Christmas food successes and failures

[SinkGirl]

I thought it would be a nice idea to have a thread where people share recipes / products that worked well and those that didn’t so we all know for next year. Here’s mine:

Successes:
Nigella’s perfect roast potatoes (I make these every year and they are always perfect, although I do parboil them for a bit longer, 8 mins once the water has boiled rather than 4) - the semolina makes them

This Yorkshire recipe - they came out perfectly www.delish.com/uk/cooking/recipes/a29557764/how-to-make-yorkshire-puddings/

M&S Porchetta joint - takes a bit of extra prep with salting the rind but worth it, it was lovely

Bluetooth meat thermometer with two probes - saved my meat as if I’d followed the instructions everything would have been overcooked

Mary Berry’s easy chocolate brownie recipe - so easy, made on Christmas Eve, kids had it heated up for pudding with ice cream. Now I get to eat the rest :D
thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/chocolate-brownies

Failures:
M&S lamb shoulder - even using a meat thermometer so it was cooked to medium it was not great. And it was pretty tiny.

M&S garnish pack - pigs in blankets all unravelled and stuffing balls didn’t cook anywhere near as quickly as they should

How about you? Any good tips or things to avoid next year?

My turkey was dry I think I'll try Delia's method next year, and invest in a meat thermometer too. It was super annoying cos I'd taken more care this year, but hey ho.

The gammon cooked in apple juice and then roasted for 20 minutes with honey was fab though- very tender and tasty. Will definitely do that again.

M&S turkey wellington was lovely, wasn’t sure what to expect hit it really was delicious.

On the other hand their ‘all wrapped up’ side (pigs in blanket wrapped in stuffing and bacon) was awful. Took one bite and spat it back out.

We had herb fed capon which was delicious.

Another one who managed to cremate most of the parsnips though.

Cheap marzipan fruits from Lidl were horrible. Bizarrely didn’t seem to taste of marzipan that much and a weird texture. Plus a sneaky box design means you get 33% of the box which doesn’t actually have any fruits in but you can’t see that until you’ve opened it.

Failiures: the wonderful deli made pudding my friend bought from South Africa did have a sell by date. It was inside the packet and was 9th December. On the plus side, the mould did look like snow

The replacement puddings bought from Spar were beyond disgusting and went in the bin. But what can you expect for 99p?

Agree about M&S garnish pack. Complete rip off. Tasteless and took long to cook.

Aldi brandy butter - home made is better

Successes: M&S Tsar fillet salmon. Amazing,

Homemade cranberry - delicious

Aldi cheese - all lovely, great price

I prep mostly from scratch and as usual all went to plan. Morrison's bronze turkey timing (on the wrapper) was perfect.

I got all our veg pre-prepared from Tesco and was pleasantly surprised by how nice it was, particularly the roasts and the stuffing wreath with cranberry sauce. Will definitely do that next year as it saved a heap of time!

Cherrymisu. Italian look away now please, move straight to next post. For Christmas pudding haters. Cherries in kirsch. Ladies fingers sponge biscuits. Mascarpone, eggs,vanilla grated chocolate. Sponge fingers into dish, spoon over 3/4 the kirsch and 3/4 the cherries. Make the mascarpone custard adding vanilla and the remaining kirsch. Cover the sponge and cherries, put the remaining cherries on top. Grate chocolate over it. Fridge til required. Suggestions include using choc Swiss roll or muffins as base instead of sponge fingers. Went down well.

Hits:-

Cook Beef Wellington - really tasty and cooked to perfection in time stated.

Aldi 2m pig in blanket

M&S party food - all really good!

No misses this year!

Morrisons Best turkey gravy was absolutely vile. Had to add prosecco, port, bisto, Worcester sauce and mustard to get it right (cooking in my parents' kitchen so not much to hand).

Tesco sprouts, bacon and chestnuts were lovely.

Tesco root veg au gratin was so-so.

Hit- jus roll vol u vents cases with Iceland prawns and seafood sauce. Cheap but tasted lovely.
Co-op buffet bits, all really tasty and easy to cook.

Fails- M&S honey and mustard gammon joint. £20 and tasted awful. Followed cooking instructions and it was practically raw, so had to carve it and put it back in the oven. It was too salty as well.
M&S Tarte Citroen. Tasteless base, o rely sweet topping. Very disappointed in M&S.

Also got pre-prepped veg from Tesco and impressed.

BrokenWing MIL got beef wellington from Waitrose last year for our Christmas Eve dinner and it was superb so I can recommend that.

I made my cranberry sauce with port this year, that was nice. Otherwise I heavily rely on The Good Housekeeping Cookery Book at Christmas supplemented by mince pies and chocolates from Robineau. Oh, and lovely Howie's black pudding for breakfast.

Big revelation for me this year was Jamie's idea of roasting the turkey on a 'vegetable trivet' of onion, carrots, herbs etc, and then using this as the basis for the gravy (then adding home-made giblet stock). I am going to do this every time I make a roast from now on.

Nearly everything was good, especially everything we bought in M&S. I love their Plant Kitchen range, I especially love the vegan chocolate hazelnut spread and the mince pies.

I also enjoyed the stuffing and cranberry lattice from Tesco. All the 19p veg from Tesco was also very fresh and amazing value.

Hits - Aunt Bessie's roasties, M&S chilled choc log, homemade Christmas pud, Good Housekeeping's Quick Cranberry Mincemeat recipe, Tesco gammon done in the slow cooker with nothing other than water.
Miss - Aunt Bessies parsnips. Soggy.

I forgot to buy tin foil so couldn’t do Delia’s tent, the turkey was too dry , Sainsbury’s had run out of red cabbage so had to get M&S, far too much apple in it, another disappointment as I love red cabbage.

Hits: McCain roast potatoes, never making my own again! Sainsbury’s white chocolate and berries cheesecake was lush.

Food from M&S was fine but the miss is the dates - everything single thing in my preordered collection is dated use by 26 Dec I know it says in tiny writing in the T&Cs that food is guaranteed to be fresh until 26 minimum for Cmas orders but I really didn't expect everything to be at the first possible date. Currently cooking a beef joint that was meant for visitors in 2 days time and will have to rebuy. NOT impressed.

DH collected the food on Monday 23 and didn't think to check as he was, unsurprisingly, busy that day getting everything picked up while I was at work.
May not do M&S next time as it feels like we've been ripped off even though technically they are in the right.

We had venison done in the slow cooker with baby potatoes, carrots, shallots and red wine. It was so much easier, no stress, no fuss, just put it on at 10am and serve at 5pm 😊

Hits:
Delia's carrot and jerusalem artichoke soup. I served it in tall coffee cups so we would have the delicious taste without getting too full up on soup.

Roast sprouts with caramelized red onion.
DS asked if we can always eat sprouts that way.

Hasselback potatoes instead of roast (appreciate this would be sacrilege in most households)

Filo baskets with pear, blue cheese and walnuts for nibbles.

Miss: the mockamole (made with peas) for nibbles. It tasted good but my clumsiness meant most of it ended up on the floor. The chickens were overjoyed!

Turkey crown covered in streaky bacon and repeatedly basted in sage butter always works well.
Sainsbury's chocolate and Clementine log was lovely. Especially with Bailey's cream.
I was really underwhelmed at the taste of the parsnips and the carrots tasted of chlorine. I got the cheaper bags this year instead of separates. I won't be doing that again, you get what you pay for.
The sprouts were boiled for five minutes and fried off with lardons, chestnuts and butter. They had a little bit of bite still and I really liked them like that. Hate mushy veg.

Ham done in the slow cooker then glazed and blasted in oven at end was great. Won’t bother with the apple juice though, just water or stock and herbs next time.

Massive fail : ham on the bone, pre sliced. Awful.
Win : Italian deli shortcake

M&S beef and marrow pie was delicious

Their Turkey gravy not so much - wish I’d made my own

Turkey cooked in a roasting bag then left to rest for 1.5 hours - moistest one I’ve had and almost zero effort and mess.