Recipes

A favourite Summer pudding recipe from Henrietta Green

Serves 4-6

    900g/2lb blackcurrants, redcurrants, white currants, raspberries/bilberries
    115g/4oz/½cup sugar
    20ml/1tablespoon blackcurrant cordial
    40ml/2tablespoons white wine
    day-old white bread, crusts removed and cut into 5mm/¼in thick slices

Method

Put the fruit with the sugar, blackcurrant cordial and white wine in a saucepan. Simmer gently for about 5 minutes or until the fruit softens slightly. Leave to cool. Cut a circle from one slice of bread to fit the bottom of a 1.5litre/2½pint pudding basin. Then cut the rest into wedges to line the side of the basin. Every gap must be filled with bread; otherwise the pudding will not hold together.

Using a slotted spoon ladle the fruit into the bowl. Cover the top neatly with a couple of layers of bread. Pour over the juice, then place a plate on top and weight it with a couple of kitchen weights or heavy tins. Put it in the fridge and leave overnight, or longer.

To turn the pudding out, run a thin knife between the pudding and the basin, put a serving dish upside down on top and turn it over quickly, giving it a quick, sharp shake.