Christmas Pudding

The Christmas plum pudding we know today evolved from that old British food staple, ‘pottage’ – a soupy stew made from grain, vegetables and meat, thickened with breadcrumbs and flavoured with spices, and sometimes, fruit and wine. Plum pottage was a medieval Christmas dish and it was served as a first course, which would have been a hearty start to the meal, one wonders if you would have room for anything else.

Oddly, as with so many little kitchen utensils, the re-useable pudding cloth only became common at the beginning of the 17^th century, before that few thought to use fabric to cook a pud. The fashion of encasing the popular baked puddings and pottages in a cloth then took off (particularly as most poor households did not have an oven) and some, like plum pudding were also left to hang after boiling or steaming, to improve the flavour.

As the centuries wore on the meat in plum pottage was replaced by suet, the plums (dried prunes) replaced by a wider variety of dried fruits and nuts, and the alcohol content raised considerably. By the 1830’s the ‘cannonball’ crowned with holly we associate with Christmas had firmly taken hold in our culinary calendar

I include below a recipe for Christmas Pudding in Modern Cookery for Private Families by Eliza Acton (1868 ed) below, but it’s rather late in the day to make this for Christmas so if you wish to buy one, I recommend the superb puddings of Georgie Porgies Puddings https://www.georgieporgiespuddings.co.uk/ which can be bought online.

To steam a pudding, you place it in a cloth in a bowl submerged in simmering water-https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/videos/…/how-steam-pudding

To boil a ball pudding – the pud must be wrapped in calico or very thick muslin (scalded with hot kettle water to remove any chemicals) and submerged in simmering water. The scalded cloth should be floured, then the mixture placed in the middle and the corners of the cloth brought together above it, form the ball and tie it. Boil the pudding according to weight usually about 4 -5 hours but 3 1/2 in the recipe below.  Remove it with tongs and allow to hang in a cool place, over a bowl for two days or until the cloth is dry. I like to re-tie it new dry calico to avoid risk of mould and then hang for a month. Re-boil on Christmas day for 1-2 hours.

Eliza Acton – Modern Cookery 1868

Gooseberry Fool with Foxy

Cauliflower: New Star of the Show

And why is it so popular?  Because you can substitute it for several kinds of carbs like rice and pizza bases, though I don’t really see the point of making a pizza base that uses cheese as glue and pretending it’s better than homemade dough, and I rather like adding cauliflower rice to real rice! Stick that in the carbometre, however it is a brilliantly versatile vegetable that tastes good both cooked and raw. It’s great to see it back with a starring role.

More ways with Cauliflower

Dry spiced cauliflower and potato curry with whole cumin, coriander, fennel seeds plus turmeric and garam masala

Chargrilled cauliflower salad with spinach tomatoes, dill and lemon dressing

Cauliflower, onion and roasted garlic soup using chicken stock and a bit of cream at the end

Cauliflower pakoras (chickpea flour fritters) with minty yoghurt sauce

Cauliflower cheese but add watercress to the sauce

Asian pickled cauliflower with rice vinegar, chilli and sugar

Warm cauliflower (also good raw) with Aioli

Cauliflower pasta with feta, lots of garlic, roasted walnuts, olive oil and lemon juice

Roast a whole cauliflower (1/2 inch water, foil on top for 30 mins remove for 10 more) with cumin, sumac, turmeric, garlic salt

Cauliflower rice Tabbouleh

Cauliflower Tikka Masala

Cauliflower, leek and cheese gratin

Coconut cauliflower rice (good with extra real short grain brown rice added!)

As an almost instant, tasty bowl food using left-overs in the fridge (that’s how I discovered it) try this:

Cauliflower and Feta Mash

I large                          Cauliflower

1 pack 200g                Feta cheese

old end of                    parmesan, grated, (1 heaped tablespoon)

lots                               freshly cracked black pepper

salt                               to taste

a drizzle                       olive oil

Break the cauliflower into small pieces and steam (do not boil, never boil) it until it is tender.

Remove from the steamer into a large bowl or Magimix while still hot.

Crumble the feta into the bowl, add the Parmesan and mash it with the cauliflower with a potato masher. You may want to use a whisk at the end to really fluff it up. /Or whiz in a Magimix.

Add lots of cracked pepper, a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil.