Steak and Kidney Pasty, Chips and Beans

Homemade steak and kidney pasty with chips and baked beans in tomato sauce

Steak and kidney pie is one of my all time favourite dishes and has been since I was in my teens. It is of course a classic dish - though more specifically an English classic, rather than a British classic, with steak and sausage pie being infinitely more popular in Scotland. I don't like tampering too much with steak and kidney pie as improving on perfection is of course not easy but when I struck on the idea of a steak and kidney pasty, I had to give it a go and I absolutely loved it.

Note that the steak and kidney can be bought ready prepared from most supermarkets, in the UK at least. Alternatively, ask your butcher to prepare it for you .

Beef steak and kidney

Ingredients (Makes 4 pasties)

1lb stewing steak, cubed to 1"
½lb ox kidneys, cleaned and chopped to 1" pieces
Olive oil
½ small white onion, peeled and sliced
1 pint fresh beef stock
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt and black pepper
1lb premade and rolled puff pastry
1 beaten egg

Homemade chips and 14oz can/tin baked beans in tomato sauce to serve

Sliced onion is added to browned steak and kidney

Directions

Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in to a large pot and gently heat. Add the steak and kidney and season with salt and pepper. Stir until sealed and evenly browned. Add the onion and stir for a further couple of minutes to soften the onion. Pour in the beef stock and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for one and a half hours, stirring occasionally and adding a little boiling water periodically, only if required.

Beef stock is added to steak, kidney and onions

When the steak is beautifully tender, turn off the heat, cover and leave to cool completely. If you want, you could at this point pour the mix in to a dish and refrigerate overnight, or for up to a couple of days. This means that you can do the lengthy prep for your pasties one night and make them for dinner the following night.

A plate is used as a template to cut the pastry disc for making the pasty

Use a 10" plate to cut four circles from your pre-rolled puff pastry. Take a quarter of your steak and kidney mix in each instance and add it to half the pastry disc, leaving a border of around an inch.

Cooled steak and kidney is spooned on to one half of the pastry disc

Moisten the border with beaten egg using a pastry brush, fold over the empty half of the pastry and crimp the edge.

Beaten egg is used to seal the edges of the steak and kidney pasty

Lightly oil a baking tray with olive oil and sit the pasties on it. Glaze with more beaten egg and make a slit in the top of each to serve as a steam vent.

Steak and kidney pasty is ready for the oven

Put the tray in to a preheated oven (400F/200C) for about half an hour until the pasties are beautifully golden.

Steak and kidney pasty is removed from the oven

Take the tray from the oven and allow the pasties to rest while you complete the preparation of your chips and gently heat the beans in a saucepan. HP Sauce is a strongly recommended accompaniment though it is of course entirely optional.

HP Sauce is the perfect condiment to add to steak and kidney pasty, chips and beans