Rosemary Shrager's steak and kidney pie recipe
BY READERS DIGEST
29th Sep 2020 Food Heroes
A taste of nostalgia with chef, presenter and I’m a Celeb favourite, Rosemary Shrager.
This pie brings me right back to my childhood when my mother would make this for Sunday lunch. I would help her by making the pastry and I loved cutting different shapes to decorating the top of the pie. If you’re one of those people who doesn’t like kidney, just leave it out and add more steak. Serves four.
Ingredients:
- 300g ox kidney
- 50g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 900g chuck steak, trimmed and cut into 3cm cubes
- 2tbsp olive oil
- 60g butter
- 1 large onion, finely sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 200g button mushrooms
- 1tbsp chopped thyme
- 800ml good beef stock
- 2tsp of Worcestershire sauce
- 1 x 400g packet of puff pastry
- 1 egg, beaten
- fine sea salt and black pepper
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. First, prepare the kidney. Slice the kidney in half to expose the tough white core inside. Remove this core by cutting around it with a sharp knife, then cut the kidney into large pieces. Put the flour in a large bowl and season it with salt and plenty of black pepper. Add pieces of kidney and steak and toss to coat them in the flour.
2. Heat the oil in a large, flameproof casserole dish and brown the meat in batches over a medium heat. Don’t overcrowd the pan or the meat will steam and not brown. Set the meat aside as it is browned.
3. Turn down the heat and add the butter, then sauté the onion and garlic until softened. Add the mushrooms and thyme and sauté for another few minutes, then add any leftover flour, and cook for a further minute. Pour in the stock and the Worcestershire sauce.
4. Put the meat back in the dish and bring to the boil. Cover the casserole dish with a lid, place it in the middle of the preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 170°C/ Fan 150°C/Gas 31⁄2 and cook for another 1–11⁄4 hours, until the meat is tender. Check for seasoning. Tip everything into a deep pie dish, either an oval dish about 26 x 19cm or a rectangular one with a similar capacity. Leave the meat to cool. It’s good to get all this done the day before you want to serve the pie, if possible.
5. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Roll out the pastry on a floured work surface to a thickness of about 3mm and about the same shape as your pie dish. Cut a 2cm-wide ribbon from the pastry and place this strip around the rim of the pie dish, pressing it down. Brush the rim of pastry with water. Trim the rest of the pastry to about 2.5cm bigger than the top of the pie dish. Sit a pie funnel in the centre of the filling to support the pastry.
6. Roll the pastry lid on to the rolling pin and place it over the filling. Trim off any excess pastry, then press the edges with a fork to seal it firmly. Brush the top of the pie with beaten egg and make a hole in the centre over the funnel. Bake for 35– 40 minutes until the pastry is golden and crisp and the filling is hot.
Extracted from Rosemary Shrager’s Cookery Course, (BBC Books, £20.00)
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