Last week I made a batch of Steak & kidney pies. If you like kidney (and hey,not everyone's into offal I realise) they were amazing. But it made me remember why pies were such a big thing with my old grandparent's generation. It means you can 'extend' meat (and cheaper cuts too) to feed an army on the cheap. Pies these days seem to be these frozen sugar and flour filled expensive supermarket processed crap.
But done properly, I love them. A great way to deal with cheap fruit too. Pies freeze really well.
If you're interested, here's a recipe (if you don't like kidney, replace with mushrooms). It is a very very forgiving recipe
- just go for it.
Ingredients:
5 lb steak - top round, even brisket, basically whatever is on sale. Do not pay more than $4/lb, and try for a bit of marbling
2.5 lb kidney, beef or lamb
2 big onions, any type
Few sticks of Celery
Any bits of left over spring onions/scalions or mushrooms almost past their sell by date
1 medium potato skin on
Beef stock - about 2 or 3 cups
That 1/3 bottle of red wine left over from a few nights ago
Rubbed sage 2 tbl sp
Thyme 1 tbl sp
A few juniper berries (optional)
3 bay leaves
2 tbl sp flour
A few tbl sp corn starch or arrowroot
10 good shots of Wostershire sauce (sp?)
A few good squirts of BBQ sauce and mustard
Salt and pepper
Lard or coconut oil
Puff pastry (enough for about 5 big pies)
Directions
Cut the steak and kidney into 1/2 inch pieces, trimming the gristle and white bits from the kidneys. Fine dice the onions, celery, potato, and anything else.
Brown the steak, then kidney, in batches in the lard in a big Dutch oven or saucepan. Put aside.
Brown the onions, celery, etc. Throw in the spices, and deglaze with the wine. Put in everything else except for the corn starch and simmer for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally.
Preheat oven to 350f, and prepare the pie bases. I put mine into old cast iron frying pans.
Let the mixture cool for 15 mins, then with a slotted spoon, fill the bases with the meat mix, draining the liquid.
Bring remaining liquid and dissolved veggies back to boil and add corn starch to thicken. Distribute the thick gravy onto the meat in the bases.
Top pies, sealing edges. Decorate with left over pastry and brush with an egg. Pierce a few holes in top.
Bake 45 min until crust is nice and brown.
Can be frozen once cooled and reheated. Also OK cold.
Feeds an army. Great with mashed potato and salad. Hope you like it!
