It’s Christmas Eve and, because we’re hosting Christmas dinner tomorrow, there’s a mad panic in our household to prepare all the food.

One of the lovely family traditions that we all look forward to is the Christmas pudding. After dinner has been cleared away, the lights in the dining room are dimmed and out comes the Christmas pudding—the showpiece of the desserts, with its glowing purple flame.

Yes, a flaming Christmas pudding. Just before serving, Dad gently heats a couple of tablespoons of brandy and pours it over the Christmas pudding. The pudding absorbs the brandy and Dad then lights it. The flame doesn’t last long but it’s enough to heat the pudding through.

The warm pudding is then sliced and served with old-fashioned hard sauce (or brandy butter), which melts into the pudding and adds sweetness to the rich fruity flavour. Yum…I can’t wait for tomorrow!

Hard sauce is a delicious sweeter alternative to ice cream, custard or cream, and definitely our family favourite.

Hard sauce (brandy butter)
125g unsalted butter
2 cups icing sugar
1½ tbs brandy

Cream the butter with electric beaters until it’s white and creamy. Add the sifted sugar and brandy and cream until you have a thick smooth paste. Spoon into a serving bowl, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate until set.

Nothing lifts the humble piece of steak or fish as quickly and easily as a compound butter.

So what is compound butter? Basically, it is flavoured butter. Using salted or unsalted butter, mix in a selection of your favourite herbs or other ingredients.

Some simple combinations include:

• garlic, lemon and parsley
• parsley with tarragon, chervil or dill
• wholegrain mustard, lemon and chives
• capers and lemon

The combinations are endless but one of our favourites for beef is basil butter…mmmm, so good!

What you’ll need:
125g softened butter
1 tbs Dijon mustard
½ cup fresh basil, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbs green peppercorns, crushed (optional)

In a bowl mash the softened butter a few times with the back of a fork. Combine the mustard, basil and garlic with the butter and mix until well combined.

Roll the butter mixture into a log shape in some foil and refrigerate to set. When you serve your steaks simply slice off some butter, smear it on the steak and watch it melt into a delicious sauce.

Another way we use compound butter is to refrigerate only half the butter and use the other half to rub into a piece of eye fillet, which is then baked in the oven – divine! When the eye fillet is cooked to your liking serve it with the other half of the butter on the side, so you can add additional flavour if you want it.