Delia Smith Christmas.

[LucilleBluth]

I'm watching her old Christmas series from the 90s. So far she has cooked some very random stuff, handled a raw goose then touched the salt and pepper grinders and given an explanation about what pesto is.

I was 10 in 1990...was good really this grim, I don't remember.

Prunes in almanac anyone? Gravlax tartlets with a rolled out bread base?

Yes, some of the "cheat" ingredients weren't up to scratch (tinned fried onions springs to mind). However I bought a Kenwood Mini-chopper on the basis of that series and it is used at least weekly 20 or so years later, that's been a great find.

I love watching her Christmas ones. Soooo dated. No one has a Christmas like that.

I remember watching a Christmas episode of Men Behaving Badly. Where Gary attempted to cook like Delia with the prunes.

I'm making her Christmas cake x 8 this year (family and friends!) Plus only yesterday made the chocolate, fruit and nut mascarpone cheesecake from the Christmas book - a classic.

Another Delia fan here. I've been making her Christmas pudding and mincemeat for 20 years. I've bought her budget cookery book this year too. I now have to adapt recipes more though due to allergies but she is still my go to 😊

I watched a bit of a fanny craddock program last year - god she was awful! She was making some sort of dessert - my god, an absolute fuckton of icing sugar was the "dusting" on top.

@wowfudge Thats the recipe! Thanks for the tip off about G syrup.

I may have to make it again for Christmas

Tinned fried onions are a great shortcut - love them! Without that programme I would have turned my nose up at lots of pre-prepared stuff, like frozen mash.

Sledge Me too about the mini-chopper!

Fanny Cradock was a total bully. I used to feel so sorry for Johnny? her husband who was allowed to talk about wine now and then. And she always had a young male assistant who looked absolutely terrified. She lived near me and the shopkeepers loathed her. She made them pick through the veg so all the potatoes and carrots were exactly the same size.

FC's food was heinous, even at the time.

I love this - used to watch with my Mum as a teen. If I remember rightly this series launched the popularity of sticky toffee pudding. I think the food is all quite traditional and therefore doesn't seem too dated, although the wine really does!

I honestly think a lot of Nigella recipes should be filed under Fiction.

Delia rocks, her recipes are completely bombproof. I’ve done her Christmas pud and cake for years, also the Parmesan Parsnips. She’s firmly grounded in reality, unlike most of the other sleb chefs.

What is the difference between a cross country run & Fanny Craddock?

One is a pant in the country..............................

The program is a cracking piece of social history. Comparing Nigella and Jamie et al just ten years later is very interesting. Globalisation and the internet brought us pesto and buffalo mozzarella, who'd a thunk it.

Thanks to this thread I've just ordered a copy of her Christmas book for seven dollars.

I bought her complete cookery course book for dh as an engagement presents more than 25 years ago. We still use it. I recently made her mornay sauce for cauliflower cheese and dd said it was the nicest thing she had tasted in a while. I also love her summer and winter books and have her How To Cook book too - did her croque monsieur recipe for dinner recently - utter transformation of a cheese sandwich into something so tasty.

Well, I have made my mincemeat and instead of marking like I should be doing I have found Delia's classic Christmas on YouTube.

My Kenwood mini chopper is a key piece of kitchen equipment for me too.
I think Summer and Winter are my favourite Delia books.

When her Summer book came out I was working at a publishers in London. We used to go into work each morning and just say a number, and that was the page of the recipe we cooked the previous night. Her chicken Basque recipe is an absolute favourite standby.

Is it sad I am looking the kenwood mini-chopper?

Looking 'up' ffs on amazon - bet Delia never makes a typo

I've no exposure to Delia! But on the back of all of you have ordered her book to start me off - complete cookery. Even I can maybe make one thing without failing it sounds! Thanks

The recipe for gooseberry and elderflower jam Delia has in her Summer Cookbook, started me off on a lifetime of jam making, chutney making, and all things pickled. I make her Apricot jam from that book, too.

I also make some kind of baked cheese which you dribble over salad as a starter. Her baked red peppers with garlic and anchovies... Oh yum.

I did use tinned onions occasionally (and no harm in having a tin hanging around) but I thought the calorie content was pretty steep... and thats before you added anything else into the recipe!

I tried the tinned onions a few times, they were handy but SO much oil.

I bought that how to cheat book. Bloody awful. I think her publisher or the BBC wanted to do it and she just put her name to it. Best forgotten.

Ds made the chilli with black beans from Winter last night. It was lush. He did double, so I have two foil cartons for the freezer.

I have most of her books. I scale up the minestrone recipe in 'One is Fun' and still use the recipe for boursin pasta in there. I did sausages in cider from Frugal Food the other week, and am planning to do the pork braised in cider from Winter next week.

Her Colonial Turkey curry from the revised Christmas book gets used loads to use up the remains of the turkey each year.