What's the most successful thing you've cooked this Christmas?

[lilolilbethlehem]

(not including the obvious, like Turkey/Mince pies/Christmas pud) Things that we can all adopt for entertaining either at Christmas or on other occasions (like, the next 5 days ahead of me!!!!!!!!!!)

Erm, DH really liked the mash tonight

I haven't cooked a single proper thing for over a week

maple and oat bread
sage and onion bread

how did you make it, to make it such a hit? (genuine question!)

Nigellas ham in coke (always a winner) and also made her chilli with cornbread for the first time last week and it was a hit and very easy.

This was really nice, had lots of compliments:

sticky clementine and ginger puddings

(sorry, xposts, that was re mashed potato BUT would also like fishie's bread recipes

rocky road

Just a splash more milk than normal (I cocked up the timing so the potatoes weren't as well cooked as they should be, so needed more milk to fluff em)

am happy to give bread recipes tomorrow.

i love mash.

Thanks Fishie, look forward to them.

fishie,
I thought you wote MAGPIE and oat bread

Bubble and squeak that DH and I had for tea tonight! YUM!

I made a turkey risotto for dinner tonight.

Had the most divine turkey stock that I made in an enormous pan (got over 10 litres of it even after reducing for ages) with all the turkey bones and bits and the spices that I'd used to brine it beforehand (a la Nigella), and that really helped to make it quite divine.

It only had in it some olive oil and butter, an onion, some garlic, risotto rice, extra dry martini, turkey stock, chopped fresh parsley, a splash of single cream, and then some petit pois stirred in right at the end.

Even dd ate it and she's been off her food for a couple of weeks!

Lemon posset and cranberry compote - really easy and absolutely delicious. From Woman & Home magazine:

Posset:

2 x 568 ml cartons double creAM
200g/7 oz caster sugar
juice of 4 lemons

Bring the cream and sugar to the boil in a pan, reduce the heat, stir in the lemon juice and simmer for 5 minutes to reduce the mixture slightly. Remove from the heat and sieve into a clean bowl. When it's cool, cover and chill overnight.

Compote:

350g fresh or frozen cranberries
150g caster sugar
100 ml (4 fl oz) port
100 ml (4 fl oz)brandy

Put the cranberries into a pan with the sugar, 100 ml water, the port and 50 ml of the brandy. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 20-25 minutes until the cranberries are tender. Pour in the remaining brandy and cool before serving.

1; PARSNIP GRATIN( from sunday times) everyone raved- same as pommes dauph. but with parsnips really
2homemade cranberry jelly;so easy you'd be a mentalist to buy a jar- even nice on toast.
3 bought 2 turkey breasts and not a whole bird and went to town on the stuffing, wrapped in bacon and cooked until perfect and sliced. no waste and tasted fab

Spiced beef. drool

courgette and cashew soupwhich everybody raved about and was absolutely delicious evenif I do say so myself.

mmm recipes sound fab, thanks all! Would welcome recipes for other dishes, esp spiced beef....

Main course on Christmas day was roasted fillet of beef with shallots and mushrooms - tres expensive, but absolutey gorgeous!

For 8 people:

beef fillet, about 1.75kg
soy sauce - 2 tbsp
red wine vinegar - 1 tbsp
extra virgin olive oil - 6 tbsp
garlic - 8 cloves, peeled, 4 crushed, 4 left whole
shallots - 10 peeled
rosemary - a small bunch, stems removed
mixed mushrooms - 250-350 gr (can just be ordinary mushrooms if this is all you can find)

1. Mix 1 tbsp soy sauce, the vinegar and 3 tbsp olive oil with 4 cloves crushed garlic. Set aside. Season the beef with plenty of salt and put in a large plastic zip bag with the marinade. Marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours

1. Let the beef come to room temperature a couple of hours before roasting. Pat dry and season again. Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180/gas 6. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan and sear the beef well on all sides, then put it in a large roasting tin with the shallots. Sprinkle over half the rosemary and roast for 25 mins for rare beef, 35 mins for medium rare. Cover with foil and a tea towel while you cook the mushrooms.

1. Mix the mushrooms with the remaining oil, soy sauce, garlic cloves and rosemary. Put the mix on a large shallow baking tray, season and roast in the oven for 15 mins. Slice the meat and serve with a spoonful of mushrooms and shallots.

OK, not me, but DH made a fantastic veggie main course consisting of a stack of the following layers (from bottom to top)

stuffing patty (stuffing with added sauteed mushrooms add an egg, form into rounds and bake 10min )
slice of beetroot
round of goats cheese
small spoonful of cranberry sauce on top.

He also filled a chunk of stilton with port, then added it to a batch of puy lentils so they tasted incredibly rich.

I did a ham in cider that everyone raved about.

Also, I have to mention that my Christmas cake this year was blardy marvellous.

My turkey

Duck a l'orange (Christmas Eve)

I did a trifle twice (real custard) and it was bloody delicious and snaffled in seconds.

My turkey and leek soup was also fantastic.

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