After all the massive hype of Halloween, it isn’t that much of a hilarity to mention I feel like I’ve come back from the dead. But indeed I have because ‘death’ for me was 1 week of bedridden patheticness. Struck down by fever and a flu, I could do practically nothing and my meals were tasteless and dull. Finally, the virus has been beat down and all that’s left plaguing my system is a tummy ache. Between cravings of chocolate and oatmeal cookies, the tummy’s ambitious enough to dream of autumn pudding too. The rest of the body, however, is too weak and too damn lazy to get up and prance about the kitchen.

Panicky not. Dear ol’ Sam has found his calling and is in mid-therapy - cooking his heart out. Just last night, Kate and I were served a delicious Parma Ham & Spinach Tart which was just fucking beautiful. The fresh parmigiano, the rosemary and oregano-infused shortcrust pastry and the parma ham were an out-of-this-world combination of flavours. The meal left Kate and I spellbound at what this wonderful little man could do with my Jamie’s cookbook and a wonky ol’ oven. And right after the meal, Channel 4 aired a horror film. What was better than the pairing of food and horror for the sake of horror? By the time that was done, us all were sluggish and sleepy so off to bed we went.

The day started late for me. Tummy a little fragile but perked up immediately to the smell of cooking plums, cinnamon and almonds. A look out the window and all you’ll see is grey, wet, dead leaves and the random magpie. A little on the sad side I know but there’s nothing I like more than autumn because it means (if it isn’t me then it’s someone else) autumn cooking, cups of tea and free reign of sweets and biscuits to get into the spirit of the Christmas month. So what exactly was cooking, you’d like to know. Bakewell tart! or also known as bakewell pudding depending on how you make it — one of my favourite things to eat this time of the year. And also, one of my favourite things to munch on (especially if it is Cherry Bakewell with the icing bit on top) when there’s a bake sale going on on campus. Pastry, jam, frangipane and a healthy toss of fruit and almonds over the top. To me, that’s really autumn personified.

I’ll be completely honest, I didn’t help at all with this, except maybe for the splitting and stoning of the plums. Everything else was a gift from God. Ok, maybe not. Everything else was the wonderful effort of our dear Sam. And by godalmightey, is he a little talent because even if he was a tad disappointed with the moistness (too much, apparently) of the tart, it was a fantastic pudding that was as gorgeous to look at as it was to eat. I might even have shut out everything around me, noise people and all, as I savoured the last special bites of pudding. Food before friends is the rule and the key to true gastronomical enlightenment. So moist, so tasty and very well made.

The recipe is one from Jamie’s Jamie at Home. And it is a recipe soon to be used again by Sam for sure and by me as well, now that it’s tried and tested. I also hope that you lot will forgive me for being a lazy blogger and blogging about food that I hardly lifted a finger to make! However, this pudding was too beautiful to let off without sharing with everyone and here, I’d like to thank Sam for putting so much effort into last night’s meal and this morning pudding. Despite the massive toll and beating my body has gone through this week, I am now saved by pudding. Ah. That sounds positively poetic now, doesn’t it?

Diva. Saved by pudding.

And what sort of pudding would that be? Bakewell. Mmmm. What sort of pudding could save you from one of the darkest, dreariest moments?

Plum Bakewell Tart
(recipe from Jamie at Home, p.306)
Ingredients

a knob of butter
1/2 x sweet shortcrust pastry recipe
1kg mixed plums
100g vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp mixed spice/cinnamon
1 tsp cornflour, dissolved in 1 tbs cold water
50g flaked almonds
icing sugar

For the frangipane:
285g blanched whole almonds
50g plain flour
1 vanilla pod
250g unsalted butter, cubed
250g caster sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten

Sweet Shortcrust pastry:
500g organic plain flour, plus extra for dusting
100g icing sugar, sifted
250g cold butter, cut into small cubes
2 eggs
zest of 1 lemon
a splash of milk
flour, for dusting

To make the pastry:
Sieve the flour from a height on to a clean work surface and sieve the icing sugar over the top. Using your hands, work the cubes of butter into the flour and sugar by rubbing your thumbs against your fingers until you end up with a fine, crumbly mixture. Mix in lemon zest.
Add the eggs and milk to the mixture and gently work it together till you have a ball of dough. Flour it lightly. Don’t work the pastry too much at this stage or it will become elastic and chewy, not crumbly and short. Flour your work surface and place the dough on top. Pat it into a flat round, flour it lightly, wrap it in clingfilm and put it into the fridge to rest for at least half an hour.

To make the tart:
Grease a loose-bottomed 28cm tart tin with butter. Remove ball of dough and roll it out on a floured surface. Line the tart tin with rolled out pastry, easing it into the ridges at the side. Place in the freezer for an hour.

Now make the frangipane. Blitz the blanched whole almonds in a food processor until you have a fine powder and tranfer this to a bowl with the flour. Halve your vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds, using the back of your knife. Now blitz the butter, sugar and vanilla seeds until light and creamy. Put the almond mixture back into the food processor with your lightly beaten eggs and whiz until completely mixed and smooth. Place in the fridge to firm up for at least half an hour.

Preheat oven to 180d Celsius. Bake pastry case for around 10mins, or until lightly golden. Remove from oven, leaving the oven on.
Halve the plums and remove the stones. Finely chop half of them and place in a saucepan with the vanilla sugar and the mixed spice. Cook gently until softened, with a jammy consistency, then stir in the cornflour and simmer until thickened.
While the plums are cooking, cut the remaining plum halves into quarters and macerate them for 5 mins by sprinkling them with icing sugar. Carefully spoon your plum jam into the pastry case and smooth it out across the bottom. Spread the frangipane over the plum jam. Arrange the plums on the surface of the frangipane, pressing them lightly. Scatter the flaked almonds over the top. Bake the tart in oven for about an hour, placing a baking tray on the shelf under the tart, just in case it bubbles over.

Once cooked through and golden brown on top, remove and leave to cool.