Spotted Dick Style Oatmeal Porridge Recipes

SPOTTED DICK

Steps:

• Heat milk, cream, and salt in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring often until steaming.
• Whisk together sugar and egg yolks in a bowl until well combined. Gradually pour half of warm milk mixture into egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Whisk egg yolk mixture back into milk mixture in saucepan. Cook egg yolk mixture over medium-low, whisking constantly, until mixture is just slightly thickened and coats the back of a spoon (see Cook's Note), 3 to 5 minutes.
• Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla extract. Strain egg yolk mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl; let cool, uncovered, at room temperature for 30 minutes. Loosely cover and chill until completely cool, about 1 hour.
• While custard sauce cools, grease a 1.5-quart heat proof metal bowl with butter. Trace base of bowl on a sheet of parchment paper; cut out parchment round and use to line bottom of bowl.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture by hand or using a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar, currants, raisins, and lemon zest until well combined. Gradually stir in milk and vanilla just until combined. Batter will be very thick.
• Spoon batter into the prepared bowl, smoothing into an even layer. Loosely cover the bowl with a piece of buttered parchment paper. Tightly cover bowl with a double layer of aluminum foil. Wrap kitchen twine twice around top edge of bowl and tie tightly to secure aluminum foil; tie another piece of string onto twine on opposite sides of bowl to create a handle.
• Place an expandable metal steamer basket upside down in a large, deep pot to create a perforated platform. Fill pot with about 1 inch of water. Bring to a boil over medium-high, then reduce to a simmer over low. Place bowl in the pot. (Bottom of bowl should not touch water.) Cover and steam until pudding is set and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour and 30 minutes to 1 hour and 40 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center register about 180 degrees F ( 82 degrees C). Adjust heat to maintain a simmer and add additional water as needed.
• Carefully remove bowl from pot using twine handle; remove and discard twine, aluminum foil and parchment paper. Let cool in bowl 10 minutes.
• Invert pudding onto a serving plate; remove bowl and discard parchment. Serve warm with chilled custard sauce.

SPOTTED DICK STYLE OATMEAL PORRIDGE

Steps:

• Separate the egg whites into a small bowl and dispose of, or otherwise jetison the yolks :).
• Weigh the sultanas into another small bowl.
• Chop the prunes into medium chunks (perhaps just a bit bigger than 1/3 inch cubes roughly) and place in another small bowl.
• In a saucepan, add 1 medium heaped tablespoon of Wheat Bran.
• Weigh approx 65g to 70g Porridge Oats (Oatmeal) into the pan (depending on how hungry you feel).
• Add a mere hint of ground ginger (you don't want to actually taste the ginger, it's just there to help bring out the flavours), and add a generous few drops of Vanilla flavouring.
• Add approx 445g/445ml water (to my taste, approx 6.6g/6.6ml water per gram of oatmeal gives a good thick porridge).
• Place pan on stove and bring to a boil. When just starting to boil, add the sultanas, and continue to boil on a medium heat, stirring continuously, for a few minutes until fairly thick and the sultanas have softened nicely.
• Depending on how dried out the prunes are you may wish to add them now (or earlier if they are really dry. The ones I get are completely hydrated and really squishy so I add them only at the very end). Also, if using sugar rather than sweetner, it would probably be best to add it now.
• Pour the egg whites onto the middle of the porridge and turn up the heat a bit. Don't stir.
• Heat for a few minutes, then poke a wooden spoon or spatula in a few places around the outsides of the pan to tease the porridge and egg off the sides of the pan back into the mix. You want a final result of biggish pieces of egg-white through the porridge but no huge lumps - and obviously the egg white must be cooked completely :).
• Bring back to a vigourous boil for a couple of minutes until it's clear the egg-white has properly cooked, stirring occasionally to prevent the egg-white forming any really big pieces.
• Stir in a few teaspoons on Splenda or non-aspartame based sweetener (aspartame decomposes at 85 degrees centigrade and loses its sweetness - Splenda is sucralose-based so avoids this problem) - to taste.
• If your prunes are as squishy as mine, then add them to the porridge and quickly stir in to mix.
• Spoon into a bowl and sprinkle another teaspoon of sweetener over the top.
• Add a generous dollop of low-fat strained (Greek-Style) yoghurt (or any plain yoghurt you have handy), and gently stir in a spoonful of granulated sweetener into the yoghurt. (The yoghurt does benefit from having been sweetened and sugar will be crunchy for ages so granulated sweetener (which dissolves instantly) would be best.).
• Drizzle honey over the top of the porridge and devour.
• Trust me - you won't make this only once :) I did it one morning when I fancied a simpler porridge without all the spices and fruit I so often add and have been eating it very nearly every day for weeks :).