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Christmas cooking

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  • Best potatoes for roasting? Maris Piper and King Edwards. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • They won't keep in kitchen conditions. I would par-boil them now and freeze them (spaced out on a tray, not in a bag, although you can bag them when they're frozen hard). You can them roast them from frozen on Christmas Day. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • They won't keep in kitchen conditions. I would par-boil them now and freeze them (spaced out on a tray, not in a bag, although you can bag them when they're frozen hard). You can them roast them from frozen on Christmas Day. 

    Dont buy a bottle of mulled wine. I've never found one that isnt foul , and it's so cheap and easy to make it yourself, there's lots of cheaper and expensive versions online. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Whoops! image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • The BBC food website has a really good one by Mary Berry - it has lots of fruit and the brandy is optional. It uses two bottles of wine but of course you can half the amounts. Im on my phone at the moment but if you can't find it yourself I'll find it on my laptop and post a link. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,091
    chrissieB says:

    Would welcome some inspiration as I have two vegetarians (or one veggie and one pescatarian to be precise) for Christmas. Have found some lovely recipes but one is also allergic to aubergines, two guests really dislike mushrooms and I also have to avoid gluten which one way or another seems to rule out or compromise a lot of the 'celebration' recipes I have found. 

    See original post

    Jamie Oliver has a couple of good nut roast recipes - quite rich. They do all have mushrooms in them - perhaps you could substitute a different vegetable? Or increase the amount of chestnuts? Are the mushroom haters and the veggies the same people? At least one of the recipes is gluten free and I don't think any have aubergines.

    I would be inclined to roast a turkey/rib of beef/goose (depending how many non veggie guests you have). Make up one of the nut roast recipes (or another veggie alternative) that you can bake in the 45 minutes or so that the meat is resting. Then slice/carve both at the table with all the veggies and trimmings so people can have which they want.

    My OH can't have chocolate or alcohol (he gets migraines) or anything with sulphites (which is most dried fruit). MIL can't have gluten. Christmas meals can be a trial if you put too much pressure on yourself. I generally buy an organic (no sulphites) Christmas pud, a large pot of clotted cream and a small turkey. I roast the turkey, do all the veg, loads of potatoes, put it all on the table with gravy made from giblets using cornflour (no gluten) and cranberry sauce in a jar. Then pour myself a glass of cold sauvignon, take a big slice of pudding and the whole pot of clotted cream and retire to a corner while they all complain about what they can and can't eat 

    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • LoganLogan Posts: 2,532

    I don't use brandy, it tastes bitter to me, i use sherry. Sherry in the mince pies,cake. Always put stout in pudding. Hubby always does the shopping, I give him a list and off he goes. He always goes to all the supermarkets. Didn't think of the cake was a fire hazard. I start doing everything else from December and put them in the freezer,i roast the potatoes but don't brown them. I make my own stuffing,do the bread crumbs and chop the fresh sage from garden, put in freezer. Cook the onions for that put in freezer. I do some special mince pies by putting chopped glass cherries in.image

  • Daisy33Daisy33 Posts: 1,031

    Chrissie, have you thought about having a curry? Plenty of scope for fish/prawn/vegetarian dishes and very little gluten. if people avoid the breads/samosas etc, although I seem to recall some Indian snacks can be made with gluten-free flour. Is gram flour gluten-free? If so, pakoras and bhajis would be OK.

    Best of all, much could be made the previous day and it could be made special with gold leaf and that sort of thing. Think Bollywood. image

  • Daisy33Daisy33 Posts: 1,031

    Is there much point in par-boiling and freezing potatoes these days? Every supermarket has frozen roasties in an assortment of sunflower oil, duck fat, goose fat etc.

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