Smoking Bishop
‘‘I’ll raise your salary and endeavour to assist your struggling family,’’ Scrooge tells Bob Cratchit near the end of A Christmas Carol, ‘‘and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop!’’ This recipe, adapted from the book Drinking With Dickens, by Charles Dickens’s great-grandson, Cedric, reflects Scrooge’s new disposition and largesse perfectly: it’s warm and sweet and meant for sharing.
Ingredients
- 6 Seville oranges (see note)
- ½ cup Demerara sugar
- 1 bottle red wine, not too dry nor too sweet
- 1 bottle Ruby port
- 30 cloves
- 5 dried green cardamom pods
- Orange peel for garnish
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 325°F.
- Wash the oranges and dry them well; stud each fruit equally with cloves.
- Place the oranges on a baking sheet; place in the pre-heated oven and roast the clove-studded fruits for an hour; remove from the oven and transfer them to a large glass or ceramic bowl.
- Add the sugar and the red wine (do not add the port yet) to the bowl; cover the bowl and leave it in a warm spot in the kitchen for at least 12 hours or up to 24 hours.
- After the citrus-sugar-wine mixture has rested, cut the fruit in half and juice them through a strainer into the wine and sugar mixture.
- Discard fruit after they have been juiced; strain the mixture again, this time into a heavy saucepan; discard solids.
- Add the port, the cinnamon stick and the cardamom pods to the saucepan; heat very slowly until it “smokes” (the vapors rise); hence the name; do not allow it to boil.
- Once the Bishop is as hot as you like, turn off the heat.
- Remove the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods.
- Serve in warmed, heatproof glasses, garnished with orange peel.
Notes
Should Seville oranges not be available, substitute five navel oranges and add the juice of one lemon when you add the port to the pan; do not stud the lemon with cloves or roast the lemon with the oranges.