HUMBLE HARVEST CELEBRATIONS

It's my idea to have the family for dinner Sunday, October 31st as it is Hallowe'een and I know that the neighbouring children are coming all dressed up ready to recite or sing their party pieces.

It is a wet Sunday so my thoughts turn to ideas of things I can prepare ahead of time for the little visitors. Chocolate cornflake crunchies? Rice-Crispie marshmallow squares?

As I was thumbing through my recipe box I came upon a great family stand-by recipe for high days and holidays: clootie dumpling!

Now actually Hallowe'en is the night before a Holy Day (where we get our word 'holiday'), i.e All Hallows Eve, the day before All Hallows’ Day and now called All Saints Day, November 1st. It goes back to pagan times and the Christian festive day was 'grafted on to' the pagan one marking the end of summer/beginning of winter. People would wear masks to frighten the roaming spirits away or go from house to house begging for 'soul cakes' (bread with currants) and in return they would pray for the householder.

So it occurred to me that I could make a clootie dumpling and invite some of our neighbours in for a cup of tea and dumpling after the children have departed.

My recipe is tried and tested both from the person who passed it on to me and also by myself over many years.

It was Iain's Aunt Jean who gave me the recipe and I think of her every time I make this humble, but celebratory, solid pud - for that is really what it is. You simply take all the ingredients listed above in the photo, mix them together into a sort of mud-pie ball, and tip the ball on to a floured tea-towel (cloth or clootie). Lift up the 4 corners to the middle and tie with a string, (like making a hobo's bag) and place the bag in boiling water in a pressure cooker or other large pot and secure the lid. The water should cover the round dumpling ball.

When boiled 2 hrs in the pressure cooker, lift out the bag, undo the string and fold down the 4 corners taking care not to tear the skin. Place a dinner plate on top and flip the whole thing over. Remove the top plate and peel back the rest of the clootie. Dry off the dumpling either in front of the open fire or in the oven. Perfection! Slice and serve either in a bowl with custard or on a plate with a cup of tea.

There is a much-loved story in the MacLeod family about Aunt Jean and her clootie dumpling. She made a dumpling every year for the baking competition in the Aberfeldy Highland Show. Furthermore, she always won. Every year.

Until one year ... she did not win. Her dumpling was perfect in every way, even in texture and no tears in the outer skin. However, she had altered the recipe by adding some whisky! And, horror of horrors, the judges noticed! She was most put out by this! What made us laugh over the years of re-telling this tale (that she used to tell against herself) was that she was brought up as a Rechebite (abstainer from drink, where women, especially, joined the Rechebite Movement in Scotland to fight against the evils of strong drink)!