Saturday 11 December 2010

Steak Pudding

For much of this week I have been away from home, for work purposes, and got home yesterday afternoon. Jane knew that I would have to negotiate a significant stretch of the M25 Motorway (The "London Orbital" -- sometimes referred to as the UK's biggest carpark), and the journey time would therefore be unpredictable. She decided to make for our dinner a Steak Pudding, which is a dish whose timings are not critical, and could easily be cooked or kept warm for another hour here and there without spoiling. As it happened, the M25 was uncharacteristically quiet, and I got home in near-record time!

Steak Pudding is another member of our "Comfort Food" repertoire -- a reassuringly satisfying dish admirably suited to our current Wintery conditions.


This is a dish that is made with succulent suet pastry, containing an unctuous mix of stewing steak and onions, encased in rich gravy. We like the pudding cooked in a steamer for about 4 or 5 hours, until the pastry is golden and relatively dry, though the dish is more normally served when it is still pale and moister.

Jane used meat from our local butcher for this pudding. It was a LOT nicer than the meat she used last time we had this dish (which came from the supermarket). We find that supermarket meat is often pretty tough and tasteless, and meat sourced from smaller outlets is almost invariably superior.

Here's a view of what the inside of the pudding looks like...




We normally serve this dish with traditional "old-fashioned" vegetables like boiled potatoes, carrots and Brussels sprouts. I wish I could claim the credit for growing these veg, but unfortunately I can't.




I would consider this to be good example of classic British food (except perhaps that many people would include kidney - which Jane and I both detest). Who in their right mind would want a take-away pizza when something like this is on offer???

11 comments:

  1. Quintessentially English - and very mouth-watering. I've never actually eaten steak pudding, and I can see what I'm missing.

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  2. yummmmm--that looks delicious. Maybe just a bit of fried green tomato, too!
    Just kidding, Mark, I really don't think you could improve on that meal.

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  3. Oh, that looks amazing. You are so lucky to have Jane, Tarzan!

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  4. Looks good and has made me hungry!
    Hazel, u're such a hoot! :)

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  5. That looks like an award-winning dish from a food magazine! Excellent!

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  6. I think maybe I should change the name of my blog to "Jane's Kitchen"... I certainly have to admit that at this time of year there is more to write about on the cookery front than on the growing front. I must be just about the best-fed gardener in the world!

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  7. Mmmmm, comfort food at it's best. I love steak pudding.

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  8. All gardeners need good feeding! I've never made a suet pastry. Might add it to the list, it certainly looks good. I love to put a stew in the slow cooker in the morning and cook it all day - all the flavours marry and the meat becomes meltingly tender. They tend not to hang supermarket meat for as long, a good butcher invariably supplies better, though for us this doesn't work with whole chickens - tesco free range are West Country and gorgeous, our butcher tends to get his from Norfolk... We live near Bristol...

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  9. My favourite, looks beautiful, you can't beat a babby's yead!

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  10. Hi Damo; I've never before heard a steak pudding referred to as a "babby's yead", but in retrospect I can see what you mean.

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