UPPER CRUST
What’s cooking today: Steak and kidney pie
A good steak and kidney pie must have steak, kidney, onions, and a lovely crunchy pie crust. But there’s much more that goes into making it truly delicious.
My steak and kidney pie is made with rump steak and ox kidney, moistened with beer and Port, and flavoured with Hot English mustard, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, and garlic. But for the garlic, it’s a truly British affair. This recipe accompanies this column.
Ingredients
2 onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
750 g lean rump, cubed
500 ox kidney, trimmed and diced
Butter
340 ml beer
250 ml beef stock
¼ cup of Port
1 heaped tsp hot English mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 or 3 rosem
ary sprigs
Salt
Black pepper
250 g button mushrooms
1 packet of frozen puff pastry or 1 recipe hot water pie crust
Method
Trim the kidneys by peeling off the outer membrane and trimming away the whitish core. Chop the flesh into small pieces. Sauté onions in butter with garlic. Remove to a side dish. Cube the beef and brown it in batches. Return the onion to the pot and add the beer and chopped kidneys. Stir in the mustard. Add the stock, Port, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, and season with salt and plenty of pepper to taste. Return the beef to the pot. Bring to a simmer and cook gently on a very low heat until the beef is tender, about 2 hours. Be careful that the sauce does not cook away, which it will if the heat is too high. Stir it now and then. Melt more butter in a heavy pan and add quartered mushrooms. Cook until they release their juices, then cook those juices away. Season with salt and pepper and add to the cooked beef, stirring to combine.
Grease a large pie dish (or two smaller ones, as I did). Spoon in the filling, including plenty of the sauce. Roll out the pastry and cut a round about 3 cm wider than the dish. Place the round over the top and crimp it all round to the edges of the dish. Cut 3 or 4 “leaves” of pastry to decorate the centre. Beat an egg and brush it all over the pastry top. Place the leaves at the centre and brush over them too. Use a small, sharp knife to make an incision right in the middle.
Bake at 200℃ for 20 to 25 minutes or until the crust is crisp and golden brown. DM/TGIFood
Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Champion 2021. His book, foodSTUFF, is available in the DM Shop. Buy it here.
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I disagree that it is truly British! A truly British would be with beef shin (much cheaper than rump), lamb’s kidneys at a much lower rate (ox kidney too strong flavour particularly at that level!) onions, carrots and homemade shortcrust pastry. A pie funnel essential in anything larger than a single helping pot. My mother also added a handful of porridge oats to thicken the gravy of water, Worcester sauce, a bit of Marmite but no booze. This was hearty food from WWII onwards for the hungry UK masses. Usually served with mashed potatoes and peas, mushy or fresh from the garden.