The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.
:: Traditional British pudding – collage ::
I have been officially approved as a member of the DB few days before April the first, which is also my birthday and I eagerly awaited the publication of the first task, hoping for some lovely cake.
When I read the assignment I thought it is some kind of an April first joke.
It was not.
The problem was how to tell it to my daughter Timna, because the first thing she wanted to know after I told her that we have been approved as DB, what is the challenge?
“Traditional British pudding”, I said.
“Puding?”
“No, not puding, a pudding”, I replied.
“Here!”
I have opened Norma McMillan english version cookbook “Cooking for all occasions”, with a recipe and picture of Steak and kidney pudding. Her English is after five years of learning, good enough, that before I had a chance to explain further, she asked, “You know what means the kidney?”
“Of course I know what means the kidney”, I started to laugh.
“And what happened with cakes?”, she continued.
“Now, when we became a DB, no cakes, only kidneys?”
And I still did not mention the suet. (loj in Croatian) So, I started again. “You know”, I said, “the real challenge is not a kidney, but the suet.”
“What????? OK., mum, you’ve got me! April the first, right? Aprili-li-li-li?”
“I’m afraid not. And I thought so, but it isn’t.”
“The suet and kidneys!”
“Our first DB challenge and no gorgeous cakes, just suet and kidney”, she started with self-pity.
“C’mon, it is not that bad”, I tried to cheer her up. “We are allowed to use lard (salo in Croatian) or butter instead of a suet.”
“Those lard”, she asked, “which you hardly got and promised me you gonna make a Salenjaci (Puff pastry, made of lard instead of butter) of it?”
She never ate a Salenjaci and I told her that I ate them in childhood, and how it’s much better than the puff pastry with butter.
“Listen, there is enough of lard for some kind of Pudding and also for Salenjaci. I promised you and I will make a Salenjaci,” I tried to finish the conversation.
“And what about kidney?”, she didn’t give up.
“I don’t know, I said. Something I will come up.”
I read everything Easther put as a guideline. I decided that when I already intend to use the pork lard, instead of suet, I will also use a pork for a filling. And I made Steak and kidney pudding, but with pork as ingredients instead of beef.
I used the Easther’s recipe for crust, only it was a lard crust.
I almost forget, I didn’t knew what to use as pudding basin. I even tried to order the original pudding basin from UK, but the online stores in which I found the basins, don’t deliver in Croatia or delivery charge more than double the price of the product. 🙂 So I used the glass salad bowl, hoping it will not burst in the middle of steaming, because it is not heat resistant.
But, first I had to rendering lard, which is very boring. So, I decided to melt it, on the complete daze of my mother. But it came out pretty good.
:: British pudding – collage ::
And I made Pork loin and kidney pudding (slightly modified Easther’s recipe for Steak and kidney pudding), recipe below.
:: Pork steak and kidney pudding – collage ::
I put some old kitchen towels on the bottom of the cooking pot and I steamed pudding for more than 3,5 hours. I lifted it out, turned over and it began to leak. I was sure that everything is raw inside. But it wasn’t. The meat was soft, the crust wasn’t very tastefull, there was a lot of soup. My husband and daughter were disapointed. “Don’t ever do it again”, they concluded. “It may works for British, but it certainly doesn’t work for us. For our taste it is not delicious.”
:: Pork steak and kidney pudding ::
“Maybe it’s my fault”, I said. “I did not use the beef and this amount of ingredients may be needed longer steaming time. And I put the bay leaf, only one bay leaf and it completely took over the taste. And maybe without giblets it have a diferent flavour and consistency.”
“Ok. You may try again, but with a smaller amount”, they finally agreed.
So I did, the very next day. 🙂 The same moment they left the house, I started all again.
:: British pudding ::
First of all, I made changes to the crust. Except that I made a smaller amount of dough, for which I needed a smaller bowl, which I don’t have, so I used the flower pot, I also made a changes in dought ingredients.
In the second attempt recipe was as written bellow for Beef and pepper and onion pudding.
:: Traditional British pudding – collage ::
I steamed for 5 long hours. And lift it out. And the phone rang.
“What’s for lunch? We are very hungry”, I heard. I felt the throat dumpling.
“British Pudding”, somehow I manage to say.
“Hahahah, good one. No, really, we are starving. what’s for the lunch?”, they did not take me seriously.
“A British Pudding”, I repeated. “But I made quite differently this time. No any kind of giblets.”
“We hope so”, my husband replied.
:: Pork loin and vegetables pudding ::
When they sat at table, their faces reflected something between anger and fear of what is ahead.
“It does look better”, my daughter finally spoke. And she took a piece of crust. “And it’s really taste much better”, she added. “It’s actually very YUMI!”
Husband had the same verdict. “Much, much better this time”, he said.
“You should make it for Friday night (our traditional Friday dinners with friends), and make a filling like a Pašticada”, he ended.
Huhhhh, I dropped a huge stone from the heart. The British Pudding passed a test at the end! 🙂
:: Chocolate steamed pudding ::
After, because of Puddings, more than 5 hours spent in kitchen, twice, I concluded we deserve something sweet. But not less than chocolate sweet. So I made Steamed chocolate pudding by Delia Smith with small interventions. (recipe bellow)
:: Chocolate steamed pudding ::
Making a British puddings was truly a challenge. I hope we managed it. 🙂
- 450g self raising flour
- 250g pork lard
- pinch of salt and pepper
- 250ml of cold mixture of milk and water
- 750 of pork loin
- 50g of pork kidney, the pork kidney is small, so I used the
- 200g of pork liver
- 1 medium sized leek
- 1 medium sized purple onion
- 1 large red pepper
- 100g of champignons
- 2-3 cloves garlic finely choped
- 1 tablespon of flour
- salt, pepper
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1 bay leaf
- 220g of self raising flour
- 30g of grated Parmesan cheese
- pinch of white pepper
- salt
- 140g of pork lard
- 70-100ml of cold milk
- 400g of beef from the shoulder blade
- almost the same amount of purple onion or/and shallots
- 1 large red pepper
- 2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- handfull of fresh basil leaves
- flour, nutmeg, salt, black pepper
- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon of tomato purre
- 1 tablespoon of oil
- 25g of butter
- 50ml of red wine
- 50ml of milk
- (for 3 ramekins of 150ml)
- 40g dark chocolate ( I used chocolate with 45% of cocoa)
- 50g fresh white breadcrumbs
- 10g ground almonds
- 10g sugar
- 70ml milk
- 70ml cream
- few drops of vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 3 cubes of dark chocolate with 65-70% of cocoa
- 200ml cream
- 100g of fresh strawberries
- Rub the lard in a mixture of salt, pepper, and flour. Add water and knead a soft smooth dough.
- Roll the dough to 1 cm thick and cover the bottom and sides of the basin. Leave enough dough to cover the basin later. I didn’t grease the bowl additionaly because I have concluded that the dough itself is enough greas, and I was right.
- Chop the steak and kidney into fairly small cubes, toss them in seasoned flour (I mixed flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg), then add them to the pastry lined basin. Put the chopped vegetables. Repeat until all the ingredients are spent and reached the top of the basin.
- Add enough cold water to reach almost to the top of the meat and season with salt and pepper.
- Cover the bowl with the remain crust.
- Seal well and cover with a sheet of parchment paper, pleated in the centre to allow room for expansion while cooking. Secure with string, and place it in a cooking pot over boiling water.
- Cook for at least 2.5 hours (Mrs Beeton) up to 5 hours (Delia Smith).
- The preparation of the crust is the same as for the crust above.
- For filling cut the meat into medium-sized cubes and roll it in mixture of flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Shake off excess flour.
- Heat the mixture of oil and butter in a pan and fry meat cubes until golden brown.
- Take the meat out on the plate and add to the pan chopped onions, garlic and pepper.
- Fry briefly, add the sugar, salt and pepper according to taste, add the tomato puree and return meat to pan. Stir and pour wine.
- Transfer into pudding basin, coated with ⅔ of the crust. Add the fresh basil leaves. Pour in the milk.
- Cover with the rest of the dough.
- Cover the dish with parchment paper, make sure you put a pleat in the paper you cover the bowl with to allow for expansion and than tie down tightly and secure with the strings.
- Steam for about 5 hours.
- The water mustn’t reach the top of the pudding.
- Break the chocolate into squares and place them in a small saucepan together with the milk, vanilla extract and sugar, and melt them over a gentle heat.
- When it is all melted and blended together, take the pan off the heat and whisk in the cream.
- Combine the breadcrumbs and ground almonds, then pour in the chocolate mixture and give it all a good stir.
- Separate the eggs and beat the yolks into the chocolate mixture. Whisk the egg whites with an electric mixer till they form stiff peaks.
- Fold the whites carefully into the rest of the mixture.
- Spread mixture into prepared ramekins, put one cube of 70% cacao chocolate in the midlle of every ramekin, cover with a paper with a pleat in the middle and twist it all around the rim.
- Steamed for about 30 minutes.
- For that time beat whipped cream and clean strawberries.
- Let the cooked puddings to cool for a while and then slide a palette knife around the edge of the puddings and invert them on to a serving plates.
- Serve with cream and fresh strawberry.
Ja vas potpuno razumeme na kakvim ste mukama bili prvo da skuvate, potom da jedete British pudding. Ja sam jednom napravio i slani i slatki i oba su zavrsila u smecu. Ja sam cisto pojeo malo radi reda, a moji prijatelji (takodje kuvari) za koje sam ja kuvao veceru nisu dalje otisli od jednog zalogaja. Ipak loj i bubrezi nisu nesto sto mi jedemo svaki dan, pa i sama pomisao na tako nesto nas odvraca.
Ipak je bilo interesantno pripremiti i probati ovo jelo.
I vama svaka cast na trudu! Odlican post i slike.
Pozdrav
@anne, ma meni se čini da sam ja prvo čudo duže parila i da nisam stavila lovor, nevjerojatno kako je tako hermetički zatvoren potpuno sve preuzeo i niti jedan drugi okus nije od njega mogao doći do izražaja i stavila manje tekućine, da bi i to bilo bolje, ali su krivnju pobrale iznutrice. To siroče od odojkovog bubrega je tako majušno i nježno, da nije moglo ni na koji način utjecati na okus jela, jetra možda, ali niti ona previše jer je isto tako bila od odojka, jedva se skužilo da su iznutrice unutra. Lovor je bio problem, ali moji to ne znaju detektirati, njima su iznutrice bile krive. Ovaj drugi pudding je definitivno bio bolji, ali sam u njega stavila i rajčicu, a osim toga osjetno manje tekućine.
I ja sam dojma da pie moraju biti bolje, a osim toga zbog dužinje kuhanja puddinga jasno mi je da ni Englezi to više sasvim sigurno, osim u posebnim prilikama ne rade. To je valjda imalo svoju ulogu, kad si to ostavio na peći na drva, stavio vodicu, sve dobro pozatvarao i otišao raditi i taman kad si se vratio, dočekalo te nakon desetak sati toplo jelo. A stavljali su što su imali valjda, nekako mi to sa svim ovim iznutricama zvuči kao sirotinjska hrana:)
Uopće me ne čudi da otkidaju na naše kolače, pa oni nikako mrdnut od puddinga. Pudding sim, pudding tam, tu i tamo kakav preljev hite gore, ne kažem da nema dobrih, ima, lemon pudding mi je mrak, ali 🙂
I znam, jer sam radila te neke guiness stewove iliti gulaše i sl.sa pivom, pa bez piva, da je to dobro.
Ajde, baš se veselim piticama 🙂
hahhaha, joj, nasjela si na ohrabrenja o steak and kidney-anything 😀 moj muz, inace Englez, obozava steak and kidney pie koju ja odbijam napraviti zbog kidneys. ali on kaze da se kidneys moraju jako dugo ispirati u vodi da bi se iscistili i onda navodno bude super ali sto se mene tice, no way.
inace, da pohvalim, divno izgleda, jako lijepe slike i ova druga verzija ne sumnjam da je bila jako fina.
no i za nas ukus (a i za Engleski, koliko sam ja primjetikla) puno bolje rijesenje je pie (pita) nego pudding, puno ukusnije, isto ima pastry, samo sto se pece u rerni i priprema je puno kraca.
sad za koji dan cu napraviti steak, mushroom and ale (beer) pies, individualne male u muffin modlama, to je nesto divno, ukusno, sigurno ce se svidjeti tvojima, to je tradicionalno britansko jelo takodjer a mozes ih praviti sa cime hoces.
ugl. uskoro stavim pa javim, niko ovdje ne pravi vise pudding nego radije rade i jedu te pies, jedino se jos tradicionalno kuha taj Christmas pudding koji je takodjer grozan (ali oni vole pojest mrvicu toga na Christmas, eto valjda im je u genima hehe. ali na nase kolace otkidaju i nece se svadjati oko toga koji su kolaci ukusniji)
odlican post 🙂
@Fimère, merci beaucoup 🙂
@Iva, hvala! 🙂
@Renata, thank you! 🙂
Dear Tadeja, fist of all, thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. I love your story about the puddings. I’m a first time DB too, and I must say that my reaction upon the challenge was very similar to yours. The only difference is that I wasn’t daring enough and I went for the butter sweet sponges. I must congratulate you in every way. Your puddings look amazing and the chocolate one is lovely with that strawberry and cream… yummmy!!!
divno izgleda stvaro!!!
un plaisir et un régal pour les yeux et pour les papilles, un grand bravo
j’adore
bonne journée
@Vera, Jubistacha, Dajana puno hvala, nije tako strašno, sad, kad je sve prošlo, kao što je izgledalo prije i za vrijeme izrade i kuhanja 🙂
Ja sam izgleda jedina koju više privlači slana varijanta uprkos svoj kompliciranosti, nego slatka. Slatka me uopće ne fascinira niti mi je zahtjevna. Sprtljaš smjesu, uliješ u kalup i čekaš da se skuha, pareni biskvitić. Izazov su možda u slatkima kombinacije okusa , umaka i izbor kalupa da vizualno budu što atraktivniji.
@Rosa and Sassy thank you very much!
@Nado, puno hvala, ja sam dugo gledala prije nego li sam se odlučila, bio je, rekla sam već, trenutak entuzijazma, da se sad prijavljujem tri put bih iznova promislila.
Pa teoretski objaviš post, ako si gledala druge postove, svi imamo u postu, jednu ili više istih rečenica koje su zadane i služe kao checking lines, po kojoj oni provjere jeli izvršena obveza sudjelovanja i to bi u principu trebalo biti dovoljno, međutim kako niti ja u to nisam bila potpuno sigurna, jednom kad si unutra, imaš pristup privatnom DB forumu, pa za svaki mjesec postoji tema objavljenih radova, tako da sam ja i tamo za svaki slučaj ostavila fotku i link, a koliko sam shvatila većina to tako napravi.
Stvarno sam mislila da sam već komentirala,jer se već nekoliko puta vraćam, ali izgleda da ipak nisam…Sviđaju mi se obje verzije, makar ova slatka, s čokoladom, ipak malo više. Ja bi rado sudjelovala u Darring Bakersima, ali naprosto ne stignem, a i nisam baš najbolje skužila onaj dio, trebaš li nekome prijaviti svoj rad ili ga jednostavno samo objaviš?
Hrabrost i strpljenje su se na kraju isplatili, znam da bi mene moji gađali ovim pudingom da im ga poslužim, stoga komplimenti i tvojima što su ga hrabro kušali. Čokoladnom se pudingu s druge strane sigurno ne bi bunili, čak naprotiv
What a delightful blog to read! You are so wonderful for persisting and getting the pudding the way you wanted it. Your family is great for letting you try out this recipe on them. I have yet to do mine. I’m trying it out on guests Friday. I hope I have success. And I hope you get to do a beautiful pastry or cake for the next challenge!
Vau, svaka čast. Izvrstan i detaljan post o tako zahtjevnom challenge-u 😉 Ja se ne bih usudila…
Wow, your puddings look beautiful and so yummy! You did a great job!
Cheers,
Rosa
Savrseno,svidja mi se i slana verzija,probala bih je…:)
@Audax, I took your coment as a really great compliment, I am honored because it’s came from you, and you (and I saw it) made for this round of challenge at least 10 different, highly successful pudding. Thanks for both of us, Timna and me. 🙂
@Selma, hvala, stvarno je bio izazov, a ja te puddinge godinama gledam po svim mogućim kuharicama i slušam ljude kako pljuckaju po engleskoj kuhinji i morala sam to probati da se uvjerim iz prve ruke. Zahtjevno je u smislu dugotrajnog parenja, tijesto je kad mu dodaš začine stvarno ukusno, izgleda da se zbog gustine umaka bolje ponaša govedina, ne znam kako bi izgledalo i koliko bi se to onda moralo pariti da dobijem sa svinjetinom gustinu, kad je nakon 3,5 sata bilo rijetko. Doduše u oavj drugi sam stavila osjetno manje tekućine, jedva i zgusnula u startu sa koncentratom rajčice, tako da mislim da podatak o količini vode, iz prvog originalnog recepta, ne drži vodu 🙂
Navodno su neki radili i sa ribama, to bi tek bio izazov 🙂
Slatki mi stvarno nije bio izazov, osim što bi to možda bio da sam išla izvoditi neke kerefeke u vizualnom smislu, jer pretpostavljam da vrlo nalik onom što sam isprobala kod tebe, Lemon pudding i to je meni fenomenalno, ali sam ga mjesec prije toliko puta napravila iz razno raznih razloga da stvarno nisam imala motiva ponavljati. Čokoladni je ovjde bio samo da moje malo oraspoložim, za slučaj da je i drugi pokušaj slanog puddina omanuo. 🙂
Isto tako ne znam koliko puddingu mijenja okus kad se koristi stvarno loj, a ne salo kao što sam ja u tijestu, sa maslacem mislim da ne bi išlo, jer maslac ima nižu temperaturu paljenja i mislim da bi tijesto uprkos odizanju od dna posude, nakon tolikog kuhanja zagorilo.
@Alimonia, thank you, see you 🙂
@Branka, puno hvala! 🙂
Izvrsno, temu “Pudding” si odlično obradila i odradila 🙂 Posebice mi se sviđa slana verzija 2 koja me baš zainteresirala i naravno čokoladna slastica :). Skidam kapu , za energiju i entuzijazam, za super zanimljiv post, za izvedbu i za ove divne slike, svaka čast !!
i like theses recipes… and your blog.
see you soon.
DB Challenge ovaj mjesec je zaista bio izazov. Hrabro si se okušala i sve to izgleda fenomenalno. No radije od tradicionalnog engleskog pudinga ja bi izabrala te Delijine pudinge.
Girl you really are d-a-r-i-n-g most people would give up but you didn’t wonderful that the 2nd version worked out so well and the chocolate pudding looks so delicious and moist excellent work on this challenge. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.
Puno hvala djevojke! A morala sam i ja probati! 🙂 Prijavila sam se u jednom naletu enerije i entuzijazma pred dva mjeseca, a onda više nisam mogla natrag! 🙂 A onda me na svo moje kukanje u zadnje vrijeme, kao vic dočeka BUBREG U LOJU! 😀
Nije to zapravo tako loše i meni je izazov i bio ovaj slani jer varijante slatkog parenog sam već radila i kao Selmin Lemon cake i kao Andreinog Japanca, tako da sam imala predodžbu kakvo to mora biti, ali ovo tijesto, pa meso unutra, pa nikak mi nije bilo jasno kak’ se to može skuhati na to malo vodice kaj dole brboća, a iskreno još uvijek bih voljela saznati koju zapravo temp. postigne unutar tog kalupa i na kojoj temp, se zapravo to meso kuha.Fizika mi baš nije jača strana, ako netko zna izračunati, bilježim se sa štovanjem! 😉
Dakle, fino je to, pogotovo ova druga verzija, za prvu neznam, ali mislim da sam je trebala duže kuhati i da je lovorov list malo zeznuo stvar jer je kompletno preuzeo tek, budući se tako hermetički zatvoreno kuhalo!
Tijesto, ovo drugo, je bilo odlično!
Što se tiče Chocolate steamed puddinga, ništa revolucionarno, ok. i ukusan kolaček i mojima se svidio, ali tko je ikad probao napraviti 5 minute microwave cake, ista meta, isto odstojanje! :)razlika je u 25 minuta daleko jednostavnijeg kuhanja 🙂
@Melrose, nije loj na slici, salo je 🙂
@Snježo, hvala puno! 🙂
@ap269, thanks a lot! I’m very glade that you loved it! 🙂
@Mary, thank you! 🙂
@The Betz Familly thank you! And I’m glad that I’m in. Regarding the conversation, put the text in English was a challenge itself.:)
@Monika, još bolje te našla! 😀 Hvala!
Već sam napisala, meni je baš slani bio izazov, slatko mi je zvučalo već poznato, što se tiče čokoladnog, on je ukusan i nestao je dok si rekao keks i super izgleda slažem se i hvala, ali on ti je najsličniji 5 minutnom kolačeku iz mikrovalne! 🙂
@Nadji, merci beaucoup
A bientôt 🙂
Je découvre ton blog.
Des recettes originales et de belles photos.
A bientôt.
dobro došla među daring bakerse! 🙂 zavidim ti na trudu i strpljenju. ja nisam ni na djelić sekunde razmišljala o slanoj verziji, nekako mi ovi bubrezi i sva sila mesa nišu po volji. napravila sam staku verziju i oduševila se! tvoji čokoladni pudinzi izgledaju sjajno, definitivno ću ih i ja isprobati.
Your puddings look fantastic! All three of them looked great, even though the first one may not have been very tasty! I loved reading your conversation with your daughter. Welcome to daring bakers!
You did a great job with this challenge! The filling for your second pudding sounds great, and I’m glad your family liked it!
Ohohoh bacila se i ti u Daring Bakere. 🙂
Svaka ti čast na trudu, bojim se da bi ja kod ovog recepta brzo odustala, ma zapravo meni ovo zvuči skroz ukusno ali me uvijek izluđuju njihovi podugački recepti. 😀 😀
U svakom slučaju ova ponovljena verzija izgleda savršeno! 🙂
A čokoladni puding tek djeluje tako dobro. 🙂
pravo savršenstvo:)
Svaka cast na trudu, ova druga verzija mi se takodje puno vise dopada, ali ne znam da li bih se usudila da u dva dana ponovim sve iz pocetka, hihih….ali zato me je slatka verzija potpuno oborila sa nogu, to uvek moze da prodje, supeeer su fotke!:)))
Hilarious post! Loved it. And that chocolate strawberry pudding is just divine!
E, alal ti vjera! A šta bih drugo rekla!
Divne slicice (sem one bubreznog loja :))), ja sam postala prelijena cak i da izvadim jelo iz frizidera radi slikanja:)))