Recipe by Herman Lensing @lensingherman
Herman says: I was a silkworm peddler at school. Yes, one of those kids who sold beer boxes full of worms and mulberry leaves to the other kids for extra money. Those sales were for one reason: so I could buy Dirkie condensed milk. My worm farming drove my mom crazy. But she was very important to the business. I hatched my worms and then picked mulberry leaves in the middle of Borchers Street –this is the longest row of mulberry trees in Africa, I’m convinced of it. I would then put the baby worms under my bedside lamp and throw a cloth over them so they could eat right through the night – the bigger the worms, the more money I could sell them for! The Zebra worms were rare and sought after. I took my orders to school and then folded paper boxes out of A4 paper, packed them full of fresh leaves and placed the buyer’s worms on them. My mother then had to make sure the boxes of worms got to school as soon as the bell rang for the end of school. The business went well, and I drank plenty of Dirkie condensed milk. I wonder if children are still selling worms? But whether they do or not, my love for condensed milk is still going strong.
Serves: 8–10
INGREDIENTS
- 300g caster sugar
- 3 x 385g cans of condensed milk
- 9 eggs
- 500ml plain full cream yoghurt
METHOD
- Heat the oven to 180°C.
- Melt the caster sugar in a pan until it goes a light caramel colour. Pour it into a large ring pan.
- Beat the rest of the ingredients together in an electric mixer and pour on top of the caramel. Place the pan in a large casserole dish half-filled with boiling water. Bake for 40 minutes until set.
- Remove the pan from the water and leave for about 10 minutes before turning it out. Some of the caramel will be hard and stick to the bottom of the pan. Carefully tap the pan until the hard caramel comes loose, and also place it on top of the pudding.
“When the rain clouds pack together and the smell of cinnamon swirls out of the kitchen… as a little boy, I peered around the door and saw my dear darling aunt, Maggie, with her red apron striped with flour, baking salt dumplings (my favourite). Today, I still wear that very apron when baking and brewing.”Riaan Kirstein
