Christmas officially begins with a final fling at Empire Cafe!

D and I are both working until lunchtime today (Christmas Eve) so we decided a treat was in order last night - since it was practically the end of term (I am in the office today and there are about three other people on a floor meant to hold several hundred. And one of them is here to water the plants).

We decided to make a final 2024 visit to one of our absolute favourite discoveries of the year, Empire Cafe, which I first mentioned on this blog back in May. Since our first visit we have been back several times - including two Sunday lunches - and it never, ever fails to delight. 

Last night, we both kicked off with one of the small plates. In honour of our recent trip to Vienna, I went for the Bratwurst and smoked cheese spring roll.

In Vienna, I discovered a delicacy called Käsekrainer, which is basically a hotdog shot through with melty cheese - this was a slightly souped up version. If you like sausage and cheese and crispy pastry then there is nothing here that you won't enjoy. Although I did think the flavour of the smoked cheese was slightly overwhelmed by the curry element in the accompanying sauce. D has a crab bread and butter pudding served with lobster butter, which, judging by the speed at which it disappeared, was very good (I should also add it smelled fantastic, and I'm not the biggest crab fan in the world).

You really come to Empire for the chicken.

Last night, my half bird came with Kashmiri butter and chilli flakes. Absolutely lush. I've never had chicken this good anywhere else (that I can recollect). Although I find half a chicken slightly too much after a rich starter, so maybe the campaign to get them to start doing quarter birds starts here?

I was slightly gutted to not have any capacity for the mince pie waffle with brandy cream and a brandy snap but may try and recreate something similar at home because, well, why wouldn't you?

Replete with chicken and cheer, we then rolled to the Leeds Everyman to watch a special screening of the Royal Ballet's "Nutcracker". Which was as full of magic and sparkle as you can imagine and a really lovely way to start the Christmas celebrations proper (this morning's trip to the coalface aside).

To anyone and everyone out there - wishing you all a very, very happy Christmas and a magical New Year!

Empire Cafe

6 Fish Street

Leeds

LS1 6DB

Happy New Lockdown

We watched that all time classic film Groundhog Day on NYE; it seemed peculiarly appropriate as we prepared to say farewell to 2021. And, turns out, peculiarly prescient too, as last night England was plunged back into the lockdown that everyone (apart, perhaps, from the actual government) knew was coming. And even though it won't make an awful lot of difference to my life in the immediate future (we had more or less decided to hunker down for the next few months anyway - and are blessed enough that we can do so) still, I lay awake for hours last night feeling sad and anxious.

I am worried for the health of my friends and family. I am worried for the sanity of those of them who have to go back to trying to home school their children alongside everything else. I am worried for all those businesses, particularly those in the hospitality trade, who must be limping along in hope of a miracle: what will survive when we finally make it out? I also realised, extremely selfishly, that I am worried about the food shortages that happened last time (who could forget that dreadful few days where I COULDN'T BUY EGGS*) and then started worrying about the fact that it is somewhat morally dubious to have such concerns in the face of all the others. 

*(And we get eggs delivered every week now, by our friendly local milkman, so we are usually overrun with them).

Let's talk of happier things, shall we? Did everyone manage to have some sort of Christmas? We were lucky enough to see my parents briefly on Christmas Day - I don't know how lucky they felt given that I wept all over them - which was gorgeous. I baked Gougeres for the first time in ages which almost made me feel like a hostess again. Christmas Dinner was our standard fare - confit duck leg, duck and black pudding bonbon, mash, red cabbage, creamy mustard sprouts - which, as ever, was sublime. And, for the first time ever I made a Yule log! I'd share a picture but, dear Teapot, my food photography skills, lacking at the best of times, have not been kind to the poor beast and I wouldn't want to put anyone in mind of...well, you know. Suffice to say, the sponge was light, the filling flavoured with cherries and Kirsch was airy and boozy and the chocolate ganache was dark and slightly bitter to balance everything out. I declare it a positive triumph.

Amazingly, our waist lines escaped the whole festive period relatively unscathed. We'd already been making efforts in that direction before Christmas (of which maybe more in a future post) and I think we naturally managed to balance the more indulgent days with lighter ones. My last hurrah meal before work re-started yesterday? A poached egg on toast. And very nice it was too.

A couple of recipes to share with you (I'll add the links to the relevant page). I used several different recipes for the Yule log, but the basic chocolate Swiss roll was from the GBBO site and I was extremely pleased with the way in which it turned out. Some recipes call for beating the eggs and sugar up over a pan of warm water, but warming the eggs slightly first is so much easier! My sponge was perfect after 8 minutes of cooking, but my oven is a beast so the 10 minutes specified in the recipe is probably fine for most. 

And this carrot and sesame seed bread by Dan Lepard (I'm getting slightly obsessed with the man) was divine - although I found that my mixture needed a splash more liquid than specified to completely come together. Marvellous flavour and texture in the finished loaf though - and a crisp crust that particularly suits it for toasting.

2021 may not have got off to the greatest of starts, but I hope everyone out there is bearing up. (Sort of ) happy new year all!

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas

We bought a turkey this year. We never usually buy a whole turkey - just a crown or a breast joint. Regular readers may remember (indeed, why wouldn't you) that chez Seren, we do not eat turkey on Christmas day, but enjoy a traditional Turkey Curry on Boxing Day, for which a small crown is perfectly adequate. But this year we found ourselves (suitably be-masked and socially distanced) in Kirkgate Market and we saw what looked like a fairly modest bird for a definitely modest price. 

Well, apparently even modest birds produce great big piles of meat - we have OODLES (a technical term). But, perhaps even more pleasingly, we also ended up with a slow cooker full of delicious overnight turkey stock. Which is what got me to thinking about Christmas smells. For 12 hours, our home was filled with a mild turkey fug which scent, weirdly, took me straight back to childhood - Christmas Day, watching Top of the Pops and waiting for the grandparents to arrive for lunch. 

I also baked a banana and mincemeat loaf earlier this month (recipe in this month's Good Food magazine - providential indeed since I had a couple of bananas that were preventing the freezer door from closing properly and a rogue jar of mincemeat that appeared in a store cupboard audit and needed using before the 2020 batch arrives). And, again, the smell was incredible - that combination of spice and sweetness that just screams Christmas, even though I don't recall my mother ever baking mince pies when we were young. (She may well have done, in which case I am an ungrateful creature because my abiding memory is of puff pastry mince pies from the bakery, served warm with cream for lunch on Christmas Eve. We also used to have sausage rolls for lunch on Christmas Eve - it was a total pastry fest which was quite unusual for our household and regarded as a huge treat.)

I feel terribly nostalgic at the moment. It's probably to be expected, what with most of us having been shut away from family and friends for nearly nine months. And our family, like many others, has experienced loss this year that means that, even on those precious few days when we come together, there will be an empty chair in the corner.

But if there is one time of the year when nostalgia is OK, it is Christmas. And the smells and tastes of all those beloved Christmas foods, some traditions that span decades, and others more recent but no less precious, have been wonderful prompts. 

I hope to write again before the big day - I have an exciting pizza to share and I'd love to record the recipe for the aforementioned banana loaf - but, since promises are like (mince) pie crusts, I will avoid any guarantee. So I'll take the opportunity now to say to anyone reading - MERRY CHRISTMAS. I hope you all find some joy in this most joyful time of year, even if things are a little bit strange. Next year will be better. And, in the meantime, may all your beloved Christmas treats bring you comfort and remind you that there is always light in the dark. 

Notes from my Christmas kitchen (2019 edition)

I didn’t take a single photo of the food that we ate over Christmas - which, for those of you who know my (startling lack of) talent for food photography may come as a shock. The trouble is (and I’ve complained about this before) while you are trying to line up the perfect shot - or even just trying to line up something that you can make look half decent if you Instagram the bejesus out of it - the food is a) smelling yummy and b) getting cold.

I think, though, this was the year that we really nailed Christmas dinner - our version. We still serve confit duck legs - the method very closely based on Valentine Warner’s recipe detailed here. We have now introduced an additional meat element: the duck and black pudding bonbon. To make these, D roasted two duck legs until tender then removed the skin and shredded the meat into a bowl, alongside two thick slices of black pudding. The mixture is soft and pliable enough to easily fashion into balls before rolling in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and deep frying - all of which, with the exception of the frying, can be done well in advance.

There is mash, because there has to be a potato element. And there is braised red cabbage which has been a staple for many years being both a little bit sour, a little bit sweet and a little bit buttery all at once and providing some moisture to the plate in the absence of any gravy.

This year, as well, inspired by a Thomas Keller recipe, we softened an onion in a little butter and oil then added a pile of shredded sprouts with a couple of sprigs of thyme. Covered the whole in chicken stock and reduced right down before adding a splash of cream and a good spoon of Dijon mustard. The bitterness of the sprouts were tempered, but not entirely diminished, by the flavour of the rich sauce and it really worked well to pull everything together.

Usually, we end up eating pudding on Boxing Day because we’ve maxed out. But keeping things light on the snacks and starters type meant that this year, after a couple of hours digestion time, we just about made room for the individual Christmas pudding cheesecakes that D had carefully prepared earlier in the week. I love Christmas pudding and I love cheesecake so this was a match made in heaven! I’ll post the recipe here for future reference - it would be great if you were entertaining a lot of people since you could make a full sized one, get it done well in advance and then just slice and serve on the day.

Post Christmas blue(berry scone)s

Seasons greetings to all! We are now in the period of the year where, if your household is anything like ours, you will be barely moving apart from the well trodden path between the sofa and the kitchen. Secretly, you will already be planning the health kick to end all health kicks on which you plan to embark at one minute past midnight on January 1st. And then you remember that you’ll have a fridge full of NYE leftovers at that point so best hold off until you return to work.

Today is my birthday. Most of the year, I dislike having a birthday so close to Christmas but, I must admit, there is something nice about having an event to look forward to post Boxing Day if only to punctuate the naps. I woke to the smell of blueberry scones in the oven - there are few better smells than home baking and, I might almost suggest that it beats the more commonly evoked scent of bacon frying into second place. But I digress. Behold these beauties which were sweet and buttery and perfect with a cup of tea. They were an almost exact replica of the old Starbucks berry scones that I used to adore back in the day and which the bastards saw fit to stop producing (in the U.K. at least).

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Christmas dinner? Our duck legs were as delicious as ever (I don’t really understand why we only tend to cook them once a year). And D’s last minute brainwave of making shredded duck and black pudding bonbons, very lightly flavoured with Chinese five spice, was a genius addition.

We were due to spend Boxing Day eating a Christmas dinner proper with my parents. And, indeed, D managed it. But I took to bed mid afternoon with a stomach like a washing machine - a potent combo of my gnarly digestive system in uproar about the surfeit of rich food and drink that I had dared to subject it to, and that wonderful monthly visitor that makes it such a pleasure to be female. I am rather sad about this, although 24 hours of barely eating seems to have calmed things down slightly and my Mum did package up some turkey and sausage-meat for me to enjoy a traditional post-Christmas sandwich. Hopefully, it will be sorted out early in the New Year (the gnarly digestive system rather than the being female bit) at which point I might buy a turkey breast and offer to cook them a not-Christmas dinner in recompense.

That aside, it has been a lovely festive season and I have once again been reminded of how lucky and blessed I am. A blog is a funny thing - even one which is ostensibly about dieting and food will often come to be treated as a sort of confessional and that means the focus here might be skewed towards the less positive aspects of my life. This year, like all years, has brought its issues and struggles but also its gifts and it will be the memory of these latter that will endure.

Recipe corner: Mince pie brownies

Mince pies and a filthy imposter!

As I mentioned in my last post, my team at work had a mince pie bake off recently.  I toyed with a number of ideas, including a delicious sounding Mary Berry recipe for mincemeat topped with frangipane, but ultimately decided to veer off in an entirely different direction, a decision which may or may not have been slightly motivated by my fear of pastry.

I don't know what the issue is; when I've attempted pastry it has always worked perfectly well.  But, in my head, it is something that I Can't Do.  I used to feel the same about bread and I got over that, so perhaps 2019 should be the year that I take on pastry.  Although 2019 is also supposed to be the year that I finally lose a few stone and emerge from a chrysalis of podge like a beautiful, middle-aged butterfly.  The two things are not particularly compatible.

Anyway!  Mince pie brownies.  Good Food magazine have a recipe for this online wherein they recommend inserting actual mince pies.  I thought you'd get a better flavour if you stirred the mincemeat itself straight through.  And for a bit of crunch, I chopped up some shortbread biscuits (working on the basis that most people will have shortbread lurking around the house at Christmas) and bunged those in too.  Delightful.

The basic brownie recipe is based on my go-to which is from the Hummingbird Bakery book.  I have never been to the Hummingbird Bakery but I commend their brownie skills.  I've reduced the sugar for this batch, on the basis that the mincemeat will be pretty sweet and I don't want the whole lot to end up sickly.  Spoiler alert: they did not.

Additional spoiler alert: these did not win the bake off because they were not enough of a mince pie.  Pah.  I think they're rather delicious anyway.

Ingredients

200g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
175g unsalted butter, chopped

210g caster sugar

110g plain flour
15g cocoa
Tsp ground cinnamon

3 eggs

Half a jar of mincemeat
4 shortbread finger biscuits, roughly chopped

Makes around 16 - 20 brownies

It might take a few bowls here, but I’d recommend getting everything weighed and ready to go before you start which then makes this the easiest job in the world.

Preheat the oven to 170 (160 fan) and grease and line a square tin.

Chocolate pieces and butter in one, microwave proof, bowl.

Sugar weighed out in another bowl.

Flour, cocoa and cinnamon in a third.

Mincemeat in a small pan.  Set over a really low heat.  You want to melt the suet and make the whole thing slightly more liquid which means it will distribute evenly through the batter.

Microwave the chocolate and butter on a medium heat for around five minutes or until melted and glossy.  I find this easier than setting up a bowl over boiling water.  You need to take it out and swirl it around every so often to prevent it from overheating, but as long as you set the temperature to medium-low (about 50% on my model) it should be fine.

Add the sugar and stir well until incorporated.  I find that this works best if I add it in about three lots, stirring well after each time.  Then sift in the flour / cocoa / spice combo and stir well again.


Break the eggs into one of the bowls you used for the dry ingredients and lightly whisk before adding to the batter.  Again, I find that it incorporates best if you do it in about three goes, briskly stirring after each addition.

By now, the mincemeat should be nice and melty (a technical term!) so remove from the heat and allow to cool very slightly while you fold the shortbread pieces through the mix.  Finally, stir through the mincemeat. 

Transfer the lot to the prepared tin and bake in the oven for around 30 minutes (actually, they took 20 in my oven but it is a BEAST).  

The brownies are ready when they have a shiny crust and the underneath quivers very slightly when you remove them from the oven.  Alternatively, stick a skewer (or a piece of spaghetti – my implement of choice) into the cake.  The brownies are done when it emerges with a few scant crumbs clinging to it.  There’s a really good visual of what I mean here. 


I defy anyone, mince pie hater or not, to dislike these.  The combination of boozy fruit and chocolate is, to my mind, absolutely irresistible.  Merry Christmas all!

A pre-Christmas catch up

I cannot believe that Christmas is almost upon us and I, for one, am nowhere near prepared.  How goes it for you, dearest readers?

Most of our Christmas dinner preparation is underway, thanks to D.  The duck legs are sitting quietly in a box of fat in the fridge, the braised red cabbage and clementine ice cream are in the outdoor freezer alongside a couple of pots of turkey curry to enjoy in the fuggy period between Boxing Day and New Year.  And this weekend, I will be turning my attention to Christmas crumble: there will be a layer of apple, a layer of mincemeat and then a crumble topping flavoured with orange zest, cinnamon and chopped nuts. 

Dieting quietly fell off the agenda a good while ago so at the moment I'm all about the damage control which is not easy in an office when there is a permanent supply of Christmas snack foods.  My team actually held a mince pie bake off last week.  I went off piste and submitted a batch of mince pie brownies, which I thought were fairly epic, but they were proved a gamble too far and failed to win on the basis that they were not mince pie-ey enough.  My genius is clearly not appreciated.

Burgeoning waistline aside, I must admit that I have struggled to get into the spirit of things so far this year.  I always used to adore Christmas but now wonder if I'm just getting a little bit too old to buy in to the magic in the same way that I always used to.  Maybe not having children means that you just lose that sense of wonder.  Or maybe the fact that Bella Italia have seen fit to put Christmas Dinner lasagne on their set menu this year (I don't like to swear on this blog but WTAF?) has just made me feel that everything has gone a little bit too far.

Anyway, I hope to be on again at some point to run through my dishes of the year (I'll bet that'll have everyone on the edge of their seats for the forseeable) but in the meantime, I leave you with a picture of my beloved Minx being long suffering in a Christmas scrunchie - looking at which makes me think that perhaps I can still muster a little bit of festive wonder...

Recipe corner: Bang Bang Turkey

The period between Christmas and New Year never really feels like real time.  I have never, since entering adulthood, worked those few days - partly because my birthday falls on the 28^th and I have always insisted that I can’t work on my birthday.  I know that millions do, but there have to be some advantages to having a birthday at such a time and one of them is that I always spend it at home.

Food between Christmas and New Year is also a strange thing.  You’ve had one big celebration and are probably gearing up for another.  You don’t really want to cook much (because that would get in the way of all the lying around).  You probably have masses of leftovers lurking in the fridge but all you really want to do is munch your way through your selection box.  Normal rules don’t apply and you find yourself eating cheese for breakfast and cracking open a bottle at three in the afternoon (or is that just me?)

Anyway, turkey curry is a must for us during this period.  We don’t tend to have turkey for Christmas Day itself, so buy a crown in specially and get the curry made in advance so the flavours have time to develop.  I’ve blogged D’s special recipe here.

And this year, he found another turkey leftovers dish: “Bang Bang Turkey” which is absolutely perfect for the season.  It contains some fresh, raw veg for a bit of crunch and a zingy peanut sauce which wakes your sluggish taste buds up.  I think it should become a regular part of our festive routine, especially since the sauce can be made in advance and frozen (I have stashed some away already in my deep freeze so it can make a re-appearance on the menu later this year.)  If you can bear to do a bit of chopping and steaming of rice then have a go at this one.  I imagine it would also work well with chicken.  The list of ingredients is absolutely massive I know, but the method is easy, and most of these are things that you are likely to have in your store cupboard anyway.  It is honestly not an arduous task to assemble.

Photo credit: bbc.co.uk

 

Notes

The original recipe is a Hairy Bikers one, and can be found here.

We served this on top of steamed basmati rice to make it a more rounded meal. 

I found that the quantities listed for the sauce would dress six lots of salad generously.  I’ve given the amounts per the original recipe below but do note that you will have leftovers which can be bagged up and frozen. 

Ingredients

For the turkey:

1 tbsp soy sauce

Juice of half a lime

½ tsp of palm sugar (or soft brown sugar)

½ tsp of chilli powder

½ tsp Chinese Five Spice

125g cooked turkey, roughly chopped

For the peanut sauce:

Tbsp vegetable oil

2 shallots, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

5cm piece fresh ginger, grated

2 red chillies, seeds removed and chopped

200ml chicken stock

150ml coconut milk

75g crunchy peanut butter

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar (you can substitute cider vinegar for this if that’s what you have in)

Tsp palm sugar (or soft brown sugar)

Tbsp fish sauce

Juice of half a lime

For the salad (suggestion only – select veg to suit):

Carrot, reduced to strips with a potato peeler

Red pepper, sliced into thin strips

2 spring onions, sliced

5 radishes, thinly sliced

To serve and garnish:

 

100g basmati rice, steamed

Red chilli, sliced

Fresh coriander and mint, roughly shredded

Roasted, unsalted peanuts

Serves 2, with leftover sauce

Whisk together the ingredients for the turkey marinade then add the turkey and combine well.  Cover, and set aside (I did this several hours in advance to no detrimental effect).

Make the sauce: gently heat the oil in a pan and then add the shallots, cover, and cook over a low heat until translucent (probably about 4-5 mins).  Add the garlic, ginger and chillies and continue to cook for a couple of minutes or until they have lost their “raw” smell (probably another 2-3 mins).  Now add all the other sauce ingredients, bring to a simmer and reduce by about half.  Set aside to cool.

To serve – add a couple of tablespoons of the cooled peanut sauce to the turkey and mix well. 

In a deep bowl, start with the rice, then the turkey and finally, divide the prepared salad veg.  Drizzle with some of the remaining sauce.  Garnish with chilli, herbs and peanuts as desired.

Return to the Black Swan at Oldstead

Happy (nearly) New Year! Hopefully everyone out there on tinternet had a wonderful Christmas and is looking forward to seeing out 2017. It's been a good year for us - we finally bought our house, we installed the log burning stove that we've always talked about, work has been challenging but rewarding, D got a much deserved promotion and, most importantly, we've eaten some AMAZING food. So much so that I'm going to do an entirely separate post about my top dishes.

But first, I just had to tell you about my birthday meal. I'm a Christmas baby, and a couple of days ago, I donned a blindfold (well, a scarf over my head) and was whisked off by my beloved on a surprise Birthday Adventure. And it really was a surprise, because the destination turned out to be the Black Swan at Oldstead, a restaurant we visited earlier this year.

Poor old D. We've had numerous conversations about our favourite restaurant experiences of 2017 and apparently I had said, on more than one occasion that the Black Swan wouldn't be my priority to revisit. Which is not to say at all that I didn't like it, just that I'd not found all the dishes to be entirely to my taste. I think that he was a bit worried as to how his choice of destination would be received - but, as he explained, many places close over Christmas, and a good meal in a nice, localish venue with attached rooms had been tricky for him to locate.

As it turns out, we were bowled over by our second visit. The service was as charming as before, the restaurant as pleasant to sit in and the food, well, the food was absolutely fantastic. I'm not sure what had changed - whether it was just that this selection of dishes just happened to suit me better, which, when you only serve a tasting menu is bound to happen - but, for me, the stars aligned and I really started to appreciate the genius of chef Tommy Banks.

Undoubted dish of the night was a scallop with fermented celeriac. It was an absolute triumph of balance - sweet scallop, earthy and sour notes from the fermentation, an underlying rich creaminess from an ethereal celeriac purée and a hit of fragrance from the vivid dill oil. I've really fallen out of love with scallop dishes recently, but this one was perfect.

The main course, again, was all about balance and the harmonious coming together of a rich velvety piece of venison and a sweet-sour sloe ketchup. The sauce alone had a medicinal quality that made it slightly odd on the palate but as soon as it was paired with meat and the dark iron of cabbage everything made perfect sense.

And a blackened apple tarte Tatin with rye ice cream - oh my lord. Buttery, sweet, salty, sharp, savoury - every element came together, contributing to a perfectly fabulous mouthful of a dessert that was both familiar and very, very new.

When I first wrote about The Black Swan I said watch this space. Now, I say go to this space and marvel at the quality of the cooking emerging from this most modern of kitchens. A fabulous way to end a fabulous year of dining out.

Christmas Eve Eve

It’s nearly time for the Big Day and here at chez Seren we are practically ready to go. Despite the fact that it is just the two of us for much of the holidays, we have an absolute mountain of food. We don’t need to go shopping again until March.

I’ve been full of cold all week, coughing and spluttering all over the place, so am feeling utterly justified in taking to my bed this afternoon with the cat at my feet and “The Holiday” on the iPad. D and I managed a brief flurry of activity earlier on though, and between us have rustled up a batch of turkey curry, smoked salmon pate, pea soup (using the stock derived from slow cooking the gammon) and our Christmas Day dessert - mince pie baklava. Yum.

Whatever you and yours are doing for Christmas, whatever you’re eating, wherever you are, many, many best wishes from me and here’s to much more deliciousness in 2018.

2017: and so it begins

Happy new year lovely blog readers! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I basically decided to do the square root of FA over the Christmas period and very nice and indulgent it was too. We ate, drank and were generally merry for most of the time. I turned another year older, which briefly curtailed the merriment as I reflected on the fact that I am now ANCIENT. But I got a lot of lovely presents, which eased the pain.

Some of said presents were very much on a theme of food so I think warrant a mention here. D, who is an awesome giver of gifts, has booked me on to a one day artisan bread making course at Betty's Cookery School in Harrogate – that made me squee quite a lot. D2 (my brother) presented me with a leg of Serrano ham, complete with stand, which is currently sat on our dining table taunting us every time we walk past. He also gave me a sack of goodies which contains everything I need in order to cook Korean food. Expect a report back on my adventures in Kimchee making shortly, I’ve been meaning to try for ages and now have no excuse!

Of course, after the indulgence comes the encounter with the Scales of Doom (TM Peridot). I hopped on gloomily on Monday morning and was up 3.4lbs from my last weigh in. A bit of an ouch, but considering said last weigh in took place on a Thursday in mid-December just after a fast day, it could have been a lot worse. Two and a half weeks of indulgence in exchange for a quarter of a stone isn’t the end of the world.

Now here we are on Thursday and D and I have completed our two fast days for the week (Monday and Wednesday). They were not easy, I’ll be honest. In fact, I spent a good chunk of Monday asleep to try and distract from the misery (the advantage of fasting on a Bank Holiday). But, as of this morning, the scales have dropped a whopping 4.2lbs. I don’t expect to maintain the whole of that loss over the weekend, but seeing that quick fall has really inspired me to try and be sensible during the coming non-fast days. I think this is one diet plan where daily weighing might be a help rather than a hindrance.

Anyway, the truth will out come next Monday. In the meantime, I hope that all of you have a fab start to 2017 and look forward to sharing another year’s worth of eating, dieting, cat-stroking and general, all-purpose bimbling with you.

Seven sleeps

I'm braising red cabbage at the moment, which is filling the house with a very (for me) Christmassy scent. I make this recipe pretty much every year - unadulterated, unchanged and unfailingly good. It also has the virtue of improving with age (much like me) so preparing it in advance is practically mandatory.

Are you sorted for your Christmas dinner yet? We are on our own this year so keeping things easy, yummy and slightly non traditional. Smoked salmon roulade on spelt bread to start followed by confit duck legs with mash and braised red cabbage - with cold turkey, gammon and sausagemeat loaf if anyone requires additional protein. Cheese, of course. And, finally, Christmas pudding ice cream - a recipe that I must share at some point. Gorgeous!

2016 has not been the easiest year on a personal level - let's not even start on global events. Which is why I am especially looking forward to this next couple of weeks; this holiday that is traditionally about peace and goodwill to all will hopefully be a time to focus on all the bright, shiny things that sometimes get obscured. Family and friends, sparkly lights, the joy of sharing and, yes, a bit of self indulgence.

The cute cat picture of the week is as Christmas themed as I can get - Minx tends to save all her most photogenic moments for when my phone camera is out of hand, the gorgeous little bugger. Still, small mercies - she has yet to bring down the tree!

MPM: 5th December 2016

It's December everybody!  We're already five days into our Advent Calendar, and the countdown to Christmas is well and truly on - hurrah!  I'm particularly over excited that on Tuesday we are going to a local Christmas market with carols and mulled wine, which should be a lovely start to the season.  And then on Friday, we're both out with friends - me for a Christmassy afternoon tea, D to drink copious amounts of beer.  Elsewhere, our meal plan looks like this:

Monday: Fast Day #1 and we're having fishcakes and salad

Tuesday:  Out for mulled wine and mince pies - but we have a stash of M&S nibbles in the fridge if we want something when we get back

Wednesday: Fast Day #2 - sooooooooup.

Thursday:  Mussel paella

Saturday:  Spaghetti carbonara

Sunday:  Lamb of some description with mashed potatoes and garlicky mushrooms (if you've seen my Paris post, you may recognise this as a re-creation of my favourite dish of the trip, I just hope that I can get it to taste half as good as it did in Cinq Mars!)

As always, happy cooking and eating this week les touts.

Recipe corner: A turkey curry for Boxing Day and beyond

I assume that every household has a turkey curry recipe.  I’ve been trying to remember whether we ate turkey curry when I was a child and I can’t…there was definitely such a thing as turkey lasagne, and turkey soup and, of course, sandwiches but when it comes to curry I’m drawing a bit of a blank.  So let’s say that I assume that most households have a turkey curry recipe. 

This is ours.  Or, rather, this is D’s.  It’s yummy.  It is flavourful rather than spicy and creamy enough to be a soothing hug of a dish.  The addition of the carrot and the raisins add a pleasing sweetness, while the potatoes make it substantial enough to be consumed on its own (although the addition of rice and flatbreads is always welcome).

I haven’t included a picture.  Curry never photographs well anyway.  It just looked like…curry.  But really tasty curry – there’s no need to wait until next Christmas to cook it (I’m sure it would work well with roast chicken).

(BTW: regular readers might notice that from now on, I stop putting the pro points count on recipes – mainly because pro points is now an outdated system and it will be meaningless to the majority of people following WW.  My email address is above, and I’m always happy to do a calculation of pp if you so wish.)

Ingredients

2 onions

2 carrots

6 cloves of garlic

Thumb sized piece of root ginger

Tbsp vegetable oil

Tbsp ground cumin

Tbsp turmeric

Tbsp garam masala

Tbsp ground coriander

Tsp chilli powder

2 chicken stock pots, made up with 600ml water

150ml double cream

150ml coconut milk

250g roast turkey, roughly chopped

450g (3 smallish) potatoes, diced

100g sultanas

Serves 4-6

Blitz, or finely chop, together the vegetables to make a rough paste.  Heat the oil over a medium heat, add the veg and soften slightly for a few minutes.  A pinch of salt at this stage will help it soften and sweat rather than catch.

When soft, stir through the spices and cook for a further couple of minutes until they no longer smell raw.  Now you can pour in the chicken stock and bring the whole to a gentle simmer.

Add the potatoes and sultanas.  Allow to bubble away until the potato is cooked through and yields to a knife.  Reduce the heat and add the cream and coconut milk.  Further reduce until the sauce is thick, glossy and smells like turkey curry heaven. 

Finally, stir through the turkey pieces.  As with all curries, this will taste better if left to stand for at least a couple of hours and preferably overnight.  Serve with rice and naan bread as required.

Merry Christmas from S, D and Minx

The final Meal Planning Monday of the year (probably)

Although this is not the last Monday of 2015, it is likely to be the last meal plan.  In fact, one week today is my birthday so I will be lounging around drinking mimosas and generally being spoiled rotten by my husband (hint, hint, hintity hint).

I am working for the next two and a half days, but aforementioned husband is off so he will be donning the metaphorical chef's whites to produce the following:

Spaghetti with prawns and 'nduja
Homemade chicken Kiev with mashed potato

Then, on the 23rd I'm finishing work at lunchtime so we plan to meet up in Leeds for lunch and drinks - no plans this night although I think a few M&S nibbles and a glass of something cold and fizzy will be an apt way to celebrate the end of term.

Christmas Eve: Gammon and roasties (traditional)

Christmas Day: post to follow

Boxing Day:  Turkey sandwiches with a LOT of trimmings

Post-Boxing Day: D's famous creamy turkey curry

I can't WAIT.

Bloggers do Christmas

I am intrigued by the increasing number of bloggers (and I follow a lot of people – foodie, beauty, random…) who have been posting Christmas present guides.  This is obviously now a Thing and so I wondered if I should do something similar.

But then I drafted a post and I realised that it was basically my Christmas list re-written to make it sound slightly generic.

Does your Uncle Jo like reading?  Here are the books that I have enjoyed in 2015!  Or even the ones that I want to read in 2016!

For the foodies in your life, what about these products that I really like scoffing?  Or how about some new Le Creuset?  Everyone (I) loves Le Creuset.

Enjoy a bit of a tipple?  I went to this distillery in the summer and really liked the whisky!

You can't blame the bloggers.  Newspapers and magazines do it every year, and blogging is just a natural extention of the print medium.  It's just that I’ve always thought, if you know your nearest and dearest so little that you have to resort to a Guardian journalist telling you that all the well dressed men this year will be wearing cashmere striped socks, then…well, maybe consider giving them the gift of your time and attention this Christmas.  The very best presents are the ones that mean something.  Either because they are an item genuinely coveted or because the giver feels it has resonance.

Having said all that, just in case you are interested…

This year, my favourite books have been “The Bone Clocks” by David Mitchell (apart from the ending – oh, the ending!), the Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman (Harry Potter goes to university) and “A Prayer for Owen Meaney” by John Irving  (I think Owen himself might be one of my all time favourite characters).  Ooooh, and “The Paying Guests” (because Sarah Waters is all kinds of wonderful).

I adore Amelia Rope chocolate and am beyond excited to see that she has started doing the pale lemon and sea salt as a truffle.

Grey’s Fine Foods sent me free stuff, so it only seems fair to mention them again, but they genuinely have a lovely selection of Spanish goodies and I really rated the quality of both their meat and sherry.

For entry level whisky drinking, my absolute favourite is Penderyn.  My favourite splurgier purchase this year was Ardbeg Auriverdes.

And, having recently become vaguely obsessed with this blog, I am desperate (desperate!) to own an Hermès scarf.

Happy Christmas shopping everybody!

Meal planning Mog Day

Are we allowed to talk about Christmas yet?  Are we?  It's practically December so I think that's OK.  In the last week or so I've had my first (few) mince pies, attended a Christmas fayre and bought this:

Combining cats, Christmas and a hefty dose of childhood nostalgia, this is an amalgam of some of my absolute favourite things.  Have you seen the television advert?  I know that it has been conceived by some heartless marketing man who has calculated the exact level of tug required on heartstrings to make a purchase, but I DON'T CARE.  All profits from the sale of the book go towards improving child literacy in the UK.  And if Christmas is all about gift giving, then giving a child the gift of literacy, the gift of books for goodness sake, is probably up there with the best of them.

Sorry, got a bit carried away there.  And D, being a stalwart Waitrose man, would not approve of me banging the drum for Sainsbury's.  Thus, onwards.

There's not much by way of meal planning this week because I'm only home for dinner on two out of the seven evenings.  Yes, this week I am quite the social butterfly - and quite frankly it sounds exhausting.  Yesterday, D made his famous (and delicious) rabbit pie so he has plenty of leftovers to be getting along with (although he may end up suffering from pie fatigue around Thursday).  As for the meals we are having:

Lobster Caesar salad (this is going to be our starter on Christmas Day and we are just making it one more time to perfect the presentation)
Pulled pork cheeks with sherry, saffron and olives served with Spanish tomato rice

Next week's episode will probably be brought to you courtesy of Caffeine.  Good eating in the meantime everyone!

Leftovers

Our Christmas was pretty quiet which, after a trying end to the year, was exactly required.  There were several days where I didn't make it out of my pyjamas.  Unrivalled sloth, that's me.  My birthday falls on the 28th December and, as I said to D, you couldn't have designed a more perfect day if you'd tried - I got up late, had my favourite breakfast washed down with stiff mimosas, then went for a nap (drinking in the daytime makes me sleepy), then watched a couple of films, then ate my favourite dinner, then went to bed.  Not for nothing is my nickname based on Enid Blyton's Sleepy Sloo.

As ever, a big part of the celebrations was the food and we had some unparalleled successes this year, including a sublime Christmas pudding ice cream on the day itself, and a majestic rib of beef at my parents' house on New Year's Eve.  But some of the very nicest things were those meals that were thrown together from the leftovers.

I'm considering buying a turkey breast joint soon just so that D can make another turkey curry.  This was a thing of serious beauty: the meat simmered alongside cubes of potatoes in coconut milk, a splash of cream and mild spices.  We ate little else for two days running.

Traditional Boxing Day sandwiches were a highlight:

Turkey, gammon, sausage meat, strong Cheddar, lettuce, cucumber and a generous swipe of mayo.  We didn't even have turkey on Christmas Day - we just cooked one so I could construct this beast of a thing.  Excuse the photo by the way - bad even by the standards of this blog - this was taken quickly just so I could send it to my Mum.  Who immediately responded with "Wow, that is a sandwich".

Speaking (sort of) of gammon, one lunchtime D constructed little ham hash cakes, fried until crispy and topped with a perfectly poached egg:

A perfect brunch dish.

And as a final hurrah, a couple of weeks ago we used the last of our Christmas cheese to make a tartiflette, that classic apres-ski dish.  If you haven't, y'know, actually been skiing this is almost (almost!) too rich, but with a hefty spoonful of sauerkraut on the side we powered through and D has already requested a repeat performance.  This Hairy Bikers' recipe is a close approximation of the one I used - highly recommended, but go for a good long walk beforehand.  And, possibly, afterwards.

Have a merry, Minxy Christmas

All best wishes to all the lovely people who have stopped by this blog over the past year.

With lots of love from Seren, D and Minx

Now, what to write next year.....?