How to Make Steak & Kidney Pudding

I have a dream. I have a dream that, one day, I will find a good source of Steak & Kidney Puddings in Canada.

Until that day arrives I will just have to make my own. And that is just what I did today. It's quite a challenge to sit at the keyboard writing this post with a huge steak pud inside me.

Home-made puddings tend to be heavy. Heavier than the type of pudding you buy at a "chippie" in the north of England.

So, if you want one of those "come hungry" type of meals then have I got a recipe for you.

Ingredients

• 1 pack Atora Light Vegetable Suet
• 1/2 Kg McDougall's Self-Raising Flour
• 1/2 Kg boneless stewing steak
• Small amount of chopped kidney
• 1 Oxo cube
• Salt, pepper

Preparation

• Rub the flour and suet together until the texture is smooth
• Add 1 cup of water and mix thoroughly
• Roll the dough on a floured board to make circles about 15cm in diameter
• Press some aluminum foil into a small dessert bowl with a broad overlapping fringe
• Press the rolled dough into the bowl on top of the foil
• Brown the steak in a little oil in a frying pan then throw in a pinch of flour, a crumbled Oxo cube and a couple of tablespoons of water. Stir to make a gravy
• Put the meat and gravy inside the dough and wrap the dough tightly around the meat.
• Wrap the foil tightly around the dough and remove from the dessert bowl
  
• Place the pudding into a large pan of gently boiling water and simmer for 2 hours. Keep the pudding half-immersed in the water and top up with water from a kettle as necessary
  
• Serve with more gravy and Batchelor's mushy peas

John's Notes
Instead of aluminum foil you could use the more traditional method of wrapping the pudding in cloth to make a "rag pudding".

I tried in vain to find a "pudding bowl" in my local stores. Pudding bowls are deep with steeply sloping sides and make an excellent mould for a pudding. If you have a pudding bowl you can line the walls with dough, add the meat then make a flat dough lid for the pudding. Seal the top of the bowl with foil and put the bowl into the boiling water to cook.

If you are not a fan of kidney you can substitute onion or mushrooms - or even just make a plain old steak pudding.