Oh me, oh my - is that a pie?

Yes, this is my second attempt ever at making a good old fashioned Steak & Kidney Pie.
1st attempt was in highschool - home economics class.
I will throw the recipe on the blog down below, but I have to tell you, that unless you really like kidney, do not make it. Really, it is a very strong tasting piece of meat, much stronger than liver or even heart. HOWEVER, it sure is tasty!

As we have just recently moved, one of the things we have either misplaced in a box or did not bring with us is a rolling pin. I used a wine bottle which worked great for future reference, and then of course I had to get little 'rolling pins' for the crumb catchers. Does anyone recognise those bottles?? This was my rolling pin du jour today, but write down the information on this wine. It was delicious. Really really yummy. Danilio Spinoglio is the winery - a gorgeous place in Piemonte.
As they waited patiently for supper, I could not help snap this shot for two reasons. 1. They were quite content sitting at the table just chatting together and 2. The Sun was shining AGAIN! Reality check, it is just a few hours later and now lashing rain again.
The glorious end result. Turned out yummy, the children gobbled up every bite on their plate.They actually preferred the kidney over the steak, because it was so tender. I have very strange children. I know.

Recipe:

1lb Beef (Braising Steak or Round Steak)
1 large Onion (roughly chopped)
1 Beef Stock Cube dissolved in 1/2 pt of warm water
4 Lamb Kidneys (cored and chopped)

Ron keeps little dough balls of pastry in the freezer for these such emergencies, so I did not have to make the crust - just thaw and roll! You will need a top and bottom crust.

First, dust the beef with salt/pepper and a handful of regular flour.

Heat your frying pan or a nice heavy based pot to almost burning point so you can sear the beef.

If you are as lucky as I am, you will have a little jar of Foie Gras fat tucked away in your fridge somewhere. I suggest you break this out for the fat needed for this job. Words cannot describe how great steak tastes when cooked in the fat from a lovely piece of foie gras.

Add onions & I threw in about 4 cloves of garlic also roughly chopped. Start slowly adding the beef stock, and because you used flour to dust the beef with, you will notice the juice is naturally thickening. Allow to simmer for at least 1 hour. Do the same with the kidneys. Dust in flour. Fry in foie gras fat. OK, so you may have to use a substitution instead like bacon fat. Doesn't that also sound yummy??

Add the kidneys to the beef, cover and allow to cook slowly for as long as you can.

In the meantime, I blind baked the bottom layer of the pie crust.

When ready, and after you make sure there is still some juice but not so much it will ruin your pie - dump all into baked pie crust. Cover with remaining pie crust topper and brush with egg wash (we used cream - worked great).

Wait patiently for at least 35 - 45 mins. The oven was set on 190 Celsius.

I am not sure what we will drink with this later this evening. Maybe beer, maybe wine.

That is all the WiseWords for today,

WiseMóna