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Semolina Pudding with Almonds
Plunge two ounces almonds in boiling water for three minutes; drain, peel and chop very finely, place in a saucepan with a pint milk, two ounces fine sugar, one ounce butter, the zest of a rind of lemon, one teaspoon almond essence, and half saltspoon salt. Set the pan on the fire and as soon as it comes to a boil slowly dredge in two and a half ounces of semolina, continually mixing with a wooden spoon while adding it. Slowly cook for ten minutes, occasionally mixing; remove from the fire, add three egg yolks, one by one, continually mixing while adding them. Beat up the whites of the three eggs to a froth and gently mix in the preparation with a skimmer for one minute. Lightly butter and flour six individual pudding moulds and fill with the preparation, place them in a pastry tin, pour hot water into the pan up to half the height of the mould, and set in oven for twenty minutes. Remove, unmould on a large dish, spread a Sabayon sauce over and serve.
A baked semolina custard in individual moulds, essentially a continental milk pudding lightened with beaten whites. Two things decide whether it works: how the semolina goes into the milk, and how gently the whites go into the semolina.
- Dredging in the semolinaAdd the 2½ oz (a scant ½ cup) in a thin, steady stream to milk at a full boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Dumped in at once it seizes into lumps that no amount of later beating will break up.
- Oven temperatureThe original names none. A moderate oven, 350F, is right for a water-bath custard of this kind; twenty minutes suits moulds of about 4 to 5 fl oz. The puddings are done when set at the centre and just barely domed.
- Old measuresIf the pint is the American one it is 2 cups (16 fl oz); a British pint would be 20 fl oz. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so half a saltspoon is a generous pinch. Two ounces of sugar is about ¼ cup, one ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons.
- Almond essenceModern almond extract is concentrated and a full teaspoon will taste medicinal; ½ teaspoon or less is enough alongside the 2 oz of blanched almonds already in the pan.
- Blanching and "zest of a rind"Three minutes in boiling water loosens the skins so they slip off between finger and thumb. "The zest of a rind of lemon" means the pared outer peel of one lemon, coloured part only; strain or fish it out before the yolks go in if you pared it in strips.
- Folding the whitesA skimmer here is a flat perforated spoon, used for the same reason a spatula is now: to cut and fold rather than stir. The recipe goes straight from the fire to the yolks and then the whites; letting the base cool to warm first will help the whites hold. One minute of folding is deliberate, not careless.
- Water bathThe "pastry tin" is any deep roasting pan. Pour boiling water halfway up the moulds and set the pan on a rack in the lower third; a folded towel under the moulds keeps the bases from overheating.
- Unmoulding and yieldSix individual puddings. Rest them five minutes out of the water, run a thin knife round the rim, then invert; buttering and flouring the moulds is what makes this reliable, so do not skip the flour.
- Sabayon sauceNot included here. It is egg yolks, sugar and a fortified or sweet white wine whisked over barely simmering water until thick and foamy, and it must be made at the last moment or it separates.
Semolina is the coarse granular flour milled from durum wheat, and puddings built on it were a staple of European domestic cooking through the nineteenth century. This version belongs to a restaurant-trained tradition rather than a nursery one: the almonds, lemon peel and folded whites push a plain milk pudding toward a hot soufflé-custard, and the sabayon poured over it is the Italian zabaglione that French kitchens adopted as sabayon. The instructions assume the reader owns six small moulds and knows what a skimmer is for.