The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater: Read Along Thread 2

[Dillidilly]

Here's our new thread!

I'm having such problems with the site, please could someone post a link to the old thread for me?

@MilesJuppIsMyBitch good to know about the mincemeat, I had to use veggie suet in mine!

Home made mincemeat is so much better than shop bought. I note Nigel said he buys it at fairs so someone else has made it I guess.

It’s actually easy once you’ve chopped the apple. I love the leftovers in apple and mincemeat crumble.

You are all making me regret wimping out of making mincemeat (still convinced it would be a disaster though).
I'm tentatively planning to make the first Christmas pudding though (on Monday, as not organised). It's just the four of us so I'm going to try to scale down to a 600ml basin.

Mincemeat honestly is the easiest thing @GlumyGloomer

The dried fruit is soaking in the brandy in preparation for making our pudding tomorrow.

Used Nigel’s lighter pudding recipe as a guide but made some substitutions as I don’t have dried apricots or dried figs. I took the recipe right down to a third as we’re only making a small one.

Used currants, raisins, sultanas, prunes, dates, glacé cherries and mixed candied peel.

I accidentally forgot to halve Nigella’s pudding recipe so now it will be massive.

We halved Nigel's recipe last year and it was still huge so I planned to quarter this year but I forgot that we didn't have guests last year. I've only soaked the fruit so far, so I will add more in the morning before making the actual pudding.

I have been to a Christmas market this afternoon with friends and very lovely it was too.

Found you all. Looking forward to continuing the read-a-long. 🎄🎄🎄

21 NOVEMBER
Fairies and Flammkuchen

I am having a booze up Sunday rather than stir up as I am going to make the brandy liqueur today.

@HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule so was the brandy and I still messed that up twice 😅
I'll try next year, when hopefully all child sleep drama is resolved.

I was a bit sad reading the bits about Christmas markets as all ours have all been cancelled again this year 😢 . Also found him a bit overly judgmental about the craft side of markets, that's one of the things I really enjoy!

Found you!

Really enjoyed today's entry about the Christmas markets. DH and I went to Basel pre-lockdown for the markets and they were truly magical. The main one around the cathedral had a circle of tiny wooden houses built around a bonfire, where little children paid a euro to go and do crafts. They had a little hut making pokers for the fire, with wee tinies doing blacksmithing! (Blacksmithery?) all under the lights of the huge tree and the vast cathedral. Gorgeous.

Food wise there was gorgeous Gluwhein and one specific stall doing a sort of hot brandy and cider concoction which was always queued out, but definitely worth the wait. We popped into a market in the suburbs to have fondue, and I relived my Chalet School days with Kaffe und Kunchen, All the markets had stalls doing baby potatoes, pickled onions and slabs of melted cheese over the top - heaven. (And totally calorie free, natch!)

But the main thing - coming from a city where the Christmas markets are so commercial and tatty - was that every thing was so pretty, everyone was really well-behaved, didn't see one drunk person, and it was so cold and still that the lights looked like stars. Magical. Heart stoppingly expensive mind you as it's Switzerland, but they do know how to do Christmas.

(Apols for very dodgy Germanic spellings)

And it is sunny here today for the first time in forever - so I am off to plant the bulbs that have been sitting patiently on the table for weeks!

@Claudethecat

I am having a booze up Sunday rather than stir up as I am going to make the brandy liqueur today.

I read the first line and thought you meant you were going to be getting merry!🥂🍸🍹🍷🍻🥃

Well I might sample the brandy just to make sure it hasn't gone off between buying it on Thursday and now!

My Christmas pudding is steaming (vegetable suet, sorry Nigel)

Soooooo looking forward to the brisket casserole...

I added parsnip because we had one that needed using, and also to add another layer to the flavour profile because we don’t have a swede so I’m going to serve it with mashed potato.

So far I’ve been too lazy to walk the, uh, half a minute to the apple tree on the hill outside our house to pick up some of the dropped fruit...so the pudding remains un steamed for now!

I’m about to watch a Christmas film. 🎄🎄🎄

Haven’t read today’s entry yet, as I’m saving it for tonight.

Hope you all have had/are having a lovely weekend.

I really love Christmas pudding but a very small Christmas this year and nobody is a fan so will be giving that a miss. Made the orange and poppyseed cake today with my toddler. It looks great but not sure how I will remove it from the tin without it falling into a sludge- so much drizzle goes in!

@GlumyGloomer I thought of you this morning when I rather belatedly made Delia’s mincemeat (halved).

It did mainly involve chopping up an unpeeled cooking apple but also involved zest and juice of an orange and a lemon plus finely slicing up almonds. I will cheat and use flaked almonds next year!

So good plan to wait until you get more sleep My teenagers sleep in on weekends and struggle to get up even for their favourite (expensive) hobbies.

So pleased to have found the new thread. I am enjoying the bits about the Christmas markets. We went to Nottingham Christmas market yesterday and it was gorgeous. One day I would love to go to Germany to go to Christmas markets there.

I don’t like Christmas pudding or Christmas cake. I have put a lot of thought into my alternative Christmas cake. I don’t like fruit cake. I want to make a sponge cake but with the Christmas flavours. I am thinking of doing a cinnamon nutmeg and orange cake with buttercream.

Lots of lovely posts since I was last on. Today I finally managed the Full NSCC: dusk, just me in the house, a candle burning, Bach Cello Suites playing in the background, a tiny glass of Pedro Ximinez and Nigel's outstanding Christmas Pudding chapter to curl up on the sofa with (courtesy of DCs being at a birthday party). I've got to get up and do Lots Of Jobs now, but for twenty minutes, I did it!

Should be able to get the Christmas pudding made this evening, if I can tear the urchins away from Strictly. Might need to steam tomorrow though.

@Savemesome I expect the orange and poppy seed cake is meant to be sliced in the tin and served up that way. Although I found mine held together well enough (but I used a springform tin so it was much easier).

@Felldownabackdonhole that sounds lovely! I don’t like Christmas pudding or fruitcake, tbh. I make them because they’re part of Christmas tradition here, and for others to eat.

Two of ours went to the Uni of Notts, and we loved pottering around the Christmas market.

Lots of lovely memories from previous posters, thank you x