Christmas food and leftovers. Mostly leftovers

We spent Christmas Day with friends this year. Our contribution was the starter, a crab and crayfish cocktail of which I was extremely proud. But we also made a couple of festive meals designed with lots of lovely leftovers in mind.

The glaze is simple - treacle, mustard and sugar.

Nigella's ham in coke (no jokes please, I love her) was a beautiful thing served hot with mashed potatoes and broccoli, but its 3kg bulk was destined for sandwiches, a pasta sauce, a pie, and a bean-thick soup.

I cooked the cabbage in the buttery turkey juices while the joint rested

A turkey breast joint reclined in splendour next to a pile of Italianate pandoro and sausagemeat stuffing, perked up with cranberries, pistachios and lemon zest, but then joined up with the ham for sandwiches and the splendid pie.

Turkey, ham, brie and stuffing in a baguette

The leftovers for the pie - the sauce was a veloute spiked with white wine

The rest of the pandoro from the stuffing (which had been sitting in the freezer since I bought it at a knock-down price in January) became a luxurious bread and butter pudding and a base for a rather novel cheesecake, which I will probably post about in the future.

Crab and Crayfish cocktails (serves 5)

cocktail sauce

100g mayonnaise (I used Hellmans roasted garlic)
60g ketchup
11/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp brandy (the brandy idea came from Kavey on twitter, it's a very good one)

salad

1/2 little gem lettuce, cut into fine chiffonade
1/4 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into fine dice
1 slice pickled jalapeno chilli, finely minced
1/2 avocado, finely diced
Juice of half a lemon

to assemble

100g white crab meat
150g crayfish tails
50g caviar/lumpfish roe/salmon roe etc to garnish (optional)

Combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and brandy, and taste for seasoning. It might need a little more brandy.

Toss together the salad ingredients and divide between serving glasses.

Mix 2/3 of the cocktail sauce with the the crab and most of the crayfish tails, keeping a few aside for garnish.

Pile the sauced seafood on top of the salad, dollop with a little extra sauce and garnish with the reserved crayfish tails and some caviar, if using. Serve with some crisp toast.

Merry Christmas and Cranberry Pistachio Couronne

I am not the biggest fan of competitive cooking shows - things like Masterchef leave me cold. But I do utterly adore the Great British Bake-off, where talented amateur bakers get put through some pretty intense challenges in intensely twee surroundings.

This year, one of the "Technical challenges" (the bakers are given the ingredients and a rudimentary recipe and have to fill in the gaps) was for an apricot couronne. I'd never even heard of a couronne, but it turned out to be an elaborate fruited yeast bread, shaped into a wreath with a very cunning little trick. Even after watching the contestants make them, I couldn't quite figure it out, so I was very pleased to see that this was one of the techniques they showed in the follow-up masterclass show (this is it on youtube - not sure how long it'll stay up though).

I was keen to give it a go, but decided to make a slightly Christmassier version. Basically I followed the recipe but substituted dried cranberries for the apricots and raisins, pistachios for the walnuts and almonds and cointreau for the orange juice. More cointreau went into the glace icing.

Impressive, no? I was worried that having so much fruit exposed like that would lead to bitter, burnt bits, but no, the filling is succulent, moist and very well-distributed. We're having a very low-key Christmas this year, centred around things that we can just nibble on as the mood takes us, and this couronne is proving very useful to have with our morning coffee. It's disappearing quite fast, so it's hard to know how well it will keep.

Merry Christmas!

Wine and smoked garlic potato gratin

Our study has, of late, resembled a winery. Paul's been talking for years about attempting to make cider or wine, and a couple of weeks ago bit the bullet and bought one of the home wine-making kits where you get the grape juice concentrate and everything. The aim was to produce 20 litres of vin ordinaire. It just so happens that the temperature in the study is just right for a fast and dirty ferment.

It's been very successful. It's certainly not wine we would serve to other people, and it lacks finesse and interesting flavours, but it is definitely drinkable.

So for the first time I find myself being strongly encouraged to chuck wine around like water in my cooking. 20 litres of wine gives a lot of freedom to experiment.

The first thing I have made was absolutely divine - a potato gratin, heady with wine and smoked garlic, rich with cream. We had it with a basic roast chicken and it was just gorgeous. I know most people in Britain are firmly wedded to the traditional roast potato for their Christmas lunch, but I think this could definitely fit into seasonal feasting somewhere.

Wine and smoked garlic potato gratin (serves 4)

small knob of butter
4 large floury potatoes (I used King Edwards), peeled and sliced
2-3 fat cloves of smoked garlic, peeled and chopped
freshly ground black pepper
200ml strong chicken stock
200ml double cream
250ml white wine (Paul's homemade wine is a pretty dry riesling type)
nutmeg, optional

Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease an oven-proof casserole dish with a bit of butter.

Layer the potatoes with a sprinkling of the smoked garlic and some black pepper.

Mix the cream and chicken stock. I don't know if this is strictly necessary, but I was a bit anxious that the rough wine would curdle the cream and thought that mixing the cream with the stock first might prevent that from happening. And the cream didn't curdle, so either there was no danger of it happening in the first place OR my instinct was correct. Pour the wine over the potatoes, trying not to disturb the layers too much, then pour over the combined cream and stock.

Bake for much longer than you think is necessary, at least an hour, until the top is well-browned and you can feel all the potatoes collapsing into mush under the point of the knife.

Grate a tiny sprinkling of nutmeg on top and allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Cranberry relish

I am a very visual person. I have to concentrate to understand puns, because when I hear a word, I see it written, so playing around with meanings and homophones passes me by.

So believe me when I say that, although this relish tastes really good, the absolutely best bit about it is the way it sounds when you cook it.

We did our appropriation-of-traditions thing and had ourselves a little Thanksgiving dinner. It was just the two of us and because it isn't really our holiday I felt quite relaxed about paring things back, and making just the elements of the meal that I think sound the most appealing. It's freeing to eat things because they sound nice and not because tradition dictates it.

I'd bought some fresh cranberries and frozen them, without much notion of what I would do with them, but then I decided that a sauce or relish really was in order. I read a lot of recipes and was disappointed by nearly all of them - they were just cranberries and sugar, and I didn't want to put jam on my meat. Martha Stewart's cranberry and ginger sounded much more my cup of tea, although it was far too big a batch. I altered the proportions a bit to suit our tastes, and it made one medium-sized ramekin of sauce, which will see us through Christmas as well.

Cranberry, chilli and ginger relish

75g caster sugar
75g fresh or frozen cranberries
1 green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
1tbs water
1tbs grated ginger
2tbs red wine vinegar

Combine the sugar, cranberries, chilli, water and ginger in a small saucepan and bring gently to the boil, swirling to dissolve the sugar. Boil for about 10 minutes, enjoying the sound of the cranberries popping and sighing and the slightly higher-pitched bursting of the sugary bubbles around them. Stir in the vinegar and bottle in a sterile glass jar.

We had it with a buttery turkey breast joint, green beans and soy-caramel glazed sweet potatoes. Earlier on in the day I'd thought about making mashed potatoes and gravy as well, but decided that this was plenty of food - but mash would have been welcome if any unexpected guests had dropped by. For dessert we had pumpkin babas, so while our meal was pared back, it certainly wasn't austere.

The search box isn't working

Just in case you were consoling yourself in my absence by reading some of my greatest hits of the last few years, unfortunately the search function isn't currently working. Blogger have suggested a few work-arounds but they aren't very good. So I'd suggest reading random posts from the archives, or googling if you are after something specific.

Blogger ennui

I've been cooking and eating some very nice things lately, but I can't be arsed to post about any of them. I shall return when the muse is back on deck.

Venison pithiviers and Christmas gift ideas

I thought I'd do a little round-up of Christmas present ideas, in case you are shopping for me. Or for somebody who shares my taste, I guess. And I thought I'd try to publish this early enough for it to be useable for Christmas 2013. Some of these are things I have spotted and thought "Oooh, I'd like that" and some are things that I've thought "Oooh, so-and-so would like that". If you are someone I buy gifts for, please do act surprised if you unwrap something you have seen mentioned here. I haven't mentioned cookbooks at all because a) there are so many on my wishlist that they need a list of their own and b) I have run out of space on the bookshelf.

• Old-school china jelly moulds - you could probably find these in charity shops, but they are also available at Liberty, if you discover that they've all been bought by DIY enthusiasts to make hanging planters from.
• Tea-towels - you can never have enough. I like these stoat and muntjac ones,  and these cat ones.
• Despite being besotted with my cat, I'm not a huge fan of cat motif stuff, but I love this cat and crow kitchen roll holder. Although it seems a shame to use it and cover up the lamppost. Maybe you could use it as a jewellery tree instead?
• A waterproof notebook seems like a good idea for those of us who do our best thinking in the shower.
• Good jam is such a joy, especially in interesting flavours like black currant and sloe gin, or toffee apple.
• I wouldn't say no to a Georgian silver nutmeg grater. If you were planning to burn £900 that you didn't have another use for. 
• A subscription for a monthly charcuterie, cheese or whisky delivery.
• A freshly air-freighted black truffle.
• A wicker banneton.
• A cold smoke generator.
• A Thermapen.
• To be honest, pretty much anything on souschef.co.uk would be very welcome to most food-obsessed types.
• An old-fashioned waffle iron.
• I'd also really like a replacement for my beloved linen apron, but I can't find one. It's a very particular design, like this but with a button at the back instead of the crossover. 
• A Pillivuyt coffee bowl. I have 3 and they are damn useful, but a set of 4 would be more useful again.
• An egg-rack. It's a much better idea to store your eggs at room temperature, if possible, but I want something decorative to put mine in.

"And then, of course, there are liqueur glasses, and crystallised fruits, and tapestry curtains, and heaps of other necessaries of life that make really sensible presents- -not to speak of luxuries, such as having one's bills paid, or getting something quite sweet in the way of jewellery. " Reginald on Christmas Presents, H.H Munro 1904

As a present for myself, I recently bought an irresistible nest of 9 snowflake-shaped cookie cutters. They were just so pretty, and the way they move when you rotate the box is kaleidoscopic. I'd imagine that pretty much everything I bake in the next month or so will have some sort of snow motif.

The first item to get an outing are these venison pithiviers, a very simple savoury pie. The traditional French pithivier has a sweet almond filling and a pattern of curved lines as decoration that sort of looks like a sun, so I thought a savoury winter-themed version would be nice. I made a very Christmassy sort of filling of venison studded with cranberries and porcini mushrooms plumped up in whisky, with some pistachios for colour and crunch and mustard and breadcrumbs to lighten and bind. I made four palm-sized pies with the largest of my snowflake cutters, but I think they would be a charming Christmas nibble made bite-sized.

Venison and cranberry pithiviers (makes 4 large, 12 bite-sized)

1tsp butter
1 shallot, finely minced
1tbs pistachios, chopped
1tbs dried cranberries
2tbs dried porcini mushrooms, broken into pieces
2tbs whisky (or brandy or sherry)
2tbs Dijon mustard
200g venison mince
2tbs dried breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
250g butter puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 180C.

Saute the shallot in the butter for a couple of minutes until translucent and allow to cool. Combine the cranberries and porcini mushrooms in a small bowl with the whisky and allow to plump up for 10 minutes. 

Break up the venison mince and combine with the cooled shallot, cranberries and mushrooms, mustard and breadcrumbs, mixing with your hands until thoroughly combined. Add the pistachios (chop them up if you are making bite-sized pies) and season with salt and pepper. Divide the filling mixture into 4 balls.

Roll the pastry out, a bit thicker than you normally would for a pie, and cut out 8 large snowflakes (or circles).

Put 4 snowflakes onto a baking parchment-lined baking tray and top with the balls of filling. Brush the exposed pastry and the venison filling with a bit of beaten egg. For the lids, pick up the remaining snowflakes and carefully stretch the middle bit over your knuckles so that the points of the snowflake aren't distorted but there is a sort of pouch to enclose the filling. It sounds more difficult than it is... but that is why you roll the pastry quite thickly. Place the lid over the filling and press firmly all around it to firstly exclude airbubbles and secondly seal the pastry top to the bottom.

Brush the tops with more beaten egg and, with the point of a knife, gently score through the eggwash in a snowflake pattern, trying not to go all the way through to the filling.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes. We had them with warmed-up leftover red cabbage and steamed tenderstem broccoli.