Ski Chalet plum pudding
I make this plum pudding (from real plums) to share with my telemark ski friends each winter. One of our regular telemark ski friends is a Celiac, so this recipe is gluten-free.
The fruit is homegrown Satsuma plums. They ripen in great abundance and are dried in my wonderful Excalibur Dehydrator. I described its use in my post about using dehydrators to preserve food and dehydrated backpacking meals. The plum cubes are somewhat over-dried in the process. However, I judiciously shake and tumble the plum cubes in alcohol (Muscat). This is primarily used as a precaution against possible mould growth and it brings about a delightful medium-soft texture. A byproduct of the process is to make for a lovely finish to the delicacy with an indefinite storage life.
The plum pudding recipe
- Boil 2 cups of rice (cooked separately till soft),
- 6 cups of dried satsuma plum cubes that have been pickled in muskat,
- 3 cups of dried Golden-Delicious apple cubes,
- 3.5 cups of raw sugar,
- 1 cup Treakle,
- 3 blended whole limes (these can be stored for winter as a frozen pulp from time of lime plenty),
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk,
- 2 tspn mixed spice,
- 2 tspn cinnamon and
- 4 tspn ginger powder.
Mix all the above together and simmer for about 1h while mixing.
Cooking
Pour the mix into a large steam pudding pan that has been lined with a large thick plastic freezer bag. Remove any entrapped air and screw the surplus bag tightly and fold over double and tie up tightly with string.
Cook gently for ~3h in a large steamer pot with a ceramic plate as a support for the pudding bowl and cover the steamer pot with a lid.
For any ‘left-over’ pudding mix, I make smaller puddings in small freezer bags that are twisted to exclude air and the knotted off. These can be steamed with the big pudding.
Storage
The pudding can be kept frozen indefinitely (in the bag). Alternatively, it is good for a month of storage in a refrigerator.
Serving suggestions
The big pudding takes a long time to reheat for serving. Consequently, it is best to start its gentle steaming before nibbles are started and the main meal is being cooked.
I also prepare a pot of sweet white almond and vanilla sauce to go with the pudding. I use real corn flour for this so that it is also gluten-free.
After heating in a steamer for at least 1.5h the pudding should be ready to serve. To serve up I tip the pudding out on a large flameproof plate with an extra tray to catch any spilt alcohol. Then I make several deep cuts into the top of the pudding and pour in a cup or two of muskat that should be allowed to soak in.
In a small pan, heat some alcohol with some sugar dissolved in it and light it and pour it over the pudding in preparation for serving with sweet almond and vanilla white sauce.
Makes about 20 small serves.
Tim
