Spiced fruit like the plums in the previous post can, of course, by enjoyed at any time of the year, but it definitely has a particularly Christmas feel about it. And it doesn't have to be a solely sweet thing - they can be a fine addition to savoury courses too. In the last few days before Christmas, one of the featured recipes on Nigella Lawson's website was her Spiced Peaches - in which she specifically calls for tinned peaches to be used, not fresh, and in syrup rather than the healthier option of those in juice. And what Nigella says must be obeyed.
As with the spiced plums, the recipe could hardly be simpler - tip a can of peach halves into a saucepan with a tablespoon of vinegar, a cinnamon stick, sliced fresh ginger, cloves, peppercorns and dried chilli flakes. Bring to the boil, then turn off and leave to cool. And that's it. They'll keep for a week or so if refrigerated. I only had tinned peach slices in juice in my stash, but did still have most of the tin of apricots in syrup that I'd opened for those meringues in my last post but one, so I reckoned they'd do. Pears would probably be quite nice too.
Nigella particularly recommends having the peaches with hot or cold roast ham. This being a somewhat smaller-scale Christmas than usual, I didn't have any to hand this year, but any cold meats or even cheese would probably be a good accompaniment. I still had eggs on my mind after the "fried egg" apricot meringue, so opted to try mine with a black pudding scotch egg, halving it, taking out the rather loose-fitting boiled egg, sticking in a spiced apricot and then replacing most of the egg (with a small slice removed so it would fit). Not bad. But I did rather wish for a platter of cold meats to be enjoying them with.
As with the spiced plums, the recipe could hardly be simpler - tip a can of peach halves into a saucepan with a tablespoon of vinegar, a cinnamon stick, sliced fresh ginger, cloves, peppercorns and dried chilli flakes. Bring to the boil, then turn off and leave to cool. And that's it. They'll keep for a week or so if refrigerated. I only had tinned peach slices in juice in my stash, but did still have most of the tin of apricots in syrup that I'd opened for those meringues in my last post but one, so I reckoned they'd do. Pears would probably be quite nice too.
Nigella particularly recommends having the peaches with hot or cold roast ham. This being a somewhat smaller-scale Christmas than usual, I didn't have any to hand this year, but any cold meats or even cheese would probably be a good accompaniment. I still had eggs on my mind after the "fried egg" apricot meringue, so opted to try mine with a black pudding scotch egg, halving it, taking out the rather loose-fitting boiled egg, sticking in a spiced apricot and then replacing most of the egg (with a small slice removed so it would fit). Not bad. But I did rather wish for a platter of cold meats to be enjoying them with.
Another good accompaniment to the Christmas roasted meats and leftovers, if you have any, is braised red cabbage, slowly cooked down with spices, sugar and vinegar - the latter not just for flavour, but as it also helps keep the cabbage nice and red in colour by replacing the acidity lost in the cooking process. Cook it without, and it ends up going a bit blue, which isn't the most appetising of colours. This year, I had seen a recipe that calls for the cabbage to be cooked in pineapple juice (presumably providing both sweetness and acidity) and then serving this with pieces of pineapple that have been pickled separately. Having made the mistake of buying a ridiculously large red cabbage, I was looking for different and interesting things to do with it.
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So I wondered if I might end up with rather bluish cabbage after cooking it down with the juice - and yes, I did. There was a good amount of flavour from the added star anise and cloves (the only other ingredients), but otherwise a little bland. I felt it needed both more acidity and sweetness - but then the pickled pineapple (made simply by heating vinegar and water to boiling point, pouring it over the pineapple, chopped into chunks, and allowing to cool) provided just that when dotted on top. It was like having little sweet and sour nuggets among the spicy cabbage.
I suppose the recipe specified adding these at the end so the pineapple didn't take on the purpley-blue colour of the cabbage, which quickly stains anything it touches, but I wondered if this almost 'deconstructed' method might just have been better if put back together - cabbage, spices, vinegar and the pineapple all cooked together, which would then have kept everything nice and red too. I may try that too - there's still quite a lot of my huge red cabbage left.
After that, I'll probably give the red cabbage a rest until next Christmas - which I hope will be a much more normal one, spent with the family and enjoying the full traditional Christmas dinner (and, more importantly as far as I am concerned, all its delicious leftovers). With Covid-19 cases surging in England and London and the South East going rather last-minute into Tier 4, effectively banning any meeting up between households for the festivities, I had my first ever Christmas by myself. Which was fine actually - it was always going to be a different one this year, so I made no attempt to make it a normal Christmas and just took the day at my own pace, doing whatever I fancied.
There was no point therefore going for the full-on palaver of a roast turkey with all the trimmings for just one person. But what to cook instead? At one point I thought I might not bother with anything even remotely fancy at all, and just have beans on toast. That would feel a little sad though, so maybe something else tinned, but a little more festive. A conversation with a friend who was going to be roasting a duck made me think about those tins of duck confit you sometimes see in French delis - usually a couple of duck legs cooked long and slow in a huge amount of the bird's own fat. That sounded pretty good, and would just be a case of reheating it rather than having to cook it from scratch, but I couldn't find a tin in any of the three French shops I went to. One of them had jars of the stuff, but I wasn't interested. They did all have tins of duck cassoulet, which is pieces of duck slowly cooked with white beans and Toulouse sausage, which I thought would be the next best thing. In the last shop they also had goose cassoulet, which seemed even better - a little more festive, as goose used to be the traditional Christmas bird before turkey became more popular, but still very different to a normal Christmas dinner. And I'd be able to have really decadent beans on toast with the leftovers - so I bought a tin.
There was no point therefore going for the full-on palaver of a roast turkey with all the trimmings for just one person. But what to cook instead? At one point I thought I might not bother with anything even remotely fancy at all, and just have beans on toast. That would feel a little sad though, so maybe something else tinned, but a little more festive. A conversation with a friend who was going to be roasting a duck made me think about those tins of duck confit you sometimes see in French delis - usually a couple of duck legs cooked long and slow in a huge amount of the bird's own fat. That sounded pretty good, and would just be a case of reheating it rather than having to cook it from scratch, but I couldn't find a tin in any of the three French shops I went to. One of them had jars of the stuff, but I wasn't interested. They did all have tins of duck cassoulet, which is pieces of duck slowly cooked with white beans and Toulouse sausage, which I thought would be the next best thing. In the last shop they also had goose cassoulet, which seemed even better - a little more festive, as goose used to be the traditional Christmas bird before turkey became more popular, but still very different to a normal Christmas dinner. And I'd be able to have really decadent beans on toast with the leftovers - so I bought a tin.
In the end though, taking advantage of my local supermarket selling off its fresh produce for next to nothing on Christmas Eve, I changed my mind, threw tradition totally out of the window, and made a fish curry instead. There was still a tinned element though - a tin of chopped tomatoes, and one of coconut milk that was so out of date it had gone entirely solid in the tin and could be scooped out like ice cream. It quickly melted down though, and made for a very creamy and fragrant curry. I'm glad I made plenty as the leftovers seemed to improve in flavour each day.
So, the goose cassoulet will have to wait for another time. Given that it its best before date is in 2024, there's no rush, so we could be well back to normal life before I get round to it.
For dessert, I had spotted these tins on the shelves at Tesco a couple of weeks back which immediately caught my attention - limited edition Christmas tins!
For dessert, I had spotted these tins on the shelves at Tesco a couple of weeks back which immediately caught my attention - limited edition Christmas tins!
Disappointingly though, they are just Christmas labels - no difference in the products themselves. Could custard be made more Christmassy though? What would you add? What would you call it? I'm not sure "Chrustard" would sell very well. I bought a totally non-festive tin of cheap custard instead (of a rather startling shade of yellow) and started to investigate.
A spoonful of mincemeat, perhaps? The taste isn't bad, but it doesn't look particularly appetising. Maybe mincemeat would have been better in the rice pudding instead.
How about an orangey flavour? I had bought a mini Christmas pudding that included a "hidden" clementine in the middle, so a similar-flavoured custard to go with it seemed a nice idea. I also happened to have a jar of clementine curd, so mixed that in. This was much better - with the custard's own slight vanilla flavour, it was very slightly reminiscent of a Terry's White Chocolate Orange, but a lot less horrifically sickly. And it went very well with the pudding.
As ever though, the best bet when in doubt is to add some alcohol. After all, we have brandy cream, brandy butter and so on at Christmas - why not brandy custard? Spoon it over mince pies or Christmas pudding, or just straight into your mouth. Or use rum, add a grating of nutmeg, and sip from a glass for a cheat's version of eggnog.
Yes, I'm drinking alcoholic custard from a glass. With no shame whatsoever. 2020 has been tough, and it's been a very unusual Christmas - so quite frankly, anything goes this year!
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