Steak and Kidney Pudding

Steak-and-kidney pudding is one of the many foods to appear in the Harry Potter books that Americans view as being categorically British. It is no surprise then, that it is served for lunch at Hogwarts:

"'They wouldn't fire him, would they?' said Hermione anxiously, not touching her steak-and-kidney pudding" (Prisoner of Azkaban 119).

Steak-and-kidney pudding doesn't sound too appetizing, but the steak-and-kidney pie I made in October turned out to be one of my favorite things to appear on 'In the Kitchen with Harry Potter.' So don't judge a food by its name! Today we shall make steak-and-kidney pudding, according to the recipe found in The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. 

For the Crust, You Will Need:

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1.5 sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1/2 cup ice water

For the Filling, You Will Need (I've changed the amounts slightly, so heads up!):

1 bag (9 oz) Gardein Beefless Tips

2 Tbs vegetable oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

3 Tbs all-purpose flour

1 cup No-Chicken Broth

3 Tbs tomato paste

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

3 portobello mushroom caps, diced

1. For the crust, whisk together the flour, salt, and pepper. Scatter the butter over the flour and rub the mixture together with your fingers.

2. Sprinkle the water over the mixture and fold together with a spatula. Eventually you may need to use your hands to form a ball. If the dough is too dry, add more water 1 Tbs at a time.

3. Remove 1/3 of the dough for the lid, reserving the rest for the base. Form both pieces into disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate while you make the filling, at least 30 minutes.

4. For the filling, cut your beefless tips into smaller pieces (I just cut them in half), and microwave for 1.5 minutes. Set aside.

5. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onions and saute over medium heat until golden brown. Add the garlic and saute a few seconds, until fragrant.

6. (The order from now on is different from the carnivore recipe) Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir together.

7. Stir in the broth, then stir in the tomato paste. The mixture will be very thick, so be careful to scrape the bottom so nothing burns. 

8. Add the salt, pepper, and mushrooms and stir together well.

9. Add the beefless tips and mix well. Cover and cook for awhile, up to ten minutes.

10. Uncover, raise the heat a bit, and boil another 5 minutes (unless it seems way to thick already!), thickening the mixture even more.

11. Scrape the filling onto a rimmed baking sheet and spread it out so it will cool quickly (you want it to be close to room temperature).

12. Grease and flour a 2-quart casserole/pudding dish with a tight-fitting lid. On a generously floured surface, roll out the large disk of dough into a 14" circle. Fit the circle into the prepared casserole dish, allowing the excess to hang over the rim. Roll the second disk into an 8" circle. *If your dish is smaller than 2-quarts (like mine), judge the necessary circle sizes for yourself.*

13. Scrape the filling into the pastry-lined dish. 

14. Cover the filling with the smaller circle, and fold the excess up over the edges. Seal the edges (as well as you can) with a fork, leaving a bit of room for the dough to expand.

15. Cover the dish with its lid and place it on a "trivet" (the top of a jar works well) inside a large pot. Fill the pot with water so the water reaches halfway up the sides of your pudding dish. Cover the pot and simmer for 2.5 hours. Check the pot often to make sure the water does not boil away.

16. Use oven mitts to remove the pudding from the pot. To serve, you can try to invert the pudding onto a serving dish (if you want to be fancy), or you can simply scoop servings right out of the pudding dish.

YUM! This is delicious! Though I'm not really surprised, since the filling is exactly the same as for steak-and-kidney pie, which I also loved. The only real difference between the pudding and the pie is the way it's cooked (and a slightly different crust). If you have the time (because this recipe takes at least 3 hours from start to finish), I highly recommend that you give this one a try! And if you have slightly less time, I suggest you take a trip through my archives and make the pie version! Enjoy!