The most important meal of the year deserves the perfect end and it's time to make it!! - The pe

Yes I do know it's still October and yes I know Halloween has not happened yet let alone bonfire night, but, and it's a big but, if you want to make sure that you have the most flavour full Christmas pudding that you and your loved ones have ever had then I am very sorry but now is the time to start making it.

Christmas has become a bit of a parody to me these days, being a chef it means a month of long days and nights with endless amounts of turkey being carved. So normally all chefs hate Christmas with a passion, however, four years ago now something amazing happened to change everything, I became a father to the most amazing little man ever. And as a father the magic of Christmas has been restored into my soul. I now feel small tingle of excitement as I pass a store decked out in Christmas trees in mid September as my son and I look at each other then return home to get the toy catalogue out to start circling things to go on the list. And I know that Christmas morning will consist of me rushing round trying to build and put together a multitude of toys before rushing off to cook Christmas dinner for 150 strangers only to return home in time for a microwaved turkey dinner for myself but just in time for dessert before my entire family fall asleep on the couch.

That's why I still make my Christmas pudding from scratch in October, it needs the time to mature and build up the flavour inside to make sure that the end of the Christmas day dinner is the very best part of it.

Having lived in Ireland for over 10 years this recipe has a few more Irish ingredients in it than most, mainly the use of both Guinness and Irish whiskey to soak the fruit in before it is mixed into the puddings. The recipe will make three 2lb puddings as I like to make them and give them to my close friends and family as a gift for Christmas day.

500g currants

250g raisins

250g sultanas

100g mixed peel

100g glace cherries

1 orange zest and juice

1 lemon zest and juice

50ml Irish whiskey

250ml Guinness

100g flaked almonds

250g flour

20g ground cinnamon

10g ground nutmeg

250g fresh bread crumb

250g dark brown sugar

250g melted butter

3 eggs

Whilst this recipe has a lot of ingredients it is actually very easy to make.

First soak all of the fruit overnight in the juice of the lemon and orange along with the whisky and Guinness. The next morning place the other ingredients in a large mixing bowl and combine them thoroughly by hand and the spit the mixture equally between three pudding bowls. Place a circle of baking paper over the top of the mixture and the place the lids on the top of the pudding basin. Then cling film the lot 4 or 5 times. simmer the pudding in boiling water for 4-5 hours to ensure it reaches a high enough temperature to pasteurize the pudding and make it last until christmas day. On the big day just pop it in the microwave for about 5 minutes to warm it through and serve it with brandy custard.