[shroomgirl]

shooting in the dark with nominal info from a Brit friend.....I ended up with a couple of dz lamb kidneys....so this is what I did....I'd like to know what you do.

I seared chunks of chuck with onion and shrooms, salt pepper and thyme....threw in Guiness to cover and got a good simmer going. About an hour later I sauteed the cleaned kidneys in butter with salt and pepper and threw them in the bubbbling pot...covered. A little while later I added a butter flour mix to thicken and it's still bubbling. I'm waiting for the meat to tenderize then am going to cool and bake a quick pastry ontop of the stew...If I'd had pearl onions around they woulda found their way into the pot. Did I get it at least semi British?

[judy]

Sounds great. I use ox kidney though. Dont forget beautiful creamy mashed potato

[Jock]

A typical British steak & kidney pie would use beef kidneys and the top would be a suet pastry crust. I've never used Guiness for the stew, I've always just used water. Guiness sounds like a goiod idea thoiugh.
Your steak and kidney pie sounds delicious and it's close enough.

Jock

[coolJ]

It all sounds good to me, 'cept I don't use onions. When I prepare steak and kidney pie, I clean and chop the kidney, chop the steak and chop up some mushrooms, throw them all in a bowl and dredge with seasoned flour, then I "saute" all that together, add some water and some frozen veggies, then fill my pie shell and bake. Now for the question, I read somewhere that adding mushrooms to steak and kidney pie, is more of a canadian thing than a british thing, is that right ??

[Jock]

It may be Jeff. I often use mushrooms because I think steak and mushrooms just go together. But now that I think of it, my mother never used them and the ones you could buy commecially didn't have them either I don't think. But, in your own kitchen you get to make the rules, right?

Jock

[shroomgirl]

Guiness made a lovely sauce. First time I'd bought the btl. usually buy on tap or in the can...the btl has a funny thing in it to give a nice head of foam.
shrooms always go well with stew.

[judy]

'The little thing" makes it easier to pour
Next time you make your steak and kidney try adding anchovy. There was a t.v.program, English, we had a few years ago and it was about a chef in his dear little kitchen who made pies all the time and never got food on his apron. Incredible. But he put in anchovies. I tried it and it was good. Another good addition is oysters.