A Steak and Kidney Pudding in a Thermal Cooker

Hmm, delicious steak and kidney pudding – after 3 hours of cooking without fuel!

This steak and kidney pudding recipe is easy, but always a show stopper when I am demonstrating Mr D’s Thermal Cooker.  This one we made at the weekend and is large enough for six servings.

Ingredients:

For suet dough:

• 2 cups self-raising flour (250 gm)
• 1 cup shredded suet (125 gm)
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup cold water (180 ml)

For steak and kidney filling:

• 500 gm steak, cubed
• 1 pig’s kidney (or 250 gm calf’s kidney if preferred)
• 2 tbsp flour seasoned with ½ tsp salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tbsp cold water
• 1 tbsp Worcester sauce

 

Method:

Suet dough

1. Put 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of suet and ½ teaspoon salt in a mixing bowl and mix together.
2. Make a hollow in the middle of the mixture, pour ¼ cup of water into the hollow and spoon the dry ingredients into the water until it is absorbed.  Repeat with two further ¼ cups of water.  The mixture should now be bound into a ball of soft dough.  If there is still some loose flour and suet, add a little more water to unite with the dough.
3. Use 2/3 of the dough to line a 1 litre pudding basin, making sure there are no holes in the dough wall.
4. Keep the remaining 1/3 of the suet dough for the pudding lid.
5. Put a 30mm high trivet into the inner pot of Mr D’s Thermal Cooker and add enough water (cold or warm) to come 45 cm above the trivet.  Put the inner pot on the hob and bring the water to the boil.
6. Toss the cubed steak and kidney in the seasoned flour.
7. Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a cooking pan, add the meat and turn it to seal.  Add half the quantity of meat at a time so that the pan keeps hot enough to seal the meat quickly.  When sealed it will be light brown.
8. Take the pan off the hob.  Add 3 tablespoons of cold water and 1 tablespoon of Worcester sauce.  Stir so that the flour absorbs the water and Worcester sauce and mixes into a gravy.
9. Put the meat and gravy into the dough-lined pudding basin.
10. Shape the remaining 1/3 of suet dough to make a lid for the pudding, position it on top of the meat filling and press the dough edges together to form a seal.
11. Place a circle of greaseproof or baking paper on top of the pudding.
12. Place a piece of eco-friendly foil over the pudding and tie firmly in place with string.  Remember to leave a loop of string to help pull the pudding basin out when cooked.
13. Place the pudding basin into the inner pot to rest on the trivet.  The boiling hot water should reach about ¾ up the side of the pudding bowl.
14. Make sure the water is lightly boiling, put the lid on the inner pot and maintain on the hob at boiling point for 35 minutes.
15. Put the inner pot into the vacuum-insulated outer Thermal pot, close the outer pot lid and leave to thermal cook without power for 2 ½ hours.
16. If Mr D’s Thermal Cooker is left unopened you can serve this dish up to 6½   hours after starting the thermal cooking.

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