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!

@BeastOfBODMAS the last time I checked out the mini puddings in Lidl they had gin or brandy infused ones. It was there that I saw the large plum and orange one which really appealed to me. I can see me doing something with the mincemeat from last year rather than ending up with a pudding.

I will also have to work my way through the apricots from the apricot liqueur and the plums from the plum vodka. As I am typing this I suddenly have the urge for pineapple and amaretto.

I've managed to miss this thread entirely this year!

No-one here much likes Christmas pudding so I usually do the cake on stir-up Sunday (the fruit has been quietly sozzling in booze for a couple of weeks). However someone seems to have used the last orange so it will have to wait.

Harking back to (I think) Nov 17th and the mincemeat sandwich; every year I look at that and think it looks a bit much for just DH and me (no-one else would really be in the market for it), but this year I remembered those little panettone you get in Lidl so I'm going to try it with one of those later.

Those pyramid advent candles pictured up-thread are available in Oxfam I think.

And, of course, @Dillidilly , all good thoughts to you. I hope you're snuggled up in a blanket.

I'm going to do Nigel-inspired toad in the hole tonight. I can't quite bring myself to put marmalade in it.

Nigel's Simple Suppers inspired cheese and apple on toast!

Ah sorry @Ihavedogs I had in mind they were brandy or rum, as who would put gin in a Christmas pud?!
I would think some boozy fruit and some mincemeat would make for a good strudel or crumble. I’ve just been googling after a vegan panettone and trying to decide whether it’s Quite Nigel to make a 60 mile round trip for a sandwich ingredient

Still not made the apricot brandy but I intend to go shopping for the remaining ingredients monday afternoon. Or tuesday. I also have to go through the baking cupboard , auditing my various bags and half-bags of dried fruits. Usually I find I hardly have to buy any new dried fruit for the Christmas cake, which always feels frugal (never mind that the oven will have to be on for about 4 hours 😮). Ideally I'd like to start soaking it mon/tues so it has plenty of time to enjoy its bath (and me grazing on it) until such time this week as I have a chance to actually make and bake the cakes. I'm making a larger one for us (me, nobody else eats it!) and another one for my parents who, sadly and yet again, won't be joining us at Christmas.

The aubergine and lentils thing is made and about to be consumed! I'll report back.

We couldn’t make the pudding today as I’d forgotten to get suet 🙄 but we did mix together all the fruit, peel, cherries and brandy to steep overnight. 🎄

I love how pretty it is.

Lamb boulangere wasn't a huge success to be honest. It was tasty enough but I had to cook it for much longer in the first stage (about another hour) and it never really got to that dropping away from the bone stage.

The finished dish was tasty but really wet, there was far too much stock left in it (see pictures). Quite surprised really as I used 2kg of lamb shoulder when the recipe asked for 1.6kg of lamb breast and didn't increase the volume of stock.

It was nice enough, if I made it again I'd use half the amount of stock, but honestly I don't think I'd make it again. A regular roast lamb with roast potatoes is nicer!

Had a lovely weekend of cooking and baking though. Made my own mincemeat for the first time ever and the Christmas cake is done today. Bit later than I normally do it but it has been a hectic last month or so. Also had a lovely apple and blackberry crumble to finish

Forgot the photos

My aunt used to make mini-christmas puddings in a cup or mug, to give to "old people" who couldn't be bothered to make their own.

She was 76, older than most of the "old people" she helped.

I have just caught up with Nigel & realised that I haven't seen my pudding basin for quite a while! I don't make one every year but the basin lives with my small pyrex usually. I'll have to investigate when I get up, although I have no plans for one this year.

In other news, my booze corner is coming along nicely. I cleaned the entire kitchen top to bottom today, put up my stars for the corner, got out my cocktail book and decided on placement for my fairy lights which I'll put up after work tomorrow. Hopefully my tray and dish will arrive soon. I think the dish will become home to either the net of chestnuts in the kitchen, for the moment, or some of the pinecones I acquired.

I'll catch up with the thread now 😊

I just made Nigel's "green and humble" soup,

Cauliflower and leek with toasted cheese floating on top.

Easy tasty and quick. I like a LOT of parsley

Gosh, such a lot of productive work going on this weekend.

@lucysmam I have to bite the bullet and do some serious kitchen cupboard sorting out.

@2bazookas my Nan was forever doing things for the ‘poor old ladies’ who were frequently far younger than her.

@BeastOfBODMAS gin just doesn’t seem right to me and I can’t even begin to imagine why it was thought a good idea for it to go into a Christmas pud. Although I dare say some would think that my idea of amaretto isn’t either.

Pudding steamed tonight - I left it in a lasagne dish of simmering water in the slow cooking oven of the Everhot while we went to the pub quiz (and won )

Ooh EspeciallyD win win! Pudding and pub.

Tangled your wannabe pudding does look beautiful.

I have ordered a set of plastic pudding basins with lids as couldn’t face the tension of fretting about water getting in the pudding if I tied the string wrong. I have done it many times without incident but my string confidence has slipped away along with my estrogen levels 😉

That's interesting! I rather assumed it needed a serious boil, probably because DM always did it in the pressure cooker. A long, gentle steam is far more my style!

*21st November

Fairies and Flammkuchen.*

It's amazing how he makes everything sound tasty and appealing, even things I don't like (black pudding)! I'm tempted... next time I'm at a decent butcher.

I really want to remember this page, for the whistle stop tour of the markets!

I’ve been listening to A Cook’s Chronicles on Spotify. Some of CC is on there.

It’s like a meditation listening to the recipes being read out
”200g of flour, half a teaspoon of cinnamon..”

Having said that I have finally just got Delia’s Creole Christmas cake in the oven. DH and DD are gluten free and I have a gluten free recipe which I know works.

I like the descriptions of the markets, although they almost seem that they are somewhere to go to eat rather than shop.

I was a bit underwhelmed by the aubergine lentil dish. I even followed the recipe, more or less!

That is a shame @picklemewalnuts. Was it generally not to your taste or do you think something was missing?

I think I'd have preferred the aubergine in the lentils - it was a little tough round the edges.

I like that kind of thing, but it wasn't exciting enough to actually follow a recipe for 😂.

I served my guys a chicken breast with it. I'd have got a 'where's the rest of it' look, without!

I will be doing the same for my DH although he will not having the aubergine as he hates them.