Christmas Brandy Plum Pudding

It's the countdown to Christmas, and I really hope that Christmas still brings lots of excitement and love to most families on Christmas Day. We generally try to keep it simple with the catering, leaving the traditional Christmas favourites to make yet another appearance, such as my Mum's Brandy Plum Pudding with homemade Vanilla Custard or ice-cream for dessert, and the traditional Christmas Cake. 

In My Kitchen, December 2022

This is the Christmas Edition of In My Kitchen, and 'tis the season for baking. This also means my friends, that it's the season for Mangoes and Lychees here in tropical North Queensland. Bowen Mangoes which are the best to buy in our humble opinion, were costing $15.00 a bucket at our local market last Saturday. Just this morning we picked up a bucket for $12.00 from a roadside stall, and a bag of lychees. Bowen is just a couple of hours North from us. The lychees were a bit more expensive, the first of the season, but we couldn't resist them, they are a precious commodity, and for Christmas holidays only. We'll be freezing, dehydrating and eating mangoes for the next month, and then eating frozen mango with ice cream and yoghurt for the rest of the year. Dried mango is great for just snacking on. We'll also be looking out for the Common mangoes from backyard trees, strictly for making delicious Mango Chutney with, which we traditionally eat with our Christmas ham.

My Family Recipe for Christmas Plum Pudding

 

It's the countdown to Christmas, and I really hope that Christmas still brings lots of excitement and love to many families on Christmas Day. We all love Christmas in our family. We generally try to keep it simple with the catering, when the traditional favourites make yet another appearance, such as my Mum's Plum Pudding with homemade Vanilla Custard for dessert, and the traditional Christmas Cake. 

Nigella Lawson''s Passionfruit, Kiwi fruit and Ginger Trifle

When our friends Julia and Dave came to stay for the weekend, it was an opportunity to cook some dishes which normally I wouldn't prepare just for Mr. HRK and  myself. Julia is an ex library buddy but also a foodie and a blogger and we could discuss various food aspects for hours. Whereas Dave is our computer guru who always has the latest app to show us or will effortlessly fix something that has gone wrong on our very Smart TV. What great friends.

Mr. HRK and I were watching  Nigella Express one late afternoon to fill in some time and Nigella was making her Passionfruit and Ginger freeform trifle. Mr. HRK doesn't normally watch cooking programs, but for Nigella he makes an exception. To be truthful I am not a great trifle lover but Neil is, so when the special request came from him  to make this trifle of course I went as weak as water and that was dessert decided for Julia and Dave as well. I'm not sure if the tantalising Nigella had anything to do with his request or not, however I set myself the challenge and really enjoyed making it after breakfast on the morning of their arrival. I left it in the frig all day for the flavours to develop and  dessert was made with no extra work needed on the night. Whenever there is dessert being made, Neil magically appears to help and provide ideas, his idea this time being that I add jelly to the mix. There was no time for the jelly to set, and I suppose jelly could be added to the layering, but honestly the dish doesn't need it. The wonderful thing is that we had leftovers for a couple of days afterwards and personally I think it tasted even better the next day, but food often does.

For anyone reading this who may have drunk more than necessary of the Green Ginger Wine  in the 70's or 80's, and swore never to touch the stuff again, believe me in this trifle it lives again and you won't be haunted by any unpleasant memories.

I have added kiwi fruit to this recipe plus lots of passionfruit which are delicious at the moment, so it is a very tropical trifle and reminds me of the delicious Eton Mess, made for us in England by Jane, but this recipe is minus the meringue.

Passionfruit, Kiwi fruit and Green Ginger Trifle 

Ingredients:

510 g (18 oz) store-bought sponge cake (the packet I bought at Coles weighed 450g, plenty)

1 ½ cups or 2 liqueur glasses full (4 oz approx) of Stone’s green ginger wine

2 ¼ cups (18 oz)  whipping cream

4 teaspoons icing sugar

8 passionfruit

4 kiwi fruit

Method:

1. Slice or break the sponge cake into pieces and arrange half of them in a shallow dish or on a raised cake stand, and pour half the ginger wine over them. Mound up the remaining half of the sponge cake on top and pour the remaining ginger wine on top.
2. Whip the cream with the icing sugar and the 2 passion fruit until it is firm but not stiff, to form soft peaks.
3.  Mound the cream floppily over the alcohol doused sponge cake.
4. Scoop out the remaining 6 passionfruit onto the white pile of cream so that it is decorated with the golden pulp and the striking black seeds.

Indulge!

So if you are reading this did you ever over indulge on Stone's Green Ginger Wine. I didn't actually, but a lot of people did back then. I think it is making a comeback, in culinary circles of course.

Best wishes, Pauline