Steak and Kidney Pudding

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •1.2-litre pudding basin
• •Large, deep saucepan with a lid (for steaming)
• •Kitchen string
• •Small trivet or upturned saucer
• •Palette knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Brown the meat

   Get a wide, heavy pan properly hot with a splash of oil and the butter. Season the beef and kidney pieces with salt and pepper, then dust them lightly with the flour. Brown the meat in batches, giving each piece room and time. You want a deep, mahogany crust on the outside, not a pale, steamed surface. If you crowd the pan, the meat stews rather than sears, and you lose all that flavour that sticks to the bottom. Set the browned meat aside on a plate.

   Don't be squeamish about the kidney. Once it's cooked long and slow, it loses any sharpness and becomes something rich and almost sweet. It gives the gravy a depth that beef alone can't.
2. 2

   Build the filling base

   In the same pan, with all those sticky, caramelised bits still clinging to the bottom, soften the onion over a medium heat. Five minutes or so, until it's translucent and beginning to colour. Add the Worcestershire sauce and let it sizzle for a moment. Pour in the stock and stir, scraping up everything from the base of the pan. That residue is flavour. Return the meat to the pan, tuck in the bay leaf and thyme, and bring to a gentle simmer. Let it bubble softly, with a lid on, for about an hour and a half. The beef should be tender but not falling apart. You want it to hold its shape through the steaming. Let the filling cool completely before it goes into the pudding. This is not optional. Hot filling melts the suet crust before it has a chance to set.

3. 3

   Make the suet crust

   While the filling cools, make the pastry. Combine the self-raising flour, suet, and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Add the cold water gradually, mixing with a butter knife, then your hands, until it comes together into a soft, slightly sticky dough. Don't work it like bread. Handle it as little as you can bear. Suet pastry should be tender, not elastic. It wants to be treated gently.

   The dough should feel like soft modelling clay. If it's dry and cracking, add water a teaspoon at a time. If it's stuck to everything, a dusting of flour on your hands will sort it out.
4. 4

   Line the basin

   Butter a 1.2-litre pudding basin generously. Roll out two-thirds of the dough on a floured surface into a circle large enough to line the basin with a little overhang. Lower it in carefully, pressing it into the base and up the sides without stretching. There shouldn't be any gaps or thin spots. Keep the remaining third for the lid.

5. 5

   Fill and seal the pudding

   Spoon the cooled filling into the lined basin, along with enough of its gravy to come about two-thirds of the way up the meat. You want the pudding to be generous, but not so full that it overflows when it swells. Roll out the remaining pastry to make a lid. Brush the edges of the pastry lining with a little water, lay the lid on top, and press the edges together firmly to seal. Trim any excess. It doesn't need to be beautiful. It needs to be sealed.

6. 6

   Prepare for steaming

   Cut a sheet of baking parchment and a sheet of foil, both large enough to cover the basin with room to spare. Lay the parchment on top of the foil and fold a pleat across the centre. This gives the pudding room to expand. Place over the basin, foil side up, and secure tightly with kitchen string tied under the rim. Fashion a string handle across the top so you can lift it in and out of the pan without scalding yourself. This matters more than you think.

   The pleat is important. The pudding swells as it steams, and without that fold the parchment pulls tight and tears. A small thing that saves you a ruined pudding.
7. 7

   Steam the pudding

   Set the basin on an upturned saucer or small trivet in a large, deep pan. Pour in boiling water from the kettle until it comes halfway up the sides of the basin. Put the lid on and let it steam for three and a half to four hours at a steady, gentle simmer. Check the water level every hour and top up with boiling water as needed. Never let the pan boil dry. The kitchen will fill slowly with a smell that is difficult to describe and impossible to mistake: savoury, rich, slightly mineral, deeply comforting. Trust your nose. When the pudding smells like that, the house feels different.

8. 8

   Turn out and serve

   Lift the basin from the pan carefully using the string handle. Remove the foil and parchment. Run a palette knife around the inside edge to loosen. Place a warmed plate over the top, invert, and give it a confident shake. The pudding should unmould in one piece: a pale golden dome, its surface slightly damp from the steam, the suet crust yielding under a spoon to reveal the dark, glossy filling beneath. Cut it at the table. Spoon the gravy that pools on the plate over each serving. Serve with something green: buttered cabbage, or steamed greens with a squeeze of lemon. Nothing fussy. The pudding is the event.

Chef Tips

• •Ask your butcher for ox kidney, not lamb. Ox kidney has a cleaner, more mineral flavour and holds up to the long cooking. Trim the white core out completely. It stays tough no matter how long you cook it, and nobody wants to find that in their pudding.
• •The filling must be cold before it goes into the basin. This is the one rule I won't bend on. Hot filling melts the suet in the pastry before it has a chance to set around it, and you end up with a greasy, collapsed mess instead of a clean dome. Make the filling the night before if it helps. It only improves overnight.
• •Keep the steam gentle. A rolling boil bashes the basin around and can crack the pastry. You want a steady, quiet simmer, the sort where the lid of the pan trembles but doesn't rattle. And keep the water topped up with boiling water, never cold. Cold water drops the temperature and interrupts the cooking.
• •Leftovers, if there are any, reheat surprisingly well. Wrap a slice in foil and steam for twenty minutes, or microwave gently under a damp piece of kitchen paper. The pastry softens again, the gravy warms through, and Tuesday lunch becomes something worth sitting down for.

Advance Preparation

• •The filling can and should be made a day ahead. Cool completely, refrigerate, and spoon into the lined basin the next morning. The flavour deepens overnight and the cold filling is easier to work with.
• •The assembled, uncooked pudding can be refrigerated for up to twelve hours before steaming, making it possible to prepare in the morning and steam in the afternoon.
• •A fully steamed pudding can be kept in its basin, covered, in the fridge for up to two days. Reheat by steaming again for an hour.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 375g)