Happy New Year and festive recipes

I can’t quite believe it’s here already, but Happy New Year! I have a good feeling about 2016.

I was a little neglectful towards the end of 2015. The thing about working at a computer for a living is that when you finish a hard day’s work, the last thing you want to do is spend more time in front of a screen writing blog posts. But Christmas provided a welcome break, and just because the writing stopped, doesn’t mean the cooking did.

So, there are more posts to come in 2016. But I’m starting small, with a recap of Christmas dinner and my recommendations for which recipes to trust next year, and which ones to avoid (because I will probably forget and make the same things again).

We celebrate two Christmases here – a French one on Christmas Eve, which consists of several courses, and a British one with one big feast on Christmas Day. I vowed this year to simplify so that I didn’t spend two days in the kitchen. I succeeded for one day, at least.

Christmas Eve menu

Aperitif – smoked salmon blinis – I like mine Polish-style after tasting them at a friend’s house a few years ago, with a dollop of horseradish rather than crème fraîche, a squeeze of lemon and a sprig of dill on top.

Starter – Coquille St Jacques from Marks and Spencer – I recommend this cheat. Plenty of scallops, a rich, creamy sauce, whipped potatoes and crunchy breadcrumbs. And you can freeze them ahead and cook them from frozen. Easy peasy.

Main – Salmon en Croute with boiled potatoes in herb butter and French beans. Salmon en croute is such as easy thing to make and the piece of fish I got from our local fishmonger, LS Mash & Sons on Atlantic Road, was so delicious it couldn’t fail to be a winner. I always buy my Christmas fish and seafood from them. It is such a simple recipe – unroll a sheet of shop-bought puff pastry and roll it out a bit, if necessary, to make sure it’s big enough to cover your fish. Take a piece of salmon side and lay it down the middle of your pastry. Mix some soft cheese with a small bunch of chopped dill, a few capers and some seasoning, then spread it all over the fish. Wrap the pastry over the salmon (I latticed mine, but you can simply wrap it up and flip it over so that it’s smooth on top) and brush with beaten egg. Bake at about 200˚C/180˚C fan/gas 6 for 20–30 minutes, until nicely browned on top. The cooking time will depend on the size of your pie and how you like your fish cooked. Mine served 6–8 and cooked for 30 minutes.

Cheese – we got a selection of British cheeses and served it with homemade bread. The French in-laws are surprisingly complimentary about British cheese. Particular favourites were the Cornish Yarg and an incredible Welsh goats’ cheese that I’ll have to go and find again, because it deserves a recommendation.

Pudding – Mince pies and cream – not exactly French, but they can be made in advance and they’re light enough to enjoy after a big meal. I use Delia Smith’s mincemeat from Delia’s Happy Christmas (I had a jar leftover from last year) and Paul Hollywood’s pastry. It’s extremely buttery and light, but a nightmare to roll out. The trick is to refrigerate for at least 20 minutes and roll in small batches between sheets of clingfilm, leaving the rest in the fridge. Fiddly, but the only way I could get them to work.

Christmas Day menu

Dinner – Roast goose, layered vegetable pie, roast potatoes, boiled sprouts with herb butter, glazed honey carrots and parsnips and braised red cabbage. Here I failed entirely in my quest to simplify and spent 4 hours in the kitchen, but it was still delicious, and not as late as dinner last year, which is an improvement. I followed recipes for everything except the sprouts, and some worked better than others.

Gordon Ramsay’s roast goose – this was a delicious recipe that I would definitely use again. The breast was the best part, covered in a juicy layer of fat and crisp skin that was mouthwateringly good. I let the bird cook a little longer than suggested so that it cooked enough for most guests, but if I did it again I’d probably cook for the recommended 20 minutes per kilo for slightly juicier meat.

Anna Jones’s Festive Layered Pie – I’ve been hooked on Anna’s book A Modern Way to Eat ever since I got it in the summer. Her vegetarian eggs benedict is a wonderful, wonderful thing. This pie was for my mum, mainly, but it was big enough for all of us to have a slice, with plenty left over, and it was a sensation. It’s layers of vegetables, each roasted separately with different herbs and zests, inside a rich, herby pastry. Each of the combinations is so perfectly matched that they would all make great side dishes in their own right (parsnips with orange zest and sage are a revelation), but layered in a pie they were a really indulgent treat. The recipe list includes thyme for the pastry, which isn’t included in the method, so I’m not sure if she intended to keep it or not, but I added it and we all thought the pastry was amazing. I actually made the pie the weekend ahead and froze it before cooking. Then I cooked it from frozen on Christmas Day, adding half an hour or so to the cooking time (a little tip I learnt from pie supremo Marika Gauci).

I use Jamie Oliver’s method for my roast potatoes and they always go down well.

I used this recipe for glazed carrots and parsnips, which were okay, but not amazing. I found them a little too vinegary for my taste, but I boiled them first and finished them off in the oven, so that’s probably where I went wrong.

And this is the recipe I used for braised cabbage. Again, a little too vinegary for me, but a good counter to the richness of the goose. We have tons left, so I recommend using have a cabbage rather than a whole one. Although you can freeze braised cabbage and you can also freeze shredded cabbage before it’s cooked. I have some in freezer bags ready to whip out for stir fries and Sunday roasts.

Pudding – Delia’s Christmas Cake. I made this before I went away in mid-November and fed it with a half a bottle of brandy – perhaps I’ll lay of the booze a bit next year. I top mine with nuts rather than marzipan and icing and it’s just as delicious warmed up and served with double cream. I’ve made this cake a few times and it’s always a winner, although I’m also partial to Nigella’s Italian Christmas Cake, which you can make much closer to Christmas and which is so moreish, it never lasts long.

The Leftovers

As always, the leftovers were almost as good as the main event. I stir fried the goose with noodles, vegetables and teriyaki sauce, then boiled down the carcass with all the vegetables trimmings to make a healthy and heartwarming soup. I had a poussin in the freezer that needed to be eaten so I roasted that and added it to the soup with more noodles and mixed vegetables. We still have a little left over so I’m going to use it as stock to cook rice. We also had steak left over from an earlier meal and I used that for a rich tomato sauce with pasta. It went down a treat with the little man. Never throw anything away!

So that’s our festive feasting. We ate too much, of course, but what’s January for if not for fixing the festive damage.

Happy 2016!