• 10 ounces of ox kidney
• 2 level tablespoons well-seasoned flour
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• Cold water
• 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and freshly milled black pepper

Method

To make the pastry first sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add some freshly milled black pepper, then add the suet and mix it into the flour using the blade of a knife. When it is evenly blended, add few drops of cold water and start to mix with the knife, using curving movements and turning the mixture around.

The aim is to bring it together as a dough, so keep adding drops of water until it begins to get really claggy and sticky. Now abandon the knife, go in with your hands and bring it all together until you have a nice smooth elastic dough which leaves the bowl clean. It is worth noting that suet pastry always needs more water than other types, so if it is still a bit dry just go on adding a few drops of water at a time.

After that, take a quarter of the dough for the lid, then roll the rest out fairly thickly. What you need is a round approx. 13 inches in diameter. Now line the bowl with the pastry, pressing it well all around

Next, chop the steak and kidney into fairly small cubes, toss them into the seasoned flour, then add them to the pastry lined basin with the slices of onion. Add enough cold water to reach almost the top of the meat and sprinkle in a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and another seasoning of salt and pepper.

Roll out the pastry lid, dampen its edges and put it in position on the pudding. Seal well and cover with a double sheet of foil, pleated in the centre to allow room for expansion while cooking. Now secure it with string , making a little handle to that you can lift it out of the hot steamer. Then place it in a steamer over boiling water. Steam for 5 hours, topping up the boiling water halfway through. You can either serve the pudding by spooning portions out of the basin, or slide a palette knife round the edge and turn the whole thing out on to a serving plate (which is more fun).

My personal serving suggestion with the pudding would be boiled potatoes, boiled carrots and spring greens.

This recipe is taken from Delia Smith's Winter Collection© - I hope she doesn't mind, I did buy the book!

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