We have 2 vastly different traditions going on in our house. There’s the Italian tradition and the Australian tradition. They compete with each other, obviously I’m on the Aussie side and the Pazzo pushes for the Italian way. The festive season is one example where this clash of culture become evident.
The Aussie way requires organisation, especially the desserts. We copy the English and have Plum pudding. The tradition was Nana always made it. Nana was my mum’s mum and a dainty little lady, polite to the extreme, and always willing to spoil her grandchildren. She made a wicked set custard, and her Plum pudding always tasted great, but whether it held to when the pudding basin was upended was a lottery! It never mattered, as long as we got some pudding, smothered it with custard and got some coins in our serve, Christmas was a success.
Nana got too old to make the pudding, so somehow, the traditional maker became me. I have the traditional recipe, but have tended to add my own personal touch. This year I might have broken with tradition completely and not used the traditional recipe at all!! All I hope is that it is similar enough that Dad doesn’t notice. He’s becoming a stickler for tradition!
So it’s that time of year. The pudding has just been made. The fruit has been soaked overnight,
The other ingredients all mixed in (including the sixpence and three pence, which are part of the family tradition. We have been using the same coins all my life, collected before our monetary system went metric), put in the pudding basin,
steamed for 3 1/2 hours. All I can say is it looks good, looks right.
Just needs another 3 1/2 hours of steaming on Christmas Day. Between now and then it just sits and let’s the flavours develop til Christmas Day. Now I sound like one of those chefy types!
M xxx
how to be merri 