Steak & Kidney Pie Recipe - English British
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Steak and kidney pie is a savoury pie that is filled principally with a mixture of diced beef, diced kidney (often of ox, lamb, or pork), fried onion, and brown gravy. Steak and kidney pie is a representative dish of British cuisine.
The gravy typically consists of salted beef broth flavoured with Worcestershire sauce and black pepper, and thickened with refined flour, beurre manié, or corn starch. The gravy may also contain ale or Guinness.
Hot water crust pastry, puff pastry, and shortcrust pastry are among the pastry crusts prepared for steak and kidney pie.
Among the various vernacular rhyming slang names for steak and kidney pie are Kate and Sidney pie, snake and kiddy pie, and snake and pygmy pie.
English cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine, largely due to the importation of ingredients and ideas from places such as North America, China, and India during the time of the British Empire and as a result of post-war immigration.
In the Early Modern Period the food of England was historically characterised by its simplicity of approach and a reliance on the high quality of natural produce. It is possible the effects of this can still be seen in traditional cuisine.
Traditional meals have ancient origins, such as bread and cheese, roasted and stewed meats, meat and game pies, boiled vegetables and broths, and freshwater and saltwater fish. The 14th-century English cookbook, the Forme of Cury, contains recipes for these, and dates from the royal court of Richard II. In the second half of the 18th century Rev. Gilbert White, in The Natural History of Selborne made note of the increased consumption of vegetables by ordinary country people in the south of England, to which, he noted, potatoes had only been added during the reign of George III: Green-stalls in cities now support multitudes in comfortable state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every decent labourer also has his garden, which is half his support; and common farmers provide plenty of beans, peas, and greens, for their hinds to eat with their bacon.
Other meals, such as fish and chips, which were once urban street food eaten from newspaper with salt and malt vinegar, and pies and sausages with mashed potatoes, onions, and gravy, are now matched in popularity by curries from India and Bangladesh, and stir-fries based on Chinese and Thai cuisine. Italian cuisine and French cuisine are also now widely adapted. Britain was also quick to adopt the innovation of fast food from the United States, and continues to absorb culinary ideas from all over the world while at the same time rediscovering its roots in sustainable rural agriculture.
The English tradition of meat pies dates back to the Middle Ages, when an open top pie crust was used as the container for serving the meat and was called a coffyn. Since then, they have been a mainstay of English cooking. Different types of pastry may be used, including the lard-rich pastry of a raised pie. Meat pies generally contain standard fillings such as chicken-and-mushroom, steak and ale, minced beef and onion, lamb, mixed game or meat-and-potato. In recent years, more exotic fillings, such as balti curry have appeared.
Savoury puddings are made with a soft suet casing, the most famous being steak and kidney pudding (originally steak and oyster). Pork pie is usually eaten cold, with the Melton Mowbray pork pie being the archetype. Open pies or flans are generally served for dessert with fillings of seasonal fruit. Quiches and savoury flans are eaten, but not considered indigenous. Pasties are pies made by wrapping a single piece of pastry round the filling. The Cornish pasty is oval or crescent shaped with a stiff, crimped rim, traditionally filled with beef, and swede, although many variations are possible. Other pasties may be rectangular and filled with beef, cheese, or vegetables. Another type of pie is topped with mashed potato instead of pastry -- cottage pie (made with minced beef), shepherd's pie (made with minced lamb) and fisherman's pie using a choice of several fish and seafood.
Biddenden Biscuits, Bosworth Jumbles, Brancaster Salad, Brentford Rolls, Brighton Buttons, Brown Windsor Soup,
Chelsea Buns, Chester Buns, Chester Pudding, Chidingly Hotpot, Chorley Cakes, Cornish Candle Chicken Pie, Cornish Fairings, Cornish Pasty, Cornish Split, Cumberland Herb Pudding, Cumberland Sand Cake, Devon Flats, Devon Squab Pie,
Natchitoches Louisiana Meat Pies! Gettin' Real!
Natchitoches Style Louisiana Meat Pies
NOTE: You may wish to cut this recipe in half.
2 Lbs ground beef
1 Lb ground pork
2 large onions minced
2 large Bell Peppers minced
1-1¼ cup celery minced
½-3/4 cup of finely minced green onions
3-4 cloves worth of garlic
2 cups beef broth
3 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
3 teaspoons Cajun Seasoning (or to taste)
¼ teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (or to taste)
¾ teaspoon black pepper
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
Optional: dash/pinch of ground cloves (do NOT go overboard as the cloves are so strong)
Pastry dough - enough for 2 two crust pies (top and bottom crust)
Homemade is best, though Pillsbury pie crust will suffice (you can see my video on an easy yummy pastry dough).
Also needed is EGG WASH:
1 egg, 1 Tablespoon water or milk
Sauté the Holy Trinity (onions, bell peppers and celery). Brown all of your meat. As per video, combine together in a dutch oven and add all seasonings. Reserve the flour for later. Add beef broth and simmer approximately 40-45 minutes. After simmering, add a light sprinkling of flour as needed to thicken, (as per video) Set to the side and allow to completely cool.
As the meat mixture is cooling you can make ready your pastry dough.
Roll out dough on your working surface, cut out circles of dough. (I used a bread and butter plate as a guide, see video) I don’t recommend anything larger than 6” diameter. You can go smaller using cookie cutters if you wish.
NOTE: keep your working dough COLD! You do not want it falling apart while frying.
Mix the egg wash (1 egg whisked with 1 Tablespoon of water or milk)
After meat mixture has cooled take a circle of dough and knowing your center point of the dough (as per video) add 2-3 Tablespoons of the meat mixture to one side of the dough (do NOT overload the dough). If your first time making, no worries, it might take you a few tries. Make a thin line of egg wash on the edge of one side of the pastry with either a pastry brush or your finger, then fold dough over (as seen in the video) Seal by crimping around the edge with a fork. Then give 3-4 pokes on the side of the pastry with the fork to allow steam to release while frying.
Fry, keeping your oil temperature between 350-375 degrees until golden brown.
Baking: Even though the frying method is the traditional method, you may bake them in the oven as well. Preheated oven temp is 350-375 degrees on a greased cookie sheet for about 30 minutes (depending on if your oven is fast, slow or right on the money LOL)
Remember, whether frying or baking, your meat mixture is already cooked, so you are just getting your pastry done.
ENJOY!!!