Xmas 2011

Apologies for the slackness, I was very busy doing nothing for quite a few days. Other days were spent touring around the country to Norfolk and Glastonbury, eating fish, spotting seals, watching Spiral, reading and drinking gin and ale. Now it's 2012, it's January, it's windy and it's back to work. So it goes. I'm ready to approach cooking and the blog once again with a manner befitting a new year and new resolutions.

Here are some snaps of xmas dinner.

 topside of beef

pigs in blankets

spuds being prepped

nut-roast

• brown bread crumbs
• mixed nuts
• carrots, peas, onions
• veg stock/marmite

Fry a couple of onions chopped with garlic in oil. After a while add the carrots chopped small and the peas. Add seasoned brown breadcrumbs and smashed up nuts. Top up with some veg stock and top with nuts toasted with sage. Bake. Delicious.

 carrot and swede purée

This is the bomb! Take an equal amount of carrot and swede and boil until very tender. Blitz in a magimix, add a knob of butter, a couple of spoons of creme fraiche and a seasoning of cumin and black pepper. Don't be tempted to mash by hand - it's just not the same. The cumin and the pepper bounce of the sweetness of the vegetables wonderfully, and the dairy stuff rounds it all out. Very nice.

The whole hog with sprouts, potatoes, yorkshire puddings and roast parsnips. I think having something mashed is great as otherwise everything is roast and crispy. Soft and giving mash compliments the crunch and heft of the other elements.

Happy new year.

Xmas 2010

Bit late on this.

Smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels for breakfast

Roast pork loin, parsnips and potatoes, swede and carrot puree

We had this with the sauce from the roast pork loin dish in Nose to Tail - roast garlic, parsley, capers, anchovy, olive oil and red wine vinegar. Not was christmassy but well tasty. I love a roast like this without too many elements as the full trimmings at xmas can mingle together and become a bit of a greasy mess sometimes.

Pedro Ximenez sherry - sweet like chocolate

Six-hour lamb

Long cooked shoulders of lamb seem to be everywhere at the minute. And they sound like a wonderful idea for this time of year when each days seem noticeably shorter than the last - the cut is a bit cheaper than leg but still very meaty and palatable to those that don't like sucking and fiddling with bones to get their food. I got a half-shoulder from a supermarket and after browsing a few different recipes decided to go for a simple moist roast with lots of onions and garlic and a little white wine. The food went in to a low oven at about 1pm and the inclement weather meant I felt only a small speck of guilt at lounging at home and finishing watching Series 4 of The Tudors (err..).

For The Vegetarian a butternut squash and veg sausage toad-in-the-hole seemed like a good idea. I cut up the squash to roast and toasted the seeds with salt as a snack (forgetting to keep an eye on it and burning them in the process).

Every hour or so the lamb was inspected, prodded and puzzled over. Was it actually cooking at such a low temperature? Should I add more liquid? When, if at all, should I cover with foil? Would the onions be cooked, in fact should I have cut them into much smaller pieces?

As the hours progressed the meat was undeniably being cooked, but the great gusts of appetising lamb smells multiple blogs had promised me were not apparent.

Eventually everything seemed cooked and it was time to serve. I allowed the lamb a good rest of half an hour whilst the toad was being done.

It's very fatty lamb shoulder isn't it? I hadn't fully appreciated this. Big ribbons of stiff, opaque fat were all over the joint on both sides before cooking. It had been at least partially rendered during cooking of course, but in truth the grease of it was a little over-facing. It also tasted exactly like a normal piece of roast lamb. Bah! Am I doing it right? Maybe a full on braise next time: it's sure to become very moist and will allow a fat-skimming stage.