The British Bulldog! Traditional Layered Beef Steak Suet Pudding - cooking recipe

Ingredients

Suet pastry
12 ounces self-rising flour
6 ounces grated beef suet or 6 ounces vegetable suet
1/2 teaspoon salt
cold water, to mix
Filling
1 1/2 lbs braising steak, trimmed of fat
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried herbs or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mixed herbs
1 pint beef stock
salt
pepper

Preparation

(Cook the meat 2 hours prior to steaming the assembled pudding.).
Filling: Dip meat in seasoned flour and fry lightly. Add onions and fry until golden. Place in casserole with stock, tomato puree and herbs and cook for 2 hours. Cool.
Pastry: Put flour, suet and seasoning in a bowl. Add sufficient water to form a firm but soft dough.
Pudding: Roll out the suet pastry and using assorted sizes of saucers, cut out rounds to fit the pudding bowl diameter, starting off small and getting bigger!
In a well buttered pudding basin, start with a small round of suet pastry and then add some stewed beef, then a layer of suet pastry and then the beef -- carry on in this way until all the pastry and beef is used up - the last layer should be suet pastry. Cover with buttered greasproof paper and then aluminium foil.
Steam for 2 hours, making sure there is always plenty of water. (Always top up the steamer with BOILING water - adding cold water will make the pudding heavy.).
Serve with fresh seasonal greens and vegetables and mashed or steamed potatoes.