What I ate over Christmas!

 



 

Happy New Year! I hope you all had lots of festive fun and food over the holiday. I'm a little late, I know, at wishing everyone a happy new year but I've been back at work since the 28th December, so I've been busy. 

What did I eat over Christmas? Well, far too much is the short answer. It is a distinct possibility that Royal Mail will issue me with a post code all of my own any day now. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I have decided it's celery and a handful of laxatives all the way to June so I can slip into my two piece (don't try this at home kids!) I don't want Green Peace throwing buckets of water over me and desperately struggling to heft my bloated form off the beach and back into the sea as soon as I lie down on my beach towel. There will be WWF leaflet campaigns, telethons and rallies all because I ate two slices of Christmas cake and not just one.  

Before I get into all the good things I'm going to delicately chew 10 times before I swallow, I will recap on a few of the lovely, naughty things I gorged on.

Christmas day consisted of all the usual lovely things. A bronze turkey, moist and delicious served with freshly made cranberry sauce, chippolata sausages, crisp roast potatoes and parsnips, stuffing and brussels sprouts boiled and then fried in a little butter with breadcrumbs and chunky chopped brazil nuts. Christmas pudding then followed with rich brandy butter melting over the top.



I think my Dad went over the top a little and made about five puddings, so I took some back with me and made a nice dessert. I simply crumbled up the christmas pudding into small chunks and gently fried them in a little butter, then topped with some ice cream. I made the ice cream myself and flavoured it with a syrup made from orange zest, juice and brandy, but vanilla would work just as well, especially with a little brandy, cointreau or amaretto drizzled over the top. 



While I was at home for Christmas, Graeme decided to make some rocky road, a la Nigella Lawson. We had seen it on her Christmas programme and thought it looked really nice. I made him promise to leave me some for when I got back after Christmas. I tucked in as soon as I got through the front door and three pieces later I was feeling rather sick, but in wonder of the beautiful thing I had just consumed. It was DELICIOUS! 

The last thing I really enjoyed was on new year. I had never had goose before but was really keen to get one. We ordered one from our trusty farm shop and it was lovely. I think it was even more lovely because I just sat down and enjoyed it and didn't have anything to do with the cooking of it at all as I was at work all day. Sadly we didn't a good picture of it before carving but you can see from the gleaming carcass that there wasn't much left of it. 



The diet starts tomorrow, fingers crossed.

The alternative Christmas pudding

It's getting close to the big day, so now is the time to lug crates of booze into the house, organise your elderly relatives so they don't forget what time lunch is and plan the delicious treats you are going to enjoy over the festive period. 

I absolutely love Christmas pudding, doused in flaming brandy and served nice and hot with a big dollop of homemade brandy butter melting over it. Wonderful as it is, not everybody likes it, so this dessert is a nice simple alternative and a fitting finale to the delicious food you have just enjoyed.  

A fool is a creamy dessert that you can adapt to use any fruit you feel like, the most common ones being rhubarb and gooseberry. I thought a cranberry and orange fool would make a nice Christmassy treat and that some shortbread would be a good accompaniment.  

Recipe to serve 2

For the Fool:

1 medium carton of whipping cream

150g fresh cranberries

75g caster sugar

zest and juice of one orange

glug of Cointreau 

2 tblsp icing sugar

For the shortbread: 

• 250g plain flour


• 250g unsalted butter


• 125g semolina or cornflour


• 125g golden caster sugar


• More caster sugar and flour for dusting


• 8 inch square tin, greased


• 50g walnuts, blitzed finely in a food processor

 

Begin by putting the cranberries into a saucepan with the zest and juice of the orange, a tblsp of water and the caster sugar. Cook on a moderate heat until the cranberries have burst,and have started to cook down a little and the sugar has dissolved. Leave to one side to cool and then add about a 1 1/2 tblsp cointreau or more if you want.

Whip the cream to soft peak consistency, add the icing sugar and then take about two tblsp of the cranberry mixture and lightly mix through the cream to give a nice marbled effect. Take a couple of cocktail glasses and put a heaped tsp of the cranberry mixture in the bottom, then top with the cream. To finish it off put another tsp of the cranberries on top of the cream and chill the dessert in the fridge until needed. 

To make the shortbread, cream the butter and sugar together and add the finely ground walnuts. Then sift the flours and stir in gently, finally bringing the mixture together with your hands. Roll out about 1/4 inch thick on a well floured surface, then cut out different shapes with a christmassy cutter and place on a baking sheet. Put into a 160 degree centigrade oven for about 25 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool on a rack and serve with the chilled cranberry and orange fool.