I hope you all had great Christmas and the weather in Europe or here in the USA did not spoil your holiday.
A friend of mine working in Saudi was meant to go to New York for Christmas with his family. He was stuck at Heathrow for 7 days luckily he found a nearby hotel.
First it was the UK weather that stymied his holiday plans then the weather in New York. He eventually got a flight to Atlanta then onto Orlando for 4 days.
Not New York, but the children will enjoy it.
My efforts for cooking a traditional English Christmas dinner were well appreciated. Most of it was eaten. Even the turkey but I only had a 15lb bird. But there was still enough left over to make a seasonal turkey stew and a cold supper with bubble’n squeak.
I had to improvise for the bubble’n squeak, my guests had eaten all the mash potatoes and Brussel sprouts.
I made a new pot of mash potato and boiled some white cabbage I had in the vegetable draw. Not red as one friend asked. There were carrots left over, they were cut up and put into the “bubble”.
I usually only use white cabbage in a Cyprus salad.
For the turkey stew. I cut up the turkey carcass, leaving all the meat on the bone, I dropped all this with a chopped up large onion into my pressure cooker. In went a quart carton of chicken stock (the bought kind) I cooked this at pressure for about 15 minutes. That’s when the carcass bones started to disintegrate. Tasting it, it tasted quite rich.
Later on after going to watch an early showing of the movie “The Black Swan” excellent film.
I put in a tin of diced tomatoes, carrots, 2 sticks celery and a turnip. I added some red wine that was left over and a cup of water, seasoned with pepper. No salt, didn’t need it.
I brought this to pressure to cook the carrots and turnip, about 5 minutes. There was my turkey stew ready to eat. With plenty left to freeze for a starving day.
I had mashed potato left from the bubble’n squeak meal, that I warmed in the microwave.
This stew could have been cooked in a wok on a low simmer setting, or in your small oven as a casserole, again on a low setting.
I was thinking of having a tin of mushy peas with it, but. The flatulence may have been too much.
A meal or two for New Year.
Here’s a few recipes for maybe a small dinner party with family or friends for New Years Eve.
Not everyone wants the hustle bustle of a boozy New Years Eve.
If you’re not fed up with another poultry meal. This chicken dish is probably the best roast chicken I’ve ever had. You have to like garlic though.
POULARDE A L’AIL or
CHICKEN STUFFED WITH HERBS AND GARLIC
Ingredients.
A whole, cleaned roasting chicken. The larger the better that fits your oven or Rotisserie.
Cooks fine on a rotisserie, just sew up the end you’ve stuffed and have a tray to catch the juices from the chicken.
2 heads of garlic. Sprigs of Italian parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
110ml Olive oil about half a cup. White wine.
Brandy.
Sea salt. Fresh ground black pepper.
More chopped and cleaned flat leave (Italian) parsley.
The Method
Divide the heads of garlic into cloves but do not peel them.
Simmer them for 5 minutes in just enough boiling water to cover them.
Remove from the heat.
Stuff the chicken’s cavity with the garlic and the herbs.
Season all over with the black pepper.
Place the chicken into a roasting tin bottom side up and pour over the oil and wine.
More wine can be added during cooking if you think it’s needed.
Roast for 30 minutes basting occasionally. Then turn the bird over and roast for another 45 minutes or when the chicken is cooked. Basting occasionally.
Towards the end of the cooking time, sprinkle with a little sea salt.
Remove the chicken to rest for 5 minutes or so.
Tip the juices into a saucepan or use the roasting tin if suitable for a stovetop.
Add the brandy and bring to a simmer.
Carve the chicken and serve with the garlic cloves scooped from the cavity, surrounded by the sauce.
Serve a salad or cooked vegetables with thick rounds of toasted or baked French bread onto which the sweet tender garlic pulp can squeezed out of it’s papery skin.
Garnish with the extra parsley.
Goes well with small potatoes roasted in there skins.
Recipe 2
Pork Loin with Black Pudding and Roasted Rhubarb
Ingredients
· 2 pork fillets , about 350g/12oz each
· 250g black pudding , skinned and cut into slices
· 12 thin rashers streaky bacon
· 1 tbsp olive oil
· 1 tbsp clear honey
· 300g rhubarb , cut into 5cm lengths on the diagonal
· 200ml vegetable stock
· 2 rounded tbsp crème fraîche.
The Method
1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Split the pork fillets lengthwise almost in half and open out like a book. Bash with a rolling pin to flatten, then sprinkle on all sides with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Fill the pork with the black pudding, folding the meat back over it to enclose it.
2. Stretch the bacon rashers with the back of a knife, then wrap around the pork fillets, tucking the ends under the pork where possible. Transfer to a large roasting tin, drizzle with the oil, then roast for 30 mins.
3. Meanwhile, heat the honey in a pan, then toss the rhubarb in the honey. Add to the roasting tin, then return to the oven for 10-12 more mins until the rhubarb is tender and the bacon nicely browned. Transfer the pork and rhubarb to a warm plate and keep warm while you make the sauce.
4. Set the tin on the hob and add the stock. Bring to the boil, stirring to scrape all the pan juices from the base of the tin. Bubble for a few mins, then stir in the crème fraîche and whisk until it has dissolved into the sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
5. Cut the pork into slices and serve with the rhubarb and a little sauce poured over. Serve the remaining sauce separately.
I serve with roast potatoes and two colourful vegetables. Usually baby carrots and broccoli.
The sauce is quite rich so I'd recommend a light Pino Grigio or for a red a chianti or good Valpolicella.
I think we all have our own preferences for wine and beer, especially when eating or entertaining at home. I'll try to share my limited knowledge as we go along.
Recipe 2
This recipe was included in my earlier post "Bachelorette Cooking".
LANCASHIRE CHEESE STUFFED PORK TENDERLOIN
INGREDIENTS:
2 pork fillets about 12oz each Salt'n pepper,
Some thin slices of ham. Parma works fine.
4oz crumbly Lancashire cheese,
or Chedder if you can’t get Lancashire
Some prunes cut in half. Sage leaves. 1oz butter,
250 mls cider or apple juice
tsp mustard powder or ready made mustard, English or Dijon.
125 ml single cream.
HOW TO COOK IT:
Preheat the oven to 375°f/gas 6ish.
Cut the fillets down the center but not all the way through.
Spread them open and flatten with a rolling pin or side of your kitchen chopper. Or the flat side of a tenderizing mallet.
A good idea is to lay the fillets on cling film (plastic wrap) then another piece on top before battering. It stops bits of meat and blood flying everywhere.
Season with salt’n pepper.
Go easy on the salt cos' the ham and cheese are salty.
Place a slice of ham on each fillet, sprinkle with the cheese and place the sliced prunes on top. Sprinkle over the sage leaves.
Carefully roll them up like a sausage and secure with kitchen string or cocktail sticks.
Place in a roasting dish (I use a pyrex dish and I tip the sauce into a saucepan). Cover the fillets with the butter and pour over the cider.
Cover with foil and cook for about 30 minutes, remove the foil and cook another 10 minutes or so, till the fillets start to brown.
Remove from the roasting dish and keep warm.
Either cook the sauce in the roasting tin or tip into a saucepan, making sure you get all the juicy bits. Add the mustard and let the mixture simmer away until thickens. Stir in the cream and warm through.
Delicious but a rich sauce.
Serve with roast potatoes and baby carrots and broccoli. They make a good colour combination.
Serve with cold real cider or well chilled white wine.
Try French cider if you can get it. I shouldn’t say this, but. I prefer the French cider to the English, unless of course you get real Scrumpy.
Scrumpy can still be found in the wilds of Somerset. Probably also in Kent and Herefordshire
