Anglo- Italian Trifle

The last time I had trifle must have been about 15 years ago at school. I would carefully scrape off the lumpy custard and eat the fruit and sponge cake, no fond memories there...So when I was planning my Christmas Eve menu and looking through the pudding chapter I noticed that there was no custard, and also I'd read a lot of raving reviews about this particular trifle. I started to buy the necessary ingredients, and I think this is the most expensive pudding I've ever made! Just out of interest I totted up the amounts, $24.50 for the limoncello, $10 for the mascarpone, $5 for the blackberries (and i threw in some raspberries for good mesure), and a few more $$$ for the amaretto, almonds, trifle sponge, jam etc! Admittedly I have half a bottle of limencello left- and if you can't rock the boat at Christmas you never will! Now for the verdict... drumroll please... Absolutely Fabulous! I'm a trifle convert... I'll attempt to make my own limoncello next time too.

Moroccan Lamb and Caponata

Having done the turkey on the 10th I felt I could do what I liked for Christmas Eve. I chose my menu from Forever Summer as this book has become an important part of my year. I left the lovely New Zealand lamb for 24 hours in its heavenly aromatic ras el hanout and coriander marinade and made the caponata (minus the egg) just before we sat done to dinner. My husband chose a lovely Australian Merlot to go with the lamb, a perfect, delicous combination. We really enjoyed ourselves, and left just enough room for the anglo-italian trifle. As I was working on Christmas Day we opened our gifts at midnight, and then watched Joyeux Noel, a beautiful French film with Diane Kruger and Guillaume Canet. A perfect end to a perfect evening.

Happy Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you all!

Tagliolini al Pesto Amaro

I tend to turn to the pasta chapter when looking for quick and easy supper options and have been very impressed so far. I love rocket so was looking forward to this dish, and even ignored my anchovy aversion, and added one fillet (baby steps!) to the pesto. Once tossed with the pasta the ricotta sauce seemed to cling for dear life to the tagliolini, and I found it a bit heavy to be truthful. The rocket flavour was too overbearing for me, so the anchovy nearly went unnoticed. Not my favourite though, and I think I'll try it with basil next time, or milder baby rocket leaves.

Coconut & Chilli Salmon Kebabs

I've been doing a lot of baking recently as we have been doing quite a bit of entertaining, and the waistline is expanding accordingly so I decided on this dish for supper. I bought some fresh salmon fillet from my local fishmonger (I've decided to stop buying fish and meat at the supermarket) and left it to marinate a few hours in the coconut cream. The fish really absorbed the coriander and chilli and left it tender and moist. I made some jasmin rice and steamed some broccoli to go with the kebabs. Then i made some gingerbread muffins and stollen :)

White Chocolate Icecream with Blackberry Sauce

This was my very unseasonal pudding for my christmas/birthday meal, as I really can't find room for christmas pudding after stuffing myself with turkey and all the trimmings. I was a little worried that the flavour of the white chocolate would be too mild too taste, but it was just perfect. The blackberry sauce was the most delicious counterpart, both visually and gastronomically. A super dinner party pudding as everything can be made ahead, and just assembled at the last minute. Clean bowls assured!

Peach Gina & Fragonard

On Sunday I turned 30 and had 8 friends over for an early Christmas dinner. For the aperitif I mixed these two cocktails, as it's about time I attacked the booze chapter. They were delicious! I made up two jugs, and they both disappeared very quickly. They went very well with Nigellas terracotta dip from Feast, and Giadas white bean dip, kindly donated by Lisa. My personal preference lent towards the peach Gina, that I made with the following amounts for 6:

150ml vodka

300 ml peach schnapps

600 ml peach juice

600ml perrier

juice of 1 lemon

cheers!!!

Brioche

What can I say other than this is one of my proudest achievements?! As I was saying to a friend yesterday, my inner Bree emerged for a brief tangible moment. The recipe itself isn’t too demanding, although time consuming, but I wouldn’t have embarked on this adventure without my trusty Kitchen Aid – far too much hard work and elbow grease involved otherwise. I fed an obscene amount of butter into the pastry, lump by lump, so you can’t pretend not to know what’s in there, and proudly watched it rise three times like a mother hen guarding her chicks. By the time I actually got round to baking them it was 2 am, as I’d been waiting for the latest episode of Feast (I’m a night owl anyway). The house smelt like a boulangerie, the cat and I both had our noses in the air, watching the huge snowflakes fall. Bliss! I had to test one there and then for experiments purposes of course and had to restrain myself from going back for more. Next time (oh there will be a next time I promise) I’ll add some dried fruit and some spices to add another dimension.
NB I couldn’t find bread flour, and used regular plain white flour instead. Also I didn’t add the salt to the glaze as these are for breakfast and not to go with ice cream as suggested.

Sea Bass with Saffron, Sherry & Pine Nuts

Winter has officially arrived. On Friday the city turned to ice, and the snow started falling early Saturday morning. We had a guest from Ottawa to visit, and went to buy the 8ft christmas tree together. I've been cooking some warm weather recipes from Delias Christmas book and Feast to get us in the mood. So apologies for the little break. I went to the fishmongers for the bass, no bass... fresh cod fillets were suggested instead. I halved the recipe for the two of us and served it with wild rice. The sherry-plumped sultanas and toasted pinenuts made an interesting sweet, crunch effect, and the fish had absorbed the saffron flavour. After a recent discussion on saffron I invested some hard earned cash in the real stuff, not the dried hay smelling american saffron that's been in the cupboard for a year, but the spanish threads, that come in TINY boxes. Well worth it, in my humble opinion. Very tasty.