This week we spoke to Frank Bordoni about this earliest food memories. Frank Bordoni is an award winning TV Chef who has been a regular on Granada Breeze, Shop!, Carlton Food Network, Saturday Kitchen, Daily Cooks, GMTV and now BBC UK Good Food Live, as well as many guest appearances on SKY and Channel 4.Frank’s career took off in 1989 when he was awarded a Roux Brothers Scholarship, followed by becoming a finalist in the Restaurant Association’s Young Chef of The Year Competition in both 1989 and 1990. In 1991 he was a finalist for the Chef of The Year Competition.
At only 19 years of age, Frank was awarded his first AA Rosette, leading to work with many respected Chefs in well-established restaurants, like 190 Queensgate, Michelin starred Mallory Court and Le Gavroche with the Roux Brothers.
"I grew up literally living in hotels and restaurants as my father was a chef and hotel/restaurant manager. He of course cooked Italian and my mum cooked traditional English food. It was great fun as a kid eating a great spaghetti bolognese one night then homemade steak and kidney pie the next. I didn't realise how much variety of food we had at home until I started bringing friends home for supper and found out they had never seen a bulb of fennel or a sharon fruit before! I guess living in North Wales at the time might have had something to do with it but my father was a great teacher about the food around us and taught me to fish, lay night lines, go cockling in the sand and foraging for mushrooms and other treats. He even did deals with the local farmers and bought whole lambs which he took into the shed and butchered up himself for the freezer!
My favourite meal of all was my mum's steak and kindey pie. She would always make it as a treat and I would invite lots of mates around because it so good. It took me a long time to get her to teach me the recipe despite trying to guess it. It would usually be eaten for sunday lunch instead of a roast and has great memories for me with friends and family sitting around the table with this great big pie and bowls of buttery mashed potato and greens - yum!"
My Mum’s Steak and Kidney Pie
SERVES 6
Ingredients;
- 225g Beef kidneys, cut into chunks
- 700g Quality lean stewing or chuck steak
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 25g butter
- 2 onions, chopped roughly
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 2 bay leaves
- 400ml strong beef stock
- 170ml stout
- Dash of gravy browning
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the ‘rough puff’ pastry:
- 500g plain strong flour
- 500g butter
- 7g salt
- 25cl cold water
- 1 beaten egg, to glaze
Season the flour and toss the steak and kidney in it until coated well. Heat oil and butter in a large pan, then fry the meat until sealed and brown. Add the onions and cook for another 3-4 minutes, stirring. Add the bay leaves, stout and stock, and the gravy browning. Stir until thickened and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for about 1½ hours until, the meat is tender.
For the pastry, mix the flour and salt together and gently add the butter. Make a well adding the water and bring lightly together to make a dough. Roll out into a rectangle and mark into thirds. Fold over the end thirds into the centre one, turn through 90ยบ and repeat two more times. Chill for half an hour.
When the meat is cooked, cool slightly and tip into a pie dish. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface a little bigger than the size of the dish using the trimmings to make a strip the width of the rim. Brush the rim of the pie dish with beaten egg and lay the pastry strip on top to make a seal. Brush again with egg and lay the lid on top. Crimp or flute the edges, brush the lid with the remaining egg and make a slit in the top. Bake for approximately 20 minutes until golden.
