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!

They are so convenient. Usually I’d freeze but my freezer is full so I have to use all this lot. That reminds me, I need to free up some freezer space! Time to use up some more of the batch cooked dinners.

Oh...we don’t need a thread 2 quite yet. Thought it was on 980 for some reason!

waffles are really tasty :-)

11th commandment from the Bazooka bible

"There can never be enough or too much parsley".

Thyme and sage are my favourite herbs at this time of year. Although I still have some parsley and basil growing on the windowsill.

Same for me - thyme, sage, and rosemary too. I freeze them so I’ve always got them available.

My basil is gone, there is a still a little of the parsley left (it made it through winter last year!).

I love coriander the most but use it more in spring/summer. Doesn’t grow well for me so I have to buy it.

Will likely use dill quite a lot over Christmas.

I forgot about the rosemary. i use dill more in the summer. I do love herbs. I have just popped some herby dumplings in the soup we are having for dinner.

Yes dill is a summer herb for me too. But features heavily in Scandinavian cuisine and especially in the accompaniments to Christmas feasting, so I use it throughout the season. Don’t tend to use it much after that until late spring/summer.

I need to grow dill as I love it. It's not always available.

Rosemary is usually reliable all year round, but I've just removed a huge overgrown bush and started some small ones off. I thought I'd dried enough to tide me over, but apparently I underestimated!

I'm fairly new to sage and thyme. I've had it, but not used it.

I can't do coriander, and can never get enough basil and parsley even with supermarket assistance. There just isn't enough light in my east facing kitchen and very shadowed garden.

Heyho.

Not a Nigel recipe, but for me it seems quite Nigel: I have been having plums stewed with mixed spice and star anise for breakfast. Though he would probably have it served with something quivering on the side 😀!

I need to do a binge Nigel catch up , but In My Defence . he was on the Food Channel yesterday doing all the leftovers recipes (from years ago) .
Opening the little paper wrapped wedges of cheese and eating leftover Christmas pudding that had been fried in butter and brandy poured over ice-cream

Tonight we had the hot-smoked salmon with potatoes, peas and dill vinaigrette. I kept to Nigel’s recipe for the most part, but I didn’t use new potatoes and I added peas. The potatoes weren’t as crispy because I didn’t want to extend the cooking time to compensate. But it was very nice, and we’ll have it again.

I'm starting to love your plates, tangled. The first dish you posted a day or so ago looked like an elaborate pie crust.

I'm making the cauliflower soup (but onions instead of leeks) and the cauliflower with carrot hummus next. I've taken to using the index for my ingredients rather than sticking strictly to the days.

It will be a busy cooking day today, processing lots of onions for the freezer and for pickles using Nigel's red wine vinegar from the pickled quinces.

Ah thank you @picklemewalnuts! I love them too...had my eye on them for quite a while and managed to get them at a good discount. Yay!

Your plans for the day sound lovely. I’m going to make Christmas chutney this afternoon/evening. Just having a cup of tea first, and some crispy oat biscuits with orange and crystallised ginger. My first festive bake of the CC season. 🎄

Forgot the photo! Here you can see my bowl of essential oil-carrier pinecones. The bay fragrance is very strong when I sit right next to it!

Yum!

My fingers are tired from onion prep!! The pickle ones are soaking in salt ready for tomorrow. The rest are in the pressure cooker.

Did you know if you soak the onions in boiling water for a minute, then stick em in cold water for a few minutes, the skins get really easy to peel off? It's very cool!

@picklemewalnuts
You might be interested to know that the boiling water trick works on garlic cloves - I make a garlic soup with 30 - 40 cloves of garlic and the boiling water trick cuts the prep time by half!

For lots of garlic I use the 'stick in a saucepan with a lid on and bash it about for a minute', and now I'm wondering if that would work with baby onions as well!

There's a garlic peeling gadget which is amazing. It's a little sheet of silicone and it always baffles me that it manages to peel the garlic but somehow it always does!

Silicone Garlic Peeler - Keep Fingers Odour Free amzn.eu/d/guptlVQ

@TangledWebofMincemeatDeception your waffling was a really thought provoking read and i found myself saying 'yes, i so agree' all the way through.

i have finished poncing the backdrop for the village now, but construction will have to stop until after the weekend because I am standing at an antiques fair over the weekend, and I need to price and pack stock.

Ah yes I know the garlic in boiling/cold water trick - learnt it years ago in Italy. But I don’t often cook with enough cloves to make it necessary. Had never thought that it might work with onions too...thanks for the tip as I hate food waste and I always feel bad when I get impatient and peel off the outer layer of onion instead of just the peel!

@Confusedmeanderings I’m glad people seem to have found it good to read - I worry about my waffling but can’t seem to condense my thoughts very well.

Jars of Christmas chutney are ready, will ponce them up later as some will be given as gifts. I filled a couple more jars but they were random old supermarket jars so they didn’t make the cut for the photo.

That garlic one will be useful! I'd rather peel the whole thing in one go, and save what I don't use.

In fact, if you cover spare cloves in olive oil and microwave them, they go into garlic confit which is just gorgeous, and will last in the fridge.

Oooh, love a good handy hack!

@allthelittleangelsriseupriseup where did we mention the boiling water trick? 👀

Ignore me. I managed to totally fail to see my own post. Doh.

Thanks for the garlic tip though, I'll use it a lot!