By Alison Polich
My mother would start to make summer pudding as soon as the raspberries and loganberries in our garden were ripe, supplemented by the red or black currants from our neighbours garden. Only when the blackberries, as we southerners called them, (brambles in the north), ripened later in the year were they added to the mix. Mother used some cooking apples but mainly berries. It was always served with fresh single cream.
When I came to Australia in 1971, the only fresh berries available were strawberries, (and we certainly didn’t add them to our summer puddings in England) plus tinned blackberries (very watery with minimal amount of fruit). So summer pudding was a treat to be savoured only on my return visits to the UK.
That is until recently when a friend of Pam’s, whom we met at the Somerville in February 2020, mentioned that she had made a summer pudding using frozen berries. It was certainly a lightbulb moment for me and I googled several recipes, settling for one that used 750g of mixed berries, including strawberries but no apples to make a smaller pudding. I also reduce the leftover juice to pour over the pudding, when turning it out, as it makes for a glorious glistening finish to the dish. I serve it with one of the naturally thick creams now available here.
It’s certainly become a family favourite and one which I serve at my lunch parties now that I’m retired as I enjoy eating at midday more and more.