Day 191: suet: the conduit

The evocative power of food never ceases to amaze me. It’s especially powerful when you take a bite of something and a whole collective of memories, from many different points of time in your life, come flooding back all at once. Certain foods are more powerful conduits than others for channelling these memories from the past into the now. For me, one of those foods is suet. It’s a powerhouse conduit. And I know I don’t stand alone in the fond memories of comfort and family that I hold close to my heart when I think of suet puddings: families sat around the table, everyone excitedly tucking into a bacon and onion pudding or a steak and kidney pudding, to name just a couple of the savoury ones, or a jam roly-poly, treacle pudding or spotted dick, doused in custard, to name a few of the sweet ones. When I feel like a fully immersive trip down memory lane, I tend to make a layered bacon and onion pudding - using the same method my Nan did/does: layers of suet pastry with fried onion and, for me, smoked bacon, steamed for a couple of hours and served with gravy, brown sauce, mashed potatoes and buttered sweet petit pois.

I’ve made many a layered bacon and onion pudding, but never the kind of pudding when the filling is encased in a shell of suet pastry. I did that today, and took another joyful trip down memory lane, with Nigella’s Steak and Kidney Pudding. This actually draws from the HTBADG-themed list I wrote a couple of months ago (that I’m still slowly, and very happily, working my way through.)

Nigella’s Steak and Kidney Pudding

I cooked the filling a few days ago and then assembled the showstopper this evening. I had planned on waiting for my Mum to visit to make this one, as I’m the only one in our house who likes kidneys, or any offal at that matter, but as she won’t be visiting for a while I decided I could wait no longer. I halved the quantities in the original recipe and used a pudding basin half the size; there is still some left, and I know suet pastry goes a bit funny when cold, but it’s nothing some careful reheating and extra gravy won’t fix - at least for me, anyway.

Suet is a powerful conduit for channelling fond memories and tonight a whole cluster of joyful dinnertimes at the table with my grandparents came flooding back. Nigella’s Steak and Kidney Pudding: a tender beef and kidney stew, laced with mustard and oyster sauce, encased within a soft, light suet pastry, and steamed. That’s a Guinness and onion gravy sliding down the sides. Peas with butter and a chive and butter mash (out of shot) on the side. Brown sauce and mustard, too.

The recipe for Nigella’s Steak and Kidney Pudding can be found on p94 of How To Be A Domestic Goddess and on nigella.com (link below).