I was up early (06:00 though this is my normal workday arising) as I was making a steak and kidney pudding and though it was unplanned a steak and kidney pie with suet crust (I had loads of filling and loads of suet pastry left over for the pudding).
I was going to make the great Keith Floyds, from his Great Britain and Ireland cookery book! I then thought I would pep it up a bit and make a herb suet pastry, that I often use when making savoury pud, I got the ingredients together and made the suet pastry for my game puddings. I of course took no notice of the quantities and how many it would make. ahem! It will normally make 6-8 individual ones (depending on the thickness of the pastry). This meant I had double the amount of everything! So that is the story behind the making of the steak, kidney and mushroom pie.
Ingredients:
Suet Pastry
400g of plain flour
200g of suet
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 dessert spoon of mixed herbs (I used fresh from my balcony herb garden) rosemary, sage, thyme, mint and oregano.
200ml of cold water
Pinch of salt and pepper
Mix all of the dry ingredients together, add the water and bring together into a ball.
Filling:
1kg of braising steak (mainly chuck and rump about 50%-50%)
500g ox-kidney
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| Snipping out the hard core with kitchen scissors |
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| The kidney |
A small handful of dried Herb de Provence (if you have a big hand use the wifes)
½ large onion or a whole medium one (depends what you have in the house) diced
1 garlic clove crushed and chopped
A few splashes of Lee & Perrings
Salt and pepper
Place all in a bowl and dust with a little flower (this thickens the gravy)
Stock:
300ml Vegetable stock (Marigold) or good beef stock.
Trimmings from the meat
About 3 cm of the with from a leek
Half a carrot diced
A bit of celeriac finely diced (or a couple of stalks of celery chopped)
Bits and pieces from the mushrooms
A small glass of red wine (that was all that was left over from last night)
Put into a pan and heat through, let it bubble for ½ hour while you do the rest of the things.
Roll out the pastry about 2-3mm thick cut out a circle that you think is big enough to line your pudding basin (the rest is for the pie crust of the pie that you had not originally planned). Cut out ¼ and set this aside (it will be the top). Now fit the suet pastry into the pudding basin pushing it down into the bottom and join the seams, this is easier than you think, it is a bit like playing with plastercine (playdough, I think it is called now-a-days). Leave the pastry a bit proud of the basin (this will help to seal the top)
Fill the lined basin with the filling mixture; packing down well, the filling should be domed higher than the top of the basin. (It will compact even more as it cooks).
Strain the gravy, and pour into the pudding (there will be enough left over for later).
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| Notice the remainder of the filling languishing nonchalantly in the rear |
Roll out the ¼ for the top, form into a ball and roll out on a floured surface, place on top of the pudding and fold the sides together, thumb and finger, turning into a rope edging (it does look pretty!
Cover the top of the pudding with a round of grease proof paper, then fold a pleat in a square of foil quite a bit bigger than the top of the pudding basin, wrap this to below the lip on the bowl and tie with kitchen string.
I have a trivet, that I put in the base of the pan (it means that there is always water in the pan under the pudding basin).
Now put the basin on the trivet and pour in boiling water so that it comes up 2/3 of the height. Bring back to the boil, put the lid on and steam for 3 or 4 hours (it doesn’t matter one little bit).
In the mean time I turned my attention to the remains.
The Steak, Kidney and Mushroom Pie
I softened ½ of the remaining ½ of the onion and some wild boar ham (it can be any raw ham, but I just happened to have some wild boar ham handy) in a little goose fat (it can be oil for the more healthy living amongst us), added a teaspoon of tomato paste, cooked through, then the remainder of the filling, a hand full of dried herbs, some diced carrots, celeriac and leek. In with the remainder of the gravy that you saved from the pudding. Bring to the boil lid, on and turn the heat down low, simmer for a couple of hours, adjust the seasoning at the end (I added a ¼ of a teaspoon of Colman’s mustard powder).
When ready pour out into a pie dish, roll out the remaining suet pastry and plonk on top, it will find its own level, push the sides down, brush top with milk and put into an oven, middle shelf at 180°C for about 30 minutes, check and raise then temperature up to 200°C until the top is golden brown.
I served it with Dauphinoise Potatoes or to be really cheffy Pommes Dauphinoise
This is a much malined dish, please note!!!!! Their is no cheese in it, there shouldn't be any cheese in it, there never was any cheese in an authentic Pommes Dauphinoise.
400g Floury potatoes
1 clove of garlic crushed and chopped
25g butter
330ml cream (or half cream and half milk)
salt and pepper
Nut meg
Cut some floury potaoes into quite thin slices, put into water until ready (this stops discolouration), Rub a oven proof bowl with a bit of the crushed garlic, rub around with butter and start layering the base with the potato slices, dot with butter,
a good grating of pepper and a sprinkling of salt. Carry on with thos procedure until all of the potatoes are used up (try and make the top layer even and over lapping a bit like roof tiles, this does impress the girls), Dot the top with butter pour over the remainder of the cream and a scraping of nutmeg, put the lid on or cover with foil if the lid is broken. Pop into a pre-heated oven 180°C for about an hour, check with the point of a sharp knife, when it goes in with little resistance it is cooked. Turn up the heat to about 220°C to brown the top (you can pop it under a grill to do this)
I also made a Cauliflower Mornay
Please note, there is meant to be cheese in a Cauliflower Mornay that is why I put it in!
1 nice head of cauliflower cut into large florettes
1/4 of the remaining onion, diced
Another couple of slices of that wonderful wild boar schinken diced
1 tablespoon of goose fat
70g grated cheese
10g butter
10g flour
150ml caulifower cooking water mixed with
250 ml milk
grated nutmeg
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| Adding the onions and wild boar ham |
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| A grating of netmeg |
Cook the cauliflower until it is just done, still got bite (please, please don't boil it until it is falling apart, then there is more goodness in the water than in the Cauli). strain through a colander and place in a layer in an oven proof serving dish. Heat the goose fat in a frying pan and soften the onion add the schinken and fry quickly when it starts to crisp pour over the cauliflower,
Now make your sauce, heat the butter in a small saucepan, add the flour and cook together for a couple of minutes, slowly add in the liquid a little at a time, stirring continually, making sure there are no lumps. when you have added half of the liquid there should be no chance of it splitting or clumping, so pour in the rest but keep on whisking, bring it to just below boiling and allow to thicken, it is ready when it coats the back of a spoon, now add the cheese (I would have loved to have had Greyere but alas edam had to surfice) and continue to stir until it is all combined. Pour over the Cauli and grate some more cheese and some nutmeg over the top and pop under the grill to colour a little.
That's it, a Sunday Lunch fit for a ? well just let us say King Richard would have been proud of it
Cheers
Have a nice week!
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