The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater. Read Along Thread 2022

[Dillidilly]

INTRODUCTION

Nigel begins his Chronicles proper on 1st November, but there is a lovely, quite lengthy introduction we can dip into during the second half of October.

Last year, posters were also kind enough to share where they had found cut price copies of CC, so hopefully anyone late to the party still has time to find a copy before we start the first chapter.

I had forgotten the lovely introduction. Together with the beautiful photograph at the very beginning of the book, flipping through it and seeing his headings reminded me of why I loved it so much last year!

It would be one for my DH as well

The salmon is going the menu for sure. Last time we had salmon we tried a very retro recipe full of cream which wasn’t good at all. In fact we couldn’t finish it, it was that bad (the fish wasn’t great either). This one looks very good and as I’m Danish it’s right up my street with the dill.

What I like about reading books like this and trying out the recipes is that even if you eat a good variety of dishes from different cuisines it’s lovely to just try little tweaks to your go-to recipes or the ones you might usually choose to try.

I know that DH won’t like the toad in the hole. I’m making him out to seem a lot worse than he actually is - he loves food as much as I do and will eat pretty much anything, but this book has hit on the two things he doesn’t much like: lentils, and foods with ‘Christmas’ added for no particular reason. So marmalade and cranberry in toad in the hole is a no-no. And since it doesn’t really appeal to me either, I’m going to leave it.

18th November and I have finally managed to catch up with both the book and the thread! Just in time for stir it up Sunday. I'm not making a Christmas pud this year as I have one left from last year, but I will do the Christmas cake tomorrow or Sunday. Going to get the fruits soaking this afternoon.

I made Nigel's light pudding last year for the first time and it was honestly the best Christmas pudding I've ever had. Even the traditional pudding haters enjoyed it. Not sure how it will have lasted but we will see. This year I will make a sticky toffee pudding as that's the family favourite but I'm going ti try Nigel's Christmas cake recipe

Really enjoying the thread and agree with PP that Nigel's snobbery is a bit much at points, but I do like the way he writes.

Tempted by the lamb boulangere for this weekend but just went to put some lamb in my online shop and I'm horrified at the cost of it! Maybe it'll be roast cauliflower for us instead.

I've also been reminded by the leek and cauliflower soup of my own favourite cauliflower cheese soup (a Jamie Oliver one) so going to make that this weekend.

I'm going to try much harder to keep up. Sorry to hear of your health issues Dilly, hope you can catch up with the thread as you convalesce

Lamb is painfully expensive, Felix! I always get excited when shoulder is on offer, as that at least is a bit more manageable.

I made the leek, cannellini bean and sausage dish reducing liquid as advised. It was lovely and very easy, that will go onto week night meals for cold weather.

The pork dish sounds nice, may see if I can get pork belly for the weekend - wonder how much demand increases on this date each year

I like aubergine and lentils but adult son is not overly keen on either so may save that for a night he’s out.

I don’t fancy cranberry and marmalade toad in the hole either, I’m not a big fan of fruit with meat and I can’t bear marmalade. However I walked round Sainsburys today having a catch up with Nigel from about the 11th to today on audible (I am reading the chapters daily but catching up with the audio in bigger chunks once a week or so) and his mention of roast gammon had my mouth watering.

I met friends for coffee today at the most ponce-tastic garden centre I have ever been to. We had a wander round the shop, going “how much!?” and nearly fainting but I did buy a few bits for Christmas presents.

Then tonight I went up to the loft to fetch last years leftover Christmas cards down and found in the bag with them an Advent candle which I’d forgotten about. I picked it up for £1 in a charity shop last January. Put it on the side and DH promptly lit it 🤦‍♀️ but I managed to rescue it and put it away for this year with only day 1 gone.

@FancyFelix I have made Nigel’s light pudding for the last couple of years, I don’t like normal dark Christmas pud but this is fabulous. I have got all the stuff in to make this year’s on Sunday. We aren’t doing a cake though, I like doing them but it seems a bit much for just 4 of us, especially as we go away for a few days after Christmas.

Put it on the side and DH promptly lit it 🤦‍♀️ but I managed to rescue it and put it away for this year with only day 1 gone this made me laugh so much @EspeciallyD I do love a poncetastic garden centre (one of the things I miss living in France - we have Truffaut which has a poncetastic Christmas section, but no coffee shop), but what I love even more is finding something I'd stashed away last year and completely forgotten about. Nigel of course would be far more likely to go to a German Christmas market...

@EspeciallyD thank goodness you rescued the candle before it burnt down too far!

I love a poncey garden centre. Buford Garden Centre near Witney, Oxfordshire is like that....we always pop in if we're visiting the Cotswolds but some things are eye wateringly expensive in there.

@Dillidilly sorry to hear you're having to step back for a bit. Thank you for starting these lovely, good-natured threads and we'll keep it going along in your absence. If you want to dip back in at some point, I'll be here!

We live in a fairly affluent area so are quite well supplied with poncey garden centres but this one is on another level. I have a day Christmas shopping in the Cotswolds planned next month (visiting my DS) might have to go via Burford 😀.

19 NOVEMBER - PLANTING BULBS AND A LAMB BOULANGERE

**

I absolutely love the start of this chapter with his description of cold winter mornings. It reminds me of walking to school in Yorkshire as a child and the utter joy of finding ice to smash or branches to shake. We lived in Berlin for some years when my DCs were tiny and this is exactly what winters were like there - blanketed in snow, boots crunching underfoot, the kids muffled up with frozen mittens and frozen knots of snow on their scarves and the fur round their hoods. We actually had a pond in our garden that would be frozen solid for several months, but somehow the goldfish always survived - hibernating somewhere in its deepest recesses. I can't square that with the weather outside in Paris today - sunny, not exactly warm but definitely more need for sunglasses than gloves. Not very wintry at all - all the festive decorations appearing everywhere feel a bit incongruous in these temperatures. It is why I could never imagine Christmas in Australia. It needs to be cold!

I know what you mean about the cake, there are only 4 of us too and I'm the only one who really likes a fruit cake but I'm so attached to the ritual of making it and then decorating before Christmas! No one else would be bothered if I didn't make one.

This year I'm going with quite a big square cake so I can cut it into 4 smaller ones to ice and then I can give one to my dad, and one for in-laws. Got the idea from Delia's Irish whiskey cake in how to cook. I'm going to use Nigel's big cake recipe in a 20cm square tin and hope for the best!

That's a lovely advent candle, what a bargain.

I'm going to make the cake and some mincemeat tomorrow. Better late than never. I even went to the butcher first thing this morning to see if they had suet but no joy so I'll be making it with the packet stuff that Nigel is so sniffy about

anyone in the NW looking for a poncy garden centre I can thoroughly recommend Bents near Warrington. It's not Christmas until I've been there for a browse

@FancyFelix you are tempting me with the cake now. I have just measured out the fruit I need for my Christmas pudding tomorrow and put it to soak in sherry (didn’t have any brandy) and there is a lot leftover Waitrose mixed dried fruit don’t tell Nigel. I’m using Atora too.

@LillianGish I love this chapter too, so evocative. I too like to wander round the garden first thing with my secateurs even if its cold.

Glad to hear it, because I'm doing that for us tonight! (Well DH and me, anyway - the DC wouldn't touch it.) Any tips?

Can I just say THANK YOU for this thread and for drawing my attention to the CC in the first place? I'm all about the hygge and ponce at this time of year, so god knows how I've managed to miss it over the last few years! I can't read the book without Miles Jupp interposing himself in my head - don't know if anyone's familiar with his gently satirical R4 comedy 'In and Out of the Kitchen' but for years I've been convinced it's loosely based on NS and now I'm certain.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01q9tb1/episodes/player

So. I have an actual question. For those who've made the dried apricot brandy before, NS says 'sweet white wine' - what exactly does he mean though? Does he mean something fortified? Something like moscatel? (yikes, ££) Or just some white wine off the shelf that isn't described on the shelf tag as 'crisp and dry'? Please tell me! I normally buy the cheap brandy from Aldi to soak my cake fruits in and hope that'll do for this too.

Have also just realised tomorrow is Stir Up Sunday rather than next weekend, which I'd thought. I won't be baking though - my fruit enjoys a rather leisurely bathe in a whole bottle of brandy (I'm making 2 cakes, possibly a small third for the local village Christmas fair if I feel really generous) over a few days. And I deliberately weigh out quite a bit more fruit than the recipe (Nigella's, always) calls for, because I tend to graze on it in passing.

FancyFelix
This year I'm going with quite a big square cake so I can cut it into 4 smaller ones to ice and then I can give one to my dad, and one for in-laws. Got the idea from Delia's Irish whiskey cake in how to cook. I'm going to use Nigel's big cake recipe in a 20cm square tin and hope for the best!

What a good idea, both DH & FIL like fruit cake but a large one is too big, I wonder who else I can give one too

@GlomOfNit I can't say with any certainty, and people with refined taste may well argue, but... I think something like a German Moselle wine or Rhein wine would be good. It's not as expensive as a desert wine, nice enough to drink on its own, and will be even nicer with the fancy fruits in!

It's easy to be over particular, but in the end it only needs to be 'nice enough'! The really good stuff is nice enough when you do nothing to it. The cheaper stuff will get even better!

Anyway, that's my philosophy.

I fancy all the food so far, so will work my way back though it as the grocery shop allows. Tonight's dinner was somewhat TSN, I felt- sweet potato wedges, garlic cabbage and bacon and a poached egg! Very wintery, very colourful, and somehow comfort food.

And in NVN fashion, we had an accidental Aldi mince pie. I thought I was buying maple and pecan pies to have in when everyone else is doing the mince pie thing (we don't like them).

It was in fact delicious. Just a hint of mince in the bottom.

I can't take credit, it's all delia's idea!

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/occasions/christmas/christmas-cakes-icings-and-toppings/irish-whiskey-christmas-cakes?amp

I need to find someone to give the last one to as well

@GlomOfNit
How did your Aubergine &Lentil go?
I have just stopped after a lovely day with family and am in bed with a hot water bottle.

I was going to do aubergine and lentils tonight as DD was supposed to be out. She came home early so it was bolognese but with spaghetti squash, so I guess that was a little bit Nigel.

I carried on with the poncey shopping theme today by going to a Christmas market, all the way round I was thinking what would Nigel think?

Beautiful setting ✅
Attractiveness of stalls ✅
Mariah et al being played loudly on tannoy ❌
Enormous cauldron of gluhwein ❌
Stall selling the potatoes and onion topped with melted French cheese thing ✅
Most of the stuff for sale not being very Christmassy just high end craft ❌
Warm sunny weather ❌although it was lovely as it got dark.