dolce al rabarbaro (cotto al vapore) / rhubarb steamed pudding

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Our DB's host introduced us to two important elements of traditional English pudding: the ingredient, suet (sugna), and the cooking method, steaming (al vapore).

Information on pudding and suet, and various recipes for pudding, both savory and sweet, can be found here.

To start with, I decided to look up the work pudding in my dictionary, and this is what I found:

1 a dessert with a creamy consistency (chocolate pudding, rice pudding).
• chiefly Brit. any dessert.
• chiefly Brit. the dessert course of a meal (what's for pudding?).
2 a sweet or savory steamed dish made with flour (Yorkshire pudding).
• the intestines of a pig or sheep stuffed with oatmeal, spices, and meat and boiled.

So, pudding has a broad application, as you can see also by scanning the different recipes presented by Esther here. [The Italian word budino corresponds to the first meaning: a dessert with a creamy consistency.]

Back to the DB's British pudding challenge, what was there for pudding at our house? Follow me and you'll find out.

I have never used suet or seen it in the stores where I shop. On the other hand, I grew up in a household where rendered pork fat (strutto) had specific uses. Since I had just made strutto for the first time, I decided to use that instead. Lisa of Champaign Taste, my partner in the Novel Food event, recently wrote a post about her experience rendering lard, which worked as the prompt I needed to push me from planning into action. I asked the butcher at our local Co-op to set aside some lard for me, and soon I had about two pounds of it to experiment with. The process went smoothly and at the end, I got a nice jar of strutto.

The purchase of the first rhubarb (rabarbaro) of the season made me look for a recipe for pudding that would allow me to use rhubarb and butter. Among the ones listed by Esther under the heading "Butter based versions of steamed pudding," I found one that looked perfect: Rhubarb Steamed Pudding.

I decided to substitute only a small quantity of butter with strutto, since I was a bit worried it would impart too strong of a taste (this being my first experience with it). I also made a few adjustments to the recipe, namely:

• I bought the rhubarb before finding the recipe, and had 250 g (8 oz.), instead of 350 g.
• I added 50 g of sugar to the rhubarb and then 100 g to the batter.
• I added a tablespoon of water to the rhubarb before cooking it. That resulted in a bit of juice at the end, which I added to the batter.
• I used freshly grated ginger (zenzero) instead of ground ginger.
• I used 6 tablespoons of butter (85 g) and a tablespoon of strutto instead of 125 g of butter (approx. 9 tablespoons).
• Since I did not have self-rising flour, I weighed 165 g of all-purpose flour and added to it half a teaspoon of salt and 1 and 3/4 teaspoons of baking powder.

I did not have a pudding basin and could not find one at the local kitchen store, so I decided to use a quart-size pyrex measuring cup instead. I had to be a bit creative when it came time to tie a string around the measuring cup to secure the waxed paper (carta oleata) and foil, since the handle got in the way, but I managed, and I also tied a string around the bottom to use as a handle to lower the cup into the steaming pot and then lift it out of it at the end of the cooking time. I used my pressure cooker as pot and placed a round rack in it to avoid direct contact between the measuring cup and the bottom of the pot.

The steaming method of cooking was a bit unnerving, because I could not check the progress without disrupting it, and since I had never steamed a cake before, I did not have references to help me. I patiently waited the required amount of time and then lifted the measuring cup out of the hot water bath (the handle came out very handy). Seeing that the pudding had risen was a pleasant surprise (photo above), as I had prepared myself for some sort of failure. I ran a knife around the pudding to detach it from the container and then turned it over onto a plate. It looked quite nice.

The head of my Quality Assurance department (i.e., my husband) immediately got on the job and tasted a slice. He approved it with a suggestion to further lower the sugar content next time, then ate another slice. We are only at the beginning of rhubarb season, so I will make this again, using the correct amount of rhubarb, a bit less sugar and substituting more of the butter with strutto. Stay tuned for updates.

A special thank you goes to our host for her choice and her efforts. It was an interesting and fun challenge. I hope you will take the time to go around and look at the creative output of my talented fellow Daring Bakers.

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Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post: 

dolce al rabarbaro

or launch the dolce al rabarbaro  audio file [mp3].

Comments

[astrofiammante]

da noi il rabarbaro non si trova o molto raramente....tanto che ne ho visto stranamente una piantina in un vivaio e l'ho presa, domenica l'ho piantata nell'orto dei miei....vedremo cosa ne verrà fuori.....la cottura al vapore ho l'impressione che non sia facile per i dolci, anche se vedendo la tua tortina mi sembra che lieviti bene....ciao e buone valige ^__________^

[Christine]

Wow! Simona. This looks dazzling. I've got a lot of lard in my freezer to render and have been trying to find recipes with which to use it. Thanks!

[marcellina]

Simona, I love the combination of the rhubarb with the fresh ginger. Your pudding looks lovely and moist!

[Ivy]

Great post. I've never had rhubarb before except once from a jar and I liked it a lot. Your pudding looks delicious.

[Milena]

Le cotture al vapore mi incuriosiscono molto: ho una ricetta di torte delle rose con questa metodica.
Quanto prima avvio le sperimentazioni e farò capo alla tua ricetta, facendo a meno del rabarbaro (ahimè!)

[bellini valli]

This is a great way to celebrate Spring with rhubarb and meeting the challenge at the same time.

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Astro. Non so bene perche' in Italia il rabarbaro non si trova (o almeno non si trova facilmente). Io la prima volta lo mangiai in Inghilterra. Spero che la piantina si trovi bene nell'orto dei tuoi, cosi' potrai raccogliere degli steli. Non avevo mai cotto un dolce lievitato al vapore ed ero molto ansiosa: e' venuto davvero buono, quindi ora sono convinta.

Ciao Christine. My next step will be to try it in other recipes where I usually use butter. I'll keep you posted on the development.

Ciao Marcellina. Fresh ginger has such a lovely flavor that I use it as often as I can.

Ciao Ivy. I had also never had rhubarb while I was growing up in Italy. I tasted it the first time on my first visit to England and immediately liked it. I remember eating rhubarb pie and rhubarb yogurt.

Ciao Milena. Anche io ero molto curiosa e un po' scettica, ma dopo il risultato del mio primo esperimento, non vedo l'ora di provare di nuovo. Mi piacerebbe capire se la mancanze di diffusione del rabarbaro in Italia sia dovuta ad una difficolta' di coltivazione.

Indeed, Bellini Valli: I was anxiously waiting for rhubarb to appear in the store and I am glad I was able to celebrate its arrival by preparing something special with it.

[Laura]

Simona, mi domando se hai trovato il "budino" un po' secco. Il mio era troppo dolce ma anche secco.

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Laura. Lo hai servito caldo? Il mio lo aspettavo un po' meno morbido poiche' ho usato meno burro della ricetta, ma in totale e' venuto buono. Non avevo mai cotto una torta al vapore e sono rimasta piacevolmente sorpresa. La prossima volta che lo preparo usero' un po' piu' strutto e un po' meno burro: vedremo che cosa succede.

[sandie]

I love rhubard but it is too early in the season here in Calgary for it. Mine has just started popping out of the ground.It sounds great! Thanks for visiting my site

[Foodycat]

It looks lovely! Suet has quite a different texture to lard (firmer, has a higher melting point) so I am impressed that your pudding looks so perfect. And rhubarb! Yum!

[Paz]

Interesting-sounding dessert.

Paz

[Simona Carini]

Hi Sandie. I am pretty sure that the one I bought was not locally grown, either. It's nice that you are growing some. I tried once, a couple of years ago, but was not successful. Maybe I'll try again.

Ciao Foodycat. I have just recently started using rendered lard, so I am not yet familiar with how it performs in different dishes. Rhubarb is indeed yummy.

Thanks, Paz. It tasted good, so I will certainly make it again.

[Lisa]

Mmm, I like the sound of this dessert. And your version is by far more attractive than the one on the BBC site! How pretty. We have lots of rhubarb around my part of the country, so maybe I'll try making this dessert.

I'm curious as to what the specific uses for strutto were in your household, as you mentioned at the beginning of the post.

I still have 5 pounds of pork fat in the freezer that I need to render into lard!

[Simona Carini]

Thanks, Lisa. Rhubarb is good in many dishes. I would like to make rhubarb pie once, maybe using strutto in the crust. My mother used it to make the crust of her pizza con la bieta (Swiss chard). My aunt did the same and I think she also used it in her sweet shortcrust pastry, together with butter. Five pounds? Once you've rendered it, you can divide it into small jars and freeze them for later use. I'll explore more ideas for using it: stay tuned.