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In the very best of tradition
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If it's Christmas it has to be Plum Pudding. TANYA ABRAHAM finds out the origin behind this very traditional Christmas pudding.
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IT IS Christmas time. The heady aroma of mixed spices and fruits soaked in brandy fills the air. The families of the Anglo-Indian community at Fort Kochi are busy, keeping alive a tradition they have cherished down the years.
In an Anglo Indian home, readying itself for the hallowed season, one is suffused by the spirit of Christmas. X'mas carols and voices of enthusiastic little children fill the air.
An array of sweetmeats-Figaths, Bole figarand, Figadossi- christmas sweets made from Kerala banana, left behind by the Portuguese, and trays of goodies carefully wrapped, popularly referred to as `Conswad', are carefully arranged, to be sent to friends and well-wishers.
It isn't December 25 yet, however, the families have gathered for the making of their traditional plum pudding, an age-old custom brought to Cochin by the British.
The fruits have been soaked well in advance in an alcohol of one's choice. A large urn placed on the kitchen floor is soon to be filled with ingredients that go into making of the plum pudding-flour, spices, orange peel, lemon juice, lard and the like.
It all started in the 14th century, explains a family member, with a porridge made out of meat, raisins, currants and wine called `frumenty', eaten as a fasting dish just before Christmas. A century later, it is said to have evolved into a dessert with the addition of eggs, breadcrumbs, tasty fruit and alcohol popularly termed as `Plum Pudding'. Some where in the late 1600s, with the coming of the Puritans in England, it is said to have lost its prominence as `too rich and unfit for God fearing people' till it was re-established as a Christmas dessert in 1795 by George I.
The ingredients, thirteen of them-each representing Christ and his twelve disciples, finally start to go into the urn, while each member of the family takes turns to stir the batter with a large wooden spoon, from east to west in honour of the three kings. Finally a perfect consistency is reached and the lady of the house emerges with a handful of trinkets-silver coins for health, wealth and happiness, rings depicting marriage for the finder, thimbles and buttons, which predict the finders, would remain as spinsters or bachelors.
Traditions and customs vary from home to home, as one of the members of the family recollects a sovereign of gold being used as trinkets 'in the good old days'.
Soon the batter is scooped into circular or oval moulds and is steamed for a good five to six hours. Wrapped and tied firmly in greased paper it is then cooled, to be opened only on Christmas day.
That day, the families come together again for the grand Christmas lunch, with the traditional stuffed turkey and the Portuguese vindaloo, all to end with a favourite alcohol being poured over the plum pudding and lit.
Although this marks the joy of Christ's birth, for some it represents a prelude of his death and the holly placed on the pudding, usually a symbol for luck, remains a reminder of the crown of thorns.
With an air of solemnity and pride, the dessert is flambéed by the head of the family, till its luminous blue flame dies out, a tradition to be rekindled a year later, on yet another Christmas afternoon.
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