← Nouns Cooking · British & Irish

Ingredients

• 700 g chuck or braising steak, cut into 2.5 cm cubes
• 225 g Ox kidney, cored and cut into small chunks
• 2 tbsp plain flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 2 sprigs Thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 400 ml hot beef stock
• 2 tbsp Parsley, chopped
• 350 g Self-raising flour
• 175 g shredded beef suet
• ½ tsp Salt
• 225 ml cold water
• butter, for greasing (optional)

Method

1. Toss the beef and kidney in the seasoned flour. Heat the oil in a casserole over high heat and brown the meat in batches, about 4 min a batch. Lift out.
2. Lower the heat, soften the onion for 5 min, then return the meat with the thyme, bay, Worcestershire sauce and stock. Cover and simmer gently for 1½ hours until the beef is tender. Stir in the parsley, season and leave to cool for 30 min.
3. For the pastry, mix the flour, suet and salt, then stir in enough cold water to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Grease a 1.5 litre pudding basin well.
4. Cut off a quarter of the dough for the lid. Roll the rest into a circle about 1 cm thick and use it to line the basin, letting the excess hang over the edge.
5. Spoon in the filling with enough gravy to come three-quarters of the way up (keep any extra to serve). Roll the remaining dough into a lid, dampen the edges and press them together firmly to seal. Trim.
6. Cover with a sheet of pleated baking paper and foil, tie tightly with string under the rim and make a string handle. Sit the basin on an upturned saucer in a large pan, add boiling water halfway up the side, cover and steam for 2 hours, topping up with boiling water now and then.
7. Lift out, remove the coverings, run a knife round the edge and turn out onto a warm plate. Serve with mash, greens and the spare gravy.

Tips

• Soak ox kidney in cold salted water for 20 minutes and rinse before chopping to mellow its flavour.
• Use vegetable suet if you prefer; the pastry contains gluten. Grease the basin with oil instead of butter to keep it dairy-free.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

BBC Good Food BBC Food Great British Chefs