Traditional Savory English Pudding

I push the button and look around. I'm alone. It's silent except for the passing cars and the occasional station identification from the music they pipe into these places. I hear five clicks and it's my turn to punch the keypad again.

When the doors jolt open, I start tracing my steps back to the cave. I know this walk by heart, I have to do it in the dark so often. Two steps, turn left. Four steps, turn left. Twenty steps - I think - or enough to know I'm about to hit a wall. A little zig zag to the right and then straight on until I feel the lock in my hand. A twist of the wrist and the air changes, the smell of dust seeps into my nose.

This part's hard. I can barely see my hands, and I know if I grab the wrong thing the wall will give way. My fingers move tentatively, then more assuredly as they trace the wooden column. A coolness creeps across my palm and I feel for the undulating metal face knowing the treasure is at hand. I pry it from its cradle, listening for the sounds of anger and disruption, and I turn and run.

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.

Back in the kitchen I give the pudding steamer a good scrub. It's exactly what I need for this month's suet and steamed pudding challenge, and just a coincidence I had one buried in a storage locker for the better part of a decade.

The last time I'd made a steamed pudding, it was a sweet ginger pudding, the recipe packaged with the tin all the way from Portugal. I wasn't crazy about it, so for this challenge I decided to try a savory pudding with the suet crust. I had it all planned out - a lovely ham and leek with asparagus pie, highlighting ham from our pig and seasonal ingredients from the farmers market. But when I got ready to make the filling, I took a big risk and made up a pie filling that I thought might be even more English than I'd planned. I dove into the chest freezer and came out with my prize: a heart.

If you've never worked with organ meat before, I'm sure the heart would be awfully intimidating. But compared with some of the other 'variety meats' we got with our pig, the heart is downright easy. It's basically a lean meat muscle that needs a little trimming, and in the end is about the texture of a filet mignon with a beefier flavor. I seasoned it, dusted it with flour and then seared it and added it to cooked vegetables and stock to braise in the crust. Three and a half hours later, and two refills of hot water, it was done.

After a dodgy hour wondering if it would come out of the pan, I flipped it over and the steamed pudding slid out sans incident. It cut and held together, and after some last minute adjustments to my filling plan (mushrooms instead of asparagus, onions and leeks), it had turned into a lovely wintery meal. A 2007 Dolcetto from Bonny Doon made the pie sing.

Kudos to Esther for selecting a challenge that introduced so many of us to a new ingredient and a new technique!

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