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.