Kitchen Garden Forum

You can get suet in supermarkets. The most common brand name is Atora. It's usually near the flour section.

valmarg

You can also get vegetarian suet but check the ingredients - some of it is made from plam oil which is very high in fat.

Suet should be in your local supermarket. 'Atora' is the one that you'll usually find. They do a vegetarian one but unless you really need it, I've found the traditional type to be better. Strangely it keeps for ages and doesn't seem to have to be kept chilled - it'll be on the flour and cake-making shelves.

John

Sorry Malk, the microwave recipe is one that we have used frequently. We had to force ourselves to stop using it because within ten minutes of 'fancying' a pudding, it was ready to eat.

The following are two long slow recipes:-

CHOCOLATE PUDDING WITH FUDGENUT CHOCOLATE TOPPING

4oz butter
4oz soft brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3oz self raising flour
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder

Fudgenut Chocolate Topping

6oz plain chocolate, broken into pieces
1 tablespoon caster sugar
5 tablespoons single cream
2oz mixed nuts, toasted and chopped

Prepare the topping first by melting the chocolate in a basin standing over a saucepan of hot water. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar, cream and nuts. Place in the base of a buttered 3 pint pudding basin.

Prepare the sponge by beating the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs gradually, beating all the time. Sieve the flour and cocoa powder together and add to the mixture, stirring carefully. Turn the sponge mixture on to the topping. Cover securely, and steam for 1½ hours. Turn out on to a warmed plate, and serve with custard or cream.


COLLEGE PUDDING

3oz self raising flour
pinch of salt
3oz breadcrumbs
3oz shredded suet
3oz raisings
2oz currants
1oz candied peel chopped
2oz soft brown sugar 6 tablespoons milk

Sift the flour and salt together, then mix with all the remaining dry ingredients. Beat the egg and add to the dry ingredients with enough of the milk to produce a soft dropping consistency. Spoon into a greased 2 pint pudding basin, cover securely and steam for 2½ hours. This pudding turns out easily if left for a few minutes after taking it out of the steamer. Turn out and serve with custard.

These are two recipes adapted from The Pudding Club Book by Keith and Jean Turner, ISBN 0747220492. It's a lovely comfort food cookbook, but you can feel yourself getting fat just reading it!

valmarg

the fudgey chocolately one sounds magical and perfect for those 'I want to overdose on chocolate' kind of evenings. I'll look out for the suet, Atora sounds familiar.

Thanks tons.

Atora were certainly making package suet when I was a child, it was what my mother bought. If too many of us children (six of us) brought unexpected friends home to tea the Atora and flour would come out, someone would be dispatched to the garden for thyme and a batch of dumplings would be mixed up to extend whatever type of stew we were eating that evening.

It does amaze me how something that takes two and a half hours to steam can be cooked in a microwave in two minutes. I can quite understand you might need to ration the microwave pudding Valmarg, it would take a lot of gardening to use enough calories to have it everyday. Oh but isn't it just what you want on a bitter winters day?

I agree Beccy, despite it being the first day of Spring today, and 'British Summertime' starting at the weekend, the weather we have been having of late, we are still well into comfort food season.

valmarg

For all you really serious fans of the great steam pud, these people sell a traditional spherical steam pudding mould:

http://www.decuisine.co.uk/cookshop/bak ... serts.html

It can also be used to make an ice cream bombe!

For a real Christmas pudding I don't think Delia's recipe can be beaten. It needs steaming for eight hours though to get it into perfection condition and to get a rich dark colour. Prepare it in November (on Stir-up Sunday, of course) and keep it somewhere cool until Christmas Day, then re-steam it for about 2-3 hours.

John

A man goes to the butchers and asks for "two pounds of steak and kidly please."

The butcher replies " Dont you mean Steak and kidney?"

The man says " I said Steak and kidney, didly I?"

Oh well.........

Oh come on you lot you know it's proper name is Snake and Pygmy!!

the great thing about suet puddings as as long as you remember the basic formula, 2 flour 1 suet 1 sugar , you can add all sorts of fillings, one quick one is a can of pineaple pieces.
re the comment about veg suet being high fat, proper suet is the grated hard fat from round a cows kidneys.

Yes - it is, but compare the levels of saturated fat with palm oil and you'll find the animal fat is healthier!

I've used my shopping time wisely this morning and checked up on the suet situation! For vegetarians, or anyone wanting to make suet pastry with less fat, Atora have a low fat version (25% lighter) made from vegetable oil. They still do the full fat palm oil and the beef suet as well.

I use the veggie one and I can't tell the difference.

I've got 4 hungry teenage girls to pick up tomorrow that have been out all weekend doing Duke of Edinburgh Award so will have something steamed for them.

They'll eat anything cos they've had to cook for themselves on a camp stove. Last time one of them took 10 tins of hot dogs!!!!

We used it tonight as a comparison with the beef one and it's very good.

Can't recommend the palm oil version.