Some people love christmas cake, some people love christmas pudding, some love mince pies...
we might not agree on any of the above, or what film we want to watch, but the one thing my whole family can agree on is that we all love trifle!
It does help with this one if you've already made the swiss roll and the custard!
Take a large mango (or a few peaches, nectarines... anything of that nature. I chose mango because they're still in season in Southern Spain in December and can be shipped here without airmiles). Skin and slice into small wedges. Melt a couple of tablespoons of dark sugar in a frying pan, chuck in the fruit and sprinkle a tablespoon of brandy over. Cook until the fruit is lovely and soft and the sugar has turned to caramel.
Slice the swiss roll and layer the bottom of a trifle dish with it. Sprinkle over a couple of tablespoons (or more!) of brandy, and then tip all the cooked, caramelised fruit on top. Spread the custard over the top, cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge for as long as you can - ideally a day.
Mix together two tubs of creme fraiche with the seeds of a vanilla pod and a tablespoon of dark sugar. Slather on top of the custard and pop back in the fridge.
Melt a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar in a non-stick pan and throw in a small packet of salted peanuts. Cook, stirring, until the sugar has turned light brown, then tip out onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. Let cool, then crush with a rolling pin and sprinkle on top of the trifle before serving.
Go to the Christmas Dinner (2011) post
I knew that I wanted to cook something along these lines, after seeing a recipe in Raymond Blanc's "Simple French Cookery" and noticing how much the sorrel had grown in the garden. However, for a mid-week meal, not even I could excuse lashings of cream in the sauce nor the junior role of vegetables in the dish.
I substituted half-fat creme fraiche for the cream, added celery, leeks and extra tomatoes to the sauce and served up a kohl rabi bake on the side. It's a weird looking vegetable, makes me think of daikon/mooli in taste - a bit radishy. It's not my favourite but what's in the fridge must get eaten!
If you are making the kohl rabi bake, skin and finely slice the vegetable and layer the slices into a baking dish, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. Pour over enough vegetable stock to almost cover them and grate some parmesan over the top. Pop in the oven at 180 degrees for about half an hour, until the vegetable is tender.
First, chop up your alliums (in my case a purple onion and a couple of leeks), and a stick of celery. Put a frying pan on the heat with some oil and cook them until softened.
Pour 100ml of white wine into a saucepan and add the cooked vegetables, stir in and bring up to a boil to cook out the alcohol. Add two diced tomatoes and a big bunch of de-stemmed and sliced sorrel, along with half a pot of creme fraiche and a squeeze of lemon juice. Season well and cook until the sorrel leaves have wilted, then add a little chopped parsley. If you don't have sorrel, substitute any leafy green and an extra squeeze of lemon.
Season the salmon fillets with salt, pepper and parsley, coating them in oil prior to cooking. Heat up a frying pan and wipe round with oil, when very hot, lay the fillets in skin-side down and cook without moving them until the sides start to turn opaque. Flip them over and cook for another minute or so until the flesh has only just turned opaque the whole way through.
Put the chunky sauce on the plate and some of the bake, then lay the salmon, crispy skin up, on the top.
