I haven’t blogged food for a while and with all the festivities it has taken me to today to catch up.
I’ll start with my Christmas menu. Some of this food will not be eaten as part of the main meal purely with so much choice there is little room in the stomach.
Starter – My Seafood Cocktail
Taking slivers of smoked salmon and King Prawns mix well in a bowl and leave to rest. In another bowl add 1Tbs of, Lime juice, Dill, lowest fat Mayo, Tomato ketchup, Quark (0% fat) and hand whisk vigorously to make a smooth tangy pink sauce. Next combine the seafood and sauce and return to the fridge.
When ready serve on a leaf of Romaine lettuce. There’s no need for extra salads or bread based product and the homemade sauce is fraction of the harm of a mass produced 1,000 Islands Dressing or a Marie Rose sauce.
Mains – Joy to the World
Meats
I plumped for a topside of beef approximately 1.4kg and a couple of 1980s midweek specials – the “Bernard Matthews Turkey Roast”. These little cylinders of Turkey breast meat cook in an hour, have no waste and are about £3 (bargain). It’s affordable to impress your guests with 2 meats and have change for carol singers!
Pigs in Blankets
My personal favorites. I could easily mange down on a hog’s feast of these bad boys with a single roast spud and a spare gallon of gravy. Ok I’d need a yard of stuffing too.
Having left Cholesterol City, let us journey to more sensible ways to enjoy this tasty accompaniment.
The basic ingredients are sausages and bacon. What if instead of the usual Chipolatas and streaky bacon, try Heck chicken sausages and bacon medallions (all the fat is removed). Roll the bacon across the body of the sausage anchoring in place with a cocktail. Wham them into an oven proof dish therefore no need for extra oil. Beautiful!
Potatoes
Everyone on a diet knows potatoes are evil. Evil because they smell good, they look good, and they taste heavenly. They are like A class drugs or nicotine – one puff isn’t enough but then you’re hooked. This year I came upon a recipe to calm a craving without being ‘out of my skull’.
Hedgehog potatoes are roasted with rosemary and sprayed with one cal oil. Take medium size potato. Wash it and halve it, then score the back with a knife. Use a little seasalt to season and place the rosemary in the incisions you made. Roast in the oven for about an hour. No gallons of oil, no lard, no duck fat, or dripping. Just tasty potatoes without the extra evils.
Root Vegetables
Classic Swede and Carrot mash but no milk, butter, etc only some fresh black pepper and sea salt and a generous sprinkling of Cinnamon.
Stuffing
Make it wet and don’t use butter and it will still come out of the oven as tasty as last’s years fat ridden offering.
Ho Ho Green Giant
Greens are something you love or hate. It’s no mystery that Brussel Sprouts are green. I’m fortunate to love all my greens.
Green Medley
We’ve all got 1/2 a bag of this, and 1/4 bag of that lurking in the freezer, so I put together a single steamer shelf: peas, broccoli, broad beans, & runner beans. Let everyone chose their favourites.
More Sprouts Vicar?
When it comes to Christmas Supper I face my Waterloo in the green spherical time bombs we lovingly call Brussel Sprouts. Ticking Bombs for the air will be green approximately 2 hours after consuming these picadillos.
Sprouts are a love or hate veg. I love mine whole from the stalk placed into a baking dish with finely chopped smoked bacon tossed together then covered in coarsely grated Parmesan. Then roasted for about 40 minutes. Fartastic!
Add gravy made from the liquor of roasted beef (I added 4 whole onions and 2 stalks celery), homemade Yorkies and you have the perfect recipe to have a good long snooze in the chair until Tea Time – next Christmas Eve.