Bread and Butter Pudding

Whenever autumn rolls around I feel the need for not only large quantities of starch, but nostalgic starch. My mum is a great pudding maker and we often had a really good 'nursery' pudding. Delights such as Syrup Sponge (with custard), Chocolate Sponge (with chocolate custard), Eve's Pudding (ahem, custard), crumbles of various types, Rice Pudding. More rarely we might have had steamed puddings such as Jam Roly-Poly or Clootie Rumpling. The former I think has gone out of vogue somewhat as it contains suet, which not perhaps the healthiest way of having fat in your diet. The latter is not well known by people who aren't of Scottish heritage. It's a similar shape to a Jam Roly-Poly (at least that's how I remember it) and also contains suet, but it taste is more akin to Christmas pudding. Or perhaps a steamed fruited parkin, as being Scottish it contains the grain that was most readily available, oats. It's surely what was in mind when the term rib sticking was coined. And now the Bread and Butter pudding. I think this pushes the same buttons as Rice Pudding. It's sweet, stodgy and milky all at once. Breast milk for adults.

A note about the bread. It must be day old and it must have come unsliced. You couldn't make this with anything like Hovis or Kingsmill. You'd end up with mush. It has to be able to fight back a little bit against the custard mix. And the butter should be at room temperature, otherwise you'll be making big holes in your bread.

Ingredients
12 thin-ish slices of day old white bread
100g butter, at room temperature
100g caster sugar
100g sultanas
600ml semi-skimmed milk
2 eggs
freshly grated nutmeg

Lightly grease a 3pt oven dish.

Butter all 12 slices of bread on one side only then cut in half diagonally. Arrange half of these, butter side down in the oven dish. Sprinkle with half your sugar and half the sultanas. Arrange the remaining bread butter side up, and repeat with the remaining sugar and fruit.

In a jug beat the eggs and milk together then pour over the pudding until it is evenly distributed. Grate over the nutmeg and leave to stand for 1 hour to allow the bread to soak up the custardy mix.

When you are ready to cook it, preheat the oven to 180C and cook for 40 minutes until golden and the top layer of bread it wonderfully crisp.

Serve as it is or with something else on it. You could put cream on it, or perhaps some stewed fruit would be nice, something a little tart to cut through the milky sweetness. I have it with a splash of cold milk. I don't know why, old habits etc etc.

Rhubarb Crumble

Rhubarb is actually a vegetable, and the best stuff is grown in an area called The Rhubarb Triangle, an area between Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford. This is called either forced rhubarb or Traditionally Grown Yorkshire Indoor Rhubarb, and is hopefully going to be a name that can be used only by growers using a particular method in a particular area. This means that it will prevent any old rhubarb from saying it's the good stuff, in the same way that not all sparkling white wine can be called Champagne, only the stuff from Champagne. And believe me the comparison between the forced rhubarb and Champagne is made by some chefs.
I was personally brought up eating rhubarb, and lots of it. I don't have any memories of over stewed stringy stuff, but I went to a school that didn't have hot lunches and I can see that that is where a lot of people's dislike of it grew up. My mother made all her own puddings (shop bought things were a total novelty to us) and our next door neighbour was a keen gardener. He grew his own outdoor rhubarb, and every year would end up with more than he and his wife could eat. This resulted in us getting some of the excess, often finding it had been chucked over the fence to us. It was glorious stuff.

Ingredients
750g rhubarb, in 1cm slices
75g caster sugar
2tbsp water
2tbsp orange juice
175g plain flour
90g butter, diced
50g light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4

Put the rhubarb in an oven proof dish and sprinkle the caster sugar all over. I also tend to give the rhubarb a mix as well, the same as if you are tossing a salad, to distribute the sugar evenly. Add the water and orange juice.
Put the flour and butter in a large mixing bowl and rub together until you get bread crumbs. Add the light brown sugar to this and stir it around with a fork or a knife or a chopstick. Pretty much anything but a spoon, as it has an uncanny way of squodging together.
If you are cooking this straightaway, spread the breadcrumbs evenly over the fruit, but don't worry if a few bits stick through. If you are preparing this in advance, I wouldn't bring together the crumble and fruit elements until cooking is imminent, otherwise you get soggy crumble and that's just not cool.
Cook for 40 minutes, then leave to stand out of the oven for about 15 minutes. Serve with whatever you fancy really; double cream, vanilla ice cream, custard, they're all good. It's also delicious the next day (if you have any left!) with cold plain or Greek yoghurt. It's a bit like one of those frightfully expensive corner yoghurts, but more satisfying for being homemade and left over!