Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Annual Read along 2023

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello all, it's nearly that time!

For anyone who has not already had the pleasure, the annual Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles read along is a real time annual MN tradition.

The book begins on 1st November, however there are a couple of chapters of preamble. That's why I thought I would start thread one now, so that we have time to prepare and fully appreciate Nigel in All His Splendour come 1st November.

Some of us already have the book. For anyone who doesn't, it's a challenge to see of you can pick up a bargain. WH Smith has come up trumps in the past, as has ebay. A rare and precious charity shop find is the holy grail and adds a certain special-ness that simply extends that warm, fizzy Nigel feeling (and some well earned smugness)

I shall make a post each day and we can share our thoughts and feelings on the days recipes, sentiments and indeed Dear Old Nige himself.

Note: Reading by candle light can be particularly enjoyable. Cire Trudon may be one of Nige's candle of choice, but it's somewhat pricey. We don't discriminate against other less expensive brands - even if they are NVN (Not Very Nigel)

Pull up a chair and a cosy blanket and join in.

Did you use Nigel’s recipe? I think I might make a cake this year. Haven’t made a Xmas cake for years!

How lovely

I must confess I used the NVN Delia Smith classic Christmas cake recipe @Watchingpaintdrying which I find never fails (and I also love the fact she has gone to the trouble of scaling the ingredients up and down depending on the dimensions of the tin).

12 November

A pot roast partridge

We never had champagne. At least not the real stuff. All that mattered was that a cork went pop and there was bubbles in our glasses. No one minded that what we drank was tummy-twistingly acidic and had bubbles The size of Maltesers. The point was noise and fizz. Asti Spumante had it with brass knobs on.

Good morning all. Hope your Sunday's are gentle, but fruitful. Frosty here, much like the leafy pic in Nigel's chapter today.

I'm totally with Nigel here. We were also 'treated' to the ubiquitous Asti Spumante each Christmas and it was revolting sweet and acidic. Tummy twisting indeed. To this day, I cannot abide sweet drinks and my mother won't even touch champagne as she thinks all sparkling wine is made by the devil.

We've already had pot roast partridge this week. Dad goes shooting every week at this time of year, so there are always a couple of pheasants and partridges hanging. We make pie with the leftover meat, with big chunks of black pudding mixed through.

Thanks!

There are always a couple of pheasants and partridges hanging - now that’s a line that could have been written by Nigel himself @RainbowZebraWarrior

@LillianGish
@Watchingpaintdrying

i always use Delia’s recipe, as did my Mum, and it never fails. Sorry Nigel! 🤣

I must feed my Nigel cake today. Mmm I love the sound of eating it through December, love a fruit cake.

I use Nigella for Christmas cake, which is even less Nigel than Delia! I’m not very keen on trad fruit cake but her one with prunes and cocoa is divine.
@Inextremis I don’t know if it is any good to you but Ocado has beef suet at the moment

I was going to bake my cake today, but the oven is still broken. Someone is coming to replace the broken part on Monday, so I'm hoping to get it done next weekend instead. I use a recipe from Waitrose magazine, but with added chopped preserved ginger which I prefer to the Delia/Nigella etc cakes I'd tried in the past.

My Dad has gotten into this weird rhythm of eating last years cake throughout this December since I made 2 cakes one year. So the cake I make this week won't be eaten until next December. Good job boozy fruit cakes last well.

I need to go rummage through my parents pantry as I gave them mincemeat last year that I know they haven't used. I'm also raiding their crystal cabinet as I commented on some beautiful Yugoslavian crystal shot glasses last week and Mum says I can have them. They will make a nice display on a tray with a candle and a pretty bottle. Was it on these threads last year where folk were getting nice trays? (May have been on the Poncetastic threads)

Also, I may have added a spiced cinnamon and vanilla John Lewis candle tin to my Waitrose order yesterday when I was feeling poorly. Can recommend and they are currently on offer at £4.50.

‘must buy candles…’ and I did! Found some pale grey tall candles yesterday which I will use for Christmas dinner

love the sound of proper frost - very much drizzle here

I’ve looked at the Nigella Christmas cake recipe. It says use. 23cm by 20cm tin. No such thing seems to exist!

That's got to be a typo. Nobody would want a very slightly not square cake. Your challenge is working out whether it should be 23 x 23 or 20 x 20.

Where are you looking at the recipe? I might have it in a book.

Hello everyone 👋🎄😊🎄🕯

I haven’t been able to read for about a week now - lots of work going on (and two falls where I’ve managed to bruise my ankle, elbow, both knees and my brow bone 🙄 but luckily managed to avoid cracking my head open on the kerb). Also had some trouble sleeping, so feeling quite tired.

I won’t be trying to catch up on everything I’ve missed in the book because I can’t stress myself out right now (sounds silly, but I have to pace myself) but have read chapters 10, 11 and 12 this morning. I also haven’t read back in (on?) the thread so if I’ve missed any comments directed at me I’m not being rude on purpose!

I’ve not cooked anything from the book this year and I’m not sure I actually will but I might see if I still have the photos from previous years - I love seeing others’ photos so I’ll add mine too. I was going to cook a ham to coincide with the relevant chapter but we found the belly pork too much last week so I’m going to leave it. I do want to make the lamb boulangère that’s coming up. We did have the hot apple drink last night, but the clementines had all been eaten so we skipped those and the apple too. ‘Twas still lovely and very hyggelig.

I love red cabbage - raw, braised and pickled, and will be making both of the latter this coming week, hopefully. It all depends on how the work in the house goes and how I feel. I do like the braised cabbage more savoury and less sweet than the typical U.K. version though (with plenty of added goose fat!).

We’re not making a Christmas cake this year but when we did we used Delia’s recipe (we always add crystallised ginger, which I don’t think is actually in the recipe). We haven’t made a pudding this year either. We’ll make our mincemeat next weekend, a bit late but there’s too much else to do just now.

We didn’t drink sparkling wine at my grandparents’ - we had the traditional ‘juleøl’ (a sweet, dark Christmas ‘beer’ with very low alcohol content which even the children were allowed to have) and beer with the dinner, then coffee and liquors after. I don’t think they drank much wine, if any at all, as I don’t remember ever seeing it.

We’ve got crystal glasses too - some bought new or gifted to us but mostly from charity shops.

I, too, have remembered to buy candles; these are for our dining room advent candle holder. They are modelled on Japanese aesthetics so in that respect they’re quite Nigel.

Oh no @YuletideSolace ! Hope you're feeling a lot less battered now. Here's a picture that I took in Hardwick Hall (amazing National Trust house), with which I identify very strongly.

I made the aubergine and lentil recipe from early on in the book. It was very delicious, but I didn't fancy that much double cream, so used a mix of soured cream, Greek yogurt and milk. I think it could still have done with being a bit gloopier, so would use more liquid another time.

I want to try the partridge with smoked garlic and parsnips when my oven is working again, perhaps for the first Sunday in advent, but don't know where to find smoked garlic.

Morrison's has smoked garlic.

Christmas cake is done. Few weeks of feeding to ensure maximum booziness.

Oooh yum at the cakes and candles.
I have the Aldi white co dupe going and will feed the cake.

mns have their white co Christmas candle dupe out now …. Must try the JL one mentioned too.

Sat in bed reading for an hour this morning as I woke early. No point shifting sleep later until I’m back from my quick Paris trip due to the time difference. Had a lovely neom candle going and it’s made me remember how lovely burning a candle in the bedroom is.

Finally got round to the sausage, leeks and beans recipe and it made for a comforting early supper. Followed the advice on here and reduced liquid/added mustard (thank you @Waitwhat23). Also added a dash of tabasco as the sausages were milder ones than planned. I always think Nigel makes good use of parsley. Looking forward to soup for lunch tomorrow (with a cold leftover sausage on the side).

I am now hankering after a slice of homemade cake. Will make a spiced apple cake this week (not a Nigel one).

Ooh I'm late to this party - dug out my copy and caught up today so I'm following along with my candles lit

Probably NPN (not particularly Nigel) but 3yo DD and I made cinnamon rolls today. Swapped out 1/4 of the cinnamon for ginger so they have a slight zing, plus I used Gilchester's organic/ stoneground strong flour (ok, quite Nigel) so they have a bit more texture to them. Maybe not to everyone's taste but I like them. Other reviews on the recipe (BBC Good Food) said the icing was too sweet so I haven't bothered with that. On previous attempts I've found that one cinnamon roll takes one minute in the microwave to get lovely and warm and fluffy direct from the freezer, and we have some clotted cream ice cream knocking about somewhere, so that's dessert sorted for the next fortnight 😀