Cradock - Blue was confounded. He had seen a lot in his young life, but this was incomprehensible. How on earth did they get there?
We had taken on Blue and his big brother Benny Blackshoes soon after we moved into our new house in Chichester in 2003. I had found them at a cattery – more accurately, the garden of a cat-loving woman in Selsey on the English south coast, who temporarily housed cats until she could find them a new home. She’d taken me out into her back garden where, at the end of a walk-in cage (for the cats’ safety), was a room with a shelf on which was a basket containing a large amount of fur, four ears, and four wide eyes, all staring at me.
I fell in love. One half of the bowl of fur was Blue with his deep grey coat. The other was Benny with his jet-black fur with even blacker points at heel and ear.
It was a hot summer’s day, but nothing like the day I am having as I write this. It is 40ºC out there under the Cradock sun, and it has prompted me to put together something icy and seriously cool to have after supper this evening.
The day they moved in, both cats fled into the kitchen and found a hidey-hole behind a cupboard, where Blue flattened himself on the floor and Benny covered him, from head to toe. Nothing would induce them out until the next day.
Blue continued to be a ninny, while Benny continued to show his mettle as a feline of great character and fortitude. He saw himself as Blue’s valiant guardian, his role in life to ensure nothing happened to his delicate charge. Within days, Benny had attached himself to me, and we became like brothers, while Blue fell under Di’s protection and doted on her. Every morning, he would trot up to our bedroom, stop, and gawp with amazement that she was still there. He wasn’t, shall we say, the brightest thing on four legs.
He once had an encounter with a butterfly in our little patio garden. We thought for a moment that he might be brave, but minutes later he came bounding into the lounge pursued by the butterfly.
One thing we did know was that Blue knew us and loved us. He was a dear animal, even if he did fit in more with the Paris Hilton sort of feline than the Stephen Hawkings of the cat world.
One hot day, our neighbours invited us for a summer supper in their back garden. Margaret had told me she wanted us to try her summer pudding, a dessert that Britons trot out on just such a hot summer’s day. It is iced, red and delicious, and nothing could be more perfect for this kind of day in a patio garden.
She brought it out and served it up, and we oohed and aahed. Then, suddenly, we had a visitor. Blue had jumped on to the wall between our two gardens, and his face was a quizzical picture. His frown, as he looked into our garden and then back down at us in Margaret’s, said, “How the hell did they get there?”
Like many of the best desserts, it is a simple affair, involving day-old bread and fresh berries, but there is nothing to stop you buying a packet of frozen mixed berries, because they work perfectly. Or use those mixed with fresh strawberries. And you can use any berries, even just one kind, or layer the dish with four or five kinds. There’s nothing to stop you lacing them with a little liqueur either. A dash of Drambuie or Cointreau would not be out of place at all.
Summer pudding was a staple for a Victorian summer in the late 19th century and has remained popular since.
The quantities of mixed berries, juice and stale bread depend on the size of the bowl you are using and how many you want to feed. Just don’t use a bowl so big that when you try to turn it out it collapses in a great gooey mess.
Summer pudding
Mixed berries such as blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries
200ml raspberry syrup, or make your own using a juice such as cranberry and equal parts castor sugar dissolved in boiling water, then reduced to a syrup
Enough slices of day-old white bread to cover sides and bottom of your bowl
Line a glass bowl with clingfilm. Pour syrup into another bowl. Dip slices of bread in red syrup briefly and then line first bowl with slices until bottom and sides are covered. Spoon berries into the well in layers. Spoon over some of the juice. Cover with clingfllm and refrigerate overnight. Turn out into a bowl or plate and bring to the table. Serve with dollops of cream or ice cream. It’s just the thing for a sweltering evening.
Weekend Argus