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?

@HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule well worth growing a quince tree if you have space, I've never seen quince fruit to buy. Mine is just in a container on the patio but still produces enough fruit to cook with over a year. Beautiful blossom in spring too.

@Felldownabackdonhole thanks I will give them a try, thanks for the tip about the semolina.

Its snowing here today so it's the perfect setting for Nigel's recipes. I'd better go find a candle...

HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule that dinner looks amazing 😋

@Hexenhaus oh that’s an excellent idea, I’ll look into that!

@Claudethecat thank you! I was quite proud of my creative flair in using a bay leaf from cooking the veg as a sweet little embellishment...DH and I both liked it, and both agreed that actually it’d be just as nice with straight potato mash so if anyone can’t find celeriac (or doesn’t like it) it’s still worth making IMO. A good, simple, easy dish but very comforting.

Oh also, we used a cooking apple instead of dessert apples as that’s what we had. It still worked very well, like a baked apple sauce but held together in the shape of an apple.

Vienna sounds magical. I like the sound of the spatzle as well, I've only ever had them once and cooked them myself at home and I think I overcooked them. I'd like to try it made properly!

[quote OnTheHillNotOverIt]@FireworkParrot you may find you have to trim those outside bits and then test them by eating with a glass of port [/quote]
Also, thank you for this (most excellent) advice!

@Dillidilly

Well, I win The Nigel Horror Award tonight 😱 We are going old school, with chicken kievs, garlicky mushrooms and oven chips, followed by tiramisu...we know how to do Date Night in style! All Aldi's finest 😆 Sorry Nigel x We will be redeeming ourselves with some artisan gin, made in a tiny distillery in the next town using local coastal botanicals ❤

Me and DH cocking love a chicken Kiev. In fact, he had to nip to M&S the other day and I've noticed one has popped up in the freezer, clever lad.

Just started the book today as it’s stormy and horrible outside. Nigel is just the poshest person isn’t he? Just got to the it where he’s describing aJapanese onsen he visits which takes a while to get to. I’ve never even heard of an onsen. But anyway am enjoying his writing so far

Well, Nigel alternates between discussing a childhood in which very simple, typically English food was a great treat, and gushing about extremely expensive artisan items. Not so much posh as a self-made aesthete with fairly humble roots,

I do wonder if you might be always on tenterhooks with him as a friend (not that it's likely ) as there he is, all lovely and full of beautiful observations and quiet gentleness, then ooooomph, you get your Yankee Candle out (a red one to boot) and he'd go Mach speed snobby grumpy git on you.
I agree about the photography in the book. Just beautiful. Am lying under a blanket (but unlike N have also popped the heating on) with an orange and cinnamon candle burning (not Cire Trudon, but not Yankee either, it's an Etsy handmade one) and catching up. Planted last paperwhites, hyacinths and crocuses this morning (all white, N would approve) in gaudy Christmas pots (Nigel would not)
Have booster tomorrow at 7.30am (wtf?) and will soak fruit for cake till Monday. I actually have 2 cakes still- a Betty's and a Harrod's but I want to make one anyway.
I'm going to practice turning a lump of pig into a ham this week. My Christmas challenge!

"When a cooking writer pens his autobiography it is invariably written with a freshly baked, rosy glow. Tales of baking at their mother’s knee is what is expected. Then there is the obligatory early morning trip to the market with your wicker basket complete with vignettes of the woman at the charming little cheese stall and going home with a laden basket and a crusty French loaf.

Yet I had not written about any of that. I had waxed lyrical not about the vast cups of steaming café au lait and light-as-a-feather croissants, but of the canned meat pies my father unsuccessfully attempted to bake; the fried eggs with which I was force-fed until I vomited; and the cookbooks that, as an adolescent, I used in lieu of pornography."

Is that Toast @herecomesthsun?
I have it on my Kindle but haven't read it yet.

I think it's an excerpt from the Preface. He clearly wasn't keen on the fried eggs, but seems quite enthusiastic about toad in the hole, and generally about dripping IIRC.

Love his description of Demel, didn't realise I'd love to visit Vienna at Christmas until reading that. The Quince and Cardamom mincemeat has turned out to be delicious. It made 3 jars plus enough for a tray of 12 mince pies, probably because I added some extra quince but less dried fruit. I also used dried cranberries instead of raisins. I was a bit nervous of adding 8 cardamom pods in case they were overpowering but it's actually comes through quite mildly. Perhaps the spices will infuse in the jar. It's very good with clotted cream vanilla ice cream!

Another one here who feels desperate to visit Vienna now, he paints a really wonderful picture

@Hexenhaus

Just catching up as the last few weeks have been so busy. I've loved everyone's photos. I'm going to try the leek, bean and (veggi) sausages and the aubergine and lentil recipes at the weekend. I would like to try the gnudi with avocado and watercress pesto, have seen the amazing dishes some of you made. Do you really need "the hands of angels"? I'm very clumsy so might not be the recipe for me. I'm also going to make the Quince and Cardamom mincemeat. So pleased to find a use for my quinces. It's such a beautiful tree but I always end up with lots of fruit chopped up in the freezer still there next Autumn when I pick the next batch. It's because they're so delicious, I always want to save them for something special then I forget about them. I'm still getting used to Nigel's writing style, I love his nature descriptions but was anyone else shocked he described cherry trees as the most boring trees on the planet once their blossom has gone! He's a chef, does he not appreciate their fruit? And the flame colours of their autumn leaves, and their shimmery bark in the winter? Maybe just me, I do love trees.

The gnudi did need very light handling. But not in a fiddly sort of way, just needed to be careful not to squash them too much, I used a teaspoon too.

Afraid I'm with Nigel on the cherry tree based on ours. Looks fabulous in blossom but once that's gone and the leaves arrive they get infested by blackfly and curl up. We get a decent crop once every 5 years or so. By the time the leaves drop they are a sludgy, speckly black and dirty yellow mix. Luckily we have horse chestnuts across the road for glorious autumn colours.

Oh and I should probably get thrown off the thread for this, but I went to MacDonalds today and had a festive pie, custard and mincemeat in the normal apple pie crispy pastry. Was lovely .

Just caught up after a few days behind. I was actually supposed to be in Vienna this weekend, and Nigel has just made it worse! I shall make up for it by doing the cake tomorrow.

28 NOVEMBRR
Christstollen, Dresden and the Butter Letter

28 Novembrr is right. It is v chilly!🥶

I did a big catch up this morning. The cats had me awake early, looking to be fed. There's something nice about an early morning read with a cat on your lap. Although it was a little uncomfortable because you clearly can't fit a book and a cat on your lap.

I got a bit carried away and accidentally read tomorrow's entry .

I sooo want to go to a continental Christmas market. With the way things are going with Covid and variants, it will be 2025 before I get there .

I have been to one continental Christmas market but it was in France and we only had a few hours to wander around, before joining our group for dinner that evening. I loved it so much and said I'd love to go back and spend three or four days there.

I'm going to a craft fair locally but it's very small and, as far as I know, there will be no food or drink stalls. I'm driving there so I couldn't drink anything alcoholic even if they were serving it. And it's kind of rainy out.

We put up our Christmas tree and decorations on Friday, in advance of the Late Late Toy Show (an iconic Irish TV programme). So my sitting room looks very festive. It's a bit early for me but my teen DD adores Christmas wonder where she got that from and nagged me so much to put them up for the Toy Show that, in a moment of weakness, I gave in. We're the first on our road to put them up but I'm sure our neighbours will follow in the next week or two.

Nigel comes across as being rather curmudgeonly at times - his horror at the prospect of lighting a pudding with a plastic lighter was amusing. But (at the risk of sounding like an armchair psychologist) he had a difficult childhood and I think he gets comfort from those childhood memories and associations. And he doesn't have a wife or children so he hasn't had to make any compromises where Christmas is concerned (Wiki tells that me that he's homosexual - I'm not sure if he has a partner). Imagine the look on his face if he had children coming home from school demanding something like the Elf on the Shelf!

His memories of his mother are very tender and loving - clearly he adored her. I've added his autobiography to my next books order.

His house must be huge if he can fit two fireplaces in some of the rooms.

I love making lists so I could totally relate to that chapter.

There was a nice chapter where he wrote about his garden and how much is happening underground. It's good to know that even though everything in the garden looks dead and dull, Mother Nature is still doing her thing and the bulbs are just waiting for spring so the plants can emerge and unfurl themselves.

The pictures are lovely - the frosty leaves, the pudding and ice cream on that lovely table cloth, the festive shop window, the advent calendar, the boxes of baubles, the bird's cage full of pastries etc. It really is a delightful book.

Enjoy your day everyone. I'll come back this evening and read back over your comments.

I just watched Nigella’s Cook, Eat, Repeat Christmas special. She made gingerbread cake, cut it into squares, dusted with icing sugar, put some red candles in it and lit them with... a plastic lighter

@OnTheHillNotOverIt I was thinking the other day, whilst leafing through her Christmas book, about the difference in aesthetics from Nigel to Nigella...restrained, understated elegance really isn’t her thing is it. It’s all bright reds, candy stripe and chintz!

There’s room in the world for both approaches, to be sure, and sometimes the child in me loves the riot of colour and candy canes, but these days I tend to prefer to keep that confined to watching a few Hallmark Christmas films throughout the season.

@MarisPiper92 oh no what a shame about Vienna!! Bad timing with the chapter too - I would have read it with a face like this if I were you...

I was thinking of going on a quick visit home to see family between Christmas and NY but with all the uncertainty about travelling abroad and back now I’m going to have to leave it, I think.

I had a quick wander around the Christmas market. It was small but most of the stalls were selling decent handcrafted items. One of my friends is a stallholder and does ceramics, so I bought two of her Christmas ornaments as presents.

It was quite chilly - I was glad of my warm coat and scarf. There were two food stalls but they were doing steak (I'm not a fan) and venison sausages/burgers. I considered a venison sausage or burger but couldn't quite get over the Rudolph factor. Also, I didn't fancy sitting in the cold eating it. They really could have done with a stall selling hot chocolate and pastries or crepes or gingerbread men. So I came home and made a poached egg on toast with avocado on the side and a mini mince pie. Feeling pleasantly full now and sleepy. I need to do some laundry and cleaning and other mundane non-Christmassy stuff. But I have a nice open fire to look forward to later and my Advent book . Might have another cuppa before I get stuck in.