"...biggest spotty dog you ever did see."

Another Banqueting Club weekend this weekend, cooking for our mates at Grimm Tales.

Just Ellen and me this time. Pig was on his works do, getting off his face in Amsterdam.

Well received as ever, but knackered after this one due to a thick cold, only 2 of us, and a heavy social with Dickie and a bottle of Jameson’s on the Friday night.

Slept in a cold Frankenstein’s laboratory, of Dave Trolls making. Didn’t see much of what was going on plot-wise but there was a lot of scrappin’ outside the kitchen window and our serving girl got eaten.

Best dishes of the weekend? Everyone frothed about the pasties, but I rated the Spotted Dog.

Spotted Dog Recipe

• 8 oz Self-Raising Flour
• 1 tspn Salt
• 4 oz Shredded Suet
• 1 oz Sugar
• 8 oz Currants or Raisins
• 150 ml Cold Water

Stir together the flour, salt, sugar, suet and dried fruit. Mix to a firm dough with water. Form into a cylinder about 8 inches long, and put on a pudding cloth that has been wrung out in boiling water and sprinkled with flour. Roll the pudding in the cloth and tie the ends tightly, but leave room for expansion (alternativly, use a good covered pudding bowl). Put into a pan of boiling water, cover, and boil for 2+ hours, adding more boiling water if necessary to prevent it boiling dry (which it will as soon as your back is turned). Turn the pudding onto a hot dish and serve with shed loads of custard.

Nicely.