239. Christmas spirit (2)

I've missed Stir-Up Sunday. It is now Tuesday and so I declare it Stir-Up Tuesday. I’ll have to do all the stirring-up myself. Never mind. I retrieve the bowl of fruit which has been sitting on the shelf since Stir-Up Sunday from the shelf and lift the lift off. I am a little curious to see how things have gone in there. The recipe said leave for 1 hour. I decided that this was not sufficient for the rhum to be completely soaked up by the fruit. But 48 hours seemed a bit excessive. The minute I lift the lid off a waft of rhum pervades the entire downstairs. I pull back from the bowl, swaying a little. Definitely a recipe for a Christmas dinner. This kicks me into action. Rhum is a great motivator.

I am on my own so I lay the ingredients all over one end of the dining table. On the kitchen table I try to find space for all the utensils. This is going to be a complicated and messy process. I almost give up at this point and then I remember I never got round to doing it last year. 

I have read countless recipes. I have even ordered a second-hand ‘vintage’ book, a real antique no-one wanted, I have watched videos, I have discussed it with people showing an interest (1: my husband). I reckon basically you have two bowls: the boozy one and the normal one. In the boozy one you can mix any kind of fruit in any kind of proportions because it is going to be drenched in alcohol anyway. The normal one is just like making any other cake: eggs, flour, a funny kind of sugar (after all it’s Christmas), some breadcrumbs (breadcrumbs?) and a lot of spices (after all it’s British). In no time I am done. 

I step back. And hope no-one is going to walk in. The place smells as if of crew of pirates have been having a party, there is a dusting of flower all over (it said ‘sift the flour’), and there are breadcrumbs everywhere (try grating a baguette). But all this is not my main concern. My main concern is the baking of the thing. Well, the steaming! Honestly, what kind of people could think of steaming a cake!

I play the video about the steaming three times. And then get cracking with the string, the scissors and the paper. After feeling like the cook in Downton Abbey I now feel like a two-year-old. I cut and fold the layers of paper as required. I grease and scoop out the heavy fragrant mixture into the only thing I have that can pass for a pudding basin. And then I cut the string and tie the string and try to find the balance point so that I can lift my pudding by the string and put it in the biggest pot I have. And then boil it. 

This is so impressive, this huge bowl full of bubbling water with an other dish wrapped and tied up with string that is rattling away like mad. I make a quick video. Not that you can see much with all the steam, but the rattle speaks for itself. I post it for my friends.

‘What on earth are you up to?’ One says, sounding concerned.

‘It’s this some school project for Baby?’ Said an other.

‘Are you testing a device to purify water when in Africa?’

‘Are you boiling your shower caps?’

The family is not any better.

‘What?’ Repeated 4 times. 

Until my English husband gets it.

‘It’s the Christmas pudding!’