A Toast To The New Year

Ladies and Gentlemen, please raise your glasses and join me in a toast.

May the new year bring you health, happiness and love, along with an abundance of good food.

Cheers.

I'm Full

Now I know these two words may sound a little shocking coming from someone who writes non-stop about food, but I think this Christmas, finally, I’ve had my fill of food, glorious food.

It feels like all I’ve done since Christmas Eve is eat, drink and sleep. I’m sure there’s been something in between but for now it escapes me. It started fairly harmlessly – a little duck pate on crusty bread, orange juice and lemonade, a slice of ham, but it quickly escalated into a white wine-mini sausages-tin of chocolates-pickled onion-turkey picking-cranberry topped pork pie binge. Oh yes.

Christmas Eve saw the mulled wine, mince pies and the cold meat spread for friends. The breaded ham, the rare rib of beef and the potato salad were all laid out, enticingly beautiful. Oh, the temptation! Christmas morning started perfectly with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and a chilled glass of Cava. Then off to Rob’s parents for a spectacular Christmas lunch with all the trimmings and plenty of wine all day. Cheeses in the evening rounded the day off nicely. Onto Boxing Day and our second turkey dinner. Don’t look at me like that, I have to cook a turkey every Christmas even if I’m eating elsewhere on the big day. Then it was turkey and mayonnaise sandwiches (of course), more cold meats with pickled onions and coleslaw. More wine, port, Tia Maria!

It was delicious, it was what Christmas is about, it was a feast fit for a King and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. But I’ve done more than my fair share of groaning on the sofa and I’m now entering that post-Christmas guilt-ridden time when I’m thinking I really must get back down the gym and I should perhaps cut back on the portions a little and I must cut down the alcohol intake. So enough is enough and I’m closing the fridge door and walking away. For now, anyway.

Santa Baby, Been An Awful Good Girl…

Well, perhaps 'good girl' is stretching the truth slightly, but I'm certainly a very lucky girl, as Santa left me this fantastic camera under the tree! I think Rob must have had a word in his ear.


I haven’t put it down since Christmas day and I’m looking forward to sharing better (hopefully) food pictures with you. Once I get the hang of all the buttons and settings that is! Here are a couple I’ve taken with it, of the turkey dinner I cooked on Boxing Day:




I hope you’ve all had a fabulous Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Well the presents are wrapped, the wine has been mulled, the turkey is in the fridge and the candles are lit. All that's left for me to do is to wish you a very happy Christmas.

A Festive Meal

We had a lovely family meal last night to kick-start the Christmas celebrations. I made:

Pamesan and Pancetta Salad with White Truffle Oil

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5 Hour Leg of Lamb with Wilted Spinach and Roast Potatoes

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Bitter Orange Ice Cream

The salad was one of the easiest yet impressive ones I've ever put together. I simply pan fried cubes of pancetta until crispy and added them to salad leaves, added shaved parmesan cheese and a drizzle of white truffle oil. It went down a treat.

The leg of lamb was based on a Jamie Oliver recipe, slowly cooked with a bottle of white wine, lots of herbs and veg. This is really, really tasty, you must try it.

We finished the meal with what has become my seasonal dessert, Nigella Lawson's Bitter Orange Ice Cream. . A simple ice cream that you don't need an ice cream maker for. With it's creaminess and burst of orange flavour it's perfect for this time of year.

I'm Making a List, I'm Checking it Twice

Well, it’s getting nearer now and it’s time for all those last minute preparations. I love this time in the days just before Christmas, when people are busy buying final presents and getting everything ready.

I bought my last few presents in bustling Regent Street tonight, weaving in an out of crowds of people carrying bags and bags of presents, all wrapped up warm against the cold, cold, foggy weather. Then I came home and wrapped the gifts I’d bought by the light of the Christmas tree whilst drinking a glass of port. Fabulous.

But surely for you and me, one of the very best things about right now is stocking up on all that wonderful Christmas food to feast on. I’m in the middle of making my list of all the goodies Rob and I are going to stock our cupboards with. Stilton, smoked salmon, brandy butter, double cream, sausages, parsnips, ooh and don’t forget the mince pies! I like the reassuring and comforting feeling of knowing that when the shops close for Christmas we have everything we could possible want to eat and drink and if we were snowed in (a highly unlikely event here in the outskirts of London but it’s nice to dream), we could survive quite merrily for days and days!

Home Sweet Home

Look what I came home to tonight:



Rob cooked this beautiful rib of beef, following my guide here. Just LOOK at that Yorkshire pudding. This is the first time he’s ever made it and he’s rather pleased with the result - as was I when I devoured it. Looks like I can start putting my feet up on Sundays.

Chicken & Broccoli Pasta Bake

Cut 2 chicken breasts into bite sized pieces and sauté until cooked through in butter and a little olive oil with 2 crushed garlic cloves.

Meanwhile cook some pasta and steam a head of broccoli, broken into small florets. The pasta and broccoli will continue to cook in the oven so make sure you don’t over cook them and they still have some ‘bite’ to them.

Make up a béchamel sauce; I used this one (but used double the amount), then start compiling the dish. Put the pasta, chicken and broccoli in a dish and mix it all together then pour over the bechamel sauce and season. Finally grate a good amount of parmesan cheese all over the top.

Bake in the oven at 180c for 15-20 minutes. Will serve 4.

Heavenly Roast Chicken

For me a roast chicken, along with the stock made from the picked-bare bones, is one of the best things to come out of the kitchen. I simply adore it. No other food says home to me quite like this does. When the house is filled with the smell of a chicken roasting in the oven you know this is the place to be. It’s pure joy to me each and every time Rob or I bring home a fresh, free-range chicken from the butchers. It sits in my fridge full of possibility and with the promise of a simple yet fabulous meal. Without a doubt if I were asked to choose a last-request meal, this would be it.

There are endless recipes for roast chicken out there and in my quest for the perfect roast chicken I’ve tried a lot. Stuff it, oil it, season it, turn it upside down for juicier breast meat. Chicken is usually the first thing I look up in the index of a new cookery book and it’s the foodie subject closest to my heart. Through all this I’ve come to find a method which I like and which gives me my perfect roast chicken. I guess it’s truer to say I’ve found a method with several variations as I don’t always stick to the exact same way each time - I’ll vary the herbs, how I use the butter, the vegetables I use. But I generally stick to some same principles each time which guarantee me the results I want.

Herbs, Seasoning and Flavouring



For me, lemon and garlic is optimum. Sometimes I'll use one or the other rather than both for a change but it's rare that I don't use at least one. I put a halved or quartered lemon into the cavity, usually along with a whole bulb of garlic broken into cloves. It doesn’t always fit so I just put in what I can and sometimes I’ll squeeze some of the lemon that doesn’t fit over the breast. Sometimes I’ll put fresh thyme and rosemary in too, sometimes just one of these herbs. I’ve also used bay leaves in the cavity before.

When I’m cooking a roast chicken I’m not interested in counting the calories and butter is another essential for me. The best way to use this is to separate the skin from the breast using your hands and push the butter up underneath the skin. When it’s in the oven the butter melts down into the breast leaving it deliciously juicy and buttery. I have omitted the butter before and used olive oil and whilst this is good it’s no match for the butter.

Finally I rub olive oil over the skin and sprinkle sea salt and black pepper over the breast and legs.


Vegetables

For the full roast chicken dinner you have to have really good roast potatoes.

If I am going for the full roast I’ll almost always roast carrots in with the chicken - they are absolutely delicious roasted, becoming sweeter and sticky. I cook them in the same roasting tray as the chicken so that they take on all the flavour in those glorious, bubbling chicken juices and fat. I just halve them lengthways then cut them in half or into thirds, depending on their size.

I tuck a quartered onion under the chicken, not to serve but to use as a base flavouring for the gravy. It roasts in the pan giving the gravy a gorgeous taste.



Cooking Temperature and Time

I put the chicken in the oven at about 220c for 20 minutes, then add the vegetables to the roasting tin, basting them with the fat that has been released from the chicken. Now I reduce the temperature to 190c and roast for about an hour more, until the chicken juices run clear, basting the chicken and turning the vegetables halfway through the cooking time.

The way to tell if it's cooked is to put a skewer into a thick part of the chicken then press with a fork so the juices run out. If they are clear it is cooked. You get a lot of juices where the leg meets the breast so if you haven't got a skewer just push a knife in there and take a look. Another way of telling is to pull on the leg - there should be a bit of easy give – and the skin should be golden, but the clear juices are the definite way of telling.



Resting

As with all meat, chicken needs time to rest so that the juices stay inside to keep it moist. Cover it with tin foil to keep it warm and rest for about 10 minutes.



The Gravy

I don’t go to all this trouble just to smother my chicken in synthetic granules. Oh no, my roast chicken deserves the very best homemade gravy.

I remove the chicken and vegetables from the tray, except for the onion, then remove most of the fat (leaving a little in) and then put the tray on the hob to start the magic – make sure you use a flame proof tray!

Sometimes I’ll take some of the garlic from the cavity and put it in the roasting tray to give the gravy a lovely garlic hit. I just stir the cloves around with the juices, flour and water and take them out at the end.





And Finally…

How anyone can groan at leftovers I’ll never know. I love having a cold roast chicken in my fridge to pick at and a fat roast chicken sandwich made with thick crusty bread and mayonnaise is divine. Then there are the other possibilities – chicken risotto, salad, pasta bake. All this out of one bird!

The leftovers extend to the carcass. One thing you will hardly ever see me do is throw it away. That would be criminal and a huge foodie sin! Do you know how good home made chicken stock is? Have you tasted golden chicken broth? It’s liquid heaven.

Christmas Preparations

It was chilly and dark outside as I sat writing Christmas cards last night. I was drinking spicy, orangey, brandy-laced hot chocolate to warm me through. Green & Black's Maya Gold chocolate was just the thing, melted into warm milk with a splash of brandy and a drizzle of honey. Mmmm...

I do love this time of year. I love the run up to Christmas as much as the big event itself. The bustling of people buying gifts, the cards through the letter box, the twinking lights on the dark nights, decorating the tree.

How are you getting on with your preparations? I have a few more presents to buy but I'm almost done. I've done no wrapping yet so I'll do that this weekend. I love to do this with a glass of something and a Christmas film on.

We're going to Rob's parents for Christmas day this year so I'm not cooking the big Christmas dinner. I have to have a turkey though, which I'll either cook on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day. The turkey is a once-a-year event and I adore it. I love the excitment of picking it up, of preparing it, making the giblet gravy and best of all, having it in the fridge to pick at in the coming days. Turkey sandwiches and soup, cold meats with pickled onions, heavenly. We always buy a ham and rib of beef for the festive period too. I usually cook the ham in coca cola, using Nigella's now famous recipe.

Rob's Mum makes a Christmas cake and Christmas pudding every year and we each get one to take home. We really are spoilt.

We are doing some entertaining. Christmas Eve is an open house and I'll have mulled wine and warm mince pies with cream on offer. The night before Christmas Eve we've invited our family over for a festive dinner. I've yet to decide what to cook but it will be something special.

I hope your preparations are going well and you, too, are finding a little of the Christmas magic around you.

Cottage Pie

There is often confusion as to the difference between Cottage Pie and Shepherds Pie. Let me clear that up now. Quite simply, Cottage Pie is made with minced beef and Shepherds Pie with minced lamb.

I used beef when I made this so therefore it's Cottage Pie, but you could just as easily use lamb and follow exactly the same recipe.

Whatever meat you use, this is good old comfort food and the addition of my secret ingredient, port, makes it extra special.


Chop two onions, one carrot, one stick of celery and one garlic clove then sauté in olive oil until softened.

In the meantime brown about 600 grams of mince in a separate pan then add it to the vegetables and mix together with seasoning and a sprinkle of dried thyme.

Now add a tablespoon of flour and stir well to coat everything. Add 500ml beef stock, a couple of tablespoons of tomato puree, a good dash of Worcester sauce and a dash of port.

Simmer for about 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Put the mince into a dish and top with the potato mashed with butter. Run a fork along the top so that you get a pattern and bits of potato sticking up - these bits will crisp up nicely.

Bake in the oven at 200c for about 30 minutes until bubbling and golden.

2006 Food Blog Awards

Do you know how many wonderful food blogs there are out there? So, so many very professional blogs with mouth-watering pictures and excellent writing. I was blown away when I first started browsing the blogs and was looking into setting up my own. The quality is amazing and I've been very inspired by my fellow bloggers. So now it's time for me to recognise that by voting in the 2006 Food Blog Awards, hosted by Well Fed Network.

The first stage is the nominations, which are coming in now. Take a look and nominate your favourite blogs here. Voting starts on Monday 23rd December, so don't forget to check back then and cast your vote!

Smoky Bacon and Tomato Soup

Put around 1kg of skinned and quartered fresh tomatoes into a roasting tray, season well and roast for 30 minutes at 200.

Next, sauté 6 chopped smoky bacon rashers and when the fat is released add 3 chopped garlic cloves and sauté for a few minutes longer. Add the tomatoes along with ½ litre of vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer then puree, sieve and serve.

A Recipe to Evoke the Spirit of Christmas

Ingredients
A slab of good chocolate
Contreu or brandy
1 Cinnamon stick
Sugar
Pyjamas
Bed socks
1 blanket
A Christmas film such as ‘A Christmas Carol’

Recipe
1. Put on pyjamas and bed socks.

2. Pour a mug full of milk into a pan and heat slowly.

3. Add squares of the chocolate to taste, the cinnamon stick and a generous dash of contreu or brandy.

4. When the chocolate has melted and the milk has heated through pour the hot chocolate into a mug.

5. Add a little sugar.

6. Put the film on.

7. Wrap self in blanket and sit back with the hot chocolate.

A Very Special Gift

This post isn’t about food or anything related. It’s the first post I’ve written that hasn’t been and I hope you'll understand when you read it why, just this once, I wanted to write about something else and share this with you.

I’ve had a pretty bad week. Work has been challenging, with lots of things going wrong. I’ve not been in the best of moods and I’ve really not felt very Christmassy. It’s been wet and windy and a mini tornado hit the North of London today. All quite depressing really.

But then something magical happened. In the middle of the daily drudge I walked to the kitchen area of my office and saw lots of little handmade gift tags hanging up on a line of string. Each one had quite clearly been very carefully made with glitter and paint by little hands. As I turned each over one by one I saw a child’s name and age along with a wish for a little toy.

The cards came to our office from The Kids Company, a London base charity which helps to re-parent abandoned and abused children, providing them with care and hence better opportunities in life. On Christmas day The Kids Company will have around 500 children on it’s premises who are looking for a safe place to stay. To make their stay more pleasant some people from our offices are organising some Christmas presents for them. The children were asked to write a little card to be hung up on a ‘wishing line’ in our offices. Employees may pick a card and buy a gift.

These little gift cards made by children very much in need asking for the smallest of gifts – a painting set, a skipping rope, an umbrella - tugged on my heart strings. I felt very emotional reading them and running my fingers over the little pictures. I picked two cards that particularly touched me - 6 year old Gemma who would like a skipping rope and little Holly, 11, who has asked for a copy of ‘The Hobbit’ which I read for the first time only a few years ago and loved. I hope she loves it as much. I’m looking forward to making one wish come true for these little girls, no matter how small.

Rob has asked that I pick up two cards for him to buy for and a colleague has taken two home from children similar ages to his own so that they can buy gifts. This really brings home the true meaning of Christmas.

On reflection, my week hasn't been so bad after all.

Nigella's Christmas Kitchen

This is a public service announcement. Nigella Lawson's new series, Nigella's Christmas Kitchen, starts tonight at 8pm on BBC Two. Don't miss it!

PS. Let me know what you think after the show.

Crispy and Fluffy Roast Potatoes

The perfect roast potato is crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Forget the complex creations of top chefs, if you can master the roast potato you will be considered a culinary expert by friends and family. After all, who doesn’t love a good roast potato?



I believe there are 4 keys to making really good roast potatoes. They are:

• Choosing a floury potato, such as King Edward or Maris Piper


• Parboiling


• Proper fat, by which I mean goose or duck fat or beef dripping, which is sizzling hot when the pototoes go in


• A hot oven

Parboiling the potatoes before you roast them is what gives them that fluffy inside as they've already started to cook in the middle before they go in the oven. You don’t need to parboil them for long - you’re not cooking them through, just partly cooking them so that a knife will easily pierce them but not go right through.

When the potatoes are parboiled drain them and rough them up so that the edges aren’t as smooth. I drain them in a colander and rough them up inside it by shaking them about.

The fat you use is the one thing that will make the biggest difference to your roast potatoes. The optimum fat is goose fat. This rich fat makes your potatoes taste amazing. I tend to save this for special occasions such as Christmas. You can also use duck fat or beef dripping, both of which will also make your potatoes taste great. Alternatively you can use olive oil.

Whatever your fat or oil, put it in the roasting tray in a hot oven to heat it up before you add your potatoes. Make sure it's really hot, you want a nice sizzle when you add the potatoes. When I add the potatoes I toss them around in the fat so that they get a covering before putting them in the oven.

The oven should be at a high temperature, at least 200c, preferably 225c. At 200c they’ll take about an hour, depending on their size.

About halfway through the cooking time, when the bottoms of the potatoes sitting on the roasting tray are golden and crisp, turn them over.

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate

I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Hotel Chocolat so when they recently opened a branch near me I just had to try their chocolate. Now this was all in the name of research, you understand, and to do a review just for you dear reader. Aren’t I good to you? Well um...ok, so anyway, moving on…

Hotel Chocolat have a fantastic selection of every type of chocolate you could want. Bars and bars of chocolate with different flavours and percentage of cocoa, boxes of beautifully hand finished selections, fruit-filled chocolates that burst in your mouth, pralines, unique slabs of fused chocolate, drinking chocolate, chocolate, chocolate everywhere. A feast for the eyes and for the mouth. The chocolate is smooth, it’s rich, it’s creamy and quite honestly it’s delicious. Perhaps the perfect foodie gift this Christmas?

The Real Thing

Home made gravy is so simple and yet so very special. It’s the make or break of a good roast dinner and once you’ve made and tasted it you’ll never want to use gravy granules again.

Here are the elements and steps for making gravy:

The Roasting Tray
The tray will go on the hob when you start making the gravy so if you’re using gas make sure the tray is flameproof. In my early cooking years I broke a couple of dishes this way with a big bang as they cracked. Avoid pyrex and earthen wear.

Vegetables
I often roast a quartered onion with the meat to give the gravy a good onion base. You can additionally use other vegetables such as carrots and celery. This all adds to the all important flavour. Garlic is good too but remember this is a strong flavour so it will be quite dominant.

Once the meat is cooked remove it from the roasting tray and place the tray on the hob. Leave the vegetables you’ve used for your gravy in the tray at this point.

Remove Excess Fat
Spoon off most of the fat until you’re left with about a tablespoon, making sure you don’t remove the precious juices from the meat which are the primary ingredient for home made gravy. The best way to do this is to tilt the tray so that all the juices and fat are in one corner. The fat is lighter and sits on top of the juices so you should be able to easily see it to remove it.

Thickening
I don’t always add flour but if I want a fairly thick gravy I will add a tablespoon to the tray now. Use plain flour. Stir well over a low to medium heat whilst dislodging all the crusty bits from the tray with your spoon. It will look sludgy and horrible and that’s exactly how you want it to look. The crusty bits all add to the flavour and the flour will start to cook a little.

Liquid
It’s time to add your liquid. Depending on the meat you have, what you have in and your personal taste you can add a glass of wine, port, madeira or marsala if you like. You don’t have to add alcohol but it does give a good flavour to the gravy. I rarely add alcohol to chicken gravy as I find it doesn’t need it, the chicken juices are enough, but sometimes I’ll add a slosh of white wine.

You also add your stock at this stage or even just water if the gravy has enough flavour. Again I find chicken gravy usually has enough flavour so I just use water but other meats tend to need a helping hand. You can add as much or as little stock or water as you like depending on how much gravy you want.

Once you’ve added your liquid bring it to a simmer and keep stirring everything around until it’s well combined. Press on the vegetables with your spoon so that they release their juices

Reduce
Now keep simmering and tasting until you’re happy with the consistency and flavour.

Strain and Serve
Strain the gravy through a sieve and serve.

It’s that simple and takes no time at all. Once you’ve done it once or twice you’ll be able to do it without even thinking in the time it takes to boil the kettle and make up gravy from granules.