Christmas food hits and misses

[NotAnotherJaffaCake]

What were all your food hits and misses? This year we had:
M&S turkey crown - win, piece of piss to cook and loads of moist flavoursome meat, according to the meat eaters. Added bonus of gluten free stuffing for the MIL
M&S vegan nut roast thingy with bulgar wheat - bought as I was rather uninspired but eaten even by fussy DC1. Lovely fruity nutty thing.
Puds - made Christmas pud, raspberry roulade and trifle, and they were all great.

Misses:

Saint Delia of Norwich sprouts with chestnuts - followed cooking times etc to the letter. Using 8 shallots would have given me more shallots than sprouts, and sprouts were still hard.
Also Delia Parmesan parsnips - made them dozens of times so no idea what I did wrong.

I also need to do more roast potatoes today as we don’t have enough for leftovers!

What worked for you?

@AnnaMagnani

Jamie Oliver had something just like that on his programme this year!

Thankyou for posting.

Angie169 I saw that on special offer yesterday but wasn't sure about getting it. If it's there today I will though.

My attempt at making up a deconstructed vegan cheesecake turned into deconstructed vanilla flavoured rubber. Most definitely a miss, unlike the layered char grilled vegetable and polenta stack with basil oil. It was delicious!

Meat eaters, M&S pork and been stuffing is excellent, even the fussiest wolfed it down. Should have bought more.

Been stuffing??? Bah. Auto correct. Pork and herb. Delicious.

Hit:
Brussels fried in butter and lardons with cream
Morrisons Lincolnshire rib of beef (INCREDIBLE piece of meat and not too expensive)

Ooh rib of beef. . .. thinks about New Year . . .how did u cook it?

Husband did a turkey and sprout curry - the turkey curry part was fine

Vitalogy

I was was concerned that it may have a load of white sauce / mushroom soupy kind of stuff in it but it hasn't got any but is still moist,
It is like a giant lattice pasty . I cooked it a bit longer that the 40 mins ( from frozen ) than it recommends but that may just be my old gas oven not been very efficient

I have got lots of raw left over sprouts , any veggie recommendations on what to do with them ?

Angie. Compost

My DH also did a sprout vegetable curry with potatoes and carrots - don't expect it to be in restaurants any time soon!

Angie169 Sounds really nice, thanks for the cooking tip. I've just got back from Tesco and forgot to look! See that's what happens when I don't put it on shopping list. I've written it down this time, will try again tomorrow. There's only me that'll eat it so I'll saw it in thirds half

I did get two half price Christmas fruit cakes though, not Tesco Finest but still.

@longwayoff really easy, season then 20 mins per 500g plus 20 mins oven at I think 190 (instructions were on the pack). That was medium xx

Doh thought I was texting, didn't mean to do the xx

Thank you Rebecca, I will definitely do that. And, as it's nearly New Year, xx to u too

Iceland rolled and stuffed turkey breast really good, was £15 to serve 8-10 people. Only 4 of us but we love the leftovers. Asda ready to cook ham with glaze to add tasty too. Will def get both again.

The best thing I did was my roast potatoes in my actifry, bob them in with lots of goose fat (or beef) for about 20 mins with the stirrer thing, then carefully take the stirrer out and cook for about 30mins - absolutely fantastic potatoes, all crispy and crunchy and freed up the oven for everything else.

Hits, as usual all cooked Gordon Ramsey way, turkey (frozen Aldi) fab and moist, sprouts/roasties (done 2 ways one with turmeric and chill flakes) parsnips, gravy all perfect

Miss, I fancied some M&S red cabbage, vile sweet mush that was thick with some kind of gum

Asda millionaire shortbread bombs, stale and tasteless.

My hits:

My roast potatoes are always good, tbh, and Christmas Day was no exception, they were really crispy outside and fluffy inside (just how we like them).

I use hot fat to roast them, but I parboil the potatoes 1st, then I drain the water, sprinkle with coarse semolina or polenta, put lid back on and then shake the pan to rough up the edges of the potatoes and to coat them properly. Always results in lovely, crispy roast potatoes.

My turkey was a Morrison's free range Norfolk Bronze and even today the meat is still super moist. It was really tasty and got lots of compliments. I think what made the difference was resting it for just over an hour wrapped in 2 layers of foil and covered with 2 towels. It was still piping hot too!

The goose was also really nice and not too fatty, although it's not everyone's cup of tea.

My Paxo sage and onion stuffing mixed with sausagemeat was a hit and stayed nice and moist. Used to always make it, but haven't for the last 4/5 years, and had forgotten how nice it is.

My gravy, which I make using the giblets, carrots, leeks and onions, and then I add the meat juices and thicken it up, was really flavourful and rich.

Pigs in blankets: I used Morrison's "The Best" chipolatas and wrapped them in streaky, smoked bacon. They were much nicer than the ones I've bought ready-made the last few years.

I cooked a smoked gammon joint for Boxing Day, and used the Hairy Bikers' honey glazed ham recipe, that was a hit too, moist with a nice flavour and is almost gone already.

Misses:

Nothing really, except I forgot to make my Yorkshire puddings.
Luckily, I'd bought some frozen ones last week (just in case I ran out of time).
I realised just as we were carving up the meat, and the oven was still pretty hot, so it didn't take long to cook them, and it only delayed the meal by a few mins.

My timings on both days could've been better, but everything seemed to take much longer than usual to cook, so although everything was ready pretty much together, it was all about 40 mins later than I'd originally planned to start eating.

Another kind of miss, was that I couldn't buy the jar of red cabbage I usually use to make my German red cabbage dish. All anywhere had was pickled red cabbage. Although, tbf, I didn't start looking for it until about a week before Christmas. I offered to make it from scratch but my dh was worried we had too much to do, so we went without.

I did most of the cooking this year, though DH did the turkey in the barbecue, which went down well

I made a nut roast from the vegetarian good cooking christmas mag, which was yum, if a bit cold by the time everything else was cooked. Veggie gravy was better than the meat gravy (in DH and DMs opinion) and roasties were good and crispy. star of the show (surprisingly) was the sprouts, which I did with cream and chestnuts...DH and I scoffed the lot. Nom nom nom

longwayoff
made me chuckle , I like sprouts but I have had them boiled twice now and have enough for at least 3 more portions ,
Vitalogy
I hope we do mot live near each other as I am gong to tescos tomorrow and if there are only one or two left they are MINE ALL MINE

Aldi topside really tender
Aldi partbaked rolls very good
Aldi Black Forest Mince Pies-amazing !!
Asda Red cabbage-too sweet and sticky
Asda precooked cauli cheese bland
Marks sprouts, nice
Failures- my electric oven on a go slow, did creamed and roasted potatoes, plus 7 veg, pigs, stuffing, yorkshires, just too much, cutting down greatly next year

Right then, I was going to pop in after work but will have to go first thing and keep them in the work freezer. They will be mine , oh yes.