Steak and kidney pudding is possibly one of the best known English dishes worldwide. It is certainly the epitome of winter comfort food with its tasty dark juices, tender beef and rich melt in the mouth pastry. Steak and kidney is also popular here in Ireland but we tend to create steak and kidney pies rather than puddings. Also, more and more these days, you see restaurants leaving out the kidney and just offering ‘steak pie’. While it is often very good, without the kidney and the suet pudding, we are moving farther and farther away from the original dish. If you have only ever experienced a steak and kidney pie and enjoyed it, but have never tried a proper steamed steak and kidney pudding, then this week you are in for a treat. The main differences between a pie and a pudding are that suet pastry is used in a pudding, it is cooked in a deep bowl rather than a shallow dish and it is steamed on the hob rather than baked in the oven. Indeed it is treated very like a traditional Christmas pudding.
Steak and kidney pudding is very simple to make. The drawback is that it takes roughly four hours to steam so it is a dish that needs to be planned. With busy working schedules it is possibly best left to the weekends or a day off. It can also create quite a fog in the kitchen! On the other hand you can totally ignore the element of fog and just concentrate on the lovely aromas it produces as it steams slowly. On a cold and wet winter afternoon you can prepare the pudding and then sit back and relax as the heady scent of beef, onion and mushroom (depending on the recipe) fragrance the air and tempt your appetite with every flavorsome waft. Personally I can put up with the steam because of the lovely smells it produces while cooking.
Steak and kidney pudding is generally thought of as a man’s dish. While I know plenty of ladies who love it, I suppose its richness and the fact that it is best enjoyed with creamy, buttery mash makes it a rare destination for the weight conscious. Admittedly if you were attempting the Pavarotti look regular steak and kidney puddings would get you there quite quickly but as a little indulgence every once and a while it’s harmless. (Go on, you know you’ll love it!)
One of my customers is a smashing lady, originally from Yorkshire in the North of England who has lived in Clonmel for many years having married a native. While buying ox kidney and some chuck steak for a pudding once, she pointed out the differences between a traditional pudding and the pie version. She assured me that once I had tried a proper steamed pudding I might never go back to a pie. I argued that while she made it sound very nice it seemed like there was a lot more trouble to making a pudding than a pie! I was instantly rebuked for such lazy nonsense without any actual evidence to support such a claim. She challenged me to try it and even gave me her own recipe which had been handed down from her grandmother. I was honored and felt I had to at least give it a try. It was absolutely delicious.
For previous generations of women in England making suet pastry was only possible if a butcher provided the fat needed. They would then take the fat, usually kidney fat, and finely grate it or chop it for use in the pastry. While you can of course request your butcher to save some kidney fat for you, these days most people rely on Atora suet, readily available in most supermarkets. When making the pastry the suet takes a little bit of extra kneading but it will be worth it for the very soft and easy to work with pastry that results. The other tip I would offer is that you should only use ice cold water when making the pastry as you don’t want the suet to melt at this prep stage. Once prepared, I suggest leaving it to rest in the fridge for about 20 to 30 minutes. If you leave it for too long it will swell like bread dough. Another interesting tip that my Yorkshire friend gave me is that once you have diced up the kidney, wrap the raw steak pieces around the raw kidney pieces before seasoning it and placing it in the bowl. This definitely adds a little to the preparation work but if you have the time do it. For the lid of the pudding you will need greaseproof paper, tin foil and some string so make sure they are handy before you start.
I particularly like this dish because most of the mess is made during the preparation and it is well cleaned up before you sit down to eat; you have at least four hours! The only necessary side dish is plenty of buttery mash. For this reason the washing up after the meal is minimal. If you do it right all you should be left with is a few licked clean plates, an empty pudding bowl and wonderfully sated diners.
By the way Lena in our deli at James Whelan Butchers does an excellent steak and kidney pie which I could also recommend to you, it’s as close as there is to making your own. I welcome feedback any time by email to pat@jwb.ie
Pauline’s granny’s recipe for Steak and Kidney pudding
Cook: 4 hours
Ingredients
250g self-raising flour, plus a little extra
125g Atora shredded suet
Salt
Approx 4 tbsp cold water
For the filling:
1 large onion diced
1½ tbsp vegetable oil
2 large flat mushrooms, approx 200g
500 g chuck steak
125g Ox kidney (Lamb’s kidney can also be used)
Approx 2 tbsp flour
Pepper
A generous pinch of mustard powder (Optional)
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme, optional
Approx 25g butter
350ml beef stock
Method
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add the suet and a good pinch of salt. Mix, then add the water, a little at a time, to bind into a light, spongy pastry. Leave it to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes while you prepare everything else.
Finely chop the onion and leave to one side. Wipe the mushrooms and cut into chunky pieces.
Trim away any fat and sinew from the steak and cut into kebab-size chunks or, if you are going to wrap the steak around the kidney pieces, cut it into 1 x1 x 3cm strips. Cut the kidney into slightly smaller pieces, discarding the white core.
Put the flour on a plate and add the salt and pepper and powdered mustard if using. Roll the meat in the flour.
Halve the pastry and flour a work surface. Lavishly butter the pudding bowl. Set aside just over a quarter of the pastry for the lid. Roll the pastry into a circle to fit the basin with a 2cm overhang.
To fill make a layer of meat, then onion, then mushroom and keep repeating the layers until you reach the top. (If you are time pressed then you can just mix all the filling ingredients together and put them in the bowl.)
Once filled, add sufficient stock to moisten but do not drench or cover the filling. Roll the lid to fit. Moisten the overhang, fit the lid and pinch and roll the two together to seal securely.
Centre pleat a large piece of greaseproof paper and then some tinfoil and place loosely over the top. Tie it securely, going round twice, with string under the rim of the basin, then loop a handle across the top of the pudding, allowing plenty of room for the pudding to expand — which it will.
Lift the pudding into a large saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Add sufficient boiling water to come two thirds of the way up the basin, fit the lid and boil for 4 hours. Check every hour or so and top up with more boiling water.
To serve, lift the pudding bowl out of the pot on to a plate. Remove the foil. If you are brave enough you can turn the pudding out onto a plate to create a visual ‘wow’ or you can just serve it straight from the pudding bowl.
