Cheating steak and kidney pudding
I love a steak and kidney pudding. The rich filling, the drama of cutting into it and steam errupting out, the spongy case, there’s so much to love. Next time I’ve got a spare weekend I’ll have a go to make one, but with the hours of steaming it’s not practical for a midweek tea.
I replaced the suet pudding with bread which is a surprisingly good substitute (and quick!) once again proving bread is a awesome replacement for pastry.
You will need
- Steak and kidney mix. I used a 300g pack
- A small onion
- a bay leaf
- a stock cube
- a teaspoon of flour
- a squirt of tomato puree
- twice as much white bread as you think you’ll need
- spreadable butter
- dijon mustard
- a tall sided pie tin
Do
- Brown the steak and kidney in a pan for a couple of minutes until everything is well coloured
- Put the meat off to one side and then brown the onion (finely diced) in the same pan with a little more butter or oil
- Once the onions are glossy and translucent add a teaspoon of flour, stir round ad cook for another minute or two.
- Add the bay leaf, tomato, stock cube and meat. Add half a pint of water. Stir and bring to a gentle boil
- Gently simmer for about half an hour. The steak should be tender, the liquid reduced to a thick gloss
- Stick the oven on at 180
- Spread the bread with a thin layer of mustard, then butter. Cut off the crusts.
- Line the tin and then press firmly into the tin.
- Spoon the filling into the tin and top with more bread.
- Bake for about 20 minutes. The top should be like overdone toast.
- Serve by turning out, toast side down.
Results
It’s not steak and kidney suet pudding, but it is excellent. The bread crisps a bit on the outside but swells in the middle to give that spongy texture that’s so key.
