A friend recently sent me a link to this recipe for summer pudding. It’s a no-bake dessert full of berries and served cold, perfect for summer.
But it’s kind of strange, if you think about it: poached berries, inside of a bread-lined bowl? How did that come about? The page where I got the recipe says that a Chef John Williams invented it at Claridge’s in London (or maybe it’s just saying this particular recipe is from John Williams), while on Wikipedia it says that there’s no clear record of its origin. It probably was invented in Britain, since it seems very British for some reason. I can just imagine…
Nigel owned a small restaurant in Upper London. It wasn’t anything fancy, but he prided himself on his food. His customers loved him because they could ask him to make something, and he’d come up with an original dish, right on the spot.
One day after work, he realized that he was out of butter. He always had butter on hand, since it came in handy for desserts and rich sauces. Nigel was on his way to the store, when suddenly, a woman ran into him on the street. Literally. He nearly fell back onto his butt, but he managed to save himself. “Oh I’m terribly sorry!” said the woman. Nigel was about to give her a very stern talking-to, when he looked up and saw an incredibly attractive Asian woman. Her long, flowing jet-black hair outlined her round face, with her seductive eyes and her rich, luscious lips. How could he yell at this creature of beauty? He was powerless.
“Oh! N-no problem at all!” he stammered, as he tried to not to blush. It had been quite a while since he had felt the touch of a woman. The restaurant had kept him busy, and he hadn’t had the chance to meet many women.
But with this one, there was an immediate attraction. She often had that effect on men, but for some reason, she found herself drawn to this thin, wiry white man. “I’m Kate,” the Asian woman said, in a crisp British accent. “Nigel,” he said back, reaching out to shake her hand.
Perhaps it was the dry climate, or maybe their jewelry, but there was a spark between their hands when they shook. They could both feel it. Instinctively, they both withdrew their hands, only to look into each other’s eyes with a passion that neither of them was accustomed to. Her lips seemed to be saying to him, “I want you. Now.” Good thing that Nigel was an expert in reading lips.
Without saying a word, Kate followed Nigel to his flat. She knew that it was right. The instant he closed the door, she jumped into his arms. Their tongues were soon darting in and out of each other’s mouths like hyperactive pistons in a race car. As he held her in his arms, passionately sticking their tongues down each other’s throats, they spun around like a tornado through his living room, their clothes flying in every possible direction. Soon, they were completely naked. They didn’t care. They were so full of lust that there was no room for shame.
Somehow, they made their way to Nigel’s bedroom. There was a pile of knickers on his bed, but that was soon shoved into the corner, making room on the sheets for their intertwined, naked bodies. They were both dripping like faucets from the excitement. The lubrication was insane. Like two naked kids rolling around in an oil slick. Except they weren’t kids. And the oil came from them. Their carnal desires manifested in bodily fluids.
Kate mounted Nigel like a rider on a horse. Soon, his member was inside of her, touching the corners of her vagina that she could hardly reach herself. The pleasure immediately overcame her. It was like being wrapped up in a warm blanket. A warm blanket that would send waves of sexual pleasure through her every time she touched it.
Nigel was also in the throes of ecstasy. As Kate writhed around on top of him, he nearly passed out from the immense pleasure emanating from his groin. It was all he could do to keep from blowing his load.
But soon, the time came. And he came like a volcano. At the same time, Kate reached her climax. Oh, how long it had been since she had felt pleasure like this! They collapsed in a heap, out of breath. Both of them were exhausted; they had released all their energy through their genitals. They fell asleep for the night.
The next morning, they awoke at the same time. She realized that she needed to get to work; he realized he needed to get to the restaurant. In a hurry, they got dressed. There was that usual awkward moment that comes the morning after a hook-up, when the two lovers realize that they had nothing in common the previous night other than the need for physical pleasure. Hurriedly, Kate left Nigel’s flat. She didn’t want to draw out the walk of shame.
At the restaurant, Kate was all Nigel could think of. He halfheartedly cooked dishes he could cook with his eyes closed. Near the end of the day, two young women asked him for some dessert. Something with berries, they said, as they were in the mood for something juicy.
Nigel went into the kitchen, only to realize that he had never gone to the store the previous day to pick up the butter that he needed. How was he to make a dessert now? He was planning to make a berry cobbler, but he really needed butter for the dough. He paced back and forth. He decided he’d just look around for some dessert ingredients, and hopefully pull something together. As he walked around the kitchen, he picked up the berries he had in the fridge, along with a lemon. Of course, he also needed sugar for his dessert. Nigel spied a loaf of white bread on the shelf. He couldn’t make cobbler from it, but it would be a nice, fluffy texture to go with the berries. So he decided to make some lemon-flavored sugar syrup. He then took the berries and poached them briefly in the lemon syrup, which turned it a nice red color. But how would he combine the berries with the bread? He saw a small bowl on the counter. It seemed the perfect size for a small dessert. Plain white bread wasn’t going to go well with the berries, so he dipped the slices of bread into the red syrup, and then lined the bowl with the bread. He them spooned some of the softened berries into the bread-lined bowl, and then topped the berries with some more bread. He now had a nice berry dessert, encased in bread! Proud of his accomplishment, Nigel pressed down on the top layer of bread very firmly until it all held together, and then turned it out onto a plate. The bread surrounding the berries had a beautiful red color from the syrup.
He carried his creation out to his female guests, who loved it. They loved the abundance of berries in the dessert, and how their sweetness went with the soft bread on the outside. And thus, summer pudding was born.
My summer pudding, unfortunately, did not turn out nearly as pretty as the one on the website, and I’m sure not nearly as pretty as Chef John Williams’s version, either. Probably not even as nice as Nigel’s, even though I had a lot more time to prepare mine.
Yes, it looks like meat. It tasted good, though.
Summer Pudding
1 1/4 cups sugar
Juice and peel of 1 lemon
1 lb. strawberries, washed and hulled
1/2 lb. blackberries, washed
1/2 lb. blueberries, washed
3/4 lb. raspberries
1 loaf challah or brioche, sliced
whipped cream
(Side note: I find it humorous that they felt the need to put “washed” next to the berries, as if someone wouldn’t bother washing them. Except for the raspberries, for some reason. Do we not need to wash the raspberries?)
First, cook the sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, and 2 1/4 cups water in a saucepan until all the sugar dissolves. Then poach the strawberries in the syrup for two minutes, and place them in a bowl after draining. Poach the blackberries for 30 seconds and put them in the bowl as well. Do the same with the blueberries, poaching them for 30 seconds. Then take half the raspberries and poach them for 30 seconds. For the other half, add them to the syrup, and cook them for about 10 minutes, until they’re mushy. The syrup will look really red, with a bunch of raspberry seeds (at least mine had a lot of raspberry seeds).
Now coat a 1-quart bowl with some syrup. (I tried doing this but it kept running down the sides, so I don’t know what that’s all about.) Then take some of the slices of bread, dip them in the syrup, and line the bottom and sides of the bowl with them, so that they overlap slightly. Spoon about a third of the berries into the bowl, and then cover that with a layer of syrup-dipped bread. Then take another third of the berries, and cover that with another layer of syrup-dipped bread. Finally, put the remaining berries on top of the last layer of bread, and cover that with a double layer of syrup-dipped bread.
Cover the whole thing with plastic wrap, and then put a plate on top, with some heavy cans on top of that to weigh it down. Refrigerate the whole contraption overnight, along with any leftover syrup. Invert the pudding onto a platter, patch up any white spots with the leftover syrup, and serve with whipped cream.
I used slightly more berries than the recipe called for, since I was making a big pudding for about 17 people. I probably should’ve used a bigger bowl for the strawberries…
The syrup, made of sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, and water.
The berries, after they were briefly poached in the lemon syrup.
The syrup has turned red from the berries giving off their juices.
After half the raspberries have been cooked, the syrup is even redder. And it has a lot of seeds.
I used some challah, since it looked eggy. The original recipe calls for white sandwich bread, but I wanted something different.
The bottom of the bowl, lined with some bread slices dipped in syrup. My glass bowl was significantly more than one quart…
Some of the berries, in the bottom of the bowl.
Even more berries.
A final layer of bread on top. I was running out of syrup, since I had such a large bowl and so I needed to use a lot of bread. So I ended up not doing a double layer at the end.
And here’s the contraption I put in the fridge, with various cans on top of the plate.
The summer pudding, turned out onto a plate. It didn’t end up looking as uniformly red as the picture on the website did, but they probably used nicer bread. And they followed their own instructions and actually cut off the crusts.
Served with some whipped cream and mint. It ended up falling apart because I had to cut it into 17 slices, and the bottom was falling apart because I didn’t have that double layer of bread. Apparently, it is important.
I’m going to try making a smaller version of this next time. Perhaps with a right-sized bowl.