10:31am Thursday 2nd February 2006
By Ruth Hurren
MY time in England has so far taught me that pudding is not merely seen as a treat on Sundays it is a 'must' in this country.
There are so many great classic puddings, which appear time and time again on menus all over England.
I think winter puddings are everyone's favourite, from apple pie to treacle tart, hunting pudding with suet, fruit fritters, burnt creams, poached or baked pears or quinces and fruit crumble.
I was in a bookshop scanning the cookbooks for some information on English puddings to improve my own understanding of English cuisine and the vast range of what I call desserts and you call puddings.
To my surprise, I discovered that someone other than Delia, Nigella or Elizabeth David has come up with a very authoritative book English Puddings: Sweet and Savoury by Mary Norwak. It contains every pudding including those I had been told were French or American and gives their history.
As Mary explains, it's very difficult to define exactly what a pudding is, because there are so many different types. The most common ingredients are flour, butter, milk, eggs, sugar, suet and raisins.
They can be baked in the oven, they can be boiled in a cloth, they can be made in 50 different ways.
The recipe I have chosen from it is English. Its real name is burnt cream or, more correctly, Trinity pudding. But it's more commonly known by its French name, creme brulee.
It's well worth the effort, and who on Earth doesn't like custard with a glass toffee top?
I was very interested to learn that, whereas restaurant customers nowadays expect this dessert to be pretty solid, if you were to look at the cookery books of yesteryear you would find that the cream, although set, would not be expected to be firm. How things change.
* Ruth Hurren is head chef at Darcy's restaurant, Hatfield Road, St Albans. For more information telephone 01727 730777.
Creme brulee
Serves 4
Ingredients
Half pint (300ml) double cream; half pint (300ml) single cream; 4 egg yolks; caster sugar; a dash of vanilla or orange blossom syrup.
Method
Put the cream into a pan and bring just to the boil. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl then into the cream.
Put the bowl over a pan of hot water and stir gently until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.
Pour into a shallow ovenproof dish and leave until completely cool, then chill.
Sprinkle with a thin layer of caster sugar.
Put under a hot grill until the sugar caramelises into a thin sheet of toffee. Or you can use a cook's blowtorch, available at homeware stores.
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