The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.
So what is suet? It is the hard but flaky fat found on the inside of a cow or sheep around the kidneys and that area of the body. Suet in its raw form crumbles easily into small chunks so much so that my butcher says it covers his floor in bits if he doesn't have it taken out as soon as possible. In fact unless he knows he has a customer for it he has the abattoir take it out and throw it away and when I want some he gives it to me for free! It also melts at quite a low temperature, which has an effect on how it works in cooking. In some places such as the UK it is sold processed which basically means it is grated and combined with flour to keep the individual pieces from clumping together, and it becomes a sort of dried out short strands, almost granular in texture.
My reaction towards suet was nothing but discomfort. I had to admit the only time I had used something like suet, .... the pork lard, was the time I learnt how to make Chinese mooncakes. I had enough of that. So I was glad that for this challenge suet was replaceable with other substitutes. Shortening was my choice even though initially I had my doubt about it. Apparently it didn't give me any problem at all, and my steamed pudding turned out quite pleasant to my sight after 5 hours of steaming. Despite the crust dough was just about 6mm when I rolled and pressed to the pudding bowl, it was strong enough to hold the dome-shaped pudding together. And for that, I was delighted.
I like the taste of the filling due to strong flavour of sherry wine combined with oyster and worchester sauce. And the crust is not hard, instead just nice for each bite. These 2 factors would be the good reasons why I would think of steaming this pudding again. For my steamed sponge pudding click here!
Thanks so much to Esther of The Lilac Kitchen! The challenge recipe was adapted for my own convenience, for the original version click here!
STEAMED SAVOURY PUDDING
1. Filling
Ingredients:
- Pork loin – cut into cubes > 360 grams
- All purpose flour > 4 teaspoons
- Salt > ¾ teaspoon
- Black pepper > ¾ teaspoon
- Potato – cut into cubes > 175 grams
- Carrots – cut into cubes > 125 grams
- Shitake mushroom – slice > 90 grams
- Onion – slice > 80 grams
- Worchester sauce > 2 teaspoons
- Oyster sauce > 4 tablespoons
- Sherry wine > 5 tablespoons
Method:
- Season pork cubes by tossing them in flour, salt and black pepper. Set aside.
- Mix potato, carrot cubes, and shitake mushroom. Set aside.
- Prepare onion slices separately in a bowl. Set aside.
- Combine oyster sauce and sherry wine together in a separate bowl. Set aside.
2. Crust
Need a steamable 1 liter dome-shaped pudding bowl
Ingredients:
- All purpose flour > 250 grams
- Baking powder > 2 teaspoons
- Shortening > 175 grams
- Salt > ¼ teaspoon
- Black pepper > ¼ teaspoon
- Evaporated milk > 210 ml
Method:
- Mix all ingredients together. Form a ball.
- Dust the working surface with flour and place the ball in the middle. Roll into a circle big enough to cover the pudding bowl (thickness approximately 5-6 mm). Slit from the center, slice out one quarter of the circle to make a lid later on. Set aside.
- Grease enormously the pudding bowl.
- Place this dough into the pudding bowl to cover the interior. Press with fingers to compact it.
- Add the filling by scattering a small amount of seasoned pork cubes, then the vegetable cubes, and onion slices. Repeat for a few layers until the height is about half the bowl. Sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of black pepper. Splash 1 teaspoon of Worchester sauce thoroughly.
- Repeat filling with pork, vegetable and onion again and again until it almost reaches the top of the crust dough. Sprinkle again with ¼ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of black pepper. Finally plash 1 teaspoon of Worchester sauce thoroughly.
- Pour the oyster sauce and sherry wine mixture to the top of the meat and vegetables.
- Roll the set aside crust dough into a circle big enough to cover the top of the bowl. Dampen the edges and place it on the pudding. Pinch the edges with the surrounding crust dough.
- Seal with 2 sheets of foil(grease the side of foil that is touching top of pudding), pleated in the center to allow room for expansion during steaming. Secure with string and place the bowl into the steamer over boiling water.
- Steam pudding for 5 hours. Add hot boiled water whenever it is necessary.
