A couple of weekends ago, I went home. Sadly, home is now not the house where I lived the last ten years of my life- the home I left to go to high school, then sixth form, then university. When I moved to London, my parents also moved house: so going home meant going to a place I’d never actually lived.
But, it was wonderful. I left when the house was full of boxes and looked like a storage unit. And I returned to find that my parents had made it really lovely (of course). And, stupidly, I was surprised to find that, because they were there, it felt like home. It was home. All the home feels were perfectly intact, even if the place was unfamiliar. And home time is, of course, pudding time.
Not just any pudding though. The QUEEN of puddings. Here’s my mum’s recipe (originally from a glorious ‘full- colour’ 1970s cookbook which I forget the name of…) for Queen of Puddings. It’s a wonderfully traditional British pudding, a concoction of milk and bread and jam and meringue. It may sound weird, but trust me, it’s fabulous. You should make it.
Ingredients
425ml (3/4 pint) milk
2 egg yolks
1 egg
75g (3oz) fresh white breadcrumbs
37g (1.5oz) sugar
(For the topping)
Raspberry jam
2 egg whites
100g (4oz) sugar
Directions
– Preheat oven to 160c (325F)
– In a large saucepan, heat milk slightly and mix in the whole egg and the egg yolks. Fold in the breadcrumbs and the sugar.
– Pour into a baking dish and bake in a bain-marie for around 45 minutes, or until set.
– Spread the top with raspberry jam.
– Make the meringue topping: whisk the egg whites until very stiff, then gradually beat in half the sugar. Fold in the remaining sugar.
– Pile the meringue on top of the pudding.
– Flash bake at 200c (390F) for 3-4 minutes, or until the meringue peaks are lightly browned.
– Serve immediately, and enjoy immensely.
Just look at those layers…
All content is © Rebecca Daley and ohtogoawandering, 2014.
oh to go a wandering 