I usually write a post at this time of year with any interesting ideas I've found for the festive foodie experience, and this year, even though Christmas was somewhat downsized compared to previous years, I still found lots of inspiration and made new things.
I did a new starter of cooked lobster meat mixed with finely chopped celery in a dressing of mayonnaise, lemon juice, chives and cayenne pepper. This was going to be served in warm mini bread rolls. I didn't have time to make these and couldn't find any to buy so used sub rolls cut up and brushed with butter, warmed in the oven, which worked well.
For a smaller Christmas turkey roast, although there were still plenty of leftovers, I got an idea from Olive magazine. I used a frozen turkey crown (frozen turkey tastes just as good as fresh in my opinion, it's what you do with it...) and boned it out. Next I cut slashes in the meat and rubbed with seasoning, herbs and garlic, then rolled up and wrapped in three packets of best Parma ham, sprayed with Lurpak cooking mist - a mixture of butter/olive oil - a recent discovery at the company shop... meaning less fat and a fine glaze. It was roasted with a foil tent which was removed for the last half an hour. It turned out really well but I forgot to take a photo so here's the official one from the magazine: mine DID look pretty much exactly the same though. Wrapping the turkey made it really juicy too.
The other part of this recipe was some quite special gravy. You will start to get the idea if you look at this photo of how it began:
Chicken wings, onions, mushrooms, celery, seasoning,olive oil, herbs and garlic. Roasted for an hour and a half. Flour added, roasted for another ten minutes. Transferred to pan with chicken stock, Madeira and simmered for 45 minutes. Mashed with potato masher and put through sieve. I did all this two days before and refrigerated it in the pan ready for heating up on Christmas Day. It was pretty good, but definitely with all that work, something to be reserved for special occasions.
I accompanied the turkey with "pull apart" roast potatoes, where you make criss cross cuts in the potatoes and don't par boil before roasting, making them really crispy. Also brussels sprouts with cider, maple syrup, bacon and walnuts (nice but unconvinced that the walnuts added anything); carrots and the usual pigs in blankets, sausagemeat stuffing balls, cranberry and bread sauces. Oh, and I did do a gammon as well.
For a lighter dessert I made a raspberry and blackcurrant meringue log. Well, it was a joint attempt really as my daughter asked if she could make the meringue. Five egg whites worth, cooked in a swiss roll silicone "tin", then cooled and rolled up with 0% fat Greek yogurt, blackcurrant jam and fresh raspberries:
New drinks this year included home made eggnog which you could have warm or chilled, jam doughnut shots (Chambord raspberry liqueuer, Bailey's, cream and granulated sugar on the rim - my New Year midnight drink) and a cocktail called "Apple Bite Gold" made with gold leaf cinnamon vodka, apple juice, lemonade and a squeeze of lime.
Eggnog
Jam Doughnut Shot
We also won the annual family challenge - truffle making. The challenge was two sorts of festive truffles and my daughter surpassed herself by making white chocolate and lemon truffles in the form of snowmen with Oreo hats; and golden burnished peanut butter truffles - and she doesn't even LIKE peanut butter!! Even better, she made a display tree for them with green shortbread and gingerbread, held together with royal icing (and some cocktail sticks and a pencil in the end as it had to travel to Milton Keynes) and all made on her own birthday!!- boxing day. Her boyfriend helped, I did the washing up (3 lots!), and her little brother helped in his usual manner, "by keeping out of the way".
So back to yesterday's new recipe. Butternut squash and sage macaroni cheese, with chunks of squash in and mashed squash and chopped sage in the sauce. And best of all, crispy sage leaves and parmesan on the top:
Hopefully there will be more blogging this year than in 2015, too.
Thank you for reading,
Caroline x
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