One of my favourite pies, my nan's slow braised steak and kidney in ale, upgraded by my nan a few years ago with a dash of curry powder, this really adds to the dish, not like the time nan decided to pour Malibu in the Sunday roasts gravy !!!
My nan's most excellent braised steak and kidney, ooooh sooo lovely, four hours of gentle braising to release all those gorgeous flavours just for me, my nan always made this for me.
Gotta have buttery mashed potato.
(makes 6 pies, or 1 large pie)
Ingredients
1 kg diced chuck steak
400g lamb kidneys trimmed diced
2 bottles of spitfire ale
1000 ml beef or chicken stock
2 onions finely diced
1 clove garlic fine diced
1 stick celery fine diced
1 carrot fine diced
100g plain flour in a bowl
Salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp mustard powder
1 kg King Edward potatoes
1/4 pack of butter
2 tbsp ooil
1 tbsp butter
The pastry
110g lard diced
100g butter grated
450g plain flour
1 tsp salt
180ml cold water
Heat the ooil and butter in a non stick pan and gently fry the onions, celery, garlic and carrot for seven minutes. Remove from the pan and place in your braising tin. Season the beef with salt and pepper and toss in the flour to coat, brown off in batches letting the pieces catch a little and caramelise. Add to the braising tin with the bay leaves, curry powder and mustard powder. Pour in the spitfire ale and stock water and stir, top up with another ale or stock if the liquid is not covering all the meat. Cover the braising tin with tin foil to keep all the steam in. I like to use a large braising tin so that the meat has lots of space to move around in the wonderful sauce it is going to flavour.
Place in your pre-heated oven 170 degrees for 2 hours, at this point add the kidneys and re cover and cook for another 2 hours, you can cook this dish on a lower heat for even longer and it really does make a difference to the flavour, low and slow. Once your meat is ready to fall apart and your gravy is soooo good you just want to put it in a mug and drink it, in fact this my nan (Oscar's Great Grannie) always did for me I laugh at the memory of nan's brown old 1970's mug filled with the stock gravy next to my plate, I am laughing out loud right now, as I used to savour this to the last part of my dinner, which if you ever ate with me you would know this was serious, as I cant help myself and do not exercise control when it comes to flavour, as I like to eat eat eat.
To make the pastry place the flour in the bowl with the salt, add the lard and butter and mix in very slightly, add the water and bring to a ball. Turn out on a floured board and roll into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for half an hour.
Roll out and line your individual pie tins or one large pie tin, fill with the braised steak and kidney and then place on the lid, I like to egg wash and then place in a pre-heated oven 190 degrees, for approx 30minutes, maybe 40 minutes. Meanwhile...
For the mashed potato, peel, cut in half and boil in seasoned water the potatoes until tender, I like to push my potato's through a ricer, but my husband likes to use a masher as he likes some lumps and texture to the mash !!! we share lol! Return your potato's, whole or pushed through the ricer to the pan on a low heat and add the butter and seasoning, stir and check and adjust for seasoning, serve with your gorgeous pie and lots of gravy.
For the love of extra gravy as this will come from the left over braising juices, pour over or serve any extra in a old mug!
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