Souffléd Pudding à la Vésuvienne

Pouding soufflé à la Vésuvienne (Vesuvius-style souffléd pudding) teaches the quiet side of a soufflé: air is useful only when gentle heat sets it before it escapes. This isn't a towering individual soufflé. It is a tender moulded pudding, spotted with Malaga raisins and tomato jam, surrounded by apricot sauce, then lit with warm rum in its central well. The little eruption is wit. The fine, light crumb beneath it is the craft.

The grand kitchen assumed a souffléd-pudding preparation ready to use, a saucier holding apricot sauce, tomato jam prepared in bulk, a professional central-tube mould, and enough hands for one cook to watch the bain-marie while another warmed the rum. At home, a compact panade supplies the base, smooth apricot preserves become the sauce, and a small ring mould handles six servings. The book's equal 1½-ounce measures of tomato jam and raisins stay exactly intact. Extra hands and bulk preparations are scaffolding; the equal flavourings, central well, gentle poach, apricot sauce, and flaming rum are the dish. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Before you touch the pan, know the one true thing: the bain-marie must tremble gently, never boil. If the water bubbles hard, lower the heat and add cool water. Ça se rattrape. The step that decides the pudding is this quiet poach, so give it your full attention.