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

Quince mince pies

When I told my mother about putting quince in mince meat she said ‘well that’s not very traditional’, I pointed out if we were having traditional mince pies they would have beef in them and that a little bit of seasonal exploration never did anyone any harm.  I am loving quinces at the moment, they must be one of the few fruit left that you really can only get for one month in a year.  The recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess, which has to be one of my favourite cook books of all time.

• 500g quinces (which is about two)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 125g each sultanas, raisins and dried apricots
• 125g light muscovado sugar
• 125g vegtable sugar
• 1 teaspoon each ground cardomon, cloves and cinnamon
• 50g crystalised peel
• 50 ml brandy (Nigella suggests various other expensive sounding liqueurs, but I never think its worth it for one recipe)

Heat the overn to 150C, peal the quinces and cut them into wedges, coat them in butter and roast in the oven until tender.  When they are done leave them to cool, then cut into mince meat size chunks and put them into a bowl with all the other ingredients, give it a stir and stick the mixture into clean jars (or make it straight into little pies like I did).