Bonjour!

Bonjour!

As I write there is a huge grin on my face. I am remembering the lead-up to Christmases past, and those excited telephone calls from my mum at home in Franche-Comté. ‘Don’t forget to bring the Christmas pudding,’ Maman Blanc would say (though in French, naturellement).

She need never have worried. Always I prepared our pudding many months in advance of the Christmas Day feast. A crumbly, perfectly matured pudding, enriched with fine cognac (should you wish to make it, please see my Christmas recipes). I recall boarding Eurostar, laden with gifts, and then my mum at the door, waiting to greet me with the words: “The pudding – have you remembered it?”

This is our third Christmas without Maman Blanc. However, I’ll be visiting my French family in Franche-Comté and, of course, I’ll be taking the pudding …

As the snow drifts outside, we’ll enjoy a spectacular feast with Christmas pudding served after the bûche de Noël. I’ll upturn the gently steamed pudding on a platter, crown it with holly leaves and berries, douse it in cognac, set it alight and then carefully carry it to my family at the table. Yes, this is certainly a dramatic, little triumph which brings cheers and applause. (Though one year I almost set Chez Blanc ablaze with the wild flames of my glowing pudding!) And together we will raise a glass to our beloved Maman Blanc…

Joyeux Noël!

Merry Christmas!