November 18, 2007
Christmas Pudding
I've threatened to do this for years.
This year I'm making an old-fashioned, steamed Christmas Pudding, based on the recipe in Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels. I mixed it up yesterday (a gluten-free version, of course!).
First, I mixed together two cups of gluten-free breadcrumbs (from a previous batch of half-decent gluten-free drop biscuits), a cup of white rice flour, half a cup of brown sugar, half a teaspoon of salt (hmm, did I remember to add the salt?), and spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. To this mix I added a cup of currants, a cup of raisins, and a cup of sultanas, some lemon zest, and 1/3 candied citron. (And if I do this again, I'll skip the citron. It's disgusting.)
I also added a little orange juice concentrate. I think that traditional puddings involve nuts, but I don't like to tempt fate.
When you mix all that up, you get something like this:
Then, to be really authentic, you've got to use beef suet. Mmmm, yummy beef suet. Here is what two pounds of beef suet looks like:
This stuff is truly disgusting. It gets rubbery and melty and gross quickly, so you have to grate it into your concoction while it's still half-frozen. Work quickly. Trust me.
I used a quarter pound of suet, and then added three eggs and half a cup of brandy:
Mix it all up really well, with your hands.
Then comes the steaming. You are instructed to put your pudding in a greased pudding basin; you tie a cotton cloth around it, with cotton string, and place it in a boiling water bath. Steam for at least five hours. Since I don't have a pudding basin, I just used a large ceramic bowl. I think the bowl was too big.
When it was finished steaming, mine looked like this:
I have no idea what it's supposed to look like at this stage.
I poured another quarter cup of brandy over it, covered it tightly and tossed it into the fridge. It will stay there until Christmas, at which point we'll steam it again before serving, douse it with more brandy and light it on fire.
Who wants to join us?
Posted by lynx at 5:11 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
June 20, 2007
Just in case you thought I'd lose weight on the no dairy/wheat/alcohol diet ...
No fear. I figured out how to make ice cream out of coconut cream, coconut milk, and a couple of avocados.
Plus, although I can't eat the cake, there is apparently nothing but fake, non-nutritive yet non-allergenic (to me) crap in the chocolate frosting. Let the rest of the family eat cake. Just give me a spoon and the Duncan Heinz can. I'm good.
Posted by lynx at 4:04 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack