Mum's steak and kidney pie

We have had a glorious long weekend away at the beach for Easter. Although it rained harder and longer than I have seen in a while we all managed to have a brilliant time. Max and Alex caught quite a few good waves on their boogie boards, Nic mastered body surfing and I managed to run up cliffs without having a heart attack, thus, allowing myself some guilt free chocolate, wine and cheese to see in our afternoons!
Before we left for our weekend away I had the good sense (for a change) to look/cook ahead. I popped into my butcher on Wednesday, picked up a fresh lambs kidney, a kilo of beef round and knocked up my mum's version of steak and kidney pie.
Now I know there are some of you out there who won't be fans of kidney BUT when you combine it with lots of cracked pepper, a few herbs and then really chop up the kidney so it is more flavour than texture, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I remember when I was an exchange student in New Zealand many, many moons ago. I was with a group of 'new' friends so I didn't want to upset the balance of cool/not cool, it was lunch time and I was hungry so I decided to grab a pie for lunch and join the rest of the gang just 'hanging' around the streets of Masterton (you know, not wanting to miss a beat at the ripe age of 16).
It was about now when I learned one of my first lessons in food disappointment.
I often dreamt of mums cooking when I lived away from home. I'd left mum, dad and Tarsh to the delights of mum's freshly baked scones, chicken pies and sticky date puddings just to name a few (it was at this time we lived in an inn, so there was always yummy goodies in the fridge) and I arrived at a local farm house where I stacked on a few pounds in my first few months. My host mum decided to put the lot of us (three teenage girls) on a diet which consisted of dry crackers, sardines and alfalfa- I kid you not!

To say I lost a bit of weight is putting it mildly, when I finally returned home from N.Z a few months later, my parents thought I must of had anorexia as I was as thin as a bean pole. Anyway, I got a little side tracked.
 Due to this 'diet' and pining for mums baked goods I saw a sign in the shop for pies and I just had to have one.
To say I was disappointed would be putting it mildly. My first bite of a pie, in what seemed like months (but really only about a week) left me with a vial taste in my mouth. I was waiting for the rich, peppery flavour of mum's steak and kidney pie to tantalise my buds and all I got was two big chunks of kidney in a luke warm, and very average gravy mix. I spat that pie out as fast as I could and choked on the bitter taste of some old ewe's kidney- UCK!

Ok this blog has taken a turn from my original idea but I'm going with it.

I introduced the boys to my mum's version of steak and kidney pie tonight, after our camping expedition and I am happy to report one out of two were smitten with it.
Max of course questioned me on what a kidney was, why do you eat it etc,etc. I re told the story I have just told you, Max took his first bite and didn't look back.
Alex wanted to love it due to the fact it was a pie but couldn't get over the peppery taste, so he ate all the pastry, wiped the sauce off the steak and just ate the meat and salad.

We are going home for Christmas this year so I must add this one to the list of foods I'd like to eat while I'm back in mum's kitchen- something I sure will please her to no end! ha,haa