Sago Pudding

Pouding au sagou (sago pudding) teaches the quiet discipline behind every good starch pudding: swell the grains completely before sugar and eggs enter the pan. Rush that first cooking and the centre stays gritty, however handsome the mould may look. Let each pearl turn nearly translucent, and the finished pouding will be tender, coherent, and light enough to tremble under the spoon.

The canonical entry assumed the cook had the tapioca formula open beside it, with service moulds prepared and a controlled poaching oven ready. For one cook at home, that becomes a single 1.25-litre charlotte mould and a roasting tin used as a bain-marie, a hot-water bath. The separate moulding station was brigade scaffolding and can go. Complete swelling, folded egg whites, and the sago coating inside the mould are the dish and must stay.

That coating isn't decoration. The butter catches the dry pearls, giving the mixture a lightly rough wall to climb and leaving a delicate pearled edge when the pouding is turned out. Watch the sago in the saucepan, stir along the bottom, and don't add the sugar until the grains have softened. That is the step that decides everything.