So about that christmas pudding....

The family Christmas pudding is made as family tradition dictates, in Spring, before the days heat up - I mean who could cope with a pudding boiling away for 5 hours in the heat of summer. Lucky Melbourne’s early summer this year was kind to me even if wasn't the warm weather most were hoping for.

It seems that this ancestral culinary tradition skips a generation, from my grandmother the task became mine. And unfortunately I was only 12 when my gastronomic mentor went to the ‘big kitchen’! However I do have her original recipe and can still remember my Grandmother's puddings hanging in the cool of the covered back veranda.

Chopping and marinating kilo's of sticky dense dried fruits, grating fresh suet (the fat that surrounds beef kidney's) and remembering to buy loaves of bread in time for them to dry a little to allow for making white breadcrumbs all requires a degree of organisation so would be much better at a less hectic time but ‘that’s life’. Regardless the pudding took its rightful place, after the traditional roasted turkey, served with a Drambuie custard and a dollop of double cream.

And as you can see, a trip to buy the fruit, gave me a chance to stock up on some fabulous spices at NSM, 405 Victoria Street, Brunswick, an absolute Aladdin’s cave of bulk dried fruits, nuts and spices.