Zapekanka

Cover the raisins with hot water and leave them for 10 minutes, then drain and pat them dry.

Dry raisins pull water out of the mixture as it bakes and stay hard in the middle of it; soaked ones swell instead of stealing.

Stir the semolina into the 100ml of soured cream and leave it to stand for 30 minutes.

The semolina has to drink before it goes in the oven. Added dry, it carries on absorbing liquid while the pudding bakes and the result is gritty and dry.

Push the tvorog through a sieve into a large bowl.

Sieve it. Curd straight from the tub bakes into distinct lumps set in a looser mixture, and an even crumb is what separates a zapekanka from a dish of baked curd.

Heat the oven to 180C/350F.

Butter a 20cm baking dish and dust the inside with the dried breadcrumbs, tipping out the excess.

Beat the egg yolks with the caster sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and salt for 2 minutes, until pale and thick.

Beat in the sieved tvorog, then the melted butter, then the swollen semolina mixture.

Fold in the drained raisins.

Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks that flop over when the whisk is lifted.

Soft peaks, not stiff. Whites whipped hard break into dry lumps when they meet a mixture as heavy as curd, and they bake into pale streaks of meringue through the pudding.

Fold the whites into the mixture in three additions, keeping the last one loose.

Spread the mixture into the dish and level it to a depth of about 4cm.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the top is deep gold, the edges have pulled away from the dish and the centre barely wobbles when the dish is nudged.

Take it out at that point. Baked on until the middle is completely firm, it tightens into rubber as it cools, and this mixture goes on setting off the heat.

Cool in the dish for 15 minutes. It rises noticeably in the oven and sinks a little as it cools, which is normal and not a fault.

Cut into squares and lift them out with a palette knife.

Serve warm, with soured cream and jam.

Keep any left over in the fridge for up to three days and eat it cold or briefly warmed.