Christmas Fare

Oh no!!! That means I have to go and edit the "banned words"

I thought his dad was Tom!!

"Come all ye children to me". They took that literally in Dublin!

TheCat wrote:

Oooooh I love secret family recipes! Very mysterious!

I think they call it a "secret family recipe" so it feels more exclusive and special while you're eating it... the truth is, my aunt probably copied it off the back of a jar of jam or something...

I thought you called jam "jelly" over there?

We have both... Jam is like a thicker jelly... actually, I've never really been sure what the difference is, but we have things with both names.

Sounds like you do a good line in Toe Jam.

Right, I'm going to post the first recipe of the thread, which doesn't sound very Christmassy but I like to have a whole load of different things for the Christmas period rather than just all the traditional grub - this pickle is gorgeous, a bit spicy and just has a lovely flavour and is lush with cheese. I did post this recipe once before on the old forum. It's from the Green World Cookbook of Demuths in Bath and is vegan. I adjusted it slightly so am putting my variation though if anyone wants the original I'll put that up too.

Iranganis' Date Pickle

200ml Rice vinegar
200ml water
2 garlic cloves, crushed
thumb size piece ginger peeled and finely chopped
1/4 cinammon stick
4 cardamon pods crushed
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp salt
250g pitted dates
4 tbsps brown sugar

In a stainless steel saucepan heat the vinegar and water and add the garlic, ginger, all the spices, seeds and salt and simmer for 5 minutes

Chop half the dates into small pieces and leave the rest whole. Add all of the dates and the sugar to the vinegar mix. Stir in and simmer very gently, uncovered, until the dates are soft - about 20 minutes. Leave for cool before transferring to a dish or jar. This pickle will keep forever and a day.

La La wrote:

This pickle will keep forever and a day.

Probably just as well; I can't imagine anyone wanting to eat it!

I iced my Christmas cake today - it looks very....um.....rustic.

Indonesian Black Rice Pudding with coconut cream

Another Demuths one.....a great alternative pudding!

200g black glutinous rice
1 litre water
50g soft brown sugar
1 vanilla pod

Coconut Cream
150ml coconut milk
1 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsps coconut cream

Soak the black rice for 12 hours, rinse and place in a saucepan with the water, sugar and vanilla pod. Bring to the boil and then simmer, uncovered for 1 hour or until the rice is soft and all the water has been absorbed. the rice pudding should be thick and glossy.

Coconut Cream

To make the coconut cream, heat the coconut milk, cocnut cream and sugar together until the sugar has disolved.

Serve the rice pudding topped with hot cocmut cream and finish with sliced tropical fruit such as mango, papaya or lychee and sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Justice wrote:

I iced my Christmas cake today - it looks very....um.....rustic.

Post pics then

Olive, Chickpea and Aubergine Tapenade - serves 6


3 large aubergines
6 tbspns olive oil
125g chickpeas, dried weight
150g black pitted olives
2 garlic cloves. finely chopped
1 tbspns lemon juice
2 tbspns chopped parsley
2 tbspns red peppers finely diced
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Soak the chickpeas overnight and then cook them in plenty of fresh water until tender
Pregeat oven to 220C/Gas7/425F
\prick the aubergines all over and put into the preheated oven for about 45 mins or until they feel soft and look wrinkled
Leave the aubergines to cool, then peel and discard the skins
Chop them roughly and put in a food processor along with the drained, cooked chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil
Puree until smooth, adding water if mixture is too stiff
add the black olives, parsley and chopped red pepper and blend again for a few seconds, retaining the chunky texture.
season to taste
Chill before serving, spread on wholewheat toast

Chestnut, Chocolate and Orange Slice

Serves 6

1 tbspn sunflower oil
225g vegan dark chocolate (or not if not vegan!)
175g sunflower margarine
175g castor sugar
425g tin unsweetened chestnut puree
2 oranges, zest and juice

Line the short sides and base of a 450g loaf tin with a strip of greaseproof paper long enough to hang over at the ends
Oil the lined tin well with the sf oil
Break the chocolate into pieces and melt in a bain marie or in the microwave on the defrost setting
Beat the marg and sugar together until pale and creamy
Beat in the chestnut puree, and zest and juice of oranges
add melted chocolate and stir in
The mixture should be smooth and custard like
Spoon mixture into the prepared tin and smooth top with a palette knife
Chill for at least 10 hours in the frdge until well set
To serve, slide a pallette knife around the edges of the tin and use the overhanging pieces of greaseproof paper to life the slices out of the tin.
Slice thinly and serve with cream or soya cream

Justice wrote:

I iced my Christmas cake today - it looks very....um.....rustic.

Awww, Justice, you do have a romantic, sentimental and slightly nauseating side to you after all. I think your cake looks very... er... nice.

In a vain attempt to counteract the richness and excess of La La's recipes, here is a genuine recipe from Mrs Beaton which was designed for invalids, but would be great if you just want to shed a few pounds after Christmas:

TOAST WATER:
Take one slice of toasted, white bread and steep it in water for one hour. Strain the resulting liquid and discard the toast. Drink it.

[quote="Tom Stephenson"]

Justice wrote:

I iced my Christmas cake today - it looks very....um.....rustic.

Awww, Justice, you do have a romantic, sentimental and slightly nauseating side to you after all. I think your cake looks very... er... nice.
quote]

I know - last thing to do on Christmas Eve is spray it with black food colouring.

That's more like it.

And in my Christmas pudding, rather than a boring old sixpence, I've secreted a rusty but still sharp razor blade for one lucky person to find at Christmas lunch.

Nice cake Justice very pretty and the black touch will make it so special!

Great recipes LaLa, I am going to give the tapenade a go! Thank you.

gallega100 wrote:

Nice cake Justice very pretty and the black touch will make it so special!

Great recipes LaLa, I am going to give the tapenade a go! Thank you.

And I'll listen to this Christmas song "Black Christmas" when I eat it - it's by MDC - the band with the lovely song about John Wayne being a Nazi that Duke liked so much:

Christmas is black for me
No Hope, No Cheer
Christmas is black every year

Sitting all alone in your house
Nobody stirring, not a mouse
You got no money You got no friends
You got no life you don't need to pretend

Sitting there, all alone
Try to ignore the ringing phone
Your bottles empty, your drowned in booze
Don't need to here no bad bad news

There is no joy for me
Christmas is black for me
No hope no cheer
Christmas is black every year

Everyone dies on Christmas
Loneliest time of the year
Everyone cries on Christmas
Oh Christmas, Just fills me with fear

Deck the halls with boughs of Black
Your sisters dead from dealing crack
Was years ago, you were just eighteen
You weren't there but you can hear her scream

Your family waits by the Christmas tree
Just wondering where you might be
Where'd we go wrong, what can we do?
These charming strangers who don't know you

There is no joy for me
Christmas is Black for me
No hope No cheer
Christmas is black every year

I bet your family thank their lucky stars they've got such a cheery soul such as yourself to relax and enjoy the festive season with......

Bloody awful spelling in that "song". No wonder they're lonely. The grammar police came round and confiscated their life. I mean, if you can't use it properly, you don't deserve to have one!!

I don't think the bad spelling and grammar was necessarily the fault of the band. I just copied and pasted it from a numpty lyric site.

Oh well that's me full of Christmas cheer! Thanks Justice (not)

"Numpty lyrics"? The clue is in the name!!