This pudding is a delicious beast, a gutsy hero. Were it a person it would, no doubt, be the local thick-wristed, silent giant who whops cricket balls from the village green to kingdom come. Be the first to boldly venture into the pudding: it is most satisfying to see the steam swirling up and saucy meats spilling forth, and you cannot but think: corrrr! Visit a good butcher for the meat. It should be well fatted and not like the supermarket lean braising steak that magically transforms into shoe leather.
Serves 5-6
750g braising beef
3 tablespoons plain flour
1½ teaspoons flaked sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
40g dripping or lard
1 medium onion, finely chopped
500ml real ale
4-5 sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon dark
muscovado sugar
350ml beef stock, or canned consommé
1 tablespoon tomato purée
butter, for greasing
150g baby pickled onions, drained
mustard, to serve (optional)
Suet pastry
400g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
200g shredded suet
½ teaspoon flaked sea salt
Preheat the oven to 170°C fan/190°C/Gas 5. Trim the beef of any tough bits of gristle but leave the fat. Cut the beef into cubes (roughly 3cm) and put in a large, strong plastic bag. Add the flour, a good pinch of flaked sea salt and a good grinding of black pepper. Tie the end in a knot and shake wildly until the beef is well coated in the seasoned flour.
Heat 25g of the dripping or lard in a large frying pan and fry the beef over a high heat in two batches until well browned all over, adding an extra 10g of fat when the frying pan appears dry. Transfer the beef to a flameproof casserole as it is browned.
Return the frying pan to the heat and drop in the onion with a little extra fat if needs be. Cook over a medium-low heat for 5 minutes, or until softened, stirring often. Stir into the pot with the beef. Deglaze the frying pan with half the ale, bringing it to the boil while stirring to lift all the sediment from the bottom of the frying pan.
Pour over the beef and onion. Strip the thyme leaves from the stalks and add with the bay leaf, sugar, beef stock or consommé, tomato purée and the rest of the ale. Grind all over with a heavy bombardment of black pepper. Bring to a healthy simmer, then cover and cook in the oven for 1 hour. Remove the lid and continue cooking for a further 30-40 minutes, stirring once or twice. After this time, the beef should be almost tender and the sauce thick. Remove from the oven, taste for seasoning and then leave to go cold.
Butter a 1.75-litre pudding basin. Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the suet and salt. Gradually stir in enough water to make a very soft, slightly tacky, spongy dough — you'll need around 300ml. Turn out on to a floured work surface and bring the dough together to form a ball. Remove just under a third of the dough to make a lid for the pudding. Roll out the rest 1 cm thick and use a plate as a guide to cut out a round roughly 27cm across, using a dusting of flour here and there to prevent sticking issues. Line the basin with the pastry level resting at around 3cm under the top edge of the dish. This is important, as you must allow for the pudding to rise. Be careful with the pastry; if ripped, the gravy will snake out and create a mess.
Trim neatly to make a flat edge on which to fix the lid. Stir the pickled onions into the beef mixture and spoon into the lined basin. Brush the top edge of the pastry with water. Roll the remaining pastry into a circle just large enough to sit snugly on top of the pastry edge and place over the filling. Press the edges well together to seal. Tear a large sheet of baking paper that amply overlaps the rim of the basin and over this lay a similarsized sheet of foil. Keeping the two together, fold a pleat in the middle, as this will allow for the pudding to expand.
Tie both tightly in place with a long piece of string just under the outside lip of the basin. Create a carrying handle by taking the excess string over the top of the basin and tying it to the string on the other side. This will help you lift the pudding once it's cooked. Trim the baking paper and foil.
Place the pudding basin on an upturned saucer or small trivet in a deep saucepan and add enough just-boiled water to come halfway up the side of the basin after its placed inside. (Alternatively, cook in a hob-top steamer.) Cover the saucepan with a tight-fitting lid and place over a medium heat. Allow the pud to steam in simmering water for 2½ hours, adding more water when necessary.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and carefully lift the basin from the water. Stand for 5 minutes. Cut off the string, foil and baking paper. Loosen the side of the pudding with a blunt-ended knife and invert the pudding carefully on to a warm serving plate large enough for the filling to ooze into. Attack this meat stronghold with spoons, knives, forks and mustard reinforcements.
Extract from Valentine Warner's book The Good Table (Mitchell Beazley, £25.00).
