Putting a ‘kick? into plum pudding

Press, 9 July 1980, Page 15

Putting a ‘kick? into plum pudding

Alison Hoist’s

Food Facts

How about serving a >picy plum pudding one cold’ night this winter? This recipe is a modification of one given to me in Canada recently. With the temperature below -20 degrees Celsius, it was certainly plum pudding weather. When I cooked it in a microwave oven, it took eight minutes. 1 had to work quickly to get the sauce made, and the bench cleared by the time the pudding was cooked. Steamed in a foil covered bowl, it takes ii hours. The sauce is unusual but delicious. If you don’t like the idea of a nutmea flavoured sauce, you can settle for sweet-

ened whipped cream, flavoured with rum or rum essence. 50g butter 1 roun ed household tablespoon golden syrup 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon mixed spice i teaspoon ground cloves 1 cup brown sugar j to J cup sultanas or mixed fruit J teaspoon baking soda I cup milk IL cups flour Wann the butter in a saucepan until it is liquid. Add the syrup and spices and stir until the syrup is mixed with the butter. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar and dried fruit. Mix the baking soda

and milk together, stir into the saucepan, with the flour. Do not overmix. Transfer the mixture to a w e 1 tor sprayed) pudding bowl big enough for the pudding to rise to nearly twice the bulk. Cover with f oii. pleating it in the middle if you think the pudding may rise to the top cf the bowl. Lrwei bowl cite a rack in a saucepan of boiling water, and steam fo r 11 hours checking the water level occasionally. VARIATIONS: Replace- butter with ? cup suet, if desired. Follow method as given, but add suet with the flour, and add extra milk to make a “drop batter.”

Steam mixture in foil covered fruit cans. Use any size cans, but do not fill them more than threequarters full. Steaming time in cans is shorter than in a bowl — check after one hour. Serve pudding cold, as a fruit loaf. Puddings cooked in fruit cans are particularly good, served cold. They should be removed from cans (or bowl) while hot. Rum’n Nutmeg sauce: ] cup brown sugar 1 cup white sugar 2 tablespoons cornflour

j-l teaspoon grated nutmeg 1 cup water 25g butter 2 tablespoons rum or rum essence to taste Mix brown and white sugar with cornflour and nutmeg in a saucepan. Add the water and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and rum or rum essence. VARIATIONS: Use custard powder instead of cornflour. Reduce the amount of butter and use butter-rum essence.