A Moveable Christmas Feast
Kugelhopf
Christmas is perhaps the most magical time of the year. The first twinkle of the street lights, elegantly decorated fancy shop windows or arcades decked in holly – and London certainly knows how to do it well, the first smell and taste of a spiced Chrisms cake, of any kind, and a warming mulled wine.
Shorter, colder and darker days laden with emotional attachment and nostalgia are much welcomed, at least by myself, as I can relish walking along beautifully adorned streets and look at happy faces. I’ve always loved the entire build up towards Christmas, but over the past years the whole festive season has been equally enjoyable, especially when we get to spend it in the warmth of our family home back in Poland, where we have quite a lot of celebrating to do: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, of course, followed by New Year’s Eve and my mother’s birthday somewhere in between.
We are already approaching mid December and this year, for one reason or another, we still don’t know how are we going to spend Christmas.
Very rarely do we plan a long way ahead which would normally involve a long haul flight headed to Africa and many reservations to be made. We’ve done several trips over the years to either South Africa, Kenya or Tanzania, spending the holiday in the warmth (a particular favourite of the Déguastatuer). More often than not we actually can’t plan a lot in advance, but we would always have an idea of how to spend Christmas, as it is an important time filled with traditions, rituals and family gatherings to share all the festive fare.
It’s been a rather tricky and difficult year, more than any I can remember or I can quickly think of. Hence for me the much anticipated pre-Christmas hustle and bustle has had a slow start. I’m late with the presents, which I adore giving, but on a positive note – I’ve got my head around the food. There are certain things that I’ll cook wherever we are: either simply here in London (perhaps my brother-in-law will join us) or in the midst of rural Poland with my parents, hopefully with a blanket of dry crispy snow outside.
The Dégustatur is British and he has adopted the continental tradition of celebrating Christmas Eve on the 24th. His festive season has extended, what’s not to like. On that particular day we would have a slightly bigger breakfast, skip lunch and have a formal dinner based on vegetables and seafood. This is what we are going to eat. We will begin with scallops, hand dived, first pan fried with some garlic and parsley, a dash of white wine and finished off in the oven on the shell. Beautifully caramelised on top and soft in the middle. They are a real treat and I’ve been buying them from our local fish monger, who happens to be The President of Britain’s Fishmonger’s Guild. To follow, I will also prepare some cooked white crab meat, which we’ve been eating literally on repeat: “We will not have it once we leave London so lets make the most of it”, it’s the mantra that we keep repeating to ourselves.
We’ve been having dressed white crab with – dare I call it – a classic dressing (mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, a few spices plus some other ingredients) either with a toasted sliced brioche (I wrote about it here and shared the recipe here) or on a bed of salad leaves and finished off with boiled eggs. Recently, our favourite way of enjoying it is tossed with a chopped green apple, cucumber, lime juice, fresh mint, some chopped chilly, plus a few other ingredients to taste. It’s fresh, light and compliments the sweetness of the crab.
Next, the pasta course: anchovy and butter spaghetti. The beauty of this dish lies in its simplicity, just three ingredients which magic up a sublime and elegant plate of food. Little work involved too.
Baking and making cakes is a satisfying affair for me. It somehow automatically stands for a familiar warmth and a sweet smelling air, a cosy fragrance travelling from the kitchen, spreading all over the house. A desirable feeling, even more so right now – a prelude to Christmas.
Stollen Bites
Sloane Square
Apricot, Fennel Sausage, Pistachio Christmas Log
Whilst we are in the realms of extra spice, extra dry fruit, extra nuts, extra booze to spice up and moisten a traditional cake and an extra little something, I came across Stollen Bites in the December issue of Waitrose magazine. Jürgen Krauss shares his recipe saying: “It’s a treasured part of a German Christmas, but traditional stollen is quite involved to make and needs time to mature”. From my research stollen also involves marzipan, which Jürgen omits in his recipe (follow the recipe here). These little crescent bites contain almonds, raisins, candied orange peel, ground nutmeg, cloves and coriander. Quintessentially everything that Christmas baking is all about, and lots of icing, if not for the sweetness then for the extra festive look. The Dégustateur has been nibbling on them already and it looks like I might be making a new batch soon.
I’ll also bake kugelhopf, a slightly sweet (similar to brioche) German bread, which looks very glamorous as it’s traditionally baked in a special kugelhopf mould or a bundt cake tin. It’s spiced with rum soaked raisins (I soak mine overnight-trust me on this one) and I bake it with almonds, for a lovely visual aspect. Arguably it’s best eaten on the day of baking whilst still slightly warm, though, we love it on the followings days, toasted and topped with butter and bitter orange marmalade (thinly sliced smoked cheese, say scamorza affumicata, works a dream too).
There will be Crostata di Noci e Caramello Salato, a little twist on my Caramel and Walnut Tart – I just added some salt to the warm caramel to taste, that’s all. It’s a must have tart on our table, utter heaven.
There might be a space left for Chocolate and Hazelnut Pavlova, it just looks so festive, apart from being a sheer delight.
Then, we will wake up on Christmas Day and our feast will continue. There will be chicken, not a roast, but prepared a day earlier our perennial favourite Chicken Fricassêe with Red Wine Vinegar and Tarragon. The flavours will only improve overnight making the kitchen management a much easier and stress free task. I will roast some potatoes in duck fat (left over from roasting duck legs some time ago), maybe cook some lentils – Italian style, I’ll make a large plate of fresh crunchy salad and something new and very simple: boiled carrots in a delicate mustardy sauce. I was asked for a recipe on my Instagram, so Inge, here it is, especially for you!
This time last year, also in the Waitrose magazine, I found a true gem introduced by Angela Harnett, a chef whom I’ve admired for years. She shared a recipe for Apricot, Sage, Fennel Sausage and Almond Christmas Log. Subsequently I shared it too on the blog, and I’m sharing it again this year. It’s something absolutely fabulous, the opulence of festive flavours mixed with some minced meat simply baked in a shape of a log. Angela, from what I recall, used pistachios, not almonds, but you can play with the nuts to your own enjoyment.
Carrots in a Light Buttery Mustard Sauce / Sloane Street
Depending on where we are spending Christmas this year, the food and cooking will be moved from one kitchen to another, hence the title of a moveable feast. Maybe scallops will be problematic to find in Poland (I should manage with the crab meat) but the essence will be the same wherever we are: to put the heart into it and enjoy cooking to share the food with the people we love. Food brings people together not only literally, also metaphorically.
How to finish a Christmas meal? Panettone; my mother had preordered a couple of really good ones from our favourite pastry bakery; need I say more?
Wishing you all a very Happy and Delicious Christmas, wherever you are xx