Valencia cocktails

Please don't think we are lushes - a high proportion of the recent postings have been for cocktail recipes, but it IS Christmas!  This used up the rest of the bottle of Champagne from Christmas Day and consists of a dessertspoon each of freshly squeezed orange juice and Apricot Brandy, in a Champagne flute - add some orange bitters if you have any, just a couple of drops, and top up with bubbly - a refreshing alternative to Buck's Fizz.

Turkey Noodle Soup

On Christmas Day, I cut the legs off the turkey to speed up the cooking time (it was lovely and juicy as a consequence) and sacrificed one of the legs for a fresh stock.  It has been simmering away, to produce a lovely golden aromatic broth. Lunch for the next couple of days is this soup made with the stock, which has cooked for an hour with a couple of diced carrots and some diced swede, some diced celery and a couple of leeks, chopped.  Them some noodles are cooked in the broth for 10 minutes, and finally, chunks of cooked turkey reheat gently with a big handful of parsley right at the end.  Soothing, nutritious and restorative.

Turkey Tomato Gratin

We want something piquant on Boxing Day after all the richness of Christmas Day eating.  I also don't want to spend too much time cooking.  So, simply mix a jar of good tomato passata with a few tablespoons of double cream or creme fraiche.  In a wide shallow dish, lay thick slices of leftover turkey, and stuffing if you have any.   Add some frozen mixed peppers (or sauteed sliced fresh) and some sliced and sauteed mushrooms.  Pour over the creamy passata, top with breadcrumbs mixed with grated parmesan, and drizzle with a little olive oil.  Bake in a medium oven until the turkey is piping hot and the breadcrumbs are crisp and brown.  Nice with some crusty bread, pasta or even leftover roasties, heated up again until crispy.  Lots of green veg or salad seems essential too.  Soup and Thai green curry with the remaining bird.

The Goodnight Kiss Cocktail

Few recipes to blog about at this time of year - it is a time for traditional cooking and you don't need ME to tell you how to make roast turkey, bread sauce et al.  However, I thought I'd share our cocktail consumed before the main event - a perfect combination of Campari, Angostura Bitters and Champagne.  In the bottom of a champagne flute, drop a sugar cube that has been soaked with 2 or 3 drops of Angostura bitters.  Add a dessertspoon of Campari and then top up with ice-cold Champagne.  Drink.  Make another one.  Drink. Stagger woozily to the kitchen to get the sprouts on.  Happy Christmas everyone!

Fitzgerald Cocktails

A delicious lemony drink, this, and one we first had at the now defunct Rainbow Room bar on the 65th floor of the Rockefeller Centre in New York nearly 20 years ago.  I shall never forget that experience - it was dark and very foggy, and we were sitting in front of a picture window, with all hopes of seeing the Empire State Building in front of us dashed - suddenly, the fog cleared, and there that wonderful building was, glittering in the dark sky.  Wonderful!  Anyway, we like to think that the now world-famous Dale de Groff might have mixed this, his own invention, for us that evening, as he was the head 'mixologist' there at the time.  It consists of 1.5 parts gin, 1 part of gomme syrup, 3/4 part fresh lemon juice and several good shakes of Angostura Bitters.  Shake together with ice and serve in an Old Fashioned glass over LOTS of ice and a slice of lemon.  Delicious with blinis, creme fraiche and smoked salmon.  A very nice alternative to G&T.

Boiled Fruit Cake

I was too late to make a Chrsitmas Cake this year - don't know why, I suppose I just got fed up after the mammoth Christmas Pudding session.  Anyway, just knocked together this dead simple recipe from the 'Joy of Baking' site.  The spicy loaf is baking as we speak, and the flat smells wonderfully Christmassy.  I might even be moved to decorate the tree, a job usually left to a last-minute panic on Christmas Eve.  First, we must venture out to the patio where it is waiting, and knock the 8 inches of snow off it.  I will report back on the recipe when we eat it, later in the week, but so far, it's smelling good! Tasting note: we broke into this on Christmas Day, giving it nearly a week to mature.  It was soooo good, much better, in my opinion, than the traditional fruit cake made months in advance.  In may have helped that we returned from a snowy walk by the river Thames, which was freezing over in parts, it was that cold, so fruit cake and tea went down a treat! photo courtesy of Joyofbaking.com

Chili Beans

I never eat in front of the telly normally, but it is the final of Strictly Come Dancing tonight (go Matt!) and so it is allowed!  These chili beans are so simple to make, consisting of cans of kidney and cannellini beans, and a tin of tomatoes, onion, paprika, cumin, oregano and chili powder, with fresh coriander at the end.  This will mature as the day goes on, and will be eaten in big bowls with spicy meatballs and rice, with my feet up, in front of the box.  Hubby will be sulking in the kitchen doing the dishes, listening to cricket or something on the radio.

Spiced Lentil, Potato and Acorn Squash Soup

I had cut an Acorn Squash into wedges, drizzled them with olive oil and garam masala and roasted them for supper, to accompany some other curried stuff.  There was loads left over so I made a simple yet very warming and filling soup.  Start, as always, with a large chopped onion sauteeing in oil. Add two cloves of garlic, chopped, an inch or so of fresh ginger, chopped, 2 big teaspoons each of ground cumin and coriander, a teaspoon of turmeric and a hot red chilli, chopped - leave the seeds in it you like it really hot.  Now add a teacupful of red lentils, 3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped, and around half a squash, peeled and chopped, roasted if you have time but not a problem if you don't.  Add a litre of veg stock, Marigold is fine, and two tomatoes, chopped, or half a tin thereof.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes until thick with swollen lentils - rather poetic.  Blend with a stick blender or in a processor.  I made some coriander and lime oil to swirl in at the end (blend all together like making a pesto) but you could just add coriander.  Serve with warm naan bread for a substantial and nutritious lunch!

Chocolate Pear Pudding

A recipe, this, from Nigella Express.  When I was looking for it online, I came across some episodes from 'Nigella Bites' on Youtube, from about 10 years ago, and was struck at how much Nigella has changed.  I don't mean physically - haven't we all become a little more, ahem, voluptuous, over the intervening years?  Her personality was much less 'in your face' and not nearly as flirty as she is in her current incarnation.  Anyhow, this is a delicious and dead simple recipe.  Nigella uses tinned pears, but we had a surfeit of extremely ripe fresh pears that we peeled and halved.  Yummy!

Beetroot and Orange Soup

I love taking home-made soup into work for lunch during the winter - so much more satisfying than a 'cardboard' sandwich and a packet of crisps from Boots!  Regular readers will know of my cravings for beetroot, and this is a lovely fresh approach to beetroot soup, with a little lift given by the citrus.  This is adapted from a recipe by the marvellous Scots cook Lady Claire MacDonald who runs the Kinloch Lodge Hotel on the Isle of Skye - I would love to go there one day (hint to Hubby, 2011 is our Silver Wedding anniversary.....).  Here is a link to the recipe - I didn't use any dill, although I am sure this would be a lovely addition if you have any.  So, a large bowl of this is tucked away in the fridge for work  - something to look forward to, at least!

Butternut Squash, Spinach and Tomato Lasagne

I know - another squash recipe!  They arrive regularly in our veg box, and it is an (enjoyable) challenge to find new ways to use them.  This was a very delicious solution to the weekly 'what do we do with the squash this time?' conundrum, and I found the recipe on the BBC Good Food site.  It was quite time-consuming to make, because of all the various stages, but none of them are hard and it whiled away a lazy Saturday afternoon.  It is worth using the tinned cherry tomatoes, as they do add a different texture to the proceedings.  Anyway, great veggie dish and worth considering as a Christmas dinner alternative, I would think.

Potato, Leek and Cheese Bake

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best.  Another perishingly cold day today.  After waiting at the bus stop for 20 minutes and walking home through the frostily rimed wonderland of East Oxford, my face had stopped working and the cold had bitten at my already sore throat - I couldn't speak for a good 10 minutes (hurrah!  thought my Hubby!).  We needed something ultra warming and delicious.  So - mashed potato mixed with an onion that had gently sauteed in butter until deeply golden and sticky, a couple of sliced leeks that steamed above the potatoes, and a BIG handful of grated cheddar, all mashed together with lots of black pepper, tipped into a dish, topped with MORE cheese and baked until golden brown and gungy and gooey.  I roasted some tomatoes alongside and steamed some savoy cabbage, and our plates sang with colour, warmth and goodness.  Sorry for the lack of quantities, just go with your instincts and tastebuds.  Cheap, too, and great for feeding loads of hungry kids - they'll want ketchup and/or baked beans with it and won't notice the leeks and onions hidden in there like incendiary vitamin bombs.

Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding

Well, it IS cold outside.  Potroast of beef followed by a Bread and Butter Pud, puts hairs on your chest.  A pud just made for Paddington Bear.  First, make your marmalade and butter sandwiches - use good bread, please - brioche or a proper crusty white farmhouse loaf.  I use Gail's pain de mie tiger top bread - sweet milk bread with a lovely crust.  Loads of my own marmalade.  Cut into chunky little sarnies and arrange in a buttered baking dish, sprinkle with some chopped mixed peel if liked (I like) then pour over a custard made from 2 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk, 170ml single cream and 170ml milk, two tablespoons of caster sugar and a teaspoon of good vanilla extract.  Allow to soak for a while, then sprinkle the top with a little demerara sugar and bake, preferebly in a bain marie, for about 40 minutes at 160C.  I like this just warm, and it is rich enough not to need any cream, but please, don't let me stop you!

Potroast Beef Brisket

The cold weather continues, and so it is a good time to capitalise on long, slow cooking of cheaper cuts of meat, which provide flavour.  Last week it was pork belly, this week, rolled beef brisket.  Simply brown it well in an oven-proof casserole (I love my trusty Le Creuset), then add big chunks of winter veg - carrots, onions and swede for me, but you can add celeriac, celery, turnips - you can also do potatoes and pumpkin, but I would add them half way through so they don't break up.  A bay leaf or two, and some fresh thyme, then pour in some beef stock, red wine and tomato puree, not enough to cover the meat but enough to come a good half-way up the side of the dish.  Put a tight fitting lid on, using foil underneath if in doubt, bring to the boil on the hob, then put into the oven at around 140C for a minimum of 3 hours, longer if possible.  As brisket is so lean, you shouldn't need to skim the sauce.  Thicken with a little cornflour at the end if liked.  This has given us masses of leftovers, and I'll probably shred some of the meat with the sauce to dress some pasta for Hubby's supper tomorrow (I'm off out with the Laydees for an early Xmas do).  NB the leftovers made great Beefy Beany Broth, one of my most favourite soups

Baked Pumpkin and Onion Bhajis

We have so much squash and pumpkin in the house at the moment, and I am constantly looking for new ways to use it.  Pumpkin/squash takes to curry flavours very well, so I made some bhajis to ward off the cold on a bitterly freezing night.  I make no claims for authenticity, and please adjust spicing to suit.  I had no 'gram' flour in the house, but plain flour worked just as well.  This quantity made plenty for 2, and is probably fine for 4 as an accompaniment or starter.  You slice 1 good-sized onion, fairly thinly, and peel and coarsely grate about 200g of butternut squash/pumpkin.  If the squash flesh is a bit watery, squeeze handfuls dry with kitchen paper.  Mix 2 eggs, 120g plain flour, some salt and pepper, a teaspoon each of ground cumin, coriander and turmeric, and half a teaspoon of chilli flakes or a finely chopped fresh red chilli.  Now add the onion and squash and stir well.  Heat the oven to 160 C fan and line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.  Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a non-stick pan over a medium heat, then drop in tablespoons of the mixture, pressing down lightly to make a round cake.  Cook for a minute or so and turn over.  Cook for a further minute and then transfer to the baking sheet.  Repeat with the rest of the mix, using a little extra oil if needed.  You can 'hold' the bhajis like this  for several hours, overnight even, or bake them straight away - 15 minutes from the frying pan, or 20-25 minutes from chilled.  They should be lightly brown and 'singing' from the oven.  Serve with yoghurt into which you have stirred some grated garlic, chopped mint, grated cucumber, chopped coriander - whatever takes your fancy.  I like sweet chilli dipping sauce too!