NEW YEAR'S DINNER

OK, Christmas is over and you've had your pork rolls and pasta dishes but there's no reason to give up on fancy cooking.

I've discovered a good and easy recipe for Beef Wellington that I recommend you try at New Years.
The Old Girl's birthday is a week after New Year so I think I'll give this a go then.
In the past any beef Wellington dishes I've tried have been disappointing being variously soggy, undercooked, overcooked, flavourless. I've never tried to cook one myself as the recipes have been uninspiring.
Now Gordon Ramsay is an opinionated prat but he is a good and practical cook. I was impressed when watching the video below and I think that I will be able to make a good go of this.


BEEF WELLINGTON

BIG CHICKEN

I had a hankering for a big chicken or similar for Christmas this year.

"What do you want a big chicken for?" asked The Old Girl. "There will only be the two of us".

"I know" I said "but I've got this idea in my head. You know how I get".

"Tell me about it" she muttered.

*****************

I thought about the options:

•  Turkey (too big and too dry)
•  Goose (where would you buy them?)
•  Duck (too strongly flavoured

and settled on capon. Capon?

capon

/ˈkeɪp(ə)n/

noun

1. a castrated domestic cock fattened for eating.

Well I searched everywhere and discovered an Auckland gourmet specialty supermarket taking orders for them which was impractical so I gave up on that idea.

Over the last couple of weeks I visited a half dozen supermarkets and butcher shops and found one supersize chicken which I cleared space for in the freezer and froze.

This morning I asked The Old Girl when I should take the chicken out of the freezer in readiness for cooking on Christmas morning. She said "tomorrow morning - don't forget" which kind of rang warning bells for me. I might take it out tonight and put in the fridge just to be on the safe side.

Things only got worse from here.

"Will it fit in the crockpot?" she interrogated asked.

"We're roasting it" I answered.

"I like to half cook chickens in the crockpot first" she said.

"Oh" I said.

"Oh?" she quizzed.

"It'll be too big to go in the crockpot" I answered. "It's a big chicken.

"Oh" she said.

.............

"Did you buy a roasting bag?" she asked.

"A roasting bag" I answered .

"A big roasting bag" she stressed.

"Umm ... no" I answered starting to think that this whole exercise is falling into the too hard to be bothered category.

"I'll roast it in the oven covered in tin foil" I came up with.

She just looked at me.

"Eventually she said "You're on your own with that Matey!"

"Fuck"

CHRISTMAS SNACKERS

It's that time of year when we get a bit loose and let our hair down (those of us with some to spare).
The weather is improving - not necessarily drier but definitely warmer so we can strip off and get into a holiday mood.

There's one major thing that gets in the way of good times, conviviality and well being though.

CHRISTMAS

This outdated institution that's variously been taken over by retailers and christians and screwed to the nth degree bizarrely has Northern hemisphere imagery and trappings that are all to do with winter season. People in the Southern hemisphere who adopt it decorate their houses with 'snow' covered pine trees, dress in red woolen outfits and plan gargantuous feasts of roast meats and vegetables and steamed puddings. What's that all about?

Richard (of RBB)* who for all normal purposes appears to be a bit of an eccentric and, to quote his dearly departed mother 'A bit of a crank' has however got this Christmas dinner thing into some sort of perspective. For the last few years he has created Christmas 'dinners' on non-traditional themes and has used seasonal produce. It hasn't been unusual around at Richard's place for his guests to be offered a vegetarian pasta dish or a bhajee pavlova to go with the chardonnay and Chardon.

This year The Old Girl and I will not be entertaining guests for Christmas day and the days to follow so won't go in for the 'Siege of Mafeking' shopping expedition and will not be spending half the day cooking, setting the table and eating. We have an extra large chicken (I couldn't secure a capon) to roast and will have that with seasonal vegetables followed by a custard fruit flan. Wine will be vintage Champagne.

I'm picking her up from the bus this afternoon and will do the supermarket shopping first, allowing at least an extra half an hour to battle the hoards. I won't be buying a lot of supplies though as along with the lighter Christmas Day provisioning we will be keeping the rest of the holiday period basic.

So - what to eat during the Christmas and New year period?

The answer - sandwiches.

These can be:

• Normal

• Open

• Toasted

I plan to use some good old favourite combinations with the addition of some seasonal themes.

Here are some likelihoods:

Normal

Ham, tomato, cheese and lettuce - a traditional favourite that can be jazzed up with relishes and mustards and can benefit from some Japanese mayonnaise and wasabi.

Leftover chicken.

Vegemite and raspberry jam - still popular at our place.

Peanut butter and blackcurrant jelly with a touch of hot mustard - a nod to Trumpland which I've been following for at least the last year.

Cucumber.

Chocolate and cheese - sliced Whittakers chocolate and Colby cheese, a new addition to the menu.


Open

This is a great way of using up anything in the fridge or pantry and is like a light meal really. Eggs, salmon, tuna, tomatoes and dried meats all go well and can be put together in interesting combinations. This season I'll experiment with omelette, wiener schnitzel, curried egg and lasagne.


Toasted

Like the normal sandwich, the old favourites for toasted will find favour. Ham and cheese, tomato and cheese, cheese and onion and cheese and pineapple will be staples but we'll also have:

Bacon and potato - garlic sauteed bacon with some sliced leftover cooked potato.

Tuna and banana - always a hit at our place.

Buffalo Mozzarella, thickly sliced tomato (skin removed) and basil.

Leftover Bolognese sauce or mince.

Fruitcake. If you get the outside of the toastie golden and crispy this is delicious.


Enjoy!

* Richard (of RBB) cooked me a 'gourmet' lunch once at his Christchurch flat in the mid 1970s. It was baked beans with some grated cheese melted into it.

GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS

This year it looks like it'll just be The Old Girl and me for Christmas lunch.
This is unusual as normally we are entertaining a host of people or are away being entertained. Last year we were in Napier staying with The Old Girl's cousin whose husband is a professional chef so we had a really nice Christmas dinner.

I don't think that we'll go 'the whole hog' as we aren't into eating massive amounts of food and besides, since my little hospital incident this year I'm eating even less. I don't think I'll go to the extremes that Richard and Robert are going to though.

Richard, who usually breaks tradition by cooking Indian, Thai or Italian pasta dishes for Christmas lunch is, this year opening a can of baked beans I think.

Robert has stated that his Christmas 'brunch' will be eggs and salmon followed by Pavlova or Pavlova eggs or something. Weird anyway.

Oh, well, À chacun son goût I say.

What we will do (I haven't yet discussed this with The Old Girl) will be to have a cut down version of a Christmas dinner. I'll see if I can buy a capon which is a larger and more flavoursome version of a chicken. I'll have this with roast potatoes and, instead of a lot of other roasted or steamed vegetables will make a couple of seasonal salads.

The Old Girl makes some impressive desserts but I think we'll just settle on having one this year. I'll leave the choice to her but hope that it will be one of trifle, Pavlova, fruit flan or Napoleon cake.

Yum.