Summer Pudding the aftermath

July 31st

I checked the summer pudding the morning after I made it by putting a plate on top of the bowl and turning it upside down, as suggested in the cookbook but nothing happened. Feeling slightly panicked I gave up and put it back in the fridge thinking ‘never mind, we will just eat it like trifle and spoon it out.’ I came back a bit later and tried again, leaving it upside down this time on the plate. When I looked a few seconds later it had come out like an avalanche, like a sodden handkerchief, not pert like Nigel Slater’s on line summer pudding. It tasted great though. I had achieved the elimination of sharpness by using raspberries and blackberries instead of blackcurrants and sponge fingers instead of bread. Although, on reflection, I think the bread helps it to stand up. Note made of that for future, also don’t put too much juice in.

When I spooned it out it felt like a bowl of nostalgia, my past in summer fruits. Raspberry red was starkly contrasted with the whiteness of crème fraiche. I tasted the mushy raspberry drenched sponge which melted on contact lifting out the sweet dark blackcurrants, which had been hiding in the sponge, rolling them into my mouth. No sharp surprise.