|
|
Christmas Food
Delicious, tried-and-tested Christmas recipes...
Snowball Truffles
Jane: Easy, delicious white chocolate truffles made by my friend Sue – pack them into Christmas bags or decorated boxes and they make a fantastic home-made present for teachers, relatives, as a house party gift etc.
|
 |
|
Medlar Jelly
Jane: My neighbour has a rarity in his front garden – an exquisitely shaped medlar tree which produces prolific late-ripening winter fruit. You just shake its leaf-bare branches and a profusion of hard, yellowy-brown, inedible fruits hits you on the head. Inedible at least until they are made into jelly, cheese or ‘bletted’ – stored until they go brown and soft, internally fermenting (they look as if they are rotting) until the flesh turns to a fragrant, slightly cloying-tasting pulp. Given this, you can understand why medlars are not popular today, but they were considered a delicacy in Victorian times, the bletted fruit scooped out and eaten raw with cream and sugar as a winter pudding.
|
 |
|
Real Meat Mince Pies
Jane: I’d always vaguely known that mincemeat used to contain meat – hence the name – but I’d never thought of making real meat mincemeat for Christmas until this year, when I was reading Paul Levy’s foodie history, The Feast of Christmas. He has a bit on mince pies and at the back quotes the 1604 mincemeat recipe of Lady Elinor Fettiplace, which sounds almost like a samosa or spicy pasty, containing the same amount of meat and suet as dried fruit, plus spices like nutmeg and mace, a bit of salt and almost no sugar at all – very different from today’s sweet mince pies.
Still, they must have been pretty fruity because just a few years later the Christmas-hating Puritans took to calling mince pies ‘idolatrie in crust’. Which 400 years on, sounds like a very tempting reason to give them a go.
|
 |
|
Chocolate-dipped Orange Peel
One of my Christmas treats and so easy to make – a great present for the grandparents and aunts when placed in a decorated box or cellophane packet with tied with a bold ribbon.
|
 |
|
Speculaas Biscuits
These traditional Dutch biscuits – eaten during the St Nicholas celebrations in December – fill the kitchen with spicy, Christmassy smells.
|
 |
|
Apricot and Ginger Mincemeat
Home-made mincemeat is so full of gorgeous juicy flavour you won’t ever want to go back to bought. It’s also a doddle to make – just chop, mix and leave overnight.
|
 |
|
Caribbean Christmas Cake
It's called Black Cake in the Caribbean, but this recipe is so packed with fruit, sugar and eggs that it's surprisingly light for a Christmas cake. You can marinate the fruit in the alcohol for up to two weeks before, but if you're short of time, bake it with half (150ml) the sherry and sprinkle the rest over when it’s cooked.
|
 |
|
Tamsin’s Mum’s Christmas Pudding
A delicious, moist, fruity pud – this recipe makes two puddings so you can keep one ready for next year. We make this on Stir-up Sunday and the kids always stir the mixture and make a wish. Push in some Christmas pudding charms or coins before you serve.
|
 |
|
Italian Christmas Cake
A light, crumbly, fruit-packed Italian alternative to Christmas cake – this is delicious eaten with sheep’s milk cheese or stilton.
|
 |
|
Christmas Gingerbread Houses
The kids love designing these, and they make good Christmas gifts for friends and relatives. You can decorate them with piles of marshmallows and tiny Christmas figures on the snowy roof. And of course you can eat them too...
|
 |
|
|
