Pork with lemon potatoes; treacle sponge

Saturday night - good but exhausting day. Another guest coming for dinner so yet one more meal to cook. My enthusiasm levels had waned, and the meal rather reflected that. I bought a loin of pork - tied without bone. About 1.5kg, which I surrounded in the roasting tin (having first browned the meat on the hob) with halved small potatoes and quartered lemons.

Twenty minutes at 220C followed by an hour or so at 200C. Bad result all round. The potatoes cooked - or rather charred - much too quickly, so I had to take them out of the oven and let them get soggy while the meat continued to cook. And I overcooked the meat - so it was dry and uninteresting. The only saving grace was a tub of shop-bought apple sauce. The lemons added an unattractive sour note. Not my finest culinary hour.

Next time? Not sure there will be one on this particular combination - but I would try to be less nervous about undercooking pork, and would definitely be a bit more watchful about roasting potatoes.

Pud was a bit more of a success. An old-fashioned British steamed sponge, complemented by the ice cream I made the other day. I'm a huge fan of traditional recipes, and this one is a winner. The first thing to remember is that all the ingredients must be at room temperature.

1 tbs molasses (in place of black treacle, which I could not find)
3 tbs golden syrup
175g self-raising flour
1 rounded tsp baking powder
175g butter
3 large eggs
175g light brown sugar

I started by buttering a 1.4 litre Pyrex dish - it should really have been a slightly smaller dish, but needs must. I poured the golden syrup into the bottom of the dish. I whisked together the rest of the ingredients until the flour had all disappeared - just a few seconds with an electric mixer. Then I just piled it all on top of the syrup.

The only tricky part is covering the dish. A sheet of greaseproof paper and on top of that a sheet of foil. Put it over the dish, fold down the edges and tie it firmly into place with string. I discovered at the last minute that we were out of string, so a piece of rather weedy thread had to suffice.

I put about 6cm of water in our largest saucepan (the one I use for pasta), and put the steaming insert from our rice maker at the bottom. I stood the pudding dish on that, brought the water to the boil, put on a lid and let the whole thing steam for two hours. Checking perhaps more often than was needed that the water had not all boiled away.

I love the comforting taste of this pudding, and it combines well with the creaminess of the ice cream. But its size, especially after a substantial meal, is a bit daunting, not to say off-putting when presented on a serving dish - almost like half a football. So I think I'll try making it in individual pudding basins or ramekins next time. Not sure what that will mean for the cooking time. And perhaps a little vanilla and/or lemon would give it a different lift. We'll see.