More frugal food

This week we had roast lamb - a half shoulder, reduced price at Sainsbury's.  We had some leftover which I used today with onions, ras el hanout, apricots, pine nuts and left over peas in a lamb pilaf - 2 frugal points for that dish.  The ultra frugal rice pudding - re-using one of the bits of vanilla pod from the sugar pot, and a long strip of lemon peel.  Utterly delicious.

I couldn't easily cook this week, so Tuesday was sausages, mash and cauliflower cheese (40p cauli from the farm shop).   The rest of the cauliflower cheese, with some onion, lamb stock and left over swede, and a bit of elderly Danish blue, became soup for lunch.  Wednesday we had this really wonderful cheap dish - it requires an onion, a tin of borlotti or other beans, a carton of passata and some herbs and spices - top with a spoon of sour cream or creme fraiche and some tortilla chips.  It is terribly nice and comforting, and quite filling, although on this occasion I cheated and added some left over mince (I had made burgers, and had some left over - another frugal point, in the old days I would have used all the meat and eaten more burgers.)  Eating less is another way of being frugal.   Tonight we had the pilaf, and tomorrow we are either going to have red bean curry.  We have been spending a lot less at the supermarket - but then again, I am using the vouchers they send me to stock up for Christmas - we now have a good deal of gin, crackers, snacks, and the cellar still contains a lot of spirits - including, oh joy, some pineau de charentes... which I love.  We will need some cheap fizz and some cheap red for mulled wine and a few pleasant bottles to take to people's houses.  I also want to make a great deal of fudge and truffles to take around too.   I am hoping we will get out a bit. So far, we've had one party invite.

Saturday is going to be pizza.  We haven't had it for a few weeks...it's pretty frugal.

Wicked Tescos
They have sent us vouchers - £9 off if you spend £90 - decent, but I prefer the Sainsbury's offer which is a tenner off if you spend £60 - it's certainly more generous, this week it's £14 off if I spend £60 - so that's where I'm going.  I keep count as I put stuff in the trolley - but I do occasionally get lost... I spent £81 last week - when I thought I was around the £70 mark.  But the excuse was about £40 of Christmas stocking up - and catfood of course.  

Quinces hoary

Some time ago some friends of mine who were doing Virgil, reading a translation of the Georgics enjoyed this translation "quinces hoary" of a phrase in a list of things the humble rustic grew in his garden (I think).  They are tough little buggers quinces, I finally dealt with the last of them today.  I used some to make eau de vie - and some of the first batch I used for jelly, I used the pulp to make a really delicious chutney.  I am going to give tiny quantities of the eau de vie to my family for Christmas.  The grated quince is already steeping in brandy - I used a couple of quinces to cook some pork fillet with.  The last quinces have made a second tiny batch of jelly - which I think has a better flavour, suggesting that the quinces have continued to ripen.

Unfortunately I left the quince pulp hanging around, and it got mouldy, so I couldn't do a second batch of chutney.  

I am really excited about the quince eau de vie, and I so wish I had made some more blackberry gin - we had some at supper on 11th October, and it was quite delicious.

Supper!

Yes - I am finally having people around to supper again.  A motley crew - which has just acquired a couple of vegetarians.  I had this idea of entertaining - thought we might just be able to afford it - but am, of necessity, making it a very simple meal.

We will probably be eating:

Some sort of veggie nibbles - not sure what.

Caponata with focaccia.

Chicken & prunes, a veggie thing (some sort of twice baked souffle?), some extra starch (rice/bulgar), a nice veg. like zucchini scapece... lots of salad  (ME chopped salad probably with lots of herbs)

Tarte tatin (may have to do 2 as there will be 12 of us) - with home made ice cream or creme caramel?  Or perhaps a giant creme brulee - "the charter"

Cheese and bics and walnut bread?  Or buy a baguette...

Aubergines are very seasonal - so a point for that, home-made bread gets a point, or two, the main course is fairly economical - and the tarte tatin will use our own apples.  So, as long as we have a plentiful supply of wine - and I don't drink too much... all should be well.

Food of the Poor

This is a lovely recipe - it has 5 ingredients: rice, brown lentils, onions, oil and salt.    The important thing is to make sure to fry far more onions than you think you need.  I reckon it costs about £1 for 4 people - if I can find cheap onions at the farm shop.  I got the recipe from the Claudia Roden Middle Eastern Food book - and we eat it quite often - its real name is megdarrah.    Tonight I discovered that 200g of lentils and 200g of rice was a bit too much for 3 of us.  Perhaps 150g would be enough.  I won't put the recipe here - I'm sure it's available if you Google it.

We ate it with Greek yoghurt and a chopped vegetable salad - which puts the price up somewhat - maybe to £2?  The salad is a bit of cucumber, a couple of tomatoes, a spring onion or two and half a pepper, add any available herbs (mint and coriander and parsley are best) a little lemon juice and some oil - don't forget the salt.

Another disguise for Quinces

As the quinces ripen I find myself wondering what I will do with them this year.  Everyone likes quince jelly in theory - but quince cheese is a bit of a drug on the market.  I have discovered a rather nice idea for it though - make a really nice lemon short pastry and turn it into a tart with a lattice covering the layer of softened quince cheese... I will try it - soon.

I am also thinking of trying a quince eau de vie this year.  Could be very nice.

Ratafia

This, I discovered a couple of years ago, is a sort of eau de vie flavoured with grapes.  I had some grapes my father sent me which were very sweet, but with a very poor seed to flesh ratio.  As they were beginning to go off I thought I needed to do something.  I duly found Jane Grigson's ratafia recipe - and shoved the grapes through the mouli legumes and then squeezed the whole mush through a muslin - it is decidedly cloudy and very reddish in colour.  The 800 g of grapes yielded about 300ml of juice which I made up to 400ml with some of my famous French alcohol for fruit... and we shall see if it yields anything worth drinking... if it can't be drunk it can certainly be cooked with.

Food diary last week

Monday:  M was away so Finn and I had pea risotto - which is always lovely, and there was loads left - I contemplated turning it into arancini, but failed to.  Apple pudding (2 points)

Tuesday: had a lovely lunch with friends, the pepper and tomato soup, the "perm any 3" salad - i.e. leaves and some sort of dressing with the addition of any of the following: blue cheese, goat cheese, bacon, avocado, fried bread, nuts, seeds, onions, tomatoes, cucumber, etc.   On this occasion it was goat cheese, bacon, croutons, spring onions, cherry tomatoes and cucumber.  Then we had cheese and windfalls.

Despite having drink taken I managed to make Troo cabbage, which is a great frugal meal - a cabbage filled with sausage, butter, salt and pepper.  Unfortunately I didn't manage to pay proper attention, and it was a bit burned - oh dear.

Wednesday:  M had to go out early, so F and I finished the risotto (1 point).  M had an omelette.

Thursday: Rabbit stew, made with a wild rabbit I bought at the local farmers market for £3.60 - I used a Hairy Bikers recipe which was meant to be fairly traditional, but wasn't enormously tasty - don't know why not, it had cider, thyme, bay leaves, good chicken stock, salt and pepper... so why not?  I feel it needed something - mustard?  Also, too much flour I think (carrots and peas too).  Finn didn't want to eat rabbit - had a little said he didn't like it.  Ate the veg and some pommes etuvees which accompanied it.

Friday:  Bought fish and chips.

Saturday:  Home made pizza - mine with roast veg, everyone else had a mix of ham and chorizo and roast pepper and olives.  I also made garlic bread.

Sunday:  Pork ribs in BBQ sauce, plus rice and peas, plus pineapple salsa and a cabbage and carrot salad with vaguely oriental flavourings.  (1 point for using up a very senior pineapple)

We have had no puddings, but I did make flapjacks on Friday - which have lasted over the weekend - and I did use some apples and used up some alcoholic jam by slicing them, covering with the jam and topping with crunched up amaretti.   Finn said "not more apples" but really liked them.   

Beauty of Bath

A friend has identified our mysterious apple tree - I've always found it very annoying - it ripens early, but the apples have a perfumed taste that is completely overwhelmed if you eat them with the skins on by the terrible tannins... they aren't so well flavoured when you cook with them, although you can - and I don't usually use them that much.  I tend to make them into apple jelly and freeze a certain amount for future use.

Anyway - she thinks it's a Beauty of Bath - which is a rather lovely name, and nice to be connected to the place - in a weird way.  Always something there to remind me... as the song says.  It is an eating apple, but since about 85% of the apples are either bruised or have a worm in them, one doesn't really have much desire to eat them without giving them a serious peeling and chopping first.  Nevertheless, we managed to eat a couple yesterday - and they are very pretty - when they are ripe they have a pink tinged flesh.

Now I am rather sorry I haven't given them more attention - perhaps I shall give the tree some more attention this year.  It has wrens hanging around it... so I definitely think it's making a contribution to the garden's biodiversity.

Irish Apple Bread

It isn't bread - but it's a cakey pudding that I've been making for years, a recipe that came from my Irish grandmother - a food that's simple, and v.v. frugal.

It's such an old recipe that I can only remember the imperial measurements - but I'll try to translate.  The imperial version makes enough for 5-6 people - the metric would be a little smaller.

8oz/200g  self raising flour
4oz/100g  granulated sugar
4oz/100g  butter (chopped into small pieces) or margarine
1lb/400g  cooking apples, peeled and sliced
1 egg
pinch of salt, 1 tsp baking powder,
milk to mix
blanched almond, optional,
brown sugar and flakes of butter for toping

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, add chopped butter, then mix in the apple slices with the egg and enough milk to make a smoother mixture.   Put into suitable tin, lined with baking parchment, sprinkle brown sugar on top, with flakes of butter and flakes of almond if liked (this is not in the original - this is a luxury version!).  Put in oven gas 5/190 degrees for about 30-40 minutes until brown and firm.  Allow to cool slightly, peel off parchment and cool on a rack to stop it being too damp.

It doesn't sound very exciting, and I haven't got a photo to show - but it really is delicious with or without cream, hot or cold.  Many variations are possible, add nutmeg or cinnamon or lemon or orange zest to change the flavour - mix the sugar for the topping with some ground almonds, or crushed amaretti, lovely.  You can also use eating apples.

Frugal points

While I was writing the previous blog entry I noticed how many frugal activities I was undertaking... so I thought I would start assessing my cooking in terms of its frugality.

I thought one could just adopt a simple points system - a point for any of the following

Using reduced price food
Using up elderly food from the fridge
Finishing up stuff  before it goes off- e.g. the rest of a packet of passata or pot of cream that had been primarily used for something else
Creative disguise of food that has gone off a bit i.e. not dangerously (e.g. putting fermented jam into trifle)
Using your own, free produce.
Homegrown produce
Foraged produce
Using your own homemade ingredients (chutneys, vinegars, marmalade, bread etc.)
Using low energy cooking methods - microwave, remoska, haybox!
Using something v.v. cheap as the major ingredient - e.g. a 29p pack of spaghetti.
Using up elderly food on the shelves
Freezing self-cooked food for future consumption

Obviously everyone's level of frugality varies - for some a foray into Aldi for a lobster might earn a frugal point... for some a cheap ingredient would be considerably more than 29p... but you get the picture.

This week I have been mostly eating...

Friday: fish pie - I love fish pie, but felt this one was a bit bland - dill or mustard would have helped... or lemon zest in the sauce? Or just tons of parsley?  Frugal note: frozen fish pie mix (same components at Tesco) is cheaper than the fresh variety - and may, conversely, be fresher.  There was enough left to freeze for another day*

Saturday: what did we eat on Saturday?  I raided the fridge for left overs* - 4 herb sausages, a lot of double cream on the turn... sausages converted to meat balls, fried up with onions and garlic, all the squishy tomatoes* added and cooked until soft - then add a little tomato puree, a little passata and a couple of spoons of cream - eat with pasta - spaghetti* 29p a packet in this case. It was too creamy, a little bland - horror. I should have added lots of basil at the end or put some dried oregano in at the beginning, or nutmeg - or anything really!  M&I don't eat puddings - so we aren't having any at present as Finn is trying not to either.

Sunday: we went to the local Cliftonville "farmers" market.  I bought a nice cabbage* - some local "Gruff" goat cheese - some local honey mustard, a pack of rabbit joints (£3.80 v. reasonable), and two pork and stilton pies for our lunch.  I also acquired a bag of beef bones £1* and some brawn.

In the evening I made a really nice lamb and apricot stew with some neck fillet that I'd got half-price*... and fried with onion, chopped carrots garlic, coriander, ginger - I added some water I'd been blanching apples in (* because free additional flavour), and a ladle from the (chicken) stockpot *- salt and pepper - after half an hour I added some soaked apricots, and ten minutes later some blanched slivered almonds and some chopped coriander leaves (leftover from last week's feast*).   We ate this with plain couscous.  It was utterly delicious, but could have done with a little more liquid.  I will try and do it with some cheaper bits of meat - but doubt whether it would be as nice.

We had Irish apple bread (well, I didn't) afterwards.  This was made with our own apple*, which have been fantastic this year - and a few slivered almonds.  I made it in the Remoska* - a worktop electric oven/cooker - as an experiment - which seemed to work quite well.  The Remoska uses virtually no energy compared with putting on a gas oven for 40 minutes.   So even more frugal points there.

So in the last 3 days I have accrued 11 "frugal points" - this is a nice game to play... think I'll do a separate post about it. 

Carbo-charged frugality

It is true that if one wants to eat cheaply one has to make the most of lots of carbohydrate foods.  Sadly even these are getting more expensive.  Basic supermarket pasta is about double the price it was 3-4 years ago, and bags of flour are about 3 times more expensive.  All the beans and pulses have risen in price - as has rice, but I think rice hasn't risen as much as the others.  I have invested in large bags of arborio rice from the wholesaler, and lots of basmati too, so rice may be going to feature quite a lot in the next few weeks.

My only quibble with this is that carbs are not exactly an ideal diet for me.  I need to try and ensure there are plenty of veg in the diet too... to cut down the carbs, and perhaps I should refrain from pasta more than once a week.

Polenta is a good new thing we can now eat without annoying Ned - Finn and Mark both like it and it doesn't seem quite so pernicious as other carbiforms.  So we can have that in various ways, bean stew enlivened with some sausage and pimenton eaten with a slab or two of grilled polenta seems a likely forthcoming attraction.  We can eat more couscous (another pet hate of Ned's sadly), and of course all the Spanish and Italian rice dishes we like - Ned for some reason is not keen on these, although in fairness, I got him round to bolognese sauce, so I expect he will eventually like the aroz amb forn sort of dish that I sometimes make.  Finn likes the leftovers turned into arancini di riso - so there's lot of potential there.

The ultimate frugal carbfest is the Arabic dish called megdarrah (spelling?) or Food of the Poor - a mix of lentils and rice, topped with friend onions.  As long as I can still get good cheap farm shop onions, all will be well.

Flour based foods - well, mostly pizza in our case, home-made bread of course - and occasionally scones.  I am eschewing pies on the whole - all that fat in the pastry... lethal!

And then potatoes - these have also almost doubled in price at the farm shop recently - a huge bag used to be about £7 - it's gone to £10 - but the half bags are now £7 and sometimes they don't have the cheaper whole bags - which are I think about 25kg - does that sound right?  I don't know, but they normally take about 3 months to get through.    But there are plenty of potato options... various sliced potatoes with attitude - i.e. ingredients to zing them up - anchovies (no!), bacon, onions, cream, gruyere etc.

One of the policies this autumn is not just to be frugal but deliberately to eat less meat - to ensure we have at least one meatless meal, and work towards two, although I think meals like pizza which don't use much meat are permissible, or at least count towards meatless if not actually achieving it.

The challenge is to find lots of frugal food which is meatless, very delicious and also not too fattening.  I do not wish to undo all my good work.  I want to get down at least one dress size by the spring and lose about a stone by Christmas.

Food diary 1 - Left overs & frugality

On Monday we had pork cheek casserole - because I had accidentally defrosted some, thinking I could use them for the pie I made on Friday.  I fried the pig cheeks, added some sliced leeks, then topped up with chicken stock and a little bit of wine, and some thyme and then cooked it for about two hours.  I did that on Saturday - while I was making the feast...  On Monday I reheated it, took a lot away to freeze, then added some slices of apple from our tree, a couple of tablespoons of sour cream to the stew and served it with mashed potato, cauliflower polonaise and peas.   For pudding there was left-over zuppa inglese.

On Tuesday I unearthed some bolognese sauce - and we had spaghetti bolognese.  And left over pudding, brownies etc.

On Wednesday (today) I was having a frugal, meatless moment and we experimented with Quorn... I had bought a box of Quorn burgers a while back, because they were cheap.  These chicken flavoured ones were not unpleasant, we may have them again, since Finn liked them a lot and they are very low on points.  Oven chips were discovered to be really rather disgusting compared with the real, triple-cooked ones I made last week (surprise! surprise!) and I didn't have any - but I had cauliflower and potato cakes instead, which were rather delicious (Monday's left overs mixed together with egg white and fried).  More brownies for them.

The plan for the rest of the week is that we should have a proper risotto tommorrow - risi e bisi, and a fish pie on Friday.  On Saturday we may have the virtually traditional pizza - or perhap scoff a bag of frozen barbecue stuff I bought.   On Sunday I think we will have a delicacy such as lamb fillet (found some reduced today), so I want to find something really nice to do with that (it must not involve anchovies - Finn is very suspicious of lamb since he discovered I used anchovies when doing shoulder/roast leg)..

Now that my beloved eldest son has gone of to University I feel freed up to cook all sorts of things he didn't like.  Finn will not enjoy fish pie - but that doesn't matter - he can have frankfurters or something.  I also feel the need for frugal food... but doubt whether I can lure Finn to eat offal - probably be better off with pure vegetable mixtures.

At present I am trying to roll the money as thin as it will go.  Our freezer is full and we need to eat it down a bit.  The supermarkets have already begun to fill up with Christmas goods - I bought an experimental box of cheese biscuits - I am assuming we will have enough money for cheese at Christmas - a bit!

What I am mostly eating....

We had a big family party last weekend - this is what I made for 20 people.

Hoummous and crudites, tomato focaccia, rosemary focaccia, sticky sausages

A pork pie of immense proportions, a chicken and sausagemeat pie,  stoved potatoes,  couscous salad with roast vegetables and goat cheese, spiced rice salad, green salad, beetroot salad, spiced cucumber salad, sourdough bread.

Zuppa inglese, toffee apple cheese cake and a variety of cheeses (St. Agur, Shropshire red, Chaource, Camembert).

I think people were somewhat overwhelmed by the sight of the pies - unfortunately I don't have a picture - but they looked great.

On Sunday we went out to lunch - in Thetford - where we found a mysterious Portuguese restaurant called Cheers.  It had quite a few Portuguese lunchers - and when we left we felt as if we had had a brief exposure to European life.  The food was insanely oily - or rather, my clams were - but the monkfish and prawns were OK, Mark liked his pork and clam dish, and Ned was delighted with his steak which he cooked on the hot stone at the table.  So far, so home made feeling - which I rather liked, especially as the prices were low too.  Then the three of us shared a "torta biscotta" - a very simple dish - basically layers of whipped cream with biscuits dipped in coffee - extraordinarily delicious.

Drinking vin d'orange

This is the sequel: for some reason I didn't put enough sugar in, make a nice, bitter aperitif - but I think I might have to slightly increase the sugar content next time.  Also, on this occasion there was a lot of "lees" - and even after 8 weeks the mixture was continuing to ferment - so when it was bottled it was necessary to put the lids on loosely to allow gas to continue to escape.

I strained it several times through muslin - but it didn't really do the trick.  I am not sure why this has happened, but my guess is that the weather has been so cold that the fermentation has been slower.  There has been a little fermentation before, and we once tragically lost a whole bottle when the thing overflowed when it opened...and someone wasn't speedy enough to put the top back on - so.

The other essential for enjoying vin d'orange is sunshine - and although our garden is looking pretty, green and floriferous, yet there hasn't been the "right sort of sunshine" and most of our vin d'orange has been consumed in a chilly, grey atmosphere.  

Something else to do with Seville oranges

Actually, there are tons of things - I made a wonderful Seville orange granita one year, and I'm sure it would do a good ice cream as well.  But the most favoured use of the oranges in this house is making vin d'orange.  This is a knock-out aperitif which is almost addictive.  The drawback is, you can't drink it for 2 months - then again, we wouldn't want to drink it before April usually.

On this occasion I was the proud possessor of the remains of a wine box of rose wine which had gone "past its sell by date".  So although it was not terribly unpleasant to drink, it was a bit flat - dull and unexciting, but this is not problem for vin d'orange.  Take 1.5 lits rose, cheap is good - expensive probably better, but I've never tried, slice 5 seville oranges and a lemon and mix into a large sealable container with the wine (I use a big square tupperware style box).  Then take a vanilla pod, scrape the seads into the mix, add 100ml dark rum and 250 ml vodka and 300 g caster sugar (granulated is fine).   Mix them up, seal them up and keep in a    cool place for 6-8 weeks (this means my cellar - the recipe says chill, so a fridge might be better.).   After 6-8 weeks strain, bottle and serve chilled.

I think there is too much vodka in this, we usually find the drink rather strong - two glasses seems absurd at times.  So this time we used about 150 ml vodka - and hope for the best.

The real trick is whether you can make the vin d'orange last the 6-8 weeks it takes to make the next batch. Perhaps I should just buy another box.   You can also make this wine with sweet oranges - add a bit more lemon or a bit less sugar - it won't be the same but it will still be wonderful.

Marmalade

I haven't made marmalade for a couple of years,  The last time I made it I was meant to be giving a "masterclass" to Claire Dugue - but we started drinking and laughing and forgot about the marmalade which turned into an orangey glue... it loosened up a bit after a few months apparently, but I was deeply ashamed of this terrible production.

This year, feeling ashamed at having had to BUY marmalade, I made a vast quantity.  I made two very large jars to give to aging parents (Stella and Peter) and the rest about 450 g jars - 18 of them.   I used about 3kgs of oranges, and about 5.5kg of sugar.  I do not like to use 1:2 ratio as it is much too sweet to my taste - I also use a mix of granulated sugar (about 70-80%) with dark muscovado sugar.  I bought a 5kg bag of sugar for £4.95 - and the oranges were about 65p per kg (I bought about 3.5kg - the rest I used elsewhere).  The only other ingredient was a lemon and the muscavado sugar, say £1.50 in all... and of course the gas used to cook it.  I started at about 11.30 this morning and finished at about 5.15 - so approximately 5 hours work really... but some of the boiling time was usefully occupied doing other things.

So, 20 jars of marmalade for £8.50 - about 45p a jar,. not a bad bargain at all - bet I could sell them for £2.50 or so if I put pretty labels and covers on them.... but there's no outlet for that, unless I revive my market stall.  But it would be £40 for 5 hours work - £8.00 an hour.  Quite a good whack locally.  I doubt if I could make any other product quite so cheaply... apple chutney perhaps - and if I ever had a bumper quince crop...

The trick that has really made marmalade making a joy, is being able to wash the grotty old pots in the dishwasher - spending hours scrubbing at them and drying them in the oven was a terrible bore. 

Christmas leftovers

There's no shortage of advice on this topic.  I make all the usual turkey curries, and turkey pasta bakes etc.  I saw a very good savoury Bath bun - with turkey stuffing and cranberry filling, instead of the usual fruit filling - which I didn't have a chance to try.

On 6th January I had an "End of Christmas" party - which was great.  I really wanted to get rid of all the Christmas goodies - but ended up with a lot left, because people brought so many nice things.

One thing I did was this, to use up old cheese, cranberry sauce and a packet of filo that was in tatters when I opened it. It was remarkably delicious.

Cranberry & Cheese Baklava

(my recipe)

1 small packet of filo, can be broken up, scraps of fio

Melted butter,

Grated cheese – any mix – basic leftovers

Leftover cranberry sauce – pref. Homemade.,

Mix cranberry with grated cheese

Butter baking dish, put in a layer of bits of filo, dribbled with melted butter, then put in a layer of cheese mix – cover with more layers of filo – and melted butter.  Another layer of cheese, then cover with filo, paint with butter, put into Oven 4-5 at top for 30 mins.... cut into squares immediately – leave to cool for a short time, serve warm.

Sorry about the lack of quantities - it doesn't really matter very much, if you like it fruity put in more cranberry, more cheese if you like it less fruity,  I used c. 100g cheese which included goat cheese and feta cheese, and about 5 tbsps of cranberry sauce, quite a tart homemade one.  It was quite a good balance.  This will make a small tray of "baklava" - can be cut into c. 24 bits.   

Christmas cooking

Now that it's over, I can think about it a bit more clearly.

This year I delved into Elizabeth David - her Christmas recommendations are always rather good - traditional British foods using domestic ingredients - not a lot of virgin olive oil required.

I made absolutely traditional things: gammon studded with cloves (2!) a tongue (a regular feature) and spiced beef - which was a new one on me.  I saw some heavily reduced silverside in Sainsbury's - £7.50 for a sizeable piece - froze it for a week or so, and took it out to make it.  I was a little suspicious of it, because it spends all its time outside the fridge... it was a little salty, but the spices (all spice, pepper and juniper berries) came through well - and the lack of saltpetre was not a problem - it was a nice enough colour - looking like well-cooked cold roast beef.  It cut into nice thin slices, lovely with all those pickles and chutnies and lasted several days.

I made a new mincemeat recipe - using clarified butter rather than suet - it was delicious and of course, suitable for vegetarians.  I wish I could make a decent crumbly soft pastry for them.  We also had a new Christmas pudding recipe - which was utterly delicious the best ever - no stout, no treacle so it didn't look quite so Victorian.  I always found those very dark puddings a bit of a shock.  I made "brandy butter" ice cream which was rather nice - but it's necessary not to eat it until it's slightly melted, otherwise there's a slightly off greasy mouth feeling - not good!  I also made the usual Myrtle Allen Ballymaloe Christmas cake which I like - it's lighter I feel than the Jane Grigson one I used to make.

As usual we had turkey - the boys all wanted it.  I made the usual chestnut and sausagemeat stuffing - I found it a bit bland this year, even though I'd improved it with chopped chestnuts, etc.  More salt and pepper  perhaps?

We had three large meals - Mark's birthday - I made croquetas de jamon, then hot baked ham with cumberland sauce, pommes dauphinoise, and other veg. followed by Christmas pudding, brandy butter ice cream and chocolate brownies and vanilla ice cream for the children.

The second was Christmas Day - we had turkey, followed by the Bakewell Cheesecake - which really is delicious.

The final delights were on 29th December when my family came.  Polly brought chicken pies and green beans, and fantastic cheeses, and a wonderful chocolate cake ( a Nigella Lawson Chocolate and Marsala cake).  Coellie brought some party snacks for pre-dinner drinks and I made tongue, ham and spiced beef and salads, and a trifle and the Yule log.

Yule log works well with chocolate ganache icing rather than butter icing - and the filling of chestnut and whipped cream was fine, but needed more vanilla.  I always forget that the plain chestnut puree needs a lot of things added to it to make it better - whether used in savory or sweet things.