Never made a summer pudding before, but when you’ve got a total crop of 13 redcurrants, 2 blueberries, 6 ripe blackcurrants, five ripe raspberries and a whole ton of strawberries, it’s the obvious option. Seems like a traditional summer pudding doesn’t use strawberries at all, but I cobbled together various recipes from the internet – mainly using delia’s – and the sky didn’t fall in.
The key is to simmer the currants and blueberries for about five minutes and only add the softer fruit – the strawberries and raspberries – a few minutes from the end.
I’m always amazed when I follow a recipe and the result is edible. It’s also nice when growing fruit and vegetables in a garden 45×15 foot actually results in a proper dish – which turned out to be absolutely delicious of course (when are you ever going to hear a home-grown person saying otherwise?) – as opposed to barefoot dressing-gown snacking. And I picked sweetpeas today and put them in an actual vase. Oh God, I’m turning into Martha Stewart. I’m sure at one stage I used to have a life, with a desk and a social life and lunch at Pret a Manger. I blame childcare.
Don’t bemoan turning into Martha Stewart – embrace it! (except the fraud, obviously). I also am finding in my 30s the immense pleasure from growing and eating my own food and how wonderful it can be to pick flowers and put them in a vase. And I don’t have kids to blame it on (but since most of my friends do, I also have no social life and I moved back north and Sheffield doesn’t have a Pret). My partner finds this alarming but he’s getting used to it.
Hello! GM just discovered you, leading to me discovering you too. Thank you for the link! I’m thinking we should hook up as I have a plastic carrier bag full of meringue in the freezer left over from a friend’s wedding, and you have all those berries…
http://vegplotting.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-mess.html