december

On holiday

Dinner: Steak, green peppercorn sauce; watercress with stilton dressing; fried potatoes

Mango with white rum and toasted coconut

Watercress, spinach, feta, pickled walnuts

Chicken livers with ras and poppyseed; spinach and cream; tagliatelle with poppyseed and cream

YP cabbage, ham, lentil soup

Caramelised chicory, stilton and cream; peas; celeriac and potato rosti

Avocado, prawns, tomato, chilli, cilantro

Venison steaks with chocolate chilli sauce, pasta

WR smoked haddock and sweetcorn chowder

Celeriac (sliced, boiled, fried, then gratinated with cream stilton garlic) green beans, bruschette slices

Salad with red pepper, chilli, chorizo, bruschette

Both of us had had office xmas lunches so we didn't want all that much for dinner

Lunch: spag with mushrooms

Dinner: aubergine slices with crab, chilli, ginger garlic, basil, rice wine

Crown Prince squash boiled then fried with ras; couscous with peas; sauce made with hummus and cilantro, lime juice

Lunch: tabbouleh, feta, hummus

Dinner: Butter beans with ras, chorizo; bread, salad

Mango, pineapple, coconut milk

Meatballs, peppers, tomatoes, linguine; peas

Chocolate pudding with cherries, whipped cream with Kirsch

WR stilton and pear chutney tarts

Sea bass, tomatoes and chilli, fried new potatoes, spinach

Salmon fillets fried, broc stirfried with ginger garlic chilli sesame seeds, beluga lentils with rice wine, potatoes with shallot and olive oil

Sort of cherry tart: shortbread crumb base, marzipan, cherries, plus cream

Porcini risotto, salad

Chestnuts with ginger, chocolate chilli fudge sauce, cream

Lunch: Mum, Connie, Chas

smoked salmon and beetroot-horseradish-lentil

goose, chestnut and quince stuffing, apple-cherry-ginger sauce, roast potatoes and parsnips, sprouts, carrots

One of Judy Goodman's geese. I followed Mark Hix's instructions. Slow-roasted the legs separately for about 3 hours, then goose upside down (gas5) for 1hr then right way for 30 mins (gas6). I didn't do anything fancy with the veg. Roasted spuds and snips in the goose fat and they were fab. I confited the liver and gizzards, saved for later.

Our parents don't eat as much as us pigs so we were a bit restrained ourselves. There are tons of goose leftovers.

Christmas pud, brandy sauce

Mum remarked that there seemed to be more chilli than last year, but then she had seconds. I don't think there was, just 1/2 tsp, maybe this chilli was stronger though

Dinner: salad with stilton, apple, walnuts, bread

Lunch: John: spag with bacon cream peas

John gets treated to spag and what's in our fridge!

Dinner: smoked salmon, rice wine with lemon, orange, chilli; lentils and spring onion

Goose, gravy, fried potatoes and stuffing, carmelised chicory

Lunch: sort of chowder of potatoes, lentils, chorizo, sprouts, broc

Dinner: sardines on toast with lemon

Parsnip tarte tatin, salad, chutney

Sliced and boiled parsnips. pastry with 1.5 oz flour. caramel 2 tbs sugar also added wattleseed but we couldn't taste it. It's a bit dry, you need something with more moisture

Lunch: Simon, Dinah, Amelia

Linguine with goose sauce

Simon and Dinah also get treated to what's in the fridge!

Fried xmas pud

Dinner: potato pancakes with bacon, wasabi-cream-mustard, broc and beluga lentils

potato pancakes are one of the nicest things ever, but you're a bit of a slave to cook them, and to wash up after

Chestnut pannacotta, blackberries and blackcurrants

panna cotta I made a small amount of custard, pureed 6-7 chestnuts, 1/2 tsp honey, 1+1/2 leaves gelatine, makes something less than 5floz each, set a bit too firm

WR wild mushroom and bacon tarts

Salad of rocket, fried sweet potato, chilli, red peppers, brie; ciabatta

Michael

Crab spring rolls, crab sauce, white miso with citrus and chilli, pak choi

1 crab makes 6 rolls; I added 3 spring onions and some ginger to the crab. Made stock from the shell and reduced it for sauce. Some orange and lemon zest and chilli in rice wine, then added this to white miso paste. 3 leaves of pak choi, sliced thinly. Fried the rolls, and fried the pakchoi at the last minute. I like the miso but Colin thought it unnecessary.

Slow cooked 5-spice pork, savoy cabbage with chilli, butter beans with roast garlic, roast potatoes

Pork more or less the Hugh FW recipe but not that big a piece. Roasted on high heat for 30 mins then put in the covered pot with a little water, cooked on lowest oven during the day. Last 30 mins or so, lid off. Decanted liquid and tried to separate fat off, but I didn't do this in time and we ended up just using the liquid in the pot. The meat was 3.5 lbs; Dan at the butchers said that would do about 6 generously but there wasn't all that much left; I guess it's just way too eat-me.

Chilli crept in whenever it could today, appropriate since we were looking at each other's India holiday snaps.

Crown Prince pannacotta, caramelised hazlenuts and caramel-wattleseed sauce.

This is sort of from D E-M's dessert book. I used about 8oz of CPS flesh, enough when cooked are pureed to fill a small pud-bowl. I made custard with 1 egg 2 tbs sugar, 5floz cream/milk (8floz) then at least intended to make the custard up to 10flz with more cream but not sure if I did. Total didn't quite fill 3 bowls. Used 1.5 leaves gelatine, which turned out about right. Caramel with wattleseed, I wanted to make sheets but this time it stuck to the (oiled) paper and I'm not sure why it didn't work this time when it had before. Maybe have to let it cool more.

Brie, Lincs Poacher

Michael brought a Sancerre which was a good match for the starter, we dug out a bottle of Beaucastel, which took a while to come out, but was delicious and subtle, and just about the right age. The wines disappeared all too quickly, and we felt it a bit the next day.

Timings worked out well, most of this wasn't last-minute stuff except for frying the crab rolls and we took the risk of letting Michael into our horrible kitchen.

Lamb shoulder, ras, aubgerine-courgette-harissa stack, fried fennel, couscous with pine kernels

The lamb was part of Mum's xmas prezzie to us - she'd got a winter special pack from Donald Russell. We don't quite have room in our freezer for it all (freezer being full of unidentified leftovers). I just slow cooked 3 hours it in some stock with onions garlic 1/2-1 tbs of Ras. Spicing was subtle. Meat was good. We had a bottle of the d'Angludet, or rather, half the bottle since we'd had too much yesterday. Couscous was the fine stuff we got in Corsica, fiddly but much nicer than the medium grade. Pine kernels were from Italy and ages old.

Mango tart Tatin

Haven't had this for ages. Colin wants it tomorrow again. I like making caramel

Colin is going to lose weight. Tracey might have to lose 1 kg. Tracey is going to wear more dresses. Drink more expensive wine.