As one of my latest forays into the wide world of international cuisine, I’ve ordered a number of various British foods from a website which i’ve been sampling, and one of them is a pre-made Christmas pudding. The bottom of the package has these instructions for cooking it:
Unfortunately, to my Yankee sensibilities these instructions make no sense. I’m not sure what a “basin” is or how it is i’m supposed to steam the pudding inside of one. (Do I fill it up with boiling water, plop it in there, and simmer it, or what?) Anyone who can help me translate this from English to English can have a tiny slice of the stuff once i’m finished cooking it.
Does the pudding come in an aluminum pan or something similar? If so, this would be the “basin.” You are to put wax paper or foil over the exposed part of the pudding, tie it down and put the whole apparatus in a steamer and steam for 1 hour. This is so steam doesn’t actually touch the pudding and make it soggy. If it doesn’t have a pan, find one that it will fit in and proceed as above.
The basin is the dome-shaped bowl in which the pudding (presumably) currently resides.
So the instructions are telling you to:
remove all packaging except the bowl
cover the top of the bowl with a flat piece of foil, fold it down and secure it around the bowl with a piece of string (thus making a lid)
put some water in a saucepan, then stand the bowl in the water
place the pan on the hob and boil it all for the recommended duration; add more boiling water from a kettle if it looks like the water bath may boil dry.
Well, the instructions here correspond with those above, so it looks like you want to improvise a bain-marie and slow-cook the thing.
Personally, I wouldn’t bother, unless you have some inexplicable longing for super-dense super-heavy stodgy pudding. After eating it you will become noticeably darker due to the neutronium-like density of the pudding enhancing your gravity field to the point where light barely escapes.
The whole burning brandy bit is cool though, but I always wonder why we don’t drink the brandy and set fire to the pudding.
Most pre-packaged Christmas puds can simply be microwaved until piping hot throughout - which should take, I dunno, ten minutes or so, rather than steaming/boiling for an hour.
Microwaving does work fine, if the “basin” in question is a plastic bowl, although depending on the size of the pudding you might want to try something more like 3-5 minutes and then let it stand for another few minutes.
Steaming is easy but obviously takes a while longer. After you’ve covered it – some puddings come with plastic lids with holes in them, and don’t require additional covering – put it in a pan and fill with water till it’s about halfway up the sides of the bowl. Then simply simmer on the stove for an hour or so.
Once it’s done, invert it onto a plate and slide the bowl off. Pour over a tablespoon or two of your liquor of choice (usually brandy or whisky), and set a match to it. After the flames have gone out, serve with warm custard or lots of cream. Yum.
I don’t know whether it’s implicit in the instructions, but I was taught by a good friend who’s British to steam the pudding over a rack. Made and makes sense to me, so that’s how I do it.
Mangetout’s method matches that which I’ve inherited from at least three generations back. Regarding burning the brandy - to ensure a decent flame, heat the brandy in a ladle, over a flame, to bring it up close to its flash point, then pour over and light.
A basin is a plastic bowl. Does the pudding come wrapped in a bowl already? If not you’ll have to use your own.
Put the pudding in a bowl, put the bowl in a large pan of boiling water. The water level should come nearly to the top of the bowl. Do not allow any water into the bowl. Put a lid on the pan, and heat. Keep the water topped up, never let it boil dry, never let it into the bowl.
