Monday, December 13, 2010

Figgy pudding: a recipe

Figgy pudding!
I am not remotely religious but am seriously crazy in love with christmas.

I over-the-top decorate in and around our home (3 trees), even though I have yet to spend an actual christmas in my own home (somehow we are always the ones in the family that get stuck doing the traveling -- even when we had a house with three guest rooms. Go figure.). And now, what with the whole ninja gig, I'm cooking up a christmas storm as well.

Fa la la la la la la la la!

This year, egged on by my dessert-loving husband, I thought it might fun to try to make some of the treats that are mentioned in traditional christmas carols.

Enter figgy pudding.

Despite the fact that I am known to sing "bring us some friggin' pudding" instead of the actual carol lyrics, I decided to give it a go. If it turned out like crap, I figured I could call this blog post "Friggin' pudding: a giant fiasco" and still be able to entertain you. Kinda like my goiter bread.

But I should have known it would be splendid because I chose a Dorie Greenspan recipe. Ah, Dorie. Just as I want to go on an adventurous, boozy holiday with Tony Bourdain, I want to spend a long country weekend with Dorie Greenspan in France. She seems like she'd be a great gal pal confidant.

Also, I particularly love that her recipes don't include instructions so much as a narrative, full of helpful little hints and queues about what the dish should look/smell/taste like at each step of the way. See? What a thoughtful gal pal.

Her "recipe coach" approach was perfect for figgy pudding as it is steamed. Yes, steamed. Like a lobster. Weird but cool. And now I have another use for my canning pot out of season!

Honestly, it was not at all hard and the results are really delicious -- imagine a dense, fruit-packed, boozy, not-sicky-sweet fruitcake. It made both a great dessert and a yummy breakfast.

I'm simply linking you to Dorie's recipe, as it is way too involved to reproduce and I didn't dare adapt it on my first try. But I photographed the progress, which may help you along.

We wish you a merry christmas!

Flaming the fruit

Batter before steaming

All wrapped up for 2 hours of steaming

Voila! And it unmolded easily
Now that's some friggin' pudding!

6 comments:

  1. It looks very good!! There's something very alluring about flaming fruit.

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  2. am now very hungry, thank you very much! Please send!

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  3. Oooh, figgy pudding! Now I know what to do with the package of figs in my pantry. Thanks, Kitchen Ninja!

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  4. Kind of reminds me of "Deacon Porter's Hat" (which is traditionally consumed on Mary Lyon's birthday. Have you ever tried it?

    I also have a recipe for a caramel apple steamed pudding that is yummy if you're interested.

    I'm doing very little baking/cooking this holiday for obvious reasons so am enjoying living vicariously via your blog. Thanks!

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  5. Upon looking at the recipe I noticed that this is Christmas Pudding, or Plum pudding as well! So, I am making the very same thing, but with a vastly (relatively) different recipe. I'll keep you posted on how mine comes out. Probably won't come out as nice as yours! (And three trees! Oh, Baby Jesus!)

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  6. I would love to hear/read about yours, since this was my first try. Keep me posted!

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