Stage 1 is now bedded down in the red bowl, and since one bowl of dried fruit soaking in alcohol doesn't look all that different from another bowl of dried fruit soaking in alcohol, especially if it's the same bowl, I won't take and post another photo.
But what I would dearly, dearly love to do is blog the smell. The smell, in the order in which the ingredients were added, is of combined raisins, sultanas, dried cranberries, candied peel, glacé ginger, glacé cherries, glacé apricots, soft pitted dates, lemon juice, blood-orange juice, grated rind of oranges and lemons, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, Guinness and cognac.
Fresh, dark, sweet and sharp. Overwhelmingly all of those things at once. Seductive beyond measure.
The bowl is covered in clingwrap while the fruit soaks up all the groggy juicy goodness, and hidden away high up in a dark cupboard, safe(ish) from the depredations of tortoiseshell omnivores, treacherous weather and puddin' thieves.
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5 comments:
Smells wonderful.
Of all the swivel-eyed, up-jumped, cross-grained, sons of a cock-eye tinker.... you are going to do brandy sauce as well aren't you?
I did the justly famous Dr Sista Outlaw's Christmas pudding last year. It was soley responsible for several kilos I'm sure, but my goodness it was tasty. The recipe is probably still searchable on Progressive Dinner Party. She also had a good substitute for suet which I appreciated.
Mindy, I was indeed going to have a go at DSO's recipe and had gone as far as finding it, but my friend specifically wanted the Ann Oliver recipe so it kind of all went from there. If it turns out badly I will certainly be making DSO's next year!
Bernice, I thought perhaps hard sauce (my recipe for which does indeed contain brandy, and speaking of which, my goodness me the Christmas cake is starting to smell good). I don't know why but the idea of hard sauce really appeals to me.
Best Beloved spent one of our hottest days to date boiling his bloody puddings (using DSO's recipe) and the only thing that made us forgive him was the smell. He added brandied cumquats to this year's batch. It's a weird thing to have on a hot summer's Xmas day (after the no-cook prawn salad), but it certainly makes the day festive.
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