Big Dumpling

My sister-in-law's birthday dinner tonight and my mum-in-law baked a clootie dumpling.
For the initiated this is a peculiarly Scottish pudding which redefines the word stodgy.
It's boiled for ages inside a cloot (a cloth).
Should you need to line your stomach ahead of a big night out, this is the pudding for you.
My granny used to make it in a plastic basin. She adapted the usual recipe during the Second World War and continued to use grated carrots instead of sugar when I was a wee girl. I used to be fascinated by the whole process. Like alchemy...