Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Monmouth Pudding for Saint David's Day March 1st

Meringue, raspberry jam and a version of bread pudding underneath.
"Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus!"
 The National symbols of Wales (Cymru in Welsh - pronounced come-rye) are the daffodil and leeks and even though there are no daffs growing in Maine yet (we're expecting 5-8" of snow tonight :(((() here are some pictures of mine from last year. If you click on the title link above you'll find lots of info about Cymru from the Welsh National Museum.

Here is a picture of the National Costume of Wales....
 and it looks like she is standing in front of an awning with the longest village name in that fair land Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch - translating to "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave" -
don't even ask me how to pronounce it - here's a link to some information about the town on Wikipedia and an audio for the name!!

Wales is a BEAUTIFUL country and many Brits myself included have holidayed there as a child at seaside villages such as Porthmadog and Llandudno (pronounced clan-did-no - double ll's are c's in English.

So - on to Monmouth Pudding
A simple unassuming pudding but pretty with the meringue topping.

INGREDIENTS:
Topping: The more traditional is jam - I choose raspberry jam - I recently discovered this truly delicious, bright and fresh jam at the Belfast Coop and recommend it very highly if you can find it.

  Recently some people are replacing the jam with stewed fruit - apples, rhubarb or pears - but I like to go with tradition.

PUDDING:
1oz butter
3oz sugar
6oz fresh breadcrumbs - I used white with the crust included - you can use white or wheat with or without the crust - the colours will change and the flavour but it's your choice :))
3 egg yolks
16 fl oz buttermilk (get Kate's if you can find it)
Zest of one lemon preferably organic

MERINGUE:
3 egg whites
1oz sugar

1. Heat the oven to 350F and butter 4 individual ramekins.
2. Heat butter, buttermilk, lemon zest and sugar in a saucepan to just simmering.
3. Remove from heat, add breadcrumbs and leave to absorb for 10 minutes.
4, Stir egg yolks into the breadcrumb mix.
5. Divide evenly between 4 ramekins.
6. Bake in the oven until set - about 25 minutes. While the pudding is baking whisk the 3 egg whites to stiff and then add the sugar in 3 goes whisking in between each addition.
7. Remove the ramekins from the oven - don't turn the oven off - let cool a little then spoon as much jam or stewed fruit as you like on the top - thus -
8. Now pipe your egg white meringue atop the jam and pop back in the oven for about 10 minutes until nicely browned as below - you can enjoy whilst hot - with cream or ice cream or just as is or I preferred it cooled - for some reason I do seem to prefer my hot puddings cold - who knows why.
The breadcrumb pudding part does set up quite solidly - it is not a soft pudding - just FYI.


So off you go with your leeks and daffodils and Happy Baking on Saint David's Day!

3 comments:

june in ireland said...

Happy St. David's Day to you too, Patricia, and to all your Welsh subscribers. Mmmm...this Monmouth pudding looks dee-lish. I've never made it or even tried it before, but I'm keen to, after reading this. I also would love to try some of that jam - looks so beautiful in that jar!

Thanks for sharing! I hope you didn't have to put up with any snow. Here in Ireland, the daffs are nearly in full swing - always a lovely sight and a real sign of springtime. Then again, this winter has been so incredibly and wonderfully mild (especially compared to the last two brutal and bitterly cold and icy and snowy winters we've suffered through here, that we all feel we were long overdue a mild winter and a lovely early spring).

Anonymous said...

This recipe is INCREDIBLE! I am learning to cook Welsh recipes for my husband who is half Welsh, and we were just delighted with this. I used sourdough bread crumbs (the only bread I had on hand) and it was lovely. Thank you for sharing this!

Pattern Patisserie said...

Thanks so much for the feedback Anonymous, sourdough breadcrumbs sound like they would a good flavour in this pudding! Did you see my latest post for Welsh Honey Cakes - it has links to some more sweet Welsh desserts: http://patternpatisserie.blogspot.com/2014/02/welsh-honey-cakes-tiessennau-mel-for-st.html
Thanks! Patricia