A Very Sexy Steak and Kidney Pie
Cheap cuts like chuck steak become silky and wanton after long slow cooking. Heston once told me that adding star anise to beef brings out its natural meaty flavour and, crikey, it’s good! The heat from the chilli is gently warming and sparkly and the flaky, buttery pastry is a delight. As with all slow-cooks this improves hugely when prepared a day or two in advance; it also freezes well, ready to bake when you need to feed a mass of people something delicious.
You will need a 1.2 litre pie dish or 4 small pie dishes.
Ingredients
For the Filling
3-4 tbsp plain flour
5-6 tbsp olive oil, vegetable oil or dripping, for browning
1kg stewing steak (like chuck), cut into chunks
360g kidneys, cut into chunks, gristle removed (ask your butcher to do this)
2 onions, finely chopped
3 bay leaves
1 chile de árbol (for a gentle sparkle, more if you want it spicy), crumbled
1 star anise
6 anchovies
350ml red wine
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Colman’s mustard
a few sprigs of thyme (optional)
For the Pastry
160g butter
250g plain flour
a good few pinches of salt
a squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
1 egg, beaten
(or buy 300g ready-made all-butter puff pastry)
Recipe
If making the pastry, pop half of the butter in the freezer to get it really cold. You will grate it into your pastry later to get a wonderfully flaky, buttery pastry.
Season the flour with pepper and a good few pinches of salt and place in a large bowl. Heat a large, heavy bottomed casserole dish over a high heat and when smoking hot add a tablespoon of fat. Toss a handful of meat in the flour and brown it on all sides. Repeat with all the steak and kidneys, adding more fat to the pan for each batch. If the pan becomes too black, run a damp cloth across the bottom when you have finished browning.
Add 2 more tablespoons of fat and the onions and cook gently over a medium heat for about 10 minutes to soften. Season with salt and pepper then add the bay, crumbled chilli, star anise and anchovies and cook for a few more minutes. Break up the anchovies with a wooden spoon until they have dissolved into the onions. Add the wine, balsamic, mustard and browned meat along with just enough water to cover the meat (about 600ml). If you have any thyme, a few sprigs wouldn’t go amiss. Bring to simmering point and cook over a gentle heat for about 90 minutes or until the beef is starting to fall apart. At this point you can cool and store in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer.
To make the pastry, put the flour and unfrozen butter in a food processor and blitz. Season with salt and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Coarsely grate the frozen butter into the flour and quickly and deftly stir in about 80ml of ice cold water with a fork, just enough to bring the pastry together. You want to be able to bring it together with your hands and pat it into a thickish disc. If you need a touch more water to absorb dry bits of flour add it now but remember, the less you handle the pastry, the crumblier and flakier it will be. Chill for an hour in the fridge.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry to make a round or oblong 3cm wider than the pie dish you are using. Pour the meat and juices into the dish, stopping 2-3cm from the top, then brush some beaten egg around the rim of the dish. Cut a 3cm-wide ribbon (in sections is fine) all around the pastry and lay this along the rim. Brush the ribbon with egg and fit the pastry round on top to form a lid, sealing the pastry together with your fingers and making pretty crimping shapes with a fork.
Make a slit in the middle (to allow the steam to escape), brush the top with beaten egg and chill in the fridge for half an hour to stop the pastry shrinking in the oven. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5.
Bake the pie for 30–35 minutes until the pastry is golden and flaky and the kitchen full of enticing smells. Serve with creamy polenta or mash and a plate of greens.
IMAGE CREDIT: Tara Fisher