I’m trying to get ahead with my Christmas Day cooking this year, by doing a large chunk of it on Christmas Eve. So today I have made Nigella Lawson’s Cranberry Studded Mincemeat (which as usual is absolutely delicious, although as it turns out I’m the only one who likes it). This year I decided to make my mince pies with puff pastry, so made two varieties, twisted little bags, canape style and little folded ones, considering everyone else has decided they don’t like my mincemeat I’ve got a lot to get through.

Then I got ahead with my roasties, following Nigella Lawson’s (she is the Christmas goddess) but only part cooking as suggested by the cooking lady Kirstie Allsopp got on Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas, so all I’ll have to do it stick them in the oven again for another 25 minutes.

Then I made Nigella’s sticky cocktail sausages (the original post I wrote about those still get’s sooo many hits at this time of year) but once again my philistine taste budded family didn’t like them, well I did.

Then it was making the chocolate yule log (yes, you guessed it, also Nigella). Last time I made a swiss roll I was in school, I think I managed better this time but as usual when I try and ice anything, the result is totally laughable. As you’ll notice for the picture, it’s a rather short yule log. Nigella’s recipe gives, as described, twelve fat slices and I knew we’d never manage that (I had a taste of  a crumb of cake, extremely chocolatey, the sort that will make Boy Lacer’s eyes roll (he was very pleased to come into the kitchen to find me making it), I suppose anything with 50g of Green and Black cocoa powder is going to qualify as extreme in the chocolateness stakes). So I cut the roll in half and half is now in the freezer, uniced (except for in the middle).

I’ve done that quite a lot today, as you may have gathered, my family as a fussy lot and Christmas dinner does not rank high on their ideal meals, so I’m deliberately under playing how much food I do, however, a lot of Christmas recipes are difficult to shrink down, so I’ve been freezing the other half. So I now have two bags of mincemeat, a couple of portions of roast potatoes (mine all mine, I love roast potatoes) and half a chocolate swiss roll in the freezer. So I don’t feel like I’m totally frittering away money here.

Tomorrow’s dinner by the way will be mango, parma ham and rocket salad, where nobody bar me will actually eat the rocket, followed by roast pork belly using a Jamie Oliver recipe, roast potatoes and roasted meditarean vegetable for me and Mr. Lacer and chicken dippers, Waitrose potato rosti and lashings of tomato sauce for the kids, yes I succumbed (Girl Lacer asked point blank for this for Christmas dinner last month). Part of me hates the inclusion of something that basically the kids eat regularly anyway but another part of me thinks a) it’s Christmas, not very nice giving them something they’re not going to eat is it? and more importantly b) it’ll be cheaper because no food will be wasted. And it’ll be yule log for desert.

Christmas morning breakfast 

Ever since last year I started a sort of “tradition” if you like: begin Christmas morning with a steaming mug of hot chocolate and something sweet. This year the “sweet” turned out to be these gorgeous biscuits. A friend of mine gave me some tasty cranberries and that sort of gave me the idea…

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies (adapted from a recipe from Feast by Nigella Lawson)

Makes 30

140g flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt 

75g rolled oats (I used fine wholegrain and they turned out just fine)

125g soft usalted butter

75g dark or light brown sugar

100g caster sugar

1 egg

½ tsp. vanilla extract (I didn’t have any this time so I guess it’s optional)

75g dried cranberries

50g pecans, roughly chopped

140g white chocolate chips or white chocolate chopped with a knife

Preheat the oven to 180°C.Measure out the flour, baking powder, salt, and rolled oats into a bowl.

Put the butter and sugars into another owl and beat together until creamy (I used an electric mixer) – then beat in the egg and vanilla.

Beat in the flour, baking powder, salt and oat mixture and then fold in the cranberries, chopped pecans and white chocolate, chopped into small dice. Set the bowl of biscuit dough in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.

Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into a ball with your hands, and then place them on a lined or greased baking sheet and squish the dough balls down with a fork. You may need two baking sheets or be prepared to make these in two batches. (I needed 2 and a half actually).

Cook for 15 minutes, when ready, the cookies will be tinged a pale gold, but be too soft to lift immediately off the tray, so leave the tray on a cool surface and let them harden for about 5 minutes. Remove with a spatula or whatever to cool fully on a wire rack.

Christmas Lunch 

It’s amazing how, in the pre-Christmas rush, there are whole debates and polemics as to how long you need to cook a turkey for the Christmas lunch (turkey being the traditional choice in many Germanic countries). Coming as I do from a country where temperatures can range from anything in the vicinity of 38°C (give or take a few), the whole issue is rather pointless. Even more so, given that at the moment I don’t have such a large audience as to justify the sacrifice of such noble bird.

Nevertheless, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas for me without a traditional meal (if there is any one time when I like to make an effort with the food it is this one). So I got round it with these boneless chicken drumsticks. The great thing about them is that, as long as you keep the base of egg and breadcrumbs to hold it together, you can add pretty much anything to it. Traditional Christmas lunch in the UK is normally roast turkey with stuffing, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts and a variety of sauces including: cranberry sauce, bread sauce and, of course, the gravy.    

Boneless stuffed chicken with prune and mushroom stuffing

chicken drumsticks (one or two per person)

1 egg, beaten

fresh breadcrumbs

sausage meat or one sausage per person without the skin

chopped mushrooms

prunes

salt and pepper

spring onion

string to hold everything together

Bone the legs.

For the filling:  

Mix the breadcrumbs, egg, sausage meat, chopped mushrooms and chopped prunes together. Season with salt and pepper.

Fill the chicken legs and hold together with string. Place in a baking tray, season and sprinkle lightly with oil. Cook in a hot to moderate oven for 40 minutes, turning halfway through. Once cooked, cut the string off the chicken and slice carefully.

 Arrange on a plate with some cranberry sauce.

So there you have it: bird with stuffing and vegetables for two!

Cranberry jam – adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Feast

makes 350ml 

350g cranberries

350g caster sugar

Put a film of water in the bottom of a large saucepan and add the cranberries and sugar.

Stir patiently over a low heat to dissolve the sugar; this will take a little while.

Turn up the heat and boil the pan rapidly until setting point is reached, approximately 7 minutes. (Alternatively it will have reached a jam like consistency).

Pour the jam into a sterilized 350ml jar and seal immediately.

handful of Brussels sprouts per person  

1 slice of pancetta or bacon per person cut into 1 cm cubes

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

10g butter

10 chestnuts per person boiled and peeled (see below) or 1 packet vacuum-packed chestnuts

60 ml Marsala wine (I had Cassis sherry handy so I used that instead)      

Trim the bottoms off each of the sprouts, cutting a cross into each as you go. (This is applicable only if you’re cooking less than 100 sprouts, otherwise you’re spared). Then tip them into a large pan of salted boiling water and cook until tender (7 to 9 minutes or so).  

Up to this point you can do this in advance. If this is the case, plunge the sprouts into a bowl of cold water as soon as you take them off the heat so that they don’t carry on cooking. 

Drain them and set aside until you’re ready to finish them off. 

Roast the potatoes and the chicken and only when everything is almost ready, finish the sprouts.

In a large saucepan, cook the bacon cubes in the oil until they’re bronzed and crisp, but not cooked to the point of having dried out. Add the butter and the chestnuts and, with a wooden spoon press on the chestnuts to break them up a little. When they’re warmed through, turn the heat up and throw in the Marsala, letting it bubble away, fusing with the bacon fat and chestnutty butter to form a syrup. Add the drained sprouts and turn well, giving a good grinding of pepper. 

 You shouldn’t need salt, given the bacon but taste to see. 

 Note:

 If  you, like me, can’t find vacuum-packed chestnuts in the supermarket, buy fresh ones and boil them with a bay leaf, some thyme branches and some orange or tangerine skin until the shell is soft. Play it by ear but it can take a bit over an hour to do so. I know it seems time-consuming but other than chucking the stuff in the pan, there’s hardly any work involved. 

Perfect roast poatoes

 2 or 3 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut in half per person

2 or 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled and whole

goose or duck fat or, failing that, a mixture of olive oil and butter

sprigs of thyme

salt and freshly ground black pepper

zest of ½ lemon

zest of ½ orange 

Parboil the potatoes in boiling, salted water for 10 minutes.

Drain and toss them until they’re fluffy.

Drizzle the oil or fat on a roasting tray.

Add the garlic cloves, whole, and the thyme sprigs.

Arrange the potatoes on top. Grate the lemon and orange zest on top.

Season with salt and pepper and toss them thoroughly.

Bake in a hot oven for 40-50 minutes but check them after 35 minutes. 

It’s eerie.

I have all the presents.  The wrapped ones are wrapped, the sent ones are sent, the handmade ones are handmade, wrapped and sent.

Christmas Lunch is at my place this year, my father keeps inviting extras and changing the schedule to suit himself.  I haven’t cooked a single pre-prepare thing yet; and the weather forecast keeps changing.  As a result I have changed my mind several times: deciding to cook the ham and turkey buffes the night before and preparing a cold meat buffet with some appropriately celebratory colored and crisp salads in order to prevent heating our house up with the oven on from daybreak and overcooking our guests with our lack of A/C (when nobody’s here I lie on the cool tiles under the ceiling fan, until the sun has left the verandah side, and then I waft out there with a glass of something cold and dewy and gin-like). 

Now, however, I’m thinking it will be bacon wrapped waterchestnuts for horses doovers, plum glazed ham on the barbecue, slow cooker mashed potato, turkey buffes (light and dark meats) in the oven, Nigella’s mini-marshmallow topped sweet potatoes, Gravy, Moulded cranberry salad (from the old Potluck Cookery Book circa 1950), crisp green salads with moonblush tomatoes (also Nigella) and goats cheese,  followed by Raspberry Ice cream Cake from the free Coles magazine.  You see, the weather forecast is for rain…. a double, no triple blessing.  We need it already, our guests will be cool and comfortable and our place is shown in it’s best light with rain falling outside: the plants quivering up instead of drooping down, the horse looking romantically black and windswept instead of dusty as he leans in the kitchen door, the clouds low and broody on the hills.  How lovely.

The eery thing is it is only three days away and except for writing the above paragraph, I have not made a single move to put this plan in place…nevermind that I still have to make the traditional family Brudher that we eat for breakfast on Christmas Day, RSVP and wrap gifts for friends who have invited us for drinks, and yell at the kids to tidy their rooms and keep them that way or Santa may make a detour…as will the guests if they get a whiff on their way to the bathroom. 

 Yes, I am positively calm and unbutterflied…and I haven’t been drinking despite what you may think…it is only 10 in the morning after all.  Instead I’m lying around, reading bits and pieces from the piles of books next to my bed (instead of putting them away), planting and babying trees in terrific heat that would have died had I left them on the $2 table (so where’s the risk?) and trying to figure out how to make a Maxi-dress from my fabric stash that I can louch around in so the neighbours don’t bust me in my nighty.  Again.

I think I’m dreaming of a Zen Christmas, so if it stays this calm, I’ll be thrilled.  But if it turns into a calamitous explosion of activity and chaos like it normally is and I have a glass of champagne in my hand, that’ll be OK too.

Merry Christmas to all!  And to all, a Good Wife!

I know it’s a bit early, but I’m starting my Christmas eating early this year as we’ll be away after Christmas aka left overs time, plus after about Boxing Day I don’t particularly fancy Christmas cake anyway.

This year’s inexpertly iced recipe is going back to the loving arms of Nigella, who can not write a bad Christmas cake recipe, sorry I deserted you last Christmas Nigella, that Rachel Allen cake was truely awful! The recipe I used was from the Nigella Christmas book, which is a slightly different recipe from her Feast and her How to be a Domestic Goddess books, but I think possibly even better. It’s moist, fruity, spicy but not too heavy, definitely moreish, whereas normally one slice is enough for me! Girl Lacer likes it to, so yeah, two people in the family who likes Christmas Cake!

-

In un Christmas cake related stuff – I’ve been tidying the kids’ massive collection of books, which prompted Girl Lacer to tidy her books on the little shelf above her bed. Amongst her collection is an old atlas of mine, she hands it to me,

“You better take it, I like it,” she goes.

Me, confused “Well, if you like it, you keep it on your shelf”.

“No, I read it at night, I can’t help it!”

Awwww!

Hello,
At the moment I am obsessed with Jamie at Home and everything Nigella (watch here). Food can be so sexy and so easy and it seems I got all excited and bought too much of it to eat before I head ‘home’ for the holidays.

Something else that I didn’t know could be sexy: antiseptic mouthwash… I am in love with the vintage Listerine glass below. Daily inspiration via the dieline.

Ps. Jamie is kind of weird for naming his kids Poppy Honey (kind of growing on me though), Daisy Boo, and Petal Blossom Rainbow…

I confess to reading cookbooks like some people read good novels.  I like simple home cooking from different countries; as long as it has a lot of flavor, it will be a hit in my family.  Recently I tracked the career goals my children mentioned over the past year.  Two of them mentioned chef and the other, my little gourmand, said she wanted to be a food critic.  You can bet it’s difficult to cook a meal that pleases everyone!  These recipes have passed the test and I have included the cookbooks that were the inspiration behind the dish.  Enjoy and please share your favorite meals!

I have a few cookbook author favorites but Nigella Lawson is probably my favorite cookbook author of all time.  She can cook ANYTHING and she’s also a mom so her expectations are reasonable.  She has cooking show on Style network that is worth taping. 

I love her cookbook Nigella Express, 130 Recipes for Good Food, Fast.  Now, she’s English, so she have a fondness for English mustard and peas that I don’t share but that is not to say that there aren’t great recipes that are easy and delicious.  To buy any book, click on the image of the book to purchase at Amazon.com.

Steak with Lemon

1 1/2 pounds of steak, London Broil is great or Sirloin but any kind of steak is fine

1 lemon squeezed

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, bruised and minced.

Cook the steak on a grill pan on the stove until medium rare (or more if that is what you prefer.)  Let the steak rest for 10 minutes in the marinade made of remaining ingredients.  Slice the steak thinly and serve with marinade over white rice that you’ve made in a rice cooker. 

TIP:  If you want to mix brown rice with white rice, soak the brown rice overnight.  It will cook at the same rate as the white rice in the rice cooker.

Serve with fruit for the kids or sliced cucumbers and tomatoes.  Or a mozzarella, tomato salad would be nice too.  Just slice the mozzarella cheese and tomatoes and alternate slices on a plate.  Drizzle with aged balsamic vinegar (the best you can afford) and sea salt (Maldon is my favorite).

My kids have asked me to make this chicken pasta dish for them again and again. It’s just chicken piccata served with pasta.  I’ve modified a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated The New Best Recipe.  This is a great reference cookbook.  The good folks at Cook’s Illustrated have tried every variation to come up with the best, tastiest and easiest recipes.  Just follow the recipe to a T to get the same results.  Cook’s Illustrated has a great monthly magazine my husband and I love that we call the anal-retentive cooking magazine.

Chicken Piccata Pasta

1 package chicken breasts, boneless & skinless.  Organic is best.

1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil to fry chicken in

2 lemons, slice one into thin circles and squeeze the other

1 cup chicken broth; 2 garlic cloves, minced; 1 teaspoon corn starch

1 package whole wheat linguine

First boil water for the pasta.  Cook the pasta while attending to the chicken.  Fry the chicken breast in a little butter (about 1 tablespoon) and a little olive oil (about 1 tablespoon) on medium-high heat.  Remove when done, flipping once; about 5 minutes in total or 2 1/2 minutes on each side.  Remove to a plate and rest for a few minutes.  Add the chicken stock, garlic, the lemon slices and juice and a teaspoon of corn starch, and cook down until thickened.  Cut the chicken up into bite size pieces and add back to the pan with the sauce.  Serve over whole wheat pasta such as linguine. 

My husband created this easy and delicious teriyaki sauce recipe by combining a few different recipes.  You can store the leftover sauce in the refrigerator for a very long time and it’s great for chicken or salmon.  We frequently have play dates over for this dinner and everyone seems to like it.

Teriyaki Sauce

1/2 cup sake

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce (we use Kikkoman brand, low sodium)

1/4 cup mirin (a sweet sake; available at asiangrocer.com)

Put the sake in a small sauce pan on medium-high heat and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. (you are burning off the alcohol).  Add the remaining ingredients and stir to dissolve the sugar.  Simmer for 5 minutes and it’s ready to use.

Chicken Teriyaki

This meal idea came from the Bento Box cookbook.  It’s very simple:   to one package of chicken thighs (bone-in or boneless, skinless), add 1/2 cup of the teriyaki sauce and two handfuls of baby carrots into a skillet and cook on medium heat, flipping a few times, until the chicken is done and the sauce has reduced to a nice, glossy consistency.  Boneless chicken thighs will take about 10-12 minutes and bone-in will take an extra five minutes or so.  Serve with rice.

Salmon Teriyaki

1 pound salmon steaks or fillets

Lightly salt the salmon and cook in a 350 degree oven for about 7-10 minutes for a thin fillet or about 15 minutes for a thicker salmon steak.  Remove from oven and pour about 1/4 cup of teriyaki sauce as the fish cools.  Serve with rice or, if you want to get fancy, try this soba noodle salad.  The soba salad is perfect for warm weather.  My kids love it but they remove most of the veggies.  No matter, soba noodles are made from buckwheat and are a good source of fiber.

Soba Noodle Salad

12 ounces soba noodles

Julienne (cut into match sticks) the following:  1/2 English cucumber, 1 red bell pepper, 1 or 2 carrots

sauce:  1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 tablespoons sesame oil (toasted Asian kind NOT clear kind), 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.

Follow the package directions and cook the noodles.  Drain and run under cold water.  Add to bowl with the julienned vegetables.  When you are ready to eat, toss everything with dressing and eat immediately.

One of my closest mom friends is Cuban and we’ve been enjoying Cuban food since we’ve met her.  We both cook from In a Cuban Kitchen, by Alex Garcia, a well-known food channel chef and host.  Everyone in my family loves it when it’s sandwich night.  These are no ordinary sandwiches…they are Cubano style.  The reason why this is an easy dinner is that you can marinade several pork  loins on the weekend and freeze them.  For a weeknight dinner, simply remove from freezer before you go to work and roast in the oven for an hour.  Pick up a few baguettes on the way home (our family of 5 needs two), and dinner is a snap.  I have added some fancy condiments that you can either make in advance, buy a jarred version or forego.  This particular recipe is inspired by the Pernil Asado recipe.  This recipe is for one pork loin, so double or triple if you want to make ahead and freeze.  I usually make three at a time; one for now, two for later.

 Cubano Sandwiches

1 pork loin (I buy them from Trader Joe’s because they are the right size)

marinade:  1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, 1 large orange (or substitute three or four clementines if you have them lying around going bad), 1 lemon, 1 lime (or use 2 lemons or 2 limes if that is what you have in your fridge), 5 cloves garlic minced fine, two pinches of cumin,  1 tablespoon salt and freshly ground pepper, 1 bay leaf crumbled.

Rinse and dry the pork loin and put in a large zip lock bag.  Add the marinade and leave in the refrigerator overnight.  RESERVE the marinade, drain the roast and place on a baking sheet covered in foil.  Roast in a 350 degree oven for about an hour.  Rest for 10 minutes then slice thinly.  Put the marinade in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Cook for a few minutes then pour over the sliced meat.  Serve with a baguette, cut into “subway” sandwich lengths.  Condiments include Dijon mustard, roasted & marinated red bell peppers, and carmelized red onions. 

 I do love Suzanne Goin’s cook book, Sunday Suppers at Lucques.  The recipes are not easy dinners but they are delicious.  This is a riff off her Roasted Bell Peppers.  My version is easier.

3 red bell peppers, broil until charred on all sides (keep flipping).  Put in a covered bowl, then remove seeds and skin but reserve juices.

Put roasted bell pepper slices in a glass container with the reserved juices, 2 thinly sliced cloves of garlic, a slug of good, aged balsamic vinegar and about 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar.  You want enough liquid to cover the peppers.  Add salt to taste.  Keeps in the refrigerator for a week or so.

Carmelized Red Onions

Slice a large red onion into fine circles and place in a saute pan.  Add about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and cook over medium heat until the onions soften.  Add the juice of a lime and lower the heat until the onions are a carmelized brownish color.  This takes about 12-15 minutes. 

Carne Picada Burritos

This recipe is from my all-time favorite magazine, Saveur.  I think I clipped this recipe more than 10 years ago.  It’s from the H & H Coffee Shop in El Paso.  My kids love meals where they can make it themselves.  Getting good tortillas is difficult in the North-East where we live.  Try the handmade flour tortillas at Whole Foods.

Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add 1 diced peeled yellow onion and cook until translucent, about 15 minutes.  Trim 1 pound of tri-tip steak and cut into 1/2 inch dice.  Add to onions.  Increase heat to high and brown meat for 2 minutes.  Add 2 diced tomatoes (canned is fine; freeze remainder for another use), and add 1-3 cloves of minced garlic (we like it garlicy).  Crumble in 2 cubes of beef bouillon (secret ingredient!), and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Serve with warm flour tortillas.  Makes 4-6 burritos.

Here are some Saveur Cookbooks.  I don’t have these cookbooks because Saveur is the only magazine I save so I already have all the recipes.

 Marinated Rib Eye Roast

This will be our Christmas dinner.  It’s from an out-of-print Junior League California cookbook; I think from the Los Angeles area.  Our holiday cards are little recipe books and this recipe was in our first one about 10 years ago.  We still have friends that will call, years after receiving our card, and say they are making this recipe.  It’s easy because most of the time is not active time, but sooo delish!

1 5-pound boneless rib eye roast; we also like bone-in, we get 3 bones to have yummy leftovers

1/2 cup coarsely cracked pepper (sadly, you must crush in mortar and pestle; we tried other methods but it’s not the same)

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon

1 cup soy sauce (Kikkoman brand, low sodium is fine)

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon paprika

4 cloves garlic, minced

Place roast in a large zip lock bag.  Combine pepper and cardamon and press firmly all around roast.  Combine soy sauce, vinegar, tomato paste, paprika and garlic. Pour over roast and marinade overnight, turning occasionally.

Remove roast from marinade and discard marinade.  Place roast in a roasting pan.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Bake for 2 hours or until meat thermometer registers 140 degrees for rare or 160 degrees for medium.  Rest for 15 minutes and then carve.

 Vietnamese Grilled Chicken or Beef (a.k.a.  Vietnamese Burritos)

This is another kid pleaser.  We had playdates who are a little picky try this and they all loved it.  I think it’s because it’s a do-it-yourself meal so it’s fun for kids to make their own wraps.  I clipped this recipe a long time ago, but I suspect it’s from Bon Appetit Magazine. It’s actually a riff off Lemongrass Beef or Lemongrass Chicken, but I never seem to have fresh lemongrass.  No one seems to notice it’s missing either.

2  tablespoons sugar

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3/4 teaspoon corn starch

1 pound flank steak, thinly cut OR 1 package chicken breasts, thinly cut into strips

1/4 cup Vietnamese fish sauce

Combine everything and refrigerate overnight, turning occasionally.  Discard marinade and fry in a saute pan on medium-high heat, about 1-2 minutes per side.

Serve with:  1/2 head bib lettuce; 1 English cucumber, julienned; 2 carrots, julienned; sprigs of fresh mint leaves; sprigs of fresh cilantro; and 16 rond rice-paper wrappers, 6 inches in diameter.

To make:  put a large bowl of warm water on the table.  Take the rice-paper wrapper which will be still like card board and dip into the water making sure the wrapper gets completely covered in water.  Drain excess water and put on your plate.  In a few minutes, it will be soft and pliable.  Add whatever combo of things you want to eat.  Roll up like a burrito and eat. 

If you would like a Vietnamese dipping sauce, then combine 1 tablespoons of sugar, juice of a lime, and 1/4 cup fish sauce.  Stir to dissolve.

This is a great reference for Vietnamese cooking; the  cookbook author is an editor for Saveur Magazine. 

Panko-Breaded Pork Chops or Chicken Tenders

A mom friend gave me this recipe and the spinach lasagna recipe; both are easy and delicious.

1 large egg

1 cup Japanese bread crumbs (panko), in the Asian section or www.asiangrocer.com

2-3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  A wonderful source of the best Parmesano Reggiano is FormaggioKitchen.com.

1/2 tsp salt and freshly grated pepper

1 teaspoon minced sage (if your kids don’t freak out about green stuff) for pork; 1 teaspoon minced thyme for the chicken

Four 3/4 inch-thick pork chops; about 1/2 pound each and pounded flat to about 3/8 inch thick. 

Beat the egg in a shallow dish.  Mix the panko, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and herbs in another shallow dish.  Dip the pork or chicken first into the egg and then coat with panko mixture.  Bake in an oven, preheated to 350 degrees, for about 15-17 minutes until golden.  Serve with a wedge of lemon for adults and ketchup for kids.

To make this a fun dipping dinner, serve with sliced English cucumbers, baby carrots and ranch dressing.  My kids also like sliced apples that they dip into a mixture of cinnamon & sugar.

Easiest Spinach Lasagna

Barilla brand baking sauce, one jar

No cook lasagna noodles

1 package pre-washed baby spinach leaves, uncooked

1 tub marscapone cheese

1 tub cottage cheese

In a large baking dish, pour a generous layer of baking sauce and add a layer of lasagna noodles.  Add another layer of sauce, and spread a thin layer of both the cottage cheese and marscapone cheese.  Squish down a layer of the spinach.  Do this again until everything is used up ending with lasagna noodles with sauce on top.  I get 3 layers of lasagna noodles.  Cover with foil and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about an hour.

Pork Chops with Roasted Parsnips, Pears and Potatoes

I clipped this recipe from Vogue a long time ago.  It’s a Jaime Oliver recipe, a.k.a. The Naked Chef.  If I recall correctly, he made this for Tony Blair, then the Prime Minister.  The original  recipe is for 8 so I’ve halved it for 4.  I haven’t read Jaime Oliver’s recent cookbooks, but I used to watch The Naked Chef religiously.  He’s a disciple of  The River Cafe, so I’ve included their cookbook as well because I believe they are the “grounding” behind Jamie’s stripped down but amped up Italian style.  I tend to like the first cookbook that each chef puts out the most — I have a feeling the first cookbook is the hardest to get published so it tends to be their best effort —  so  I’ve included The Naked Chef even though this recipe is not in here.  I’ve also included The River Cafe’s Italian Easy Cookbook; it’s not their first cookbook but unlike their other cookbooks, you don’t need a wood-fired oven to make some of their recipes.

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

6 garlic cloves, lightly smashed

2 large branches of rosemary, cut into 2-inch length sprigs

zest and juice of a lemon

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

four 8- to 10-ounce pork rib chops, 3/4 to 1 inch thick

3 parsnips, quartered lengthwise

3 firm but ripe Bartlett pears, quartered lengthwise and cored

1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced into  1/3 inch thick wedges

 Combine olive oil with garlic, rosemary, lemon zest and juice, and pepper in large roasting pan.  Marinate pork chops for 1 hour at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.   Scrape marinade off chops and set aside on a platter but return marinade to roasting pan.  Add parsnips, pears and potatoes to roasting pan and turn with hands until everything is covered in the marinade.  Season with salt, about 1/2 teaspoon sea salt.  Roast for 40 minutes, stirring occassionally until the vegetables are tender.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a saute pan, and season the pork chops with salt on both sides.  Cook over high heat until golden, about 5 minutes total, then return to roasting pan, setting on top of the vegetables and roast an additional 5-8 minutes until pork is cooked through.

‘But it’s delicious’ I told her. ‘It’s a beautiful fusion of British and Italian cuisine,’ I went on. ‘It’s based on an ancient Italian recipe’.

Finally her reply came, ‘But Daddy, Marmite on spaghetti sounds disgusting!’

I did eventually persuade Rosie to try this brilliant simple dish which comes from Anna del Conte via Nigella Lawson. And she loved it, so did Sorrel, the little one. It’s now a firm favourite on the ‘nothing in the fridge’ recipe list.

Our north American friends can find Marmite (or Vegemite) at World Market, Amazon and in some Safeways.

Serves 4 kids

Nudo Spaghetti – 350g
Unsalted butter – 50 g
Marmite – 1 tsp
Parmesan cheese – freshly grated, for serving

Cook the spaghetti in a pot of boiling, salted water. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the Marmite and 1 tablespoon of the pasta water. Mix it through and then pour over the drained spaghetti. Serve with a generous sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese.

When I was very little, my mother would go to town with Christmas decorations (in fact, she still does). I used to share a room with my brother, and we’d get our own garland-laden mini Christmas tree, and enough flashing lights to induce a seizure. Frankly, I wouldn’t want it any other way, and I’m happy to acknowledge that I’m turning into my mother at an alarming rate.

1. Domesticity at its finest.

2. A festive gammmmmon roast.

3. Party fallout: candy canes, santa socks, bottle caps and streamers.

4. A sticker on the street: ‘Merry crisis and a happy new fear’.

5. A Nigella Christmas is surely better than a white Chistmas, no?

I get the pleasure of meeting the English “domestic goddess” herself tomorrow. Details to come…

Last night while searching for Christmas cheer on Sky TV I came across a channel which just shows food programmes. Imagine mt delight when the full evening schedule was taken over by Fanny Craddock, Delia Smith and Nigella Lawson! 

Here are some great clips to get you in the mood for mince pies!

O-kay. Confession time. I TOTALLY watch the “Real Housewives” series on Bravo. It’s the television equivalent of Ho-Ho’s and Twinkies (hee), but as far as teevee junk food goes, it gives a ridiculous rush of an experience. The people usually featured are so delusional that I watch for sheer “are you fucking serious” value.

Thing is, people take this show seriously in some respects- in wanting the lifestyle these ladies represent, that can include the physical. For instance, there’s the new Real Housewife in Orange County, Alexis Bellino:

Mmmhmm. But CAN she really wear white?

Now, I’ve gotta hand it to this girl because she is whip-thin and looks ridiculously good after three little kids. She has some pretty good physical habits- 4 days a week, hour and a half at a time, and usually with spinning classes and Stairmaster time. I don’t doubt that if you put the two of us together in a fight, she might be able to kick my ass. (I’d still bet on myself because my ass is larger.)

But, people, in spite of her physical looks, there’s WHY she works out- she does it to fit in. To conform with an expectation of being super-skinny, super-beautiful, and pleasing… well, arm candy. I don’t doubt that she probably does it to take care of herself and keep her mental marbles in the bag- but, she’s also doing it to make sure society doesn’t deem her ugly or slovenly, and to maintain a socially accepted look. All I- or anyone- has to do is to look at her flotation devices boobs to know that she could rescue overthrown sailors is conformity with a spray tan.

However, I disagree with society’s “She’s supposed to be a size 2″ dictate- or, as famously put in The Devil Wears Prada, “Size 6 is the new 14.” Nobody is obliged to look so thin, but people do so for what is presumably The Dream- the designer wear, the affluent life, the bling, the admiration.

See, my idea of beauty is here:

Mmmhmm. As cute as that sundae.

Nigella Lawson is one of the most physically lovely ladies on this planet. The woman extols sheer happiness from eating and cooking- this is a woman who has happily poured an entire bottle of Riesling into her pot for Coq Au Riesling. This is a woman who has happily noshed on cheese. And this is a woman who most likely does not count calories on a regular basis.

Would people call her fat? Yes.

Do I agree? Sure, because she’s a larger size. But is she ugly? Absolutely not.

See, fat women are wrongly perceived to be slovenly or ugly, and with how obsessed we can be with our looks (myself included), sometimes we forget just how beautiful larger women are. Fat can be fabulous.

Give me a choice between resembling Alexis Bellino or Nigella Lawson, and I’d pick the British siren any day. Bellino may have the Playboy factor in her corner, but I would readily bet that Nigella Lawson is the happier person. It takes a lot of pressure to look and maintain that Barbie doll figure, and I’d rather eat cheese.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of her Holiness Nigella Lawson.  In fact, I’m practically a one-man advertisement for the domestically blessed kitchen saint.  She has once again wowed me with her food philosophy, and sticking with the holiday theme I’m on I’ll share a little of it with you as it pertains to Christmas cooking.

Power to the (Ginger) People

The excerpt I’m thinking of involves Nigella Lawson sitting on the staircase in her London home going through old Christmas cookbooks that she has collected over the years.  She mentions that some people succumb to what appears to be “the burdens of mass catering” during the holidays and end up resenting their guests and friends for attending their seasonal parties.  Nigella flips through a few pages of the  cookbooks pointing out how absurdly intricate the recipes are.  She says that during the holidays she’s ultimately out to just be surrounded by her friends and good food which simple and enjoyable.  She’s not wanting to impress anyone with food origami.

I couldn’t agree more.  Not that I’m at the point where I’m throwing dinner parties yet (bachelor apartments don’t lend themselves to holiday soirees) but I do think that she’s nailed what seasonal food should be about: delicious, simple and familiar.  I suppose at Christmas we look to our food the way we look to recognizable carols and holiday movies; we’re wanting the comfort of a memory.  A poll of your friends will result in a veritable novel of must-have foods for the holidays.  New recipes are almost always welcome but only as long as they don’t replace the old, tried, tested and true ones.  A friend at work gave me a recipe for gingerbread men that she’s been using for years now.  Christmas after Christmas, the same recipe gets pulled out to supply her with enough gingerbread men to both eat and decorate her home.  I personally have never had an attachment to any gingerbread in particular and so I’ve decided to adopt this one as my new Christmas traditional staple.  I’ve already made three batches of the spicy people and am not showing signs of stopping.

Some Basics: Cutter, Ginger, Orange

Anyway, I’ve been sworn to secrecy on this particular recipe but I did find another that I posted below which is delicious.  I think the one I’ve posted is actually more kid friendly (more sugar) as the one I’ve been making is a little on the fiery side.  My friend Jill mentioned that her daughter winced when biting into the cookie and asked for chocolate instead.  Perhaps it just wasn’t her traditional favorite and that’s something I can totally respect.

Enjoy!

• 6 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 4 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 1/2 cups organic butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup robust (dark) molasses
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 roll kitchen parchment

• 1 1/2-inch round cookie cutter for roof tiles
• cookie cutters (gingerbread man)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Sift flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, cloves and cardamom into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add sugar and beat to blend. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Add molasses and vinegar and beat on high speed until well blended. Add dry ingredients in 4 additions, beating at low speed until dough forms. Divide dough into 6 equal pieces. Flatten each piece into rectangle. Wrap each in plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, at least 6 hours. (Keep refrigerated.  Dough can also be frozen.)

Dough and Pin

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Roll out 1 dough piece (keep remaining dough refrigerated) between two 15-inch-long sheets of parchment to scant 1/4-inch rectangle, turning over dough and parchment occasionally. If parchment wrinkles, peel off, smooth wrinkle and reposition parchment over dough; continue to roll out dough to required thickness.

Moment Of Truth

Cut out figures and place on foil lined cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cool.  Devour.  Repeat with remaining dough.

My son is not a breakfast eater so I am constantly in search of a grab and go, but healthy, alternative for him.  While re-aquainting myself with Nigella Express, I came across a recipe for Breakfast Bars. This looked like it could be the answer to my problem.

Reading the recipe, it really looks simple. I gathered up the ingredients and set to work.

• 1 14 oz. can condensed milk
• 2 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup mixed seeds
• 1 cup unsalted peanuts

NOTE: I used pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower and I toasted them first. I also used roasted, unsalted peanuts.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. You need a 9×13 pan.

In a large bowl add all the dry ingredients.

Warm the condensed milk in a pot, being careful not to burn. Pour the warmed milk over the dry ingredients.

With a wooden spoon or spatula mix and fold to evenly coat and incorporate all ingredients.

Press into baking pan.  The mixture is very sticky, so either wet your hands with cold water or use an off set spatula to evenly press mixture into pan. Bake for 1 hour.

Let cool for at least 15 minutes, cut 4 across and 4 down for 16 bars.

Bars are still sticky after cutting and removing from pan. The taste is good. I am sure that toasting the nuts, vanilla and cinnamon helped. Not too sweet. Really filling and substantial.

NOTES FOR NEXT TIME:

• I added 1 tsp. of vanilla to the condensed milk while warming. I think a little more would add a little extra flavor.
• I added 1 tsp. of cinnamon to the mixture. Again, a little more would give it that warmth only cinnamon can bring.
• Make sure the bars are completely cooled or they are seriously difficult to cut.

I watched Delia on T.V. during the week and it was just like coming home after a horrendous day out. There’s something so comforting about her, especially the Christmas programmes. Yes, I know that this was going to be a Christmas Free Zone – but we’re in December now so I suppose I should try to get into the spirit of it all.

Delia did go a bit weird at one point and started showing us how to make toast and such like and the tinned mince and frozen potatoes stuff was just horrible, but she seems to be back into normal mode now.

The great thing about Delia is that the recipes are so well researched that they always work, nothing is left to chance. I know that she has a team of people to help with this, it isn’t just Delia. The thing is that the recipes are obviously meant to be tried out at home, that’s the whole reason for doing the programmes. She tells you exactly how to do things and the correct times and temperatures, which is what you need.

It’s nice to see her walking with her husband in his Norwich City scarf too, and I suppose if you are into cats then you’ll be keen on that aspect of it. I wouldn’t mind cats if they stuck to their own gardens.

Nigella on the other hand is a different entity altogether. I watched her programme yesterday morning and yes the whole thing did look luscious but – she doesn’t go into the details of anything. It’s as if the whole thing was just a puff for Nigella and we just aren’t expected to actually want to cook any of the food.

The soup would be easy to replicate I’m sure. Well you can’t go far wrong with soup, but the pudding with the wonderful name of Girdlebuster Pie was the sort of thing that you need to know all the proper weights of the ingredients to get the correct consistency.

Nigella said, “Put some digestive biscuits, chocolate and unsalted butter into your food processor,” – and that was it.

Apparently the Girdlebuster Pie was a staple of American diners in the 1950s and it looked so delicious that I was determined to get the recipe. It wasn’t on the BBC website but my husband managed to track it down for me on The Daily Mail website.

So it seems to me that Nigella is just all about how everything looks. It’s Nigella as the soft porn and the food is her supporting act of pure hard core.

I suppose it’s aimed at men but really the lingering looks and flirtatiousness are taken to such lengths that it has just become laughable. She moves her head very strangely and it was making me feel quite sea-sick. She reminded me of a dusky Lady Penelope from The Thunderbirds. The head movements are just the same but Lady Penelope has an excuse for it – being a string puppet.

So all in all, I think that Delia wins hands down with her home cooking ways. I’m going to have to try that Girdlebuster Pie though. I think I’ll make it for my husband’s birthday cake. He is one of those poor souls who was born on the 24th December. I’ll post a photo of it then.

As you know I posted a recipe recently and I’m getting pretty interested in cooking.

With that in mind here is a picture of Nigella Lawson.

Also from Nigella Lawson’s Feast is the easiest cranberry sauce ever.

It’s cranberries, sugar, booze and water.

First, you dump all of the above in the recommended quantities in a small pot and you arrive at this:

Then turn on the heat, let it bubble away and then you get this wonderful awesomeness in red:

It really is amazing.  Next I think I’m going to add lime or lemon zest.  Maybe orange.  It’s very tasty.

Or dressing, for people in Texas.

I love this cookbook and use it all the time. I bought it a few years ago and now it’s written in and getting smudgy on some pages.  But that’s okay.  I like to make notes on recipes I like detailing what I liked, what I changed and when I used the recipe.  It helps me to remember.

Her Gingerbread Stuffing is my Christmas Time Crack.  I love this stuff.

I promised a very lovely friend from church that I would post this here.  So, Jean, this is for you.

First you must make gingerbread.  The recipe says to buy some, but I’d rather just get a box mix and make it, it is easy enough.

The nice thing about this recipe is that you don’t have to get the gingerbread out prettily, just start ripping it out of the pan.  Crumble it up.  Go for it.

The recipe doesn’t call for it but I like to dry out the gingerbread a little, so I throw it in the oven for about an hour.  250 degrees, no more.

Then you have to chop the onion and apple, heat the butter and oil in a frying pan, and brown the onion and apple.  I used a food processor to chop the apples, onions and bacon.  Oh yes, a pound and a half of finely chopped bacon goes into this luciousness.  Mmmmm, bacon.  I added 1/2 a pound of maple bacon to the regular bacon for the one I brought to church and that was pretty fantastic.

I switched out the clementines for lemons because I had no clementines and lemons were plenteous.  So into the apple/onion/bacon mix went the zest of two lemons.  I also added a bunch of fresh cranberries for the one I brought to church.  Since I didn’t have any extra cranberries of Thanksgiving Day, I reconstituted dried cranberries with currant vodka and added those.  Yeah, I said vodka.

Put everything into a bowl and make sure it’s mixed up, g-bread cumbs, apple/onion/bacon, zest, pepper and cranberries.  You won’t need salt because of the bacon.

Glisteny.

Add the eggs and more pepper.  Mix well.  Then pour it into a buttered baking pan.  Nigella puts hers into a loaf pan, but because of my enormous family I put it into a cake pan.  It goes farther that way.

I didn’t get a finished picture, sorry.  Maybe at Christmas.

Philosophy's Holiday 2009 collection is good enough to eat

The Christmas countdown starts today! I was invited to a preview of the Holiday 2009 Collection of Philosophy, which highlights the cozy Christmas spirit. The event took place in Enderun College , inside a room that was filled with delicious scents of baked goodies. We were surprised to find out that we were going to take part in a cupcake decorating session featuring Sonja’s cupcakes. The theme coincided with Philosophy’s warm and toasty celebration of the holidays—complete with shower gels and body scrubs smelling of sweet cakes, frosting, and gingerbread.

Dynamic duo: The Recipe Box

My favorites: The Recipe Box, two classic recipe shower gels snuggled up in a cozy recipe box. Not only do the shower gels have a sumptuous scent, I can fulfill my Christmas resolution is to channel Nigella Lawson. The box, you see, is meant to be reused as a kitchen recipe container. I can start by storing kitchen recipes in here. In fact, two recipes are already included—mine is of a Red Velvet Cake and Sweet Creamy Frosting. Yum! The Gingerbread Man is another favorite because this scented hot salt body scrub smells deeeelicious! It’s also perfect for pre-shaving or pre-self-tanning use.

Beauty Bar’s Chie Gatchalian hosted the intimate party and proposed a cupcake decorating contest, with Philosophy’s Holiday 2009 as our theme. I was grouped with Rorie Carlos, Town and Country fashion and beauty director; Joanna Manalastas, Spot.ph managing editor, and Betty Tianco, Female Network and Shop Crazy managing editor. Our cupcake designs were judged by no less than Sonja Ocampo herself, the genius behind Sonja’s Cupcakes. Guess whose group won best prize?

Sweet victory: Rorie Carlos, myself, Joanna Manalastas, and Betty Tianco pose with our winning cupcakes

Philosophy Holiday Collection 2009 starts at P995, available at Beauty Bar. Photographs courtesy of Philosophy and Beauty Bar

Every Friday I always feel relieved it’s the weekend but in reality weekends are always ridiculously stressful: Two days of anxious and pointless procrastination and then the frantic hysteria of Sunday night cramming session. I never want to talk about not doing work because I always feel that everyone else IS doing work and that when I’m moaning, ” I haven’t done THIS and THIS and THIS and I haven’t even STARTED THIS” everyone’s nodding sympathetically and agreeing but inwardly thinking, “ Foolish child, I’ve already finished things she hasn’t even remembered to forget” . And what am I spending the weekend doing instead of my seemingly bottomless pile of work? I’m reading theories about Nigella Lawson being the anti christ and trying to find a video on youtube of a Chinese seal playing the flute. I couldn’t even find the right video : ( I had to settle for watching a Turkish walrus playing the saxophone, I don’t think it even was playing the saxophone I think they just trained it to hit the saxophone with its flipper and then played jazz over the sound system. Charlatans.

Thanks a bunch internet, thanks a big, fat, clinically obese bunch.

∆