Summer is over and I'm feeling remiss in not having made summer pudding– a great use for day-old bread and soft, juicy fruits and berries. There are many variations of this old-fashioned British dessert, but essentially it involves filling a bread-lined mold with sweetened fruit, then weighting it down to compact the fruit, causing the juices to flow and saturate the bread. I've always viewed it as a sort of unbaked pie; the only instance where I can forgive a soggy crust.
Botanically speaking, tomatoes are fruits, yet they are rarely treated as such. Their high levels of glutamate give them an umami flavor that is read as savory. Umami has a synergy with sweet that may explain our affinity for sweet/savory combinations and why a ripe tomato, with its addition of acid, is such a complete gustatory delight.
tomato summer pudding [honey almond bread, heirloom tomato confiture]
olive oil ice cream
Playing with Fire and Water 
This is extreme summer food for me. It triggered some sort of extreme food memory that I can’t place! Wow, thank you for that strange connection. Looks like it would be so very good on a late summer afternoon/early evening dinner, with bee’s droning around the plum tree and everyone a bit sleepy but feeling good after the swim in the pond.
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I just realized that we almost never see the dishes in your photos! I really love this bowl you’re using here. What is the brand?
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Wonderful dish, and quite sad that being british myself (well Welsh to be a pedant), I have missed making any summer puddings this year too.
A few years ago, attemted a crab and mango summer pudding following all the necessary rules, then come tasing I cannot remember putting anything more vile in my mouth, however when I put it into a hot oven to re-create a charlotte of sorts, was quite wonderful. Amazing the simple application of temperature can change so much.
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how evocative!
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its actually a glass candle holder from IKEA…very versatile
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indeed!
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fantastic finally meeting you, it was great to put a face to someone with such a great affinity for food and a wonderful look on cuisine. hope to meet with you, maybe have dinner or cook with you sometime in the future
az
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Likewise. The honor would be all mine.
And thank you for all you do for Starchefs– as Antoinette B said, “there would be no ICC without you”.
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