Recipe: Spotted Dick for grown ups

• 3 May 2019, 10:15am
• From Spectator Life

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Alexander Larman

What happened to the Rishi Sunak I knew at school?

Happily, I was wrong on every single count. Spotted dick is ridiculously easy to bring together, needing only a quick stir from a wooden spoon, before being piled into a pudding basin. No creaming, no curdling, no melting or liaising. And it is, truly, a treat of a dish: the currants, far from being sad and coarse swell to plump and fruity, boozy from the sherry; the pudding itself is light, thanks to the suet which has a high melting point, so the pudding sets around it, creating an unexpectedly airy pud.

Lacking the sauce of a sticky toffee, or gooey exterior of a treacle pudding, it is even more important – integral – to the proper disposal of the pudding, that you drown it in really thick, really cold custard.

Makes: Serves 4-6

Takes: 5 minutes

Bakes: 2 hours

What you need

• 100g currants
• 2 tablespoons sherry
• 120g self-raising flour
• 50g light brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon fine salt
• 65g suet
• 80ml whole milk
• 1 lemon, zested
• Butter, for greasing the pudding basin

1. Soak the currants in the sherry for an hour.
2. Once the fruit is soaked, whisk the flour, sugar and salt together. Stir in the zest, soaked currants, suet and milk until the dough is combined.
3. Place a saucer or some crumpled tin foil at the bottom of a large pan. Rub a pudding basin with a little butter, and spoon the dough into the basin.
4. Take a piece of greaseproof paper and fold a pleat down the middle – this will allow the pudding to expand without breaking free. Place the greaseproof paper over the top of the pudding basin and secure tightly with an elastic band. Take a piece of tin foil and create a similar pleat. Place this over the greaseproof paper, and fold the foil down around the lip of the pudding basin, to create a barrier against the water.
5. Place the pudding basin on the saucer or foil in the pan, and pour boiling water into the pan avoiding the basin, until it comes halfway up the side of the basin. Put a lid on the pan, and the pan on the lowest heat on the stove. Steam for two hours, occasionally checking and topping up the water level to stop it boiling dry.
6. After the two hours, remove the basing from the hot water, and leave until it has cooled just enough to handle. Remove the foil and greaseproof, and run a knife carefully around the edge of the pudding before placing the serving plate over the basin and upending to release the pudding. Serve with thick custard.