Spotted Dick

There was a time when English parliamentary lunacy almost managed to remove "spotted dick" as a staple on the menus of schools, canteens and old folks homes. The reasons why this British classic is a regular on those menus is simple: it's cheap and its filling and ain't exactly light in the energy boosting department. It's damn tasty too. Apparently, spotted dick is a derisory remark against anyone called Richard, presumably only if he had spots. Lunacy.

Pre-heat your oven to 150 c.

Ingredients:

1 lb plain flour
1 oz baking powder
6oz mixed dried fruit
1 level tspn ground cinnamon
a few grates of fresh nutmeg
pinch of black pepper
3 oz demarera sugar
8oz suet (preferably beef)
1 egg
½ pint of water

Method:

1. Place all of the ingredients in a food mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix to combine. The mixture will be a bit sticky but that's fine.

2. Ideally, you want one big spotted dick (no pun intended) but, chances are, you don't have an industrial sized oven or trays. So, i'm going to have to leave it up to you how big or small you want to roll them. Using doubled-up cling wrap - wide enough to wrap around twice, roll the dicks up like big sausages, roughly 3/4 the length of your tray and about as thick as your wrist. Twist the ends then knot them.

3. Place a grill rack in your tray, place your spotted dicks on top, pour in enough boiling water to give an inch in the bottom then cover tightly with tin foil and cook for 1 1/2 hours.

The reaason i use cling wrap instead of the traditional baking parchment is because it's easier to roll and it will expand with the pudding without spilling out everywhere (which is wh you need to roll it twice, as above). Serve hot with custard.