Christmas 2022

Christmas Eve

Mary Berry Clementine glazed gammon - the only difference was I cooked in slow cooker on low overnight allowing it to cool completely during the day. Might try doing so during the day, as in for 8 hours rather than 12.

Orange Tofu https://www.theconsciousplantkitchen.com/orange-tofu-recipe/ was good idea but not as crispy as should have been, possibly as it was in the oven at the same time as the gammon. As in will try and find a different recipe for new year.

Christmas Day

As for the last couple of years the turkey (5kg) was crowned and legs and thighs deboned and cooked as per Jamie Oliver Turkey crown and legs with Apricot and sausage stuffing. 

Chicken wing gravy  was made in advance. Not sure if will do again but it did save some time on Christmas Day (and I have a number of chicken rissoles in the freezer as a byproduct).

For the pescatarian James Martin’s Salmon en croute (including the buerre blanc). Said pescatarian would have preferred the skin to be removed first. Those eating it the following day were more than happy to have skin on. 

Didn’t actually eat pudding on Christmas Day as our guest came with an array of wonderful cheeses and crackers.

Sitting in the freezer awaiting for when I do cook the pudding is:

Brandy Ice cream

Separate 4 eggs. Whisk the whites until stiff then gradually whisk in 100g caster sugar until you have a thick glossy meringue. Fold in the egg yolks.

Whisk together 300ml double cream with 4tbsp brandy until thick. Fold into the meringue mixture.

Freeze overnight (for at least 12 hours).

Leftovers from Christmas 2021

As well as the turkey we had a beef rib (2 ribs) roast on 30th Jan. 

Turkey: either eaten in sandwiches / with bubble and squeak or in the freezer.  In the freezer there are two lots of turkey with gravy for eating with roast potatoes etc, chunks for a curry and some large bits of the breast for use in yet to be determined leftover dish(es).

To use up some of the double cream and stilton a new recipe below - Stilton, Mushroom and Leek Pasta Bake.

A favourite which it appears I haven't typed up as yet, so rectifying that now - Beef Marikoff

Stilton, Mushroom and Leek Pasta Bake

The quantities are for four. If only two eating then freeze half of the mixture before baking.

Preheat oven to 180C

Cook 500g of dried pasta (penne is good) until al dente. 

In a saucepan on a low heat melt a knob of butter with a tbsp olive oil then add 1 sliced leek . Cook for about 5 minutes then add 125g sliced chestnut mushrooms. Put lid on and cook for another 5 minutes until the mushrooms are golden brown. Then add a good splash of white wine, simmer for a couple of minutes then add 75ml double cream. Crumble in 125g blue cheese and stir until the cheese has melted. Season.

Add the cooked pasta and combine. Put into an ovenproof dish and either crumble over a further 30g of blue cheese OR top with a breadcrumb and parmesan mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes, covering with foil if it starts getting too brown.

Beef Marikoff

Quantities are for 2. You can substitute creme fraiche or soured cream for the double cream and lemon juice.

Using the rarest bit of your leftover beef joint, cut 225g into thin strips about 2.5cm long. Thinly slice half a large onion into half moons.

Melt a knob of butter with a tbsp olive oil and cook the onion rings until they are soft and transparent. Add the beef, 1tbsp tomato puree, 75ml double cream and half tsp lemon juice. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of paprika. Simmer gently for a few minutes.

Serve with boiled rice.

Christmas Lunch 2020

Himself did a most excellent job of creating crown and boning the legs of the turkey.

We ate the stuffed turkey crown from Jamie Oliver's Turkey Two Ways recipe (the stuffed legs are in the freezer for a future date). 

For our locally sourced darn fine bird, 25 minutes per kilo at 180C and using digital thermometer to check was between 60 and 65C gave us a nice moist turkey.

Stuffing: 

I used Jamie's Apricot and Sausage Stuffing with a bit of a variant

Melt 50g butter with a dash of olive oil in a frying pan. Lightly fry two relatively finely chopped onions with about 20g torn sage leaves (mix of purple and green from the garden worked well), zest from 2 clementines, grated nutmeg and season with pepper unto the onions are starting to become translucent. Stir in the liver from the turkey (trimmed and sinews removed), 100g chopped dried apricots. Add 100ml Marsala (or something similar) and cook on medium-high heat for 15 minutes until the onions are soft. Leave to cool completely. Then add 200g breadcrumbs and 400g sausage meat and combine well using hands (aka squidge together!). Use half to stuff neck of bird and then the other half to stuff the boned legs. Roll and tie the legs. 

Gravy:

I added the vac pack chestnuts to the gravy as per Jamie Oliver suggestion for chestnut gravy. Lost the will to push through sieve after a few minutes - mainly as our sieves are too fine to make this easy - but the gravy was yummy despite this and I whizzed up the veg and chestnuts with stock and some left over veg for an extremely good soup on 27th.  

Parsnips with carrots, sprouts, stuffing balls (from a packet of sage and onion stuffing) with pigs in blanket traybake worked ok-ish. See https://www.itv.com/john-and-lisas-weekend-kitchen/articles/christmas-dinner-traybake for timings. Potatoes roasted separately and I added chestnuts towards the end 

Turkey and Spinach Curry

Another good one for left over turkey.

Gently fry in a couple of tablespoons of oil :
6 whole cloves
10 green cardamom pods (bashed)
1 cinnamon stick broken in half
2 green chillis quartered lengthways
Then add 2 finely chopped medium onions, four crushed cloves of garlic and 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger and cook until the onions are just turning golden.

Mix together 1 tsp each of ground cumin, ground coriander, ground turmeric and garam masala. Add to the pan with half tsp of salt and 1 tbsp tomato puree. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes.

Stir in 200g Greek yogurt, 100g baby spinach and a handful of chopped coriander leaves. Gently cook until the spinach has wilted.

Pick out the whole spices (as many as you can find).
Season with a dash of lemon juice and serve with rice, toasted flaked almonds and extra coriander leaves.

Turkey Stroganoff and Garlic Mushroom Pasta

Two separate recipes which work well together when one has mixture of meat eaters and vegetarians (or someone doesn't like turkey nor creamy sauces) etc. 

Garlic mushroom recipe is one that I cooked when at Uni when entertaining friends.

Serve each with tagliatelle - the Stroganoff on top of a pile and the rest mixed in with the Garlic Mushrooms.

Turkey Stroganoff - serves 4

300g sliced mushrooms (combination of button and chestnut mushrooms)

Dry fry over a medium heat, tossing frequently

Add 2 tbsp butter (I used the butter from the top of the turkey) and two finely chopped medium onions and sauté until onions are transparent.

Add: 

- 350g cooked turkey chopped into bite sized peieces

- 125ml turkey stock or, even better, left over turkey gravy

- 1tbsp fresh thyme or 1tsp dried thyme

- Large pinch grated nutmeg

- salt and pepper

Combine and heat through. 

Take off the heat and add 250ml greek yoghurt (or sour cream or creme fraiche). Add small amount of pasta cooking water to thin if required.

Taste and season further if required (it does need more salt than you think).

Garlic Mushroom sauce for pasta - serves 2

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan. Add 300g sliced mushrooms (at least combination of button and chestnut mushrooms) and fry for about 10 minutes until excess liquid has evaporated. Tip onto a plate.

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in the pan and add 2 finely sliced garlic cloves and fry gently until just turning golden. Tip the mushrooms back into the pan, add zest of half a lemon, handful of grated Parmesan and toss together with pasta for two (150g uncooked weight if making this by itself) and 3 tbsp of the pasta cooking water to heat through. 

Season with salt, pepper and a few drops of lemon juice. Serve sprinkled with handful of chopped parsley and more grated parmesan.

Stuffed turkey leg

Preparation of turkey leg is a bit fiddly but worth it and also cheap depending on stuffing.
This stuffing not so cheap

Combine one finely chopped medium onion with 150g fresh breadcrumbs, 75g chopped dried apricots, 45g chopped pistachios along with 350g sausagemeat (skin some good quality sausages), 1tbsp thyme leaves, zest of a lemon and a handful of chopped parsley.

Bone and remove sinews from large turkey leg. Bash with rolling pin to about 1cm thick (try and keep skin intact). Stuff, roll and secure with string. Oil. Cook covered in foil at 160C for approx 2 hours.

Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve saw a gathering here feasting on a 3kg gammon from Sandridge Farm. Cooked this using Nigella's gammon with cola recipe that others have raived about. Must admit to not being convinced that the cola adds anything. I might be one of those who don't repeat. Don't get me wrong - it was still a good tasty gammon. Maybe one to do with a cheap gammon joint not a Sandridge Farm £30 one? Simmer with root veg, bay leaves etc and then glaze in oven as per norm will be approach next year for Sandridge Farm joints. Mashed potatoes, mashed swede and carrot, french beans (frozen from our garden this summer), along with redcurrant and balsamic vingegar sauce were the accompniaments.

Christmas Day the turkey was cooked as last year but I included the bramley, chestnut and watercress stuffing this time. Brussel Sprouts done this way are excellent - go for 'undercooked' rather than 'overcooked' and 2tbsp (rather than the 2tsp I used this year) of chopped sage will probably be very good. Roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots and peas were the rest of the veg.

Need some more practice making Pavlova as in it needs more time to cook. I am told the vanilla ice cream recipe used is not worth repeating :( Must try another one .... or this one again when can find some decent vanilla pods. 

Turkey - Christmas 2010

We ended up spending Christmas at my mother-in-law's; so the local free range happy turkey we had ordered, and had been feeling smug about having managed to get on the supplier's list, ended up having a few days in the freezer and was then eaten at lunchtime on New Year's Eve. I used the same recipe (2021 - updated link) as last year but included the stuffing (stuffed the neck only); the bird was 6+kg and needed the additional 20 minutes. I SO need to get a different roasting tray ahead of next Christmas as my halogen hob and the current tin do not get on well. With VAT going up in a few hours time maybe I ought to go look online once I have finished writing this! Along with turkey sandwiches for lunch yesterday and a very tasty soup from stock made from bones etc to be had for some lunches this week the meals for the week, mainly using up the turkey, are: Turkey Curry: to date I have used a different more tomato based recipe (not written up as yet) that does well for any cooked meat, but this one went down well on Saturday. I used low fat creme fraiche rather than the yoghurt/cream/lemon mix. It could have done with a squeeze of lemon and some toasted almonds. Beef braised in Guiness with Pickled Walnuts: A Delia recipe from her original Cooking series. I cannot find the recipe online but this one with Venison is a variant. This evening we will try out this pasta and leftover turkey recipe. I won't put in the leftover stuffing as these have been formed into 'patties' to be fried up and served with chips and peas tomorrow. Update: use low fat soft cheese and try adding artichoke hearts next time. IF we have any turkey left, which I doubt, I will look at trying out this potted turkey recipe to go with the various pickles I have either made myself, been given or found have been bought in.

Turkey and Feta Burgers

450g turkey mince
50g feta crumbled
8 sun-dried tomatoes chopped
2tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Mix all together then form into 4 burgers. Fry for 15-20 minutes turning half way through. Works well on griddle portion of bbq as well.

Turkey

15 pounds cooked to this recipe for the first, and not last, time.

Chicken and Turkey Leftover recipes

Chicken in Barbeque Sauce
Chicken and Sweetcorn Enchiladas
Chicken and sweetcorn soup
Chicken, Gammon and Egg pie
Chicken and Leek pie

Chicken Rissoles

Coronation Chicken
Crispy Turkey Pancakes
Portugese Chicken Soup
Turkey and Pasta
Turkey Curry

What we ate this week

The aim is to have the menu set up at the start of the week rather than reporting on what it was! However, prior to me throwing away the piece of paper with the menu on for this week just gone...

Monday: Red Onion and Goats Cheese Tart (brilliantly simple, loved by the whole family and they even eat salad with it! Recipe to follow in future weeks)
Tuesday: Meatballs in tomato sauce on pasta. I made the meatballs prior to Christmas and froze so another relatively simple meal. Well we are all just back to work/school.
Wednesday: Pork Shepherds Pie (Using up rest of roast pork from Sunday - again recipe will follow as this is a family favourite)
Thursday: Turkey curry aka freezer meal. Home made curry sauce with left over white meat from the christmas turkey. Doubt if I will ever get round to typing up all my left over turkey meals - making them is a day after Boxing Day task.
Friday: Cheese Pudding - see next post for the recipe.

An aside (and note to self for next year): great leftover recipe for the dark meat from the remains of the turkey inspired by the Jamie Oliver recipe (OK so I didn't have anywhere near the right ingredients to do Jamie's recipe so had to adapt.... considerably)

Shred, using your fingers, the remainder of the dark meat from cold turkey
For each 'handful' (will weigh out what a 'handful' is next year) add a teaspoon of five spice powder and dry fry (aka cook in frying pan on medium heat with no oil). Stir or shake every now and then until it resembles crispy duck shreds

Serve as if the turkey is crispy duck, in wraps with hoi-sin sauce, shredded cucumber and spring onions.