Upper Crust

I am working my way through the bag of McDougall's Suet Mix which I got from Approved Foods last year.

It’s been really cold, with more snow, recently, and rib-sticking puddings were high on my agenda.

I got out my little bowls [see my first blog about them a year ago, here] and decided to make a savoury filling.

I made enough suet pastry to line and top the puddings [sometimes I just do ‘top only’] and made the filling from what I had to hand – I chopped up three rashers of bacon, two small onions and one small eating apple [unpeeled] I mixed all that up with salt, pepper and some fresh thyme from the garden..

I divided the filling between the puds and put a small knob of butter on top, then covered each with a circle of pastry, sealed and crimped round the edges. [hint; measure the distance from one edge down to the bottom and across then up the other side. Make a circle of pastry with that diameter. Now cut out one third. Use two thirds to line bowl, and re roll the one third to make a lid]

Instead of cooking them in the microwave –which I often do for speed and economy, I cooked them in the oven at 180ºC for around 45mins. I stood the puds in a baking tin which I’d half filled with boiling water from the kettle. I popped some jacket potatoes in as well. [The oven was already hot from some cakes I’d been baking earlier.] The pastry cooked to a golden colour. I prepared some carrots and gravy too.

I presented each pudding on a dinner plate with a napkin tied round the bowl. As well as looking cute, the cloth insulated  our fingers when we turned them out  [I’d greased the bowls so they slid out very easily]

Very tasty, and very economical!