Eunice Power (top) uses an old family recipe for her Christmas pudding
Peckish?
Read on.
Isobelle O’Regan writes:
Of all the things that make us nostalgic for home, food, particularly at Christmas, has the power to transport us to a time and place we love or miss. The smell of roast turkey, stuffing or mince pies can switch on all the festive feelings.
‘To Be Irish At Christmas’ has collated a host of nostalgic Christmas recipes from Irish chefs near and far revealing them on ToBeIrish.ie/feastivities over the coming weeks beginning this ‘Stir Up this Sunday’ with Eunice Power’s family pudding recipe.
Curated by Ali Dunworth, it is the ultimate nostalgic Irish Christmas recipe ‘book’ (online) full of classic dishes and some more modern twists including Mark Moriarty’s kitsch prawn cocktail, Clodagh McKenna’s fool-proof roast turkey, Anna Haugh’s favourite seasonal starter, Graham Herterich show-stopping chocolate orange pavlova and many more.
Meanwhile…
Eunice Power’s Christmas Pudding
Eunice writes:
Traditionally, Christmas puddings are made on the Sunday before Advent, which this year falls on November 21st and is known as Stir-up-Sunday. Making your pudding or cake early means it really does benefit from time to mature. The flavour of the spices mellows and deepens, and the fruits plump up and soften. This recipe was given to me by my Auntie Joan. She has been making pudding for 40 years. The recipe has been handed down by her mother before her, and her mother before that. You will need pudding bowls with lids to make these. This recipe makes 2.25kg (6lbs) of pudding mix. I like to make 2 x 2lb puddings (they will each serve 6 people) and 2 x 1lb puddings (they are enough for 3-4 people) as that suits my Christmas plans and the pudding bowls I have! But you may prefer to make 2 large 3lb puddings. The size of your pudding will determine your cooking time so 1lb puddings need 3 hours in the oven and 2lb puddings needs 5 hours. I have been using Blackrock Irish Stout from Dungarvan Brewing Company for the past few years, with great results but you could use any stout you wish.
Ingredients
300g raisins
300g sultanas
200g currants
500ml bottle of stout
100g mixed peel
100g glace cherries
50g ground almonds
150g chopped almonds
50g chopped walnuts
400g fresh breadcrumbs
100g self-raising flour, sieved
200g brown sugar
1 tsp each of ground cinnamon, mixed spice
Half a nutmeg, grated
200g melted butter
5 eggs
4 tbsp brandy
1 cooking apple, peeled and grated
Juice and rind of an orange and a lemon
Method
‘Soak the sultanas, raisins, currants and cherries in the brandy and stout overnight; give them a good stir now and then.
Prepare your pudding bowls, with buttered greaseproof paper, large enough to cover the top of each pudding, with a single pleat down the centre.
When you are ready to make your pudding mix your soaked fruit well and add all the rest of the ingredients. Mix together until well combined.
Divide the mixture between the pudding bowls and pack it in. Cover with the greaseproof paper, folded, with a pleat in the centre, as the puddings will expand slightly as they cook, and then cover in tin foil. Christmas puddings are quite dense because of all the fruit and nuts they contain.
Preheat your oven to 120ºc.
Place the puddings in deep roasting tins. Pour boiling water into the tin – the water should come almost halfway up the pudding bowl and then cover the, wrap the entire tin in tinfoil to make an airtight parcel– and cook the 1lb puddings for 3 hours and the 2lb buddings for 5 hours in the oven at 120ºc.
When the cooking time is up, allow to cool and store in a cool dry place.
When you want to eat the puddings, steam them for a further one hour. Turn them out and flame with brandy.’