Hairy Bikers Leek Pudding Recipe

This Hairy Bikers leek pudding recipe folds softened leeks and onion into a suet, flour and breadcrumb dough, then boils it in a floured cloth. By my timings the Mums Know Best pudding feeds 6 in about 1½ hours, at my estimate of 430 calories a wedge without gravy.

This is Si’s mam’s recipe for “a mid-week family filler”, which explains the thrifty mix of breadcrumbs and suet. Yet unlike a lined suet pudding, there’s no crust and no filling, so every wedge is the same savoury sponge right through.

The cloth is the old-fashioned part, needing a generous coating of flour plus room for the pudding to swell before you tie it tight. Then it boils for an hour, and they say to check the water now and then, topping it up so the pan never runs dry.

Hairy Bikers Leek Pudding Recipe

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Boiling Cuisine:British Courses:Side

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 20 minutesCook time:1 hour 5 minutesRest time: 5 minutesTotal time:1 hour 30 minutesServings:6 servingsCalories:430 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

Leeks and onion soften in butter and oil, then join a peppery mix of breadcrumbs, self-raising flour and suet, bound with egg and milk. Then the dough is bundled into a cloth with room to swell and boiled until well risen and light.

Ingredients

For the pudding

• 25g butter, plus extra for greasing
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 slender leeks, trimmed and finely sliced
• 150g fresh white breadcrumbs
• 200g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
• 115g shredded beef suet
• 1 heaped tsp fine sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large free-range egg
• 75ml whole milk

To serve

• cold roast meat and hot gravy

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Instructions

1. Soften the leeks: Melt the butter with the oil in a large frying pan, then gently fry the onion and leeks for 5 minutes until well softened. Stir regularly, then take them off the heat and leave them to cool for a few minutes.
2. Mix: Mix the breadcrumbs, flour, suet, salt and plenty of black pepper in a large bowl, then stir in the onion and leeks.
3. Bind: Beat the egg and milk together and stir them in until just combined, and the dough should feel light and spongy. Then turn it onto a floured board, knead very lightly and shape it into a large ball.
4. Wrap: Half fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to the boil. Meanwhile, flour a large piece of clean sheeting or a thin drying-up cloth liberally, then sit the pudding on it.
5. Tie: Gather up the sides, leaving room for the pudding to expand, then tie it tightly with kitchen string.
6. Boil: Lower the pudding carefully into the boiling water, cover and boil for 1 hour until well risen and light. And check the water level now and then, topping it up if needed.
7. Serve: Turn off the heat, then lift the pudding out carefully with tongs, since the water will be very hot. Then leave it on a board for a few minutes before snipping off the string. And serve it in wedges with cold roast meat and a jug of hot gravy.

FAQs

Can you steam it in a basin instead?

Yes, they give a basin method too: a 1.5-litre basin lined with buttered baking parchment, covered with pleated parchment and foil and tied with string. Then it steams on a trivet in a deep pan half filled with boiling water for about 2 hours, double the cloth’s time.

So the basin is tidier but slower, and I’d pick it if you don’t have a cloth you’re happy to boil.

What cloth should you use?

They suggest a large piece of clean sheeting or a thin drying-up cloth, and even say an old pillowcase can be cut to size. And if you’d rather not boil any cloth, the basin method above avoids it altogether.

Their Meat Feasts pease pudding works on the same idea, simmering blitzed split peas wrapped in muslin.

Is it the same as the chicken and leek pudding?

No, that’s a different dish from Chicken & Egg, with marinated chicken and leeks packed into a sage and mustard suet crust. And it steams in a 1.2-litre basin for about 2 hours, serving 4. Plus a chicken and leek suet pudding of theirs is also on BBC Food.

For a lined suet pudding with beef inside, their Perfect Pies steak and kidney pudding steams the old way as well.

What do you serve it with?

They rate it “fantastic with cold cuts and leftover gravy”, so it’s made for the day after a roast. So slices of cold roast beef, lamb or pork from Sunday would all work beside it, which is my suggestion.

If there’s no leftover gravy, their Everyday Winners onion gravy simmers caramelised onions with red wine and beef stock. But no storage advice is printed, so I’d chill leftovers and eat them within 2 days, frying slices in butter until piping hot.

Is leek pudding a North East dish?

Search for it and you’ll find Durham, Northumbrian and Geordie versions, so it’s a northern classic the North East holds especially dear. And Si is a North East lad himself, so his mam’s mid-week version fits right in.

Foods of England lists it across Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Durham and Northumberland, so it really belongs to the whole of the north.