Baby's Head Pudding
- 4 cups flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 1/8 cup suet
- 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 8 ounces beef kidney, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 1/2 pounds rump steak, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Freshly ground salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 6 parsley stalks, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
- 1 cup mushrooms, cut into 1/2-inch slices
- 12 oysters plus their juice
- 1/4 cup red wine
- For pastry: Combine flour, suet, baking powder, salt and water to form a smooth dough.
- Dust a smooth surface with flour and press out pastry with fingers to form a circle 1/4 inch thick.
- Lay a pudding cloth or cheesecloth into a basin or large ovenproof bowl and mold the pastry to it.
- In a separate bowl, combine kidney and steak.
- Season well with salt and pepper.
- Add parsley and thyme.
- Dust with a little flour.
- Place half the meat mixture into the suet crust.
- Add half the mushrooms, then the remaining meat, and the mushrooms again.
- Add enough oyster juice to the wine to make 1/2 cup and pour into the pudding.
- Brush the edges of the crust with water.
- Use the cloth to fold the pastry sides over to cover the filling.
- Cut away excess dough.
- Tie cloth with a string.
- Bring a pot (large enough to completely enclose the pudding bowl) filled half way with water to a boil.
- Place pudding bowl in pot-the water should reach up to 3/4 of the sides of the bowl.
- Cover with lid.
- Or to mold the pudding to the shape of a baby's head, remove the nob from the lid of the pot and thread the cloth's string through the exposed holes.
- Secure the string to the pot's handles to suspend the pudding in the pot.
- Boil pudding for 3 1/2 hours.
- Make sure the water doesn't boil away.
- One hint: place two marbles in the pot with the water.
- Their pinging will notify you when the water completely evaporates.
- Remove pudding from bowl.
- Carefully pull away pudding cloth and invert pudding onto a large, heated serving dish.
- Cut out a top in the pudding's crust and add the oysters, mixing them in with a fork.
flour, suet, baking powder, salt, water, beef kidney, rump steak, freshly ground salt, freshly ground pepper, parsley stalks, thyme, mushrooms, oysters, red wine
Taken from www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/babys-head-pudding-recipe.html (may not work)