Quote:
Originally Posted by LazyScot
I'm guessing it is variant of the British christmas pudding, or plum pudding. A round, very rich, steamed pudding stuffed full of dried fruits and nuts, made with far too much alcohol. It is traditionally doused in flaming branding when brought to the table.
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I'm sorry, LazyScot, but you are, in fact, incorrect. Our Christmas is not a "variant" of British Christmas Pudding - it
is British Christmas Pudding.
Most of our culinary Christmas traditions are, in fact, British carry-overs. Gradually these have been evolving, as the family has come to realise that having several roasts going all day in the kitchen while it is 35C outside generally brings the entire inside of the house up to a slow-broil itself, and a warm roast Christmas lunch is probably not the optimum way of cooling down. So (and this is where "variant" becomes applicable), we still have the roast, but now everything is cold, and cooked if necessary in the days before. Cold roast meats, salads, cheeses, pate, biscuits, bread, et cetera are layed out for picking, and are either eaten at the large table (usually made up of several tables, though I bought a 10-seater for the new house, so we only had to extend it with one extra table last year), or on your lap anywhere you feel like (such as around the pool, out on a lounge on the balcony, in the loungeroom on the sofa...wherever you feel like it, really). Since we generally buy enough food to feed a hoarding mass of noisy, ravenous porcines (a.k.a. "my family"), we're generally doing the same thing for lunch and dinner over the next few days, with sub-variants often including, for instance, sitting in the loungeroom watching the start of the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race on Boxing Day on the telly.
...but, yes, Christmas Pudding. This is as described by LazyScot. Some prefer it with brandy custard, or fresh whipped cream, or icecream. Me, I think those people skewer themselves on the horns of a trilemma - I just have all three. After pudding (well-after) we slice into the marzipan'ed-and-thick-white-icing'ed Christmas cake. Actually, I'm not that fond of Christmas cake, and so, if mum's around, she will often make Honey Joys or Nanna's Chocolate Cake and I'll pig on them.
Cheers,
Marc