Nigel Slater’s kitchen diary: time for a fruity summer pudding

Photographs by Jonathan Lovekin

The cutting and shaping of the bread with which to line the pudding basin is a bit of a pain – I tend to make mine in a baking dish. What you miss in theatrical terms as you spoon the pudding out of its shallow dish is more than made up for by the speed and ease with which you can make the baking-dish version. Finding, and affording, enough redcurrants for the classic summer pudding is another matter. If you have an allotment or know someone with a plethora of currant bushes, then cherish them.

Lacking both, I tend to use half blackberries or raspberries and half blackcurrants, which can be bought fresh for the next few weeks, or frozen all year round.

The local blackcurrant season is short, though you can find imported redcurrants pretty much all year. Their inherent sourness makes them a perfect addition to a pavlova or a refreshing inclusion to a swiss roll or roulade. Once a spoonful of sugar has been scattered over your currants and they have been left to simmer with a little water, you will have a ruby-coloured compote to spoon over sponge cake or soak the sponges of a trifle. If you wish, you can strain the juice and use it as a summer cordial.

Redcurrants don’t freeze well, becoming squishy when they defrost, but a haul of blackcurrants and gooseberries went into my freezer this week to wait until the bleakest midwinter day, when they will feel like a ray of sunshine under a crumble crust or kneaded into in a yeasty focaccia.

Once again, almost everything this week has been cooked on the griddle. Lamb steaks, thinly sliced and stuffed into baguettes with ripe tomatoes and an anchovy vinaigrette; prawns in their shells tossed with a dressing of dried chilli flakes and honey and, best of all, grilled squid with a side of chorizo and spinach.

Everything hot from the grill appreciates a cool accompaniment. This summer I have been serving a mixture of half sheep’s yoghurt and half-crumbled feta, mixed with a little olive oil. Occasionally, I add a pinch or two of dried mint or chopped fresh thyme leaves.

The latter has become a go-to accompaniment for grilled lamb, the soft, cool cheese oozing over the sizzling, scorched meat. Whisper it, but this summer seems to be going on forever.

I love the traditional method of making a summer pudding, with raspberries and redcurrants squashed inside a dome of juice-soaked bread. But this method is simpler, without the fiddly shaping of the bread and lining of the bowl. It is also easier to serve and to store in the fridge. I like to hold back a few fruits with which to decorate the pudding.

Weighing the pudding down is essential. I use a small chopping board and anything heavy I can put on top, such as cans of beans. The juice then soaks evenly through the bread. Use blackberries or raspberries and either blackcurrants or redcurrants. I generally work on the ratio of half berries to currants, that way you get plenty of juice from the currants to soak the bread.

You will also need a china, glass or enamelled dish measuring approximately 24cm x 20cm.

Serves 8. Ready in 4 hours.

mixed blackberries and blackcurrants 1kg
white sugar 4 tbsp, plus extra to taste
water 500ml
white bread 8 slices (roughly 40g each)
cream to serve

Sort through the fruit, discarding any that are less than perfect – they must be ripe. Pull the currants from their stems. Tip the fruit into a stainless steel or enamelled saucepan, place over a low heat, then add the sugar and water and bring to the boil.

As soon as the fruit and water starts to boil, the currants will burst and release their juices. Taste the juice and sweeten with a little more sugar if you think it is needed, then take the pan from the heat.

Remove the crusts from the bread and cut each slice into rectangles roughly 3cm wide on the longest side. Place a layer of bread in the base of the dish in a single layer, patching and cutting where necessary to cover the base – this should use about a third of the bread.

Spoon half of the fruit over the bread with enough of the juice to saturate it. Place another third of the bread on top of the fruit, then the remainder of the fruit, reserving the juice. Place the remaining bread slices on top, then spoon the remaining juice over it.

Cover the surface with clingfilm, place a heavy weight on top, such as a suitably sized chopping board, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, longer if you can. While it is weighted, the juices will continue to soak through the layers of bread.

Remove the weight, board and clingfilm, then cut the pudding into 8 or so pieces and serve with a jug of cream.

• Use brioche in place of the bread if you prefer.

• The pudding will keep in the fridge for a day or two.

• You can use the cooked fruits and their juices as a compote. Spike it with a small glass of eau de vie cassis, if you are serving it as dessert. Maybe not if you are eating it at breakfast.