The Pudding …cont'd

Add half the jar of conserve or the pie filling to the defrosted fruit, combine gently and then pour into the cake-lined bowl. Top with slices of cake to cover completely. Fold the cling film over the pudding to seal.

Place a slightly smaller plate or saucer on top of the basin and weigh down with a can. Refrigerate for 12-24 hours.

To serve, remove the can and plate, unwrap the cling film, cover the bowl with a large plate.

Invert the pudding onto the plate and remove the cling film.

So far so good!

Cherry & Chocolate Panettone Pudding …

… aka Winter Pudding!

Cherry & Chocolate Panettone Pudding

1 x 750g Panettone Chocolate -

with chocolate chips and chocolate cream

running through

480g dark sweet cherries – available in the freezer

aisle at Sainsbury's - £2 – defrosted- reserve the juices

1 x 370g jar of cherry conserve

or

1 x 410g Black Cherry Pie filling – available

from larger supermarkets

You'll need :

1 litre (1&¾ pt) basin.

A plain sided cutter slightly larger than the base of the basin.

Cling film

For the size of basin given, you will need approximately 10 slices of cake cut into 1cm slices – remove the crusts.

Line the basin with cling film ensuring that it overlaps the basin and a major tip – oil the basin before you line it – the cling film will stay where it's put and when it comes to turning out your pud it will comply!

Cut out a circle of cake for the base and place it in the basin. Line the rest of the basin – I overlap each piece of cake – but it's whatever you'd prefer.

 Panettone is great to work with - do not be afraid of it! If the cake tears you can patch easily – it's a kind product.

What can I do with a panettone …

… polite responses only please!

Does a gift of panettone fill you with dread or does it fall into the same category as all the other stuff you feel obligated to buy? If it's the latter then I think it must be down to nostalgia – if you're a certain age you'll surely remember certain items that appeared each year - in our house there was always a box of orange and lemon slices – pure sugar! Oh and an absolute must from childhood – a box of dates – I don't think I ever saw anyone eat any. Hand on heart, the only time I've eaten dates is hidden in Sticky Toffee Pudding when you really wouldn't know they are there but they taste great. Both the slices and the dates were still gathering dust well into the New Year!

Back to the panettone – whether a gift or you've purchased of your own free will – sort of. These days you can buy different sizes and varieties. Here's my contribution to reducing the panettone “peak” post Christmas when you're absolutely sick and tired of moving the box or tin around. I'm so sorry for the excruciating alliteration – it just sounded so much better than “panettone mountain”.

I'm never quite sure where panettone belongs – I realise it's an Italian Christmas cake but it always strikes me as if it can't make up its mind whether its a bread – brioche style – it's surely too dry for what we'd call Christmas cake. Whatever your views on this product I have to say that I'm sorry you can't smell the delicious aroma when I open the tin – wow.

So, I give you my Cherry & Chocolate Panettone Pudding.

A variation on a theme of the old faithful the Summer Pudding and the Autumn version too.

The great thing about this pud apart from the fact that it's really easy, is that it has to be made 24 hours ahead, so it's great for the hols – done and dusted!

Blinis

I did say in “An intermission” that I wasn't trying to be a party pooper and wasn't at all against buying stuff to make life easier – far from it!

I'm just of the view that it's better to have the separate components ready to roll when you decide – not when the supermarkets do.

So, in this spirit I'm suggesting blinis – the tiny (originally Russian) pancakes - for your stash. You can actually get canapé size in packets of 36 or cocktail size in packets of 16. You'll find that to begin with blinis have a good “best-before” date. You can freeze them too, so really practical.

As for toppings for the little beauties, any mentioned in The joy of the jam – canapés will hit the spot.

My personal favourites not on that list – smoked mackerel paté first up, which, you'll be pleased to know, is actually healthy and a recipe I've used for ever.

Smoked Mackerel Pate

250g smoked mackerel

250g quark (it's a soft cheese made from skimmed milk – not nice on its own but great as a low fat product for healthy pate!)

Glug of lemon juice

Black pepper

Two tsps of creamed horseradish

Skin the mackerel, break up and put into food processor. Add the quark and blitz with the mackerel, then add the lemon juice, black pepper and horseradish, blitz again. You can gauge the consistency of the pate to your personal taste.

You can then add, finely chopped sweet onion, chopped capers or chopped black olives.

If you can't get hold of quark you can use cottage cheese - low fat of course!

Smoked trout mousse is second up. I realise that smoked trout can be difficult to get and expensive when you can get it. You could use smoked salmon flakes as an alternative – check out the deals – 3 packets for £10 – 140g per packet.

Smoked Trout Mousse

400g smoked trout

2 tsp creamed horseradish (optional)

3 tbsp double cream

1 squeeze lemon juice

pinch of black pepper

Serves 4-6

Flake the trout and place in a mixing bowl with the horseradish and the double cream. Mash with a fork until well mixed, add a squeeze of lemon juice and season with black pepper – salt if required.

Serve with toast, blinis or whatever takes your fancy.

Will keep in the fridge for 2 days.

Thank goodness for James Martin – “makes an excellent canapé or starter”. He's right.

P.s. You can make the blinis if you'd prefer but it rather defeats the object of the exercise me thinks!

Crumpets or pikelets?

This is like a whistle stop tour of the UK. Most of us know what a crumpet looks like – where I come from a crumpet is called a pikelet – all these regional differences, still it keeps us entertained. A crumpet was posh – a pikelet definitely wasn't! The obvious difference is that a pikelet is thinner than a crumpet.

Speaking of regional differences, it reminds me, over the years I've got some very strange looks from friends when referring to such items as, for example, “oven bottoms” - having reassured them that I was not being rude, I then had to explain what an “oven bottom” was – if you're north of Watford – especially north west of, then you'll know that the name came about because bakers made use of every single inch of their ovens and no dough was ever wasted. They formed the dough into regular shapes and placed on the bottom of the oven – it didn't rise because it couldn't and so was flat top and bottom – hence “the oven bottom”.

Anyway back to the crumpet and the pikelet.

During a recent trip to Bicester Shopping Outlet, the morning snack was taken in the Farmshop Restaurant and Cafe. I'm not the easiest to please with mid morning snacks but was suitably impressed with what I chose, here it is :

It was as good as it looks. If I had one weeny criticism it was that it was a mite heavy and needless to say I had help to finish them – well everyone has to taste. In case it's difficult to see, the crumpets are toasted, covered in cream cheese and then drizzled with honey.

Enter the pikelet. You'll see that it is thinner than your average crumpet and just right for the likes of me. Toast your pikelet and spread with cream cheese - here's my extra twist – drizzle with maple syrup. The strange thing is that I don't have a sweet tooth but the balance of the pikelet, cream cheese and just a hint of natural sweetness is wonderful.

Christmas breakfast anyone?

Christmas late night snack anyone?

Christmas “I'm sick of food and fancy something really quick and easy” anyone?

The joy of the jam …an entrée

An absolute must in my freezer will be a loaf of soda bread – my speedy version. Apart from the fact that it makes the best toast ever so never gets wasted, it's also the base for my next “jam” idea.

I mentioned the soda bread recipe recently in Nothing is ever straight forward (for ease of reference). The recipe mentions a “x” before baking - cut with the cross into four triangular shaped portions – each portion is a called a farl.

A farl is originally Scottish and Northern Irish – it can be soda bread, potato bread or cakes – basically it's a round cut into 4 triangles and authentically cooked on a griddle.

Anyway, back to the recipe – when your loaf has cooled cut it into 4 farls.

Slice one farl into 4 and set aside. Bag and fridge (or freeze) the remaining 3 farls.

Pre-heat a medium sized frying pan. Fry 125g of chorizo on a medium heat until crispy and its delicious oil is released.

Toast your slices of farl, spread with jam, scatter over diced chorizo and drizzle with oil and garnish with finely chopped Romano peppers.

An ideal size for a starter and do not be deceived by the size of the soda bread slice - it is dense in texture and filling!

Here's the finished entrée :

The joy of the jam …

a canapé

What could be more convenient than a jar of jam in the fridge and a packet of flatbreads in the freezer?

Toast your flatbreads and spread with goats' cheese or, if you are not a lover, use what you do enjoy – cream cheese or Boursin would float my boat, then add the jam and finish off with greenery of your choice – rocket would give a peppery hit – if you're not a fan then shredded iceberg, chopped flat leaf parsley or coriander. Conversely you could toast the bread then spread with the jam and sprinkle a crumbly cheese – Wensleydale or Stilton or feta.

Cut into bite size portions to serve as a canapé or pizza style slices for a snack.

If you're not a lover of flatbreads then you could invest in part baked baguettes, sliced or not (incidentally a gluten free version works brilliantly for canapés)

You can make this as easy or as complicated as you like.

Add :

Finely chopped chilli – red and/or green

Olives, pitted and chopped – you can buy them in jars of

different sizes ready pitted and sliced

Mediterranean vegetables, roasted and finely diced

Parma ham, salami or pepperoni cut into small triangles

or any other antipasti that you enjoy

Anchovies, chopped finely

capers, chopped

artichoke hearts

You can get great deals on packets of mixed antipasti at this time of year – really convenient and slim to stash in the fridge or the freezer.