Clootie Dumpling
Clootie dumpling is a traditional Scottish dish, something similar to how you'd probably imagine an old traditional Christmas pudding to be. It gets its name from the cloth or 'cloot' that it's boiled in. I say it's similar to Christmas pudding, but actually it's a bit lighter - not quite so packed with fruit, and no alcohol in it.
In my family at least (and from the web searches I've done, we're not the only ones), this dish is customarily served at birthday celebrations. I remember as a child, wrapping up 20p pieces (and the occasional £1 coin) in tinfoil, to be added to the mixture before it went in the cloth. As we all got older, the coins were no longer added, but we still had the dumpling.
D had never encountered a dumpling before he met my family, and has never had one of his own. So this year, for his birthday, I thought I'd make him one.
I have my Gran's recipe for it, but it seems to be quite different from the other ones I found while doing the web searches, in that it doesn't contain the suet that almost all of the other recipes do.
So how did my first attempt at making a dumpling on my own turn out? Well, the comments from D were very favourable, and I thought it tasted OK. Will I make it again? Definitely.
Recipe
The measurements here are given in cups. The cup I use for this isn't the standard American cup, but an actual teacup. They're almost the same, but the teacup is a little bit smaller. You could probably get away with using the American cup.
2 cups plain flour, plus extra for the cloth.
1 cup breadcrumbs
3oz (85g) sugar
3oz (85g) block margarine (I used butter and it didn't seem to do any harm)
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp treacle
1 cup sultanas
1 cup currants (I didn't have any, so I used raisins instead)
1 apple, grated
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 clean largish cotton/linen cloth, fairly tight weave.
String.
A helper is also useful.
Rub the margarine into the flour.
Add the breadcrumbs, sugar, spices and salt. Mix thoroughly.
Add the dried fruit, and stir through.
At this point, get a large pan of water boiling. Put a heatproof plate upside down in the bottom of the pan. Also boil a kettle of water.
Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the milk. Pour this over the dry ingredients, then add the treacle and the grated apple. mix thoroughly until well combined.
Now you need to scald the cloth - I did this by putting it in the sink and pouring the boiling water from the kettle over it. It then needs to be wrung out so that it's wet/damp but not soaking. Be careful, it's still full of boiling water. Wear at least one pair of rubber gloves - two if they'll fit.
Spread the cloth out on a surface (if the mixture isn't too runny) or in a bowl (if it is). Sprinkle the cloth with flour.
Now, spoon the dumpling mixture into the middle of the floured cloth. Here comes the bit where a helper might be useful. You need to gather up the cloth and tie it with string. Leave a bit of room for the mixture to expand, but make sure that the string is tied tightly.
Now, place the dumpling into your large pan of boiling water. Let it simmer/boil for three hours.
Before the three hours are up, preheat your oven to about 150C. It needs to be heated by the time the dumpling is ready. You'll also need to have an ovenproof plate ready, preferably slightly warmed up.
When the 3 hours are up, remove the dumpling from the pot. I dipped it in cold water at this point, but I'm not sure if you need to do this. Untie the string and start to peel the cloth away. when you have enough of the top (which will become the bottom) exposed, put the plate on top and turn the whole lot upside down. Peel away the rest of the cloth.
It doesn't look very appetizing at this point. Now, put the plate and dumpling into the oven an leave it for anything between 15 and 30 minutes. This is when the skin dries off and darkens.
Serve with custard, cream, or both.
After last week's muffins, I felt like cookies this week. Well, actually my first thought was chocolate, but I figured since it was Easter last week, maybe I should leave the chocolate alone, and go with something else. Something that I could convince myself was vaguely healthy, or at least not totally devoid of any nutritional benefit. So flicking through One Smart Cookie, I found a recipe that fitted the bill: banana oatmeal raisin cookies. 