Steak and Kidney Pie

Last week during lamb butchering I did something a little different. I harvested both kidneys with their fat caps. Not sure why, other than everything was going so smoothly, it seemed a pity to waste anything. (Don’t worry, we still haven’t attempted making haggis).

But then, as often happens around here, we found ourselves with an ingredient that we didn’t know how to cook, so we turned to YouTube. Steak and Kidney Pie!

We already had almost all the ingredients anyway.

Stirfry the beef and vegetables together until everything is uniformly brown, then add the diced kidneys. Honestly, two small lamb kidneys don’t go very far.

Then add the beer and the stock, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste, and bring to a very gentle simmer, and leave it there for two hours or so.

When the meat is fork tender…

Mix a slurry of flour and water.

I underestimated how much stirring it would take to incorporate it fully.

Then mix that in the stew until it starts to thicken.

Then we set it in our walk-in cooler overnight.

The next day was Sunday. Our pre-teen was enjoying some peace and quiet.

Our hooligans were enjoying a smokey bonfire.

The grownups made a double batch of Fannie Merritt Farmer’s hot water pie crust.

This is Ryan’s favorite pie crust, mainly for its easy of mixing and rolling, as well as its simple, golden, slightly salty taste. Kathleen prefers her Grandma Shirley’s pie crust recipe, which is also pretty easy to make, and even more manipulable, and also freezes beautifully.

In this case we made a double batch because we were making a big pie (9 inches wide by 4 inches deep) and we wanted a nice big crust.

2/3rds of the dough in the bottom of the pan, about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.

Then fill it with the thickened steak and kidney filling.

We rubbed the edge of the dough with duck egg white.

This helps it to stick to the top layer.

Then slice off the excess dough.

And brush the top with the blended egg yolks.

At this point we had to take the pie over to the farm and bake it there, because the oven in the house is still broken. 350 degrees for 45 minutes, although in retrospect it could have stood another 15 minutes.

As far as taste goes, it was a bit on the bland side. We made it exactly according to the recipe on YouTube, but next time we will probably do it a bit differently. It would benefit from some salt and pepper and some aromat. The texture was great except for the occasional clumps of flour in the filling so blending that together better or going with corn starch instead would be good. We will probably also make it in small batches as individual pot pies or even as hand-pies. However, all things considered it is a good, hearty meal that is fairly simple to make, and I will probably make it again, next time I have some kidneys lying around.