Peake Practice - food news, with Ray Peake, of Callums Bistro, Accrington

LET me begin this week by thanking and congratulating all the readers who wrote confirming they made a savoury tart on Saturday, September 25.

Wine vouchers and cheques for £5 made payable to your favourite charity are going to be dropping through your letter box any day now.

A special thank-you to Mrs Ann Ainsworth, who made the tart and let me know by sending a Vincent van Gogh post card depicting a family meal.

That deserves a little extra.

A cheque payable to the NSPCC to the value of £25 is heading your way, courtesy of Callums Bistro.

Now, without further ado, steak and kidney pie.

Steak and kidney is a marriage made in heaven.

Top it with a light golden pastry and you have the best possible pie ever.

If I was given the choice of a meal before execution, as used to be the case in France a few hundred years ago, I would without doubt choose this dish.

Fortunately, my wife Gita makes this for me without me having to go through the nasty experience of being executed.

For her it is a true labour of love, as she detests the smell and taste of kidney.

Furthermore, she is not too keen on what she refers to as the "slimy" texture of the meat.

Nevertheless, her steak and kidney pie is always absolutely delicious and her recipe is certainly worth giving a try if you are an aficionado. My worst steak and kidney pie dining experience was, ironically, in the refectory of Blackpool Catering College in 1978 and it was on a Friday lunchtime.

To my horror, the pie I ordered was totally devoid of kidney but abundant in liver.

Yes, liver - and not particularly nice liver at that.

I stormed back to the counter demanding to speak to the catering manager who, without hesitation, gave me a refund and sheepishly admitted that liver had been used instead of kidney.

The moral of that little story, of course, is you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time.

When is a pie not a pie?

When it's a pudding.

Steak and kidney pie is a very British dish, as is steak and kidney pudding, the difference being simply the type of pastry used and the method of cooking.

The pudding is, of course, steamed in a suet pastry, whereas the pie is baked topped with either shortcrust or puff pastry.

Given the choice, I must say I prefer pie over pudding and puff pastry over shortcrust.

Did you know?

OYSTERS used to be part of the recipe for steak and kidney pie in the "olden days." This was at a time when oysters where the staple food of peasants and were priced at a farthing a dozen. Today that is no longer the case of course and I do not suggest you use them.

And did you know?

PUBS are often guilty of offering steak and mushroom pie as opposed to steak and kidney.

An exception is my local pub, where "Arty and Syl" make the best steak and kidney pies - after my wife's.

Many recipes use mushrooms but mine leaves more room for the succulent steak and kidney.

Mrs Peake's Steak and Kidney Pie

(Serves four)

1 Ib chuck steak

8oz ox or lamb's kidney

I large onion, roughly chopped

I table spoon beef dripping or cooking oil

1 table spoon plain flour

teaspoon dried mixed herbs

teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

U pint beef stock

Salt and pepper

FRY the chopped onion in the beef dripping for a few minutes.

Add the diced steak and kidney and cook until the meat is browned (a few minutes).

Add the flour and stir into the meat.

Add the dried herbs and Worcestershire sauce.

Add the stock and bring to the boil then simmer very gently for 2 hours until the meat is exceptionally tender.

Pour the entire contents into a pie dish and top with puff pastry, brush the pastry with beaten egg (this ensures you have a super golden brown glaze). Place in your pre-heated oven gas 7/220C for 20 minutes.

Puff pastry

I HAVE in previous weeks advocated the use of ready-made puff pastry as opposed to making your own as I repeat it is very difficult to make well. So ready-made puff pastry is suggested.

Imperial versus metric

THE recipe this week is given entirely in imperial measurements as opposed to metric.

This is a tribute to a 70-year-old reader in Rawtenstall who wrote to me who found the metric measurements "hard to understand."

In my next recipe, Mrs Walker, I am afraid I shall revert to metric but especially for you and anyone else confused with metric measurements I shall be supplying a conversion table, which I am confident will make following the recipes easier.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.