Daily Archives: December 24, 2009

Christmas Eve Cooking

. Christmas, cook books, cooking, family, food, Nigella Lawson

I’m trying to get ahead with my Christmas Day cooking this year, by doing a large chunk of it on Christmas Eve. So today I have made Nigella Lawson’s Cranberry Studded Mincemeat (which as usual is absolutely delicious, although as it turns out I’m the only one who likes it). This year I decided to make my mince pies with puff pastry, so made two varieties, twisted little bags, canape style and little folded ones, considering everyone else has decided they don’t like my mincemeat I’ve got a lot to get through.

Then I got ahead with my roasties, following Nigella Lawson’s (she is the Christmas goddess) but only part cooking as suggested by the cooking lady Kirstie Allsopp got on Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas, so all I’ll have to do it stick them in the oven again for another 25 minutes.

Then I made Nigella’s sticky cocktail sausages (the original post I wrote about those still get’s sooo many hits at this time of year) but once again my philistine taste budded family didn’t like them, well I did.

Then it was making the chocolate yule log (yes, you guessed it, also Nigella). Last time I made a swiss roll I was in school, I think I managed better this time but as usual when I try and ice anything, the result is totally laughable. As you’ll notice for the picture, it’s a rather short yule log. Nigella’s recipe gives, as described, twelve fat slices and I knew we’d never manage that (I had a taste of  a crumb of cake, extremely chocolatey, the sort that will make Boy Lacer’s eyes roll (he was very pleased to come into the kitchen to find me making it), I suppose anything with 50g of Green and Black cocoa powder is going to qualify as extreme in the chocolateness stakes). So I cut the roll in half and half is now in the freezer, uniced (except for in the middle).

I’ve done that quite a lot today, as you may have gathered, my family as a fussy lot and Christmas dinner does not rank high on their ideal meals, so I’m deliberately under playing how much food I do, however, a lot of Christmas recipes are difficult to shrink down, so I’ve been freezing the other half. So I now have two bags of mincemeat, a couple of portions of roast potatoes (mine all mine, I love roast potatoes) and half a chocolate swiss roll in the freezer. So I don’t feel like I’m totally frittering away money here.

Tomorrow’s dinner by the way will be mango, parma ham and rocket salad, where nobody bar me will actually eat the rocket, followed by roast pork belly using a Jamie Oliver recipe, roast potatoes and roasted meditarean vegetable for me and Mr. Lacer and chicken dippers, Waitrose potato rosti and lashings of tomato sauce for the kids, yes I succumbed (Girl Lacer asked point blank for this for Christmas dinner last month). Part of me hates the inclusion of something that basically the kids eat regularly anyway but another part of me thinks a) it’s Christmas, not very nice giving them something they’re not going to eat is it? and more importantly b) it’ll be cheaper because no food will be wasted. And it’ll be yule log for desert.