marlena spieler

Pudding has captured egullet's imagination! the short of it is that all desserts in Britain are called pudding, as in: 'Whats for pudding?' or shortened to 'whats for pud?' colloquially you might also hear: 'whats for afters?' so ice cream, cake, jelly (ie jello), anything sweet for dessert, would be called pudding. even pudding (ie tapioca, rice, etc). This is complicated by the fact that i don't know anyplace else, other than countries that were once british, that has a whole category of steamed puddings. things like bread and butter puddings are desserts of leftover bread and fruit, sweetened and mixed with eggs, milk, and baked. steamed puddings are made from a sort of cake batter, sometimes with stuff in the mix that makes a sauce at the bottom. spotted dick, jam roly poly, queen of puddings (actually that is baked, but has a meringue topping), sussex pond pudding with a whole lemon in it, chocolate pudding that makes its own sauce. pudding in fact comes from the french, boudin, which these days refers mostly to a savoury sausage such as blood sausage or a white boudin. (black pudding in the UK refers to blood sausage). the term was helped along the way by mrs hannah glasse and mrs beeton who used it in their books. primarily at that time it was what to do with the leftovers, and a sweet pudding was one way to use up leftover bread and butter, etc, and at the time it still referred to savoury puddings too. while i always maintain that i don't like steamed puddings, and i don't think there is anyone, including pudding lovers, who doesn't admit that they are heavy, but even i, a confirmed pudding-hater, has a secret love: i adore treacle pudding, which is basically a steamed pudding layer on top of a hot golden syrup lake. You spoon into the warm golden soft steamy cake and scoop up some of the hot golden caramelly syrup, and its so sweet your tongue feels weird, and you feel like shaking all over with pleasure. i a d o r e treacle pudding!

Two things: one, hubby says not to forget the glass of Ame (herbal fruity drink) that he had after dinner, and also i realize that I forgot to mention that i put diced beetroot into the salad. Turned the salad nice pink colour, and did i mention that coleslaw was a life-enhancer?

Hi Danielle! I've been thinking about your little girl and her passion for the packaged mac and cheese (i know adults who are passionate about organic Annies, too!). i think you are too right about the richness of the dish that you made from egullet and loved. i bet she would love a bowl of elbow macaroni that you buttered and shredded a bit of cheese on. i'm thinking maybe--horrified fingers as i type this in--american cheese, a little bit, cause it melts so saucily. and then for cheese flavour a bit of the good stuff, a nice sharp proper cheddar. gradually have more good cheese and less processed cheese until you have a convert? my daughter was born LOVING mac and cheese, so i've never tried to make one that appealed to her--they all seemed to. funnily, i grew up never eating macaroni and cheese, at home we ate macaroni and cottage cheese which we called lochkshen and cheese, lochkshen being yiddish for noodle. its still my favourite dish in the world. x marlena

Dinner tonight. since i've been tapping out my heart trying to write whole buncha stuff before i run out of time, i've been a little too harried to devote energy to dinner. also, lunch was so darned filling! But i finally rose from my computer, and threw together what was turned out to be a yummy little supper. Husband, ever the bargain-seeker and also stretching that feeling of christmas, brought back cranberry sausages leftover from christmas, from the market. i browned them up--they got all gooey and sticky from the bits of cranberries inside, which also kept them very moist--and i made a sort of coleslaw: sliced red cabbage, curly endive, shredded carrots, red pepper, green onion, raisins, and a dressing of yogurt with a little bit of mayonaise, sugar and vinegar. It was totally invigorating, just the chewing alone brought us back to life (very crunchy). dessert we are considering. at the moment we are both crunching a bit of fresh yellow pepper. i always think that yellow pepper is so sweet it should be dessert and luckily husband agrees. he seems to be over his christmas pudding-a-thon, thankfully. there is a big fat mango i'm going to slice up next.

Barbara, does anyone in your family remember how your grandmother made her christmas pudding? sometimes asking around can be a help......its sometimes the least expected person who might be the one who remembers..... good luck! it means alot to taste the food that a beloved-someone used to make. x marlena

okay, so i was going to post my very lovely lunch and then the phone rang. interview with the daily mirror (uk) , to run sometime in february. so i'd better tell you all what i made for lunch, cause soon it will be dinner. and i don't want you to miss it cause it was yummy. I took the leftover orzo (little rice shaped pasta) and spread it in a baking pan. Topped it with diced tomatoes (from a tin), shredded graviera cheese (a white cheese somewhat like gruyere but with a stronger character and flavour) from Crete, chopped fresh oregano, chopped garlic, diced feta (my last bit from athens, so creamy and mild), and grated kefalotyri cheese (much like Parmigiana). Drizzled it with olive oil and baked it until the cheese melted. okay, so now i'm thinking that maybe its appropriate to mention that i'm mentioned in todays New York Times (Julia Moskin's story about Macaroni and Cheese). How excited am i? (very). As I might have mentioned, i have a book about macaroni and cheese hot off the presses. x marlena

Regardless of whose pudding we are eating, I must add this little tidbit: for the flaming, in order for the alcohol to ignite and cloak the pudding with the most beautiful blue halo of flame, warm the bottom of the spoon with a lighter or lit candle, or even the stove, the spoon should be pretty deep and full of the booze. Don't burn your fingers as the heat travels up the handle. When the booze gets very hot it might ignite on its own volition, but if it hasn't, just touch the flame to the hot liquid. It should burst right into lovely blue flames. Pour this flaming alcohol right over the pudding, it will roll over it, just gorgeously, and burn a few moments before sputtering out. note: this works as well with a chicken as it does with a pudding. i'm a big fan for flambeeing things: it gives a lovely flavour but cooks off some (not all as previously thought) of the alcohol. marlena

That is so cool! details, i want details! when will it be? i'll be in america for some of jan and feb...... marlena

The movie is called Ushpizin and it is roughly translated as Holy Guests. It is an Aramaic word. It is a very special movie. They make etrog jam here. ← Right after I saw the movie, Ushpizin, I was in Sacramento, California, visiting my family, and dropped in on the legendary Darryl Corti, who is one of the most knowledgeable people i know on the subject of food (he is a grocer, and on the board of many food concerns such as Saveur mag etc) , especially italian food and wine. After priliminary chat and cheek kisses, he presented me with a citron from his tree and told me that he--and Italians along the Amalfi/Sorrento coast--make thinly sliced citron/etrog dressed in olive oil as a salad. So I took it home, and as the etrog was very big, and as my family was very scared of this lemon-ish salad, i ate my way through it all. one of my favourite incarnations was with red onion and avocado and lemon juice. sea salt. etrog jam sounds luscious too! candied citron is really terrific. anything else done with citron/etrog? i bet it would be good preserved in some way, perhaps a savoury way? you're so right, swisskaese/michelle, Ushpizin such a special movie. it so touches the heart. x marlena

Yes, use citron and candied orange peel. I love citron--has anyone seen the (israeli) movie ushpishim (i think thats right, or is it? --michelle? ). its a movie that came out recently involving a very expensive citron (etrog) for Sukkot. it also involved a lovely religious couple, as well as two escaped criminals, and a miracle. totally delightful. anyhow, go milk that goat! you could see about trying it with a dab of live yogurt added; i'm not sure if the weather is too moist in hawaii. if you like, i can put you directly in touch with my friends the cheese people on zakynthos (though they are doing a bit of travelling for the next month, but still will be in contact email wise). a funny story about goats: on our first visit to the island, we went to milk the goat. i wanted to do it, as wanted to write my column about milking a goat. there were about five of us, and four of us had milked a goat. the fifth--my husband--had not. he was, in fact, frightened of milking a goat. he was frightened of the goat full stop. he had never seen a real live goat up close before. he was frightened that the goat would be afraid of him, since he was afraid of it. so friend number one who milks her cow every day tried; the goat wouldn't give her milk. and so it went through us all. I tried to milk the goat, and she wouldn't give milk to me either, which really hurt my feelings. and finally my husband went up to the goat, tried to figure out which angle to approach it, leaned over and with his fingers gave a little pull. the milk came shooting out! maria, the goats owner was so impressed, that she told everyone in the village, and now my husband is legendary, and goes by the nickname 'gidas' which means goat. x marlena

helen, your gyouza are beeee-youteefull. absolutely gorgeous. now i'm going to get all asian-dumpling-y and won't be able to rest until i am whipping up a batch! x marlena

I'm such a fan of pretza, and thought that maybe it was just my own personal passion. But then last autumn my friends on Zakynthos, who happen to be cheese import/exporters, took a big bag--i think it was about 75 lbs--of pretza to the Slow Food Cheesefest at Bra, Italy, and completely sold out. The Italian and French cheese afficionados were crazy about the stuff too! I'll think about some of the other cheese-stuff from my greek island to write about. x marlena

Marlena's Christmas Pudding for those who do not like christmas pudding This is a very accepting pudding: add slivered almonds if you like, or candied citrus peel, shredded apple. This recipe is taken from my out of print book, and was inspired by a pudding made by fellow food writer Leslie Forbes: My book is From Pantry to Table, Addison Wesley publishers. i'd like to say that the book was a james beard nominee. i wish i didn't have to say that it sold about ten copies. 3/4 cup (1- 1 1/2 sticks) soft butter (if using unsalted, add a small pinch of salt) 1/3-1/2 cup dark brown sugar 2- 2 1/2 loosely packed fresh wholewheat breadcrumbs (about 4 slices without crusts, whirled in blender or grated in large holes of grater) 3 eggs, well beaten 3 heaped tablespoons raspberry jam or preserves, dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water 1/2 teaspoon baking soda Very generous handful of each: raisins, golden raisins, mixed candied fruits 2 tablespoons brandy, rum or whisky 1. cream together the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. 2. stir in the breadcrumbls, eggs, jam, baking soda, raisins, golden raisins, and candied fruit, brandy/rum/whisky. 3. Pour into a 2 quart souffle dish, pudding ish, or heatproof bowl, then cover with a piece of buttered aluminum foil. Secure tightly with a string. 4. Place bowl in a steamer pot, or a heavy pot, then pour hot water into the pot halfway up the sides of the pudding-filled bowl. 5. steam the pudding for 2 hours adding water to the bottom of the pot as you need to (the water will evaporate and if the pot burns, the pudding is ruined). 6. Serve hot, accompanied by a drizzle of cream (my husbands fave), brandy butter (soft unsalted butter beaten with a little icing (powdered) sugar and brandy) or less traditionally lime sorbet, or the boozy citrus sauce below: Boozey Citrus Sauce Juice of 3 lemons 6 tablespoons orange marmalade Pinch of allspice 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks butter), melted 7 ounces sherry, rum, brandy, whisky Cointreau, etc: your choice whichever you wish heat all of the ingredients together in a little saucepan until it bubbles around the edge. Serve immediately (may be made ahead and reheated). if sauce isn't sweet enough (this depends on the marmalade) you can add sugar to taste then heat again.

Oh you guys, doing this blog is so much fun because you're not alone in this big world! i tap something out, and hey--you pop right up, with me all the way. i could get addicted, and then what will i do when you guys trot off to the next blog (hmmm, i can see what fading celebs feel like: where are my fans!?). but its fun being on the other side too and waiting to see what the blogger is going to write about next.... anyhow, Helenjp, Rebecca 263, and fou de bassan, thanks for sweet words, and now i'm definately going to post my easy christmas pudding recipe that is--in accordance with Jackal10's spot-on direction--only crumbs, no flour! and swisskaese aka michelle: greek gods, italian gods, great mediterranean food, are we one and the same? except i only dreamed of living with greek gods and italian gods, you lived the dream. i would be very interested i hearing about your greek meat and potatoes by the way, esp the lemon and oregano part........if that is part of it. Back to blog-land: here is what i'm eating for breakfast: thin crisp toasted whole wheat bread from the island of zakynthos. that is the greek island i was in, and in the village lythakia, one of the women has revived the traditional dark totally wholegrain naturally levened bread. she makes it in huge kilo loaves. i bring it home, cut it up, and put it in chunks in my freezer. it is so wheaty, so honest and whole and comforting and high fiber. a slab of tassia's bread (tassia is the name of the woman) and a drenching of olive oil makes a meal for many villagers, along with a few olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. This morning i ate the brown toast topped with pretza. pretza is another zakynthos thing. its a goat cheese, made six months of the year, in a pillow case hung from a tree. it is very fresh goats milk with a little bit of natural rennet or even a dab of yogurt; at the start of the summer when the cheese gets going til the beginning of autumn when the weather cools, the cheese gets stronger and more interesting. since i don't have access to fresh goats milk, alas, and my Hampshire neighbours would get a mite snippy about having a big cheese filled bag hanging from the garden tree, and anyhow the weather is too cool and damp, therefore, i make a sort of faux pretza: mash a good feta (and i'm still eating my way through that chunk from athens) with a spoonful of yogurt and a spoon or two of fruity, strong and olivey, olive oil. a sprinkling of thyme as well. and did i mention that i rubbed the toasted brown bread with a cut clove of garlic. ah, garlic: breakfast of champions! this morning i'm drinking French press coffee: peets of course. Peets is a Berkeley originated dark roast coffee which makes me shudder with delight just to think about. i bring a bag or two back each time i travel from the bay area to britain, and keep the whole beans in the freezer til i'm ready to grind and brew. britains best--well i might be biased but i think they are BEST, that good, that great, anyhow, britains best in my humble opinion coffee roasters are Union Coffee, being the labor of love of two guys who trained at Peets in the Bay Area. Steven Macatonia and Jeremy Torz. once i went and visited and got so jangled drinking cup after cup that it took me about two days of hallucinating to feel okay again. but it was worth it i'm telling you. anyhow, my coffee is no sugar, a little low fat milk. and you know what? i think i'll have a second cup. should i tap out the recipe to christmas pudding, or should i go work on my project whose deadline is rapidly approaching? No contest, i'll get those recipe-tapping fingers ready. x marlena

So true, Jack, and a bit of booze, too! I like dark brown sugar for a molasses-y richness too. gosh all of this talk about christmas pudding and i'm almost thinking happily about it, about whipping one up right this minute. maybe after i finish my work...... x m

Is that the same one you gave me? I have to admit, I haven't gotten around to eating mine yet but will make a point of flaming and indulging this weekend! Looking forward to your visit too! ← it just might be. my husband is a bit of a christmas pudding compulsive buyer! yesterday i steamed a Tesco very special or whatever their top of the range line is, but alas for him, the pot burned while i was on the phone. luckily, he whipped out another pudding and we steamed that one and set it on fire with brandy. these are tiny one person puddings, so we're not being as indulgent as it might seem. i think i gave you a several person pudding, whatever was my husbands favourite at the time. so go steam, go flambe, go enjoy yourself! by the way, for those who have never eaten a christmas pudding, it tastes something like this: it is a thick dark dense mixture of dried fruit and some sort of cakey stuff holding it all together. and brandy, a goodly amount. in calais, which was once part of britain, they make a lovely little christmas pudding, wrapped in cloth as Adam described. lovely little bow on top, too, giving it a total classic look. the french puddings are lighter, tastier. well, french food can (not always, but can) have so much finesse. but i'm telling you, i loved that Duchy Originals pudding. go figure. maybe i COULD arrange to get paid by the puddings I sold. i think i could sell them with a clean concience. i mean cause i love them. Also love the pudding i make from scratch with butter. i might be forced to put the recipe up one of these days. and the way i like it is not with the cream or brandy butter that is classically British, but with a little bit of lime sorbet. The tangy citrus sorbet cuts right through the rich warm pudding. heresy in our house, though. marlena

Dinner. Dinner is a little late tonight. The day just carried itself away. First of all, i think i forgot to mention that there was shredded red cabbage in my salad and its been bothering me. the salad was so very crunchy and tangy, and if anyone was going to recreate it, you gotta include the red cabbage. Now for dinner. Still thinking Greek flavours, I roasted a little chicken that had its insides filled with garlic cloves, lemon chunks (i picked the lemons in greece, in a little grove outside the shepherds hut we were staying at), and a small bunch of fresh oregano. on the outside of the chicklet i rubbed a paste of garlic, salt, lemon and olive oil. roasted it fast in a hot oven. it made delicious juices, brown and lemony; when the chicken came out of the oven i let it rest, then carved it up and squirted a little more fresh lemon juice over the top. I served it with orzo-risotto to which i added chopped leaves of fresh spinach and chopped green onion, plus lemon zest, okay and some cream and finished it with lemon juice and grated Parmigiana. mmmmmm. it was even mmmmm-ier with the juices from the chicken. my husband, however, had only a small amount as he confessed that he had been eating his way through the christmas chocolates we still had leftover. unhappily i made enough for the Greek army. tomorrow my theme might be: how to use this leftover orzo spinach risotto. it could be a good opportunity. i love leftovers for this exact reason. for dessert after that hearty dinner and after my husbands indulgent nibbling, we're having apples. very nice quite small apples. they taste a little Cox-like, that is, small and sweet-juicy in a slightly just slightly Fuji sort of way. oh, did i mention that i had my indulgence too? i had bought a bag of jelly beans at the airport en route from s.f. to greece. they were cheaper wanna be jelly bellies. and they were awful. being awful didn't stop me from tasting nearly every flavour in the bag. but i regret each and every one of them. except the bubble gum one. that was nice. okay, can hardly wait to wake up in the morning and make coffee. and make breakfast. and and and.....hey, i might stay awake all night and read what Helen in Japan is up to! night night, Marlena

CaliPoutine, hey there! Maybe just maybe we'll make a grilled cheese sandwich this week! there are only so many meals and eating opportunities in the course of the week, alas. and i want to make so much for you guys! but we'll definately have to do a grilled cheese sandwich. sadly, i don't have a digital camera. i am having to paint the pictures with words. thats okay cause i love words. but still, those digital photos in the food blogs are just like being there. gorgeous. okay, maybe this is a good time--and thank you for liking my grilled cheese book--to mention another book about melted cheese, by your truly, that is being published this month. its called: macaroni and cheese. published by chronicle books. its very appealing, all that melty cheese, all that supple macaroni. x marlena

Swisskaese - Some recent discussion on cooking with suet, to add to the discussion. Suet will produce a much lighter pudding then butter and a pudding boiled in in cloth will be lighter then pudding in a bowl (although the former is more difficult). My suggestion would be to make your own, as it is easier and will most likely taste better. Maybe try a lighter style of pudding first, such as a cloutie pudding. Marlena - Greece the the UK? Quite a transition in regards to food, I am looking forward to hearing more about your UK project. ← Hi Adam! the project I have in the UK is really very simple. i'm writing a book. well, the front matter of a book to which i've already written the recipes (published in another book). and i've put it off that weee little bit too long. don't tell my editor! anyhow, hard at work, i'm sure i'll speak of it tomorrow when i'm cooking to get in the mood. its a subject that i love anyhow. as for the christmas pudding, i am actually a christmas pudding hater, but i'm telling you that the Duchy Originals pudding was fabulous! So light, so delicate, and i never thought it possible to use those adjectives with regards to christmas pudding! i'm not getting paid by the pudding i sell, ie i have nothing to gain by flogging that pudding! but it was yummy. i'm pretty much an anti-steamed-pudding person in general, but i'm telling you: steamed treacle pudding is divine. maybe, just maybe, i'll whip one up this week. my husband would swoon with happiness so i'd better not say it too loudly. if he gets wind of my even thinking about it, life will be impossible until i steam up the heavy sweet and yeah, delicious, thing. marlena

I think that going to Europe to buy good cheese is very sensible. In fact, I would never ever come back to the US without cheese! I think that everyone on every plane that lands in the US from europe should be required to have a certain amount of cheese in his/her suitcase. The big surprise is that some people don't want my cheese offerings when I arrive. they are frightened. how can anyone be frightened of cheese? once i didn't know you could bring cheese into the usa, and i brought 50 lbs directly from a visit to france, and the weather was hot, and the little beagles were being very nosey of my suitcase and i actually reverted to divertive techniques. i was in a terrible state, imagining myself in the big house, and all for no reason: i was perfectly legal! (to be specific, though, certain young and gooey and raw cheeses are still forbidden). And I'm so glad my column is your favourite in the chron food pages; thank you for telling me so! (God knows I love writing it!) x marlena

mmmmm.....cucumber cocktail sounds like my idea of refreshment. Sometimes I do grate the cucumber, but it usually depends upon 1. the type of cucumber (it has to be a cucumber with a good strong cucumber flavour) and 2. the size of the holes in the grater (they have to be pretty large shreds to my taste). as the shredded method does, as you point out, make a lot of juice and need to be squeezed, the lazy marlena usually makes tzadziki by dicing the cucumber and just letting it drain in a sieve into a bowl. Or simply mixing the diced cucumber into the yogurt and pouring off excess liquid as it gathers on top of the mixture. only problem with this is that the liquid isn't as lovely as the cucumber juice you squeeze out. but the whole method is so much easier. also, i really like to bite down into the little chunks of cucumber as am a total cucumber freak. sometimes i salt the diced cucumber which not only pulls out excess liquid but gives the cucumber a slightly pickled flavour. Do you use mint or dill? I use what ever is at hand, though sometimes I use both. i'm a sucker for herbs.

I used to make my own yogurt, and every time I think that my yogurt supply is heading downhill, i threaten to make my own yogurt again. for one thing, its cheap. but the only problem is that at the same time i feel my yogurt supply is going downhill, its always the same time that i feel my milk supply is going downhill too. and the truth is that i'd only bother if i could get a nice very very fresh sheeps milk. the sheeps milk yogurt we get in Greece is very thick; if you drain it even a little its more like cream cheese than yogurt. though you can get it in the ordinary plastic tubs that yogurt comes in other places, you can also get it in ceramic bowls; after you've eaten the yogurt you get to keep the bowl. they are somewhat fragile and don't last long, but i swear that i can taste the difference (but maybe thats because i like using the bowls afterwards). sometimes you can even get the yogurt in a ceramic bowl in the turkish/greek part of london and i snap up a few when i'm in the neighbourhood. one of the great things about living in the EU is that you can bring stuff from one country to another without a customs hassle. actually though you can bring most cheeses into the usa from europe. i was surprised at how many you can bring in--last time i went through customs in sf, only about a month ago, the inspector said when he saw my stash of cheese (most spanish; i had ewes milk, goats milk, and cows milk cheeses, and also a cheese using all three milks), 'there is something wrong with this!' when i asked him what was wrong he said: whats wrong is that you dn't have more cheese! you can bring more if you want to!!!!!! first time i've encountered a customs guy with a sense of humor, but i was a happy girl hearing those words. its the young cheese that are the problem apparantly. oh, and he did snag the jamon that i brought back. he's probably chewing it happily this very minute.

Lunch! I forgot to tell you about lunch! Husband went shopping, and as I have mentioned, is in a bit of British Christmas deprivation as we were in Greece. So along with the list of foods I gave him: fresh spinach, yogurt (ordinary cows milk, alas), chicken, he came home with 2 packages of aunt bessies roasted potatoes (buy one get one free) and a bag of frozen yorkshire puddings. i pointed out that the yorkshire puddings would probably be awful, but the truth about aunt bessies roast potatoes is that they are rather fetching, even though you know when you are eating them that the fat is of the worst kind. so for lunch, in keeping with our rapidly dissappearing (in the British grey day) Greek spirit, we had: a Greek salad (more Israeli than Greek, though--I mean, reading Swisskaese's blog i felt as if i had a trip to Israel!). Our salad had: chopped carrot, Persian/Japanese cucumber, Turkish green/yellow pepper, long red italian/hungarian pepper, lots of red onion, and cracked green olives from the athens central market; i dressed the salad in salt, vinegar, lemon and extra virgin olive oil. With it we had slabs of that lovely sheeps milk feta. baaaah. meeeehhhhh. and Tzadziki: cucumber, yogurt, tons of garlic, olive oil and lemon. a little fresh dill and mint. I'm always amazed that tzadziki isn't EVERYONE's favourite food as I love it so. i go into automatic if i'm left in the kitchen and there is yogurt and cucumber available. i always present it to people as if its the greatest culinary treasure anywhere and they smile politely (though i'd like it noted: they always eat it up!). Anyhow its wonderful to be in Greece where tzadziki is treated with the respect it deserves! We ate the tzadziki as a dip with the.......yes, you guessed it: aunt bessies roast potatoes. my husband is now having a nap to sleep off the mound of potatoes he so happily snarfed. see you at dinner time. what am i going to make with that little chicken? i'm thinking avgolemono, as i have a whole backpack full of lemons i picked from the tree the day i left greece. x marlena

Maybe the sheep and goats pronounce it in reverse to the Greeks, you know the way Hebrew is read right to left instead of left to write. Maybe the sheep and goats do the same thing. and don't you LOVVVVVVE sheeps milk yogurt?! Marlena ← I looooove sheep, goat and now buffalo yogurt! I love to put walnuts or almonds and honey on it. ← Yes, totally in love with buffalo milk anything: yogurt, ricotta, mozzarella! and actually in love with the beautiful animals themselves who have everything going for them, including a lovely curiosity of life. only weeeee little trouble with water buffalo is that they can fall into a stampede at the drop of a......name, hat, whatever. those guys love to stampede! the milk is so mild and creamy; is anyone making water buffalo mozzarella in israel? meanwhile, you asked about christmas pudding. its kind of a family joke, as every year my british husband gets all excited and buys a whole bunch of different ones, and i steam it obligingly when the big day arrives, and even pour over brandy and ignite it (the best part of the pudding i'm convinced). but i just don't like to eat any of the puddings i've bought, with the exception of the purchased pudding that we had this year. as i've mentioned, we were in Greece for Christmas, and someone gave me a Duchy Originals steamed pudding as a gift so i tossed it in my suitcase. In Greece we steamed it and flambeed it, and the three of us: one christmas-pudding-lover and three confirmed pudding haters, just gobbled up that thing greedily. it was delightful: not heavy, and not sticky, but rather rich and light and fruited, all at the same time. we ate the leftovers in the afternoon with tea, just cut into little morsels. some people use the leftover christmas pudding to churn into ice cream; christmas cake, which is similar to an american heavy fruitcake, is sometimes turned into ice cream or bread pudding. this year we brought a christmas cake that my husband had made--dense with fruit, and needing to be 'fed' with brandy every few weeks during the course of its ripening....anyhow he brought it to Greece with us. we ate it in slices, with tea, every so often, and it was very nice. what was even nicer was the see the face of Maria, one of our favourite village cooks (we've been to this village a number of times before, staying with friends who live there): she always loves to share her traditional fare and tell us the stories of why they eat this and when etc. so she understood the cultural significance of christmas cake, or gave it respect and significance above and beyond. she in turn invited us to her christmas eve broccoli blow-out: they eat piles of broccoli on christmas eve, and drink the juice that it cooked in. but thats another story. meanwhile, as for making it myself, most of the pudding recipes call for suet (beef or vegetable) and i just can't bring myself to cook with suet. but i did come up with a recipe for a christmas pudding using butter. its not a long-keeping pudding, rather its a light little thing (well, light for a christmas pudding which traditionally is one of earths heaviest substances) that you have to eat within a few days of making. the recipe is in one of the books (From Pantry to Table) i published (and a james beard award nominee) before the whole cyber revolution, that is to say: i would have to type it out from the pages of the book. you should definately try a good christmas pudding, and definately not bother eating a bad one. xx marlena ←

Maybe the sheep and goats pronounce it in reverse to the Greeks, you know the way Hebrew is read right to left instead of left to write. Maybe the sheep and goats do the same thing. and don't you LOVVVVVVE sheeps milk yogurt?! Marlena ← I looooove sheep, goat and now buffalo yogurt! I love to put walnuts or almonds and honey on it. ← Yes, totally in love with buffalo milk anything: yogurt, ricotta, mozzarella! and actually in love with the beautiful animals themselves who have everything going for them, including a lovely curiosity of life. only weeeee little trouble with water buffalo is that they can fall into a stampede at the drop of a......name, hat, whatever. those guys love to stampede! the milk is so mild and creamy; is anyone making water buffalo mozzarella in israel? meanwhile, you asked about christmas pudding. its kind of a family joke, as every year my british husband gets all excited and buys a whole bunch of different ones, and i steam it obligingly when the big day arrives, and even pour over brandy and ignite it (the best part of the pudding i'm convinced). but i just don't like to eat any of the puddings i've bought, with the exception of the purchased pudding that we had this year. as i've mentioned, we were in Greece for Christmas, and someone gave me a Duchy Originals steamed pudding as a gift so i tossed it in my suitcase. In Greece we steamed it and flambeed it, and the three of us: one christmas-pudding-lover and three confirmed pudding haters, just gobbled up that thing greedily. it was delightful: not heavy, and not sticky, but rather rich and light and fruited, all at the same time. we ate the leftovers in the afternoon with tea, just cut into little morsels. some people use the leftover christmas pudding to churn into ice cream; christmas cake, which is similar to an american heavy fruitcake, is sometimes turned into ice cream or bread pudding. this year we brought a christmas cake that my husband had made--dense with fruit, and needing to be 'fed' with brandy every few weeks during the course of its ripening....anyhow he brought it to Greece with us. we ate it in slices, with tea, every so often, and it was very nice. what was even nicer was the see the face of Maria, one of our favourite village cooks (we've been to this village a number of times before, staying with friends who live there): she always loves to share her traditional fare and tell us the stories of why they eat this and when etc. so she understood the cultural significance of christmas cake, or gave it respect and significance above and beyond. she in turn invited us to her christmas eve broccoli blow-out: they eat piles of broccoli on christmas eve, and drink the juice that it cooked in. but thats another story. meanwhile, as for making it myself, most of the pudding recipes call for suet (beef or vegetable) and i just can't bring myself to cook with suet. but i did come up with a recipe for a christmas pudding using butter. its not a long-keeping pudding, rather its a light little thing (well, light for a christmas pudding which traditionally is one of earths heaviest substances) that you have to eat within a few days of making. the recipe is in one of the books (From Pantry to Table) i published (and a james beard award nominee) before the whole cyber revolution, that is to say: i would have to type it out from the pages of the book. you should definately try a good christmas pudding, and definately not bother eating a bad one. xx marlena