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Pudding and souse
Barbados' Saturday plate: lime-pickled pork with steamed spiced sweet potato pudding
Saturday in Barbados means pudding and souse: rum shops and roadside cooks sell it from late morning, and families buy it by the container for lunch. Souse is boiled pork, traditionally from the head and trotters, served cold in a sharp, cucumber-studded pickle of lime, onion and hot pepper; the pudding is grated sweet potato seasoned with herbs and steamed. This is a pork dish. This home version uses trotters for the jelly-rich texture plus shoulder for meat, and steams the pudding in a basin instead of a casing; blood is left out (that darker version is black pudding). A common mistake is serving the souse as soon as it meets the pickle; it needs at least 2 hours in the fridge to turn sharp and cold. Chef's tip: grate the sweet potato on the fine side of the grater; coarse shreds make a crumbly pudding.
- Total time
- 190 min
- Difficulty
- hard
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
For the souse
For the pickle
For the pudding
Method
0/9 doneStep 1: Check 2 pork trotters (pig's feet) for stray hairs and singe or shave them off, then scrub under cold running water. Put them and 1 ⅓ lb boneless pork shoulder in a large pot, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then drain and rinse the pot; this clears the scum.
10 minStep 2: Cover the meat again with fresh water, add 2 bay leaves and 1 tbsp salt and simmer, partly covered, for 2 hours, until the shoulder is very tender and the trotter skin and meat slide off the bones.
120 minStep 3: While the pork simmers, make the pudding. Squeeze some of the liquid out of 2 ¼ lb white-fleshed sweet potato in a clean cloth, then mix with 1 ⅜ oz butter, 3 spring onions, ½ onion, 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp ground black pepper.
Step 4: Butter a 1.5 litre pudding basin, pack in the mixture and smooth the top. Cover with buttered baking paper and foil, folded to make a pleat, and tie tightly with string.
Step 5: Stand the basin on a folded cloth in a large pan, pour in boiling water to come halfway up the side, cover and steam over a low heat for 1 hour 15 minutes, topping up with boiling water. It is ready when a skewer comes out clean and the top is firm.
75 minStep 6: Lift out the cooked pork. Leave until cool enough to handle, then pull the meat and skin off the trotters and cut it and the shoulder into bite-sized pieces. Throw away the bones.
Step 7: Mix ½ cup lime juice, 2 cups cooled boiled water and 2 tsp salt in a bowl. Add 1 cucumber, 1 onion, 1 Scotch bonnet chilli and ⅓ oz fresh parsley.
Step 8: Let the pork cool to room temperature, no longer than 1 hour, then stir it into the pickle. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, until cold and sharp. Eat within 2 days, keeping it in the fridge.
120 minStep 9: Turn the pudding out and cut it into thick slices; serve it warm or at room temperature next to the cold souse, with plenty of the pickle liquor spooned over.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 520 kcal
- Protein
- 38 g
- Carbs
- 38 g
- Fat
- 23 g
- Fibre
- 5 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does pudding and souse take?
- About 190 minutes in total: 50 minutes to prepare and 140 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 6 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- Can I make it ahead?
- Yes. It keeps well, so you can cook it earlier in the day or the day before and reheat it.
- What can I use instead of bay leaves?
- Leave it out, or a pinch of dried thyme (it's a background flavour).
- What can I use instead of lime juice?
- Lemon juice, same amount.
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