Diced beef and ox kidney in a rich gravy, sealed inside a steamed suet crust for a proper old-fashioned pudding basin dinner.
Prep
40 mins
Cook
4h
Servings
6
Per serving
£2.15
Difficulty
hard
Steamed rather than baked, this one takes patience - the long, slow steam is what turns a simple suet crust into something soft and almost dumpling-like around a deeply savoury filling.
Toss the diced beef and kidney in the 2 tablespoons of flour with plenty of seasoning. Mix with the onion, crumbled stock cube, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaf.
For the suet crust, mix the self-raising flour and suet with a pinch of salt, then add cold water gradually, bringing it together into a soft but not sticky dough.
Grease a 1.2 litre pudding basin generously with butter. Roll out two-thirds of the dough and use it to line the basin, pressing it up the sides and leaving a little overhang at the top.
Spoon the meat filling into the lined basin along with 100ml cold water, leaving a little room for the filling to expand.
Roll out the remaining dough for a lid, dampen the edges, and press it on firmly to seal, trimming any excess.
Cover the basin with a pleated sheet of buttered greaseproof paper, then a pleated sheet of foil, and tie securely with string under the rim.
Lower into a large pan with simmering water reaching halfway up the basin. Cover and steam for 4 hours, topping up the water regularly so it doesn't boil dry.
Check the water level every 45 minutes or so - it should never fully boil away.
Carefully lift out the basin, remove the covering, and turn the pudding out onto a warm plate to serve.