Christmas Diner 2023

• 2.58kg (25g giblets so 2.25kg) duck from Alders, Cowley Road
• Vegan Wellington by Ruth and Ellie
• Maris piper potatoes
• Brussel sprouts
• Carrots
• Red cabbage
• 6 rashers smoked back bacon
• Alders pigs in blankets


• Sainsbury's Vegan Christmas pudding
• Home made brandy butter
• Double cream

Marinade

• Flesh of two oranges
• Pepper
• Ginger
• One piece of lemon grass
• Thyme from garden
• Sainsbury's thyme
• Rosemary
• Bay
• Tarragon
• Whole peppers
• Ground black pepper
• Corriander
• Garlic powder

Night before

Stab duck all over.

Fill cavity with bay, rosemary, skin of two oranges, lemongrass, chopped ginger.

Strain marinade, put solids inside.

Use juice to moisten he whole bird.

Salt and pepper over all.

Leave in oven over night.

Vegan Wellington

Ruth and Ellie made this.

Smoked tofu and beetroot, topped with finely chopped mushrooms wrapped in puff pastry.

On the Day

Add giblets, cook for 30 minutes, 120 °, remove giblets and juice for gravy base. Cook for another two hours. Add bacon and pigs in blankets, cook for half an hour on high for half an hour.

Boil the gravy for a long time.

Peel potatoes and cover in cold water. Turn on as you start to prepare the pasnips. Add parsnips to boiling potatoes. We always overcook the potatoes, so maybe start poatoes and parsnips together next time.

Strain potatoes and parsnips and put into paking trays. I ended up separating later, so keep poatoes and parsnips separate throughout next time. Add potato water to gravy.

Bring carrots to boil.

Boil sprouts, longer next time.

Microwave red cabbage done earlier.

Ladle gravy from pan to jug, leaving gibblets for soup tomorrow.

Christmas Duck 2022

Published one year late.

• 1.5kg duck from https://www.coombefarmorganic.co.uk/ (Small compared to last year, 2.8 KG)
• 2 300g duck breasts
• Nut Roast by Ruth
• Maris piper potatoes
• Brussel sprouts
• Carrots
• Red cabbage
• 6 rashers smoked back bacon
• Wenlock Edge pigs in blankets
• Vegetarian pigs in blankets


• Sainsbury's Christmas pudding
• Philip's home made Christmas pudding
• Home made brandy butter
• Double cream

Day before - Nut Roast

Ruth made this, it turned out very well.

The night before

Stabbed duck all over. Filled with Sage, rosemary and bay. Squeezed an orange over the duck, rubbed salt in and peppered. Put orange peel inside duck. Also half a lemon Left over night in oven.

On the Day

Lost track of the blog and the photography.

Nice to get a photo of Christopher.

Cod and Noodles

Trying to follow this recipe.

I think it might work better with a large cube of cod, but two Sainsburies filets were all that was available. Given the strong flavours and the difficulty of stopping the cod flaking maybe try with cheaper white fish, and chili next time.

This would work well with tofu so will try that when we have vegetarians.

Ingredients

1. Two cod fillets
2. Green beans
3. Two Sharwoods medium noodle portions
4. Grated ginger
5. Fresh chili
6. Chives chopped fine
7. Soy sauce
8. Four teaspoons of honey
9. One Finely chopped onion
10. Finely chopped chives
11. Dark Thai fish sauce
12. Kikoman soy sauce
13. Juice of half a lemon
14. Splash of white wine
15. Dripping or oil

Microwave beans for 2 minutes

Make sauce from onions, chives, lemon, soy, wine, honey, juices from cod. Dip cubed cod in sauce.

Bring dripping to a high heat, fry cod, turning carfully, achieving char in places.

Add onions, beans, chives, and marinade to wok and boil vigourously.

Boil noodles, drain and place in bowls, add fish and beans on top.

Serve with sweet chili sauce.

Mushroom and Goat's Cheese Egg Bake

Ingredients

• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• One carton of co-op white mushrooms, just opening
• 4 organic eggs
• 1 goat's cheese roundel
• 1 clove garlic
• A third of a glass of white wine
• Salt and quite a lot of pepper

Fry the mushrooms with pepper, a little salt and olive oil, pouring the wine into the upside down mushrooms. Remove from heat.

Fry the onion.

Chop the garlic and add to pepper and salt. Add the eggs and whisk.

Add onions to mushrooms.

Slice the goat's cheese in half, giving two roundels, then quarter both.

Place on top of onions.

Add eggs and cook in a preheated oven for seven minutes.

Fish pie

Based upon 2021, 2020, and 2011

Makes three dishes

Ingredients

• Fish pie mixed fish cubes
• One Smoked haddock steak quartered
• King prawns
• Prawns
• 2 large white onions
• 2 heaped tablespoon flour
• 1 heaped teaspoon of English mustard powder
• 1 heaped teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoon of horseradish sauce
• 1 teaspoon of tartare sauce
• 1 pint of Milk
• Small spoon of salt
• 30g Butter
• 120g Cheddar cheese
• Mashed potatoes- 5 big potatoes

Boil and mash potatoes

Microwave chopped onion and leek, add to fish.

Make a white sauce from flour, mustard, butter and milk, horseradish and tartare sauce. This was a lot of sauce, 1 pint of milk, but three pies needed a lot of sauce.

Add sauce to fish.

Cover fish with potatoe, add cheddar on top.

Cook in oven for 25 minutes on high.

Serve with peas, spinach and mashed swede.

Marinated mushrooms, Vegetables 'sur la planche' on Coucous

Ingredients

• 5 open mushrooms
• 2 courgettes
• 1 red pepper
• 1 chilli
• 2 lemons
• 2 large tomatoes
• 3 slices of paneer
• Duck fat
• Olive oil
• Cooking wine (mead)
• Black pepper
• Couscous
• Corriander garnish
• Thyme, sage, bay, marjoram, rosemary, oregano (everything we have except mint)

Ahead of time

Put mushrooms, duck fat, pepper, herbs, garlic and a lemon together in a large lidded pan

Slice the courgette lengthways

Cut the tomatoes in half

Chop the chili roughly

Chop the pepper into slices

Add everything to the pan and ensure that everything is mixed

After an hour or so add the wine, heat the pan to boiling, then turn off and leave for another hour

Remove the vegetables to one plate, the mushrooms to another, remove the remans of the herbs from the juice, put the juice to one side.

Put olive oil in the pan and fry the mushrooms

Heat the gridle and put everything on.

Heat the juice in microwave (I didn't do this), add to 1 cup of couscous, add boiling water as necessary.

Serve with corriander garnish

Comments

Slightly too much lemon. Whilst nice the herbs were too mixed. I liked the way the chilli came through on the corgettes. The couscous came out well.

The paneer should have been haloumi.

Guinea Fowl with garlic heads and prosciutto

Guinea Fowl with all the trimmings.

Ingredients

• Sainsburies guinea fowl
• A third of a block of Sainsburies Proscutio cut into pieces (using up this odd Italian dry cured bacon)
• 8 green garlic heads
• Half a red chili
• Four carrots
• Three shallots
• Pepper

Put thechilli and two garlic heads inside the bird

Carrots and shallots underneath.

A few more garlic heads around

Cook hard with lid off for 20 minutes

Add remainig garlic heads, put lid on for another 40 minutes on a lower heat

We brought back a mangle worzle from Milford haven, which had gone to seed

The flower stems were stringy but very good flavour.

Turned out well.

Slow roast Shoulder of lamb

A shoulder of welsh lamb from D.W.Walls in Ludlow.

Raymond Blanc reminds to take out of the fridge, score and marinade. I deviated on the marinade: chives, garlic, coarse black pepper, bay, rosemary, thyme, sea salt and most importantly chili oil.

Added onions, carrots, white wine and cooked for four hours.

Served with brocolli and green beans. Note more carrots and onions. Cooking for a long time really works, but reduces the onions to not much.

Mediterranean Beef Squid

Triggered by Bruce Schnier's Mediterranean Beef Squid hoax I went for a beef, olives, tomatoe and tamarind dish.

Ingredients

• Organic Beef Rib Eye Steak
• Two squid tubes
• Sainsburies smoky tomatoe paste
• Half a tube of tomatoe puree
• two teaspoons Tamarind paste
• 6 large green olives
• Coarse ground black pepper
• Half a red pepper
• Two cloves garlic
• Three spring onions
• 1 anchovy

Trim the fat and fry hard in skillet

Cube lean and add to beef fat

Finely slice olives

Slice red pepper

Chop spring onions

Lightly fry peppers and onions and black pepper, adding anchovy, tamarind, smokey tomatoe paste and tomatoe purree.

Served with rice and spinach.

Pea and Walnut Pesto

Aiming to fill a hand held wizzer, served with spagetti, which was already cooked.

Incredients

• Half a pint of frozen Petit Pois
• One red onion roughly sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• Handful of walnuts, say 20 halves
• One slice of lemon
• Half teaspoon salt
• Spouts of a fennel
• Some celery spouts
• Teaspoon crushed black pepper
• Tablespoon sliced parmesan
• Third of a pint of virgin olive oil

Add a small amount of boiling water to peas, onion, 3 cloves of chopped garlic and walnuts.

Bring back to the boil, boil for three minutes.

Seive, adding juices to the pasta which should be ready about now.

Add par boiled peas to mixer.

Add salt, pepper, one clove of raw garlic, fennel, celery, parmesan, olive oil.

Whizz, mix half into pasta to serve three.

I sprinkled with dessicated coconut, though the less adventurous didn't.

Remaining half shown below.

Well received lunch.

Kale as Deep Fried Seaweed

Incredients

• Half a bag of Sainsbury's Curly Leaf Kale (200g)
• Half a teaspoon of salt
• A teaspoon of sugar
• A tablespoon of oil, chili oil if you prefer

Take half the bag in an open pyrex dish, add salt, sugar, oil, stir.

Microwave for a minute, remove from microwave for a minute, repeat three or five times until crispy.