Christmas Pudding

Can you believe it's the 1st of December!!!??? well luckily for all of you I am a food obsessed crazy lady who has been soaking fruit for Christmas puddings for months. so please take advantage and use this recipe this Christmas to make your own Christmas pudding because there is just nothing quite like a home made Christmas pudding.

Oh but here's one little tip from the drunken chef, there really is no need to cover the fruit in alcohol when soaking it, you just need to add a cup or two of brandy and or cherry and agitate your jar or container every day or so. I originally used a 700ml bottle to soak 1kg of fruit and although I thoroughly drained the fruit before using it, it was so strong with alcohol I fear you could have been arrested for drink driving after eating it. whoops.



Ingredients:

3 cups fresh bread crumbs

2 cups milk

2 cups flour

3 heaped teaspoons baking powder

2 cups brown sugar

250g butter

4 eggs

1kg soaked fruit

2 cups slivered almonds

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

Method:

soak fresh breadcrumbs in the milk.

cream butter and sugar then add the eggs one at a time. you really need the eggs to be at room temperature for this so you don't end up with a curdled mess.

pour the soaked bread crumbs into the butter, sugar and egg mix and stir it all together. scoop your fruit out of the alcohol and add it to the mixture, add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix it all together until you have a nice silky batter.

pour your pudding mix into two greased pudding tins. put the pudding tins into a large saucepan each and fill the saucepan with water until it reaches 3/4 of the way up the side of the pudding tin. bring the water to the boil and then cook on a medium heat for 3 1/2 hours.

My Beautiful Step Daughters First Perfect Omelette

Well it's been too long between visits but I wanted to share this omelette by beautiful stepdaughter made in the weekend. she did it all her self, just the way I taught her and look how lovely it is! The omelette was made with 2 eggs and lots of tomatoe, cheese and onion.

Afternoon tea

Brownies

I’m developing a few easy recipes for one of my home made Christmas recipes. I am making brownies and oat cookies in a jar, all the dry ingredients will be in the jar and all the recipient has to do is melt some butter and add an egg or two to the ingredients, follow the baking instructions and  enjoy the fruits of their labour….. it’s almost cheatingJ

The first batch of the brownies were excellent, i just think they needed some nuts. I'll keep you posted on the success of these recipes/gifts.

Quiche

I have never been a big fan of quiche, the pastry is never quite to my taste. In a bid to better understand why the bottoms of quiches are so soggy I attempted to make two quiches with different pastry styles. I made one with Maggie Beer’s sour cream pastry and one with a short crust.

Sour Cream Pastry - Spinach and Fetta Quiche.

For the filling of the spinach I used about 1 bunch of silver beat to 250 grams of fetta and 6 eggs.

The sour cream pastry was not blind baked, it was set in the freezer for 30 minutes then the filling was poured in and it was baked at 160°C for about 45 minutes.

The shortcrust quiche was flatter and it’s filling was made up of sautéed radish, asparagus, leek, garlic and carrot. I mixed the sautéed spring vegetables with some parmesan and 10 eggs.

The shortcrust was blind baked for 20 minutes first on 180°C then allowed to cool. I poured in the filling and cooked it t 160°C for about 30-35 minutes.

I much preferred the sour cream pastry, the sides turned into a flaky crispy delight but the base was still to soggy for my liking……… perhaps I just don’t like quiche????

Creme Brulee

I went out to dinner with my handsome boyfriend the other night and I won’t mention the name of the restaurant as I am not a food critic and I really enjoy going there but they must have a new chef because the food was down right cooky. The enjoyable side affect of not enjoying your dinner however is that there is plenty of room for dessert. We were served a crème brulee unlike any other I’d seen in that it was cooked in a bowl instead of a ramekin. We liked it so much that I had to try it at home. This is my attempt at the crème brulee.

Poached Quail Eggs with Spicy Tomatoes and Spinach

I topped this breakfast with some buttery sage and mushrooms..... Very yummy.

Quail eggs are so delicate and this is the first time I have poached them. Their whites are much stringer than chicken egg whites, when cooked the slightly chewy whites perfectly encase the soft sweet yolks. I just love these eggs!