What I Ate Today

In these times of economic woe, I decided to avoid the shop bought ‘luxury’ Christmas pud and make my own based on a recipe by the multi-michelin starred Gordon Ramsay.  The recipe was from BBC Olive Magazine. 

The recipe was incredibly simple and can be summarised in a Ramsay-esque way as  

‘…mix ingredients…pudding bowl…steam…done’. 

As I struggled around the supermarket with my basket full of yummy ingredients, I turned a blind eye to the £1 value puds sitting in rows on the shelf and told myself that this would be worth it.  During my lunch hour I had bought enough ingredients for 2 of these puddings and also for a christmas cake!  I could see the people on the Tube looking at me and wondering “what this strange man doing with so much dried fruit at rush hour?”

 I’m quite chuffed with my first Christmas pudding.  Bring on the Brandy Butter!

Ingredients:

• 280g each of suet, golden caster sugar, currants, raisins & sultanas
• 150g each of plain flour, breadcrumbs, chopped mixed peel
• 70g chopped almonds
• 60ml lemon juice
• 1tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp salt
• 1tbsp marmalade
• 3 eggs
• 180ml Guinness/Murphys
• ½ grater cooking apple

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients into a large bowl.
2. Divide mixture between 8 x individual buttered moulds or 2 x 1 litre pudding basin.
3. Put a circle of greaseproof paper and a circle of foil on top of each, with a fold across middle (allows room for expansion).  Tie with string.
4. Put into pan of boiling water on steamer, trivet or upturned saucer.  The water level should be ¼ way up the pudding.
5. Cover & steam for at least 4hrs.  The longer you steam, the darker the pud!
6. Steam again for 1hr before serving