Festive Feasting

Fond foodie memories are held of the meals we ate this Christmas Day; photos are above and descriptions below:

Breakfast was scrambled egg and smoked salmon (seasoned with punchy black peppercorns and pungeant juniper berries) on toasted soda bread; having wholemeal meant that our first meal was easily digested during the morning in preparation for...

Lunch, where we swayed slightly from the traditional by serving roasted duck (which in my opinion has the crispiest and most delicious skin of all birds) along with a platter of curly Cumberland sausages and stuffed chicken thighs wrapped in crispy dry-cured bacon. Golden roasties, a colourful array of vegetables and flavoursome home-made condiments completed the spread. We served two desserts: an apple and mincemeat tart filled generously with sweet, spicy fruit as well as a rich chocolate log (thoroughly cracked and dusted with seasonal sugar-snow), after which...

Well, we all just about collapsed from cooking/eating such a lot, curing post-break peckishness by picking from whatever was in reaching distance (i.e. the annual Celebrations box). Altogether a culinary triumph; I hope that you, too, enjoyed your Christmas meal and, what's more, reap the benefits of all the leftovers for the next few days!

An Unopened Present

A very Merry Christmas to all the readers of my blog! Of course, I'll soon post pictures of the food we've eaten today, but first I'd like to share a Christmas message that I received this morning...

So, have you opened all of your Christmas presents already? Whether or not it's bare under the tree, there may be a Christmas present that remains unopened. The Lord God offers each one of us the most precious Christmas gift of new life in His Son, Jesus (you know, the guy whose birthday it is today), and it's certainly not one to be left in paper and ribbon. This Christmas time, contemplate what is being offered to you by the birth of Jesus, and don't leave the greatest gift of all unopened!

Enjoy the festivities, everyone.

Welcome Table (with a Bonus)

I had a few friends over for a sleepover last night (yes, I know, very teenage of me!) and lay out this (relatively) humble spread of easy finger-food*. I like to call it a Welcome Table, which is essentially the same as a buffet, but more homely and somewhat less seventies. Besides, I'm not one for cocktail sticks or vol-au-vents; I keep catering rustic and simple, not least because I'm unashamed to say that I haven't the patience for precise presentation.

*Ok, so perhaps I set my guests a challenge in serving them puff-pastry pizza to devour sans forchette. Nevertheless, it was a delicious addition to the Welcome Table and the pastry base was pleasantly light (which is the relief one needs when faced with a hefty loaf of warm garlic bread alongside, see above).

I made a simple tomato sauce for the pizza, starting by gently frying a red onion and a chopped garlic clove in a glug of olive oil. I then added two tins of tomatoes and brought the mixture to the boil, before simmering on a low heat. You keep on cooking the sauce until there is no more watery juice sitting on the surface, but before anything sticks or black flecks start to appear (!). What you are doing is letting the water in the tomatoes steam off to leave a richer, thicker, more concentrated sauce, which can be spread onto a pizza base or stirred into hot pasta. For the pizza above, I rolled out a packet of puff pastry (supermarkets make it so well that we never feel the need to) onto a baking tray, spreading the sauce and strewing ripped-up chunks of mozzarella on top of this, before baking the whole thing on 220 C/Gas 7 until the cheese was bubbling and the flaky crusts were lightly browned.

The pizza tasted just as good grilled for lunch today, and we eggy-fried leftover slices of garlic bread for a simple supper with a pungeant twist. Therein lies the bonus of the Welcome Table- fill it in abundance and it'll keep you filled up the following day!

Christmas day came early for us this lunchtime, as we sat down to enjoy this year's festive family meal (on the 25th we will be one member short). We ate roasted duck confit (whose meat had been cooked slowly in duck fat beforehand, thus giving it a richer flavour and wonderful tenderness). The fat from the confit was used again, this time in cooking rustic little roast potatoes (smaller chunks= larger total surface area= more crispy bits), and alongside these we served up sweet and tangy stewed red cabbage, brussel spouts and bread sauce.

I didn't have bags of time to make dessert, but it's amazing what you can come up with in under ten minutes using an egg, caster sugar, dark rum, Bourbon brandy, a jug of cream and the culinary instructions of Nigella Lawson. Tiny coffee-cupfuls of eggnog syllabub made a delightful end to the meal, giving us something sweet to finish off with no more strain on the stomach.

Now normally, I am all about the food, yet it must be shared that the real treat of today was the magic of gushing snowfall outside. It certainly gave the meal a special, festive touch...that, and having the whole family together for one of the last times this year.

The countdown to Christmas continues and there will be further festive foodie fun to be had this coming week...so who's game?!

Christmas Lunch Prep.

This duck confit, above, is the starting point of our family Christmas lunch, being eaten today as this is the only weekend that we shall all be together. Roasted limbs half-buried in fat sounds (and looks) a little gruesome, but this is a method of preserving which will give the meat a wonderful buttery taste and unbeatable tenderness.

This will also be the first meal cooked by our new oven, which arrived yesterday. After 25 years of faithful service by our old Cannon cooker, we've upgraded to a shiny black (still gas-run, 'cause it's the best way) Hotpoint. So far, it's taken Mum fifteen minutes to work out how to power up the hob and, having used only four front knobs and no digital timer with the Cannon, I think we're all a little bit daunted by its technology. Nevertheless, we hope to come up with a nice festive meal in the next few hours, of which I'll post some pictures once it's made.

Brie and Bacon Butty

School's shut for a snow day- hooray!

Having frolicked about outside for a little while (my stamina for cold weather being pretty poor), I came inside to have some lunch. This weather calls for hot, tasty fill-me-ups like this oven-baked brie and bacon baguette, see above. Baking it makes the bread warm and crispy, and the creamy cheese comes out moreishly melted; it's a sandwich to really get your teeth into. What makes it so delicious is its contrasts: the mellow softness of the brie against the saltiness of the bacon; the crisp crust of the bread and it's chewy inside against the slight toughness of the meat. Simple, hot and hearty: job done.