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Seasonal catering
Dec. 30th, 2020 11:55 amThere's no great excitement to cooking Christmas dinner: I'm happy to go traditional, with a roast bird and all the trimmings, and I don't feel any urge to get creative about the bird, either. I've cooked goose, and liked it well enoughL better cold than hot, and the supply of goose fat for roast potatoes through the months that followed better still. But the bird generated more fat than even I could use, and less in the way of leftovers - the fun part of the exercise, as far as I'm concerned. I've cooked turkey, and occasionally been pleased with the results, but mostly found it (the breasr, at least) too dry and bland. So, left to my own devices, I boil a ham for Christmas Eve, roast a chicken on Christmas Day, and build the following week's meals around the results.
So there has been chicken and stuffing pie with a suet crust (memo to self: the sausagemeat and dried fruit stuffing was good, do it again; suet pastry also good but you need less than you think), and there has been lentil soup, and the cranberry sauce has been baked in a sponge pudding (hot with cream, and the remains tonight cold with custard) and ham with pasta; there is more soup in the freezer, and sprouts, and enough chicken and stock to make paëlla when I can buy some seafood. There's still enough ham for sandwiches of some kind, but - hooray! - there is some free space in the fridge.
In other years I might have enjoyed shopping for interesting wines to accompany - more than accompany, to orchestrate our lunch, make it into an occasion; well, that wasn't going to happen this year. But there was a Gaillac from a case of white wine from the southwest of France which we'd ordered from the Wine Society (because mmm, Gaillac); there was a Châteauneuf from our stash of Rhône (also from the Wine Society) and - a pleasant surprise, because I don't remember ordering it, but a half bottle of South African sticky from The Liberator, which seems also to be a Wine Society project (with labels worthy of Randall Grahm). Ours was in fact Napoleon Bona Part Three Paarl 2001: "Liquid tarte tatin springs to mind," says the Wine Society, "leaning more towards homemade caramel toffee on the palate." It was luscious and raisiny, and I'd order more, except that the Liberator range is built on one-offs, so I can't.
So there has been chicken and stuffing pie with a suet crust (memo to self: the sausagemeat and dried fruit stuffing was good, do it again; suet pastry also good but you need less than you think), and there has been lentil soup, and the cranberry sauce has been baked in a sponge pudding (hot with cream, and the remains tonight cold with custard) and ham with pasta; there is more soup in the freezer, and sprouts, and enough chicken and stock to make paëlla when I can buy some seafood. There's still enough ham for sandwiches of some kind, but - hooray! - there is some free space in the fridge.
In other years I might have enjoyed shopping for interesting wines to accompany - more than accompany, to orchestrate our lunch, make it into an occasion; well, that wasn't going to happen this year. But there was a Gaillac from a case of white wine from the southwest of France which we'd ordered from the Wine Society (because mmm, Gaillac); there was a Châteauneuf from our stash of Rhône (also from the Wine Society) and - a pleasant surprise, because I don't remember ordering it, but a half bottle of South African sticky from The Liberator, which seems also to be a Wine Society project (with labels worthy of Randall Grahm). Ours was in fact Napoleon Bona Part Three Paarl 2001: "Liquid tarte tatin springs to mind," says the Wine Society, "leaning more towards homemade caramel toffee on the palate." It was luscious and raisiny, and I'd order more, except that the Liberator range is built on one-offs, so I can't.
