Christmas Bloody Mary

Let's just get one thing straight. I do NOT drink this- even if I could tolerate the alcohol I still wouldn't be able to tolerate the searing savouriness of the other components, but it is my Dad's favourite so I make it every year so I thought I'd tell you how.
1)Combine in a glass of your choice, 1 shot of vodka, then fill the tomato juice to the top of the glass minus a few centimetres. Add the juice of 1/2 a lemon, a dash of worcestershire sauce, a few drops of tabasco, depending on how firey you want it then a good scrunch of salt and pepper. If I was being particularly devious, I'd replace the salt with some soy sauce. Add ice cubes, then stir everything together with a celery stick. You can use a cucumber baton but the celery really adds flavour. Serve with a lemon wedge fresh and cold.

Coq Au Rielsing

Not many people have heard of this dish, and those who have look down on it as a cheap knock-off of the much more popular Coq Au Vin. The main difference between the two recipes is that Vin is made with red wine, but Riesling is made with the very acidic, German white wine- Riesling as the latter comes from the North of France where this type of wine is much more common. It is also, for me, the reason why Coq au Riesling makes much more sense- a strong dark red wine would need so much cooking down and the flavour doesn't work with white meat, the deep casserole would work in my mind with beef or lamb. A white wine seems much more appropriate for the more delicate white meat of chicken. If you haven't heard of this, or want to go for the cliche dinner party option of Coq Au Vin, try this instead- you will be converted. I plan to make a revolution in the future, and overthrow Coq au Riesling's overpowered, established cousin. Yeh, that's how far my life ambitions go...
However, I must admit that I became sceptical of the recipe whilst making it. When I added the bottle of wine (yes, the whole bottle) the sauce had a nasty bitter, raw alcohol flavour, but it didn't take long at all for the wine to mellow into a rich, tangy sauce that is rather fabulous. The other tasty Provencial Herbs and flavours in the recipe work with the tart sauce in such a delicious fashion.
1)Melt some butter with some oil in a large casserole, then tumble in 100g of smoked bacon lardons until they reduce, then add two small sliced leeks. Onions would be more typical, but leeks give the same flavour but also become a foreground element, rather than just disappearing into the dish like onions. Cook until softened, then add about 4 cloves of minced garlic. When the leeks are really soft, add some mushrooms- I bought a woodland selection of mushrooms which included oyster and Chanterelle, but omitted the Shitake variety (I will use them soon!) and then a handful of chestnut mushrooms to bulk it out. Add 2 teaspoons of dried thyme and cook them until they reduce lots, and set them all aside.
2)In a separate pan, brown the meat. I think skinned thigh meats, with or without bone are best here.
3)To your mushrooms and leeks, add another knob of butter and melt it in. To thicken the casserole, many ask for eggs and cream, but this combination makes me a little anxious so what I do is make a sort of lazy roux- add 3 tablespoons of plain flour, and cook for 2 more minutes. Next, you can add a whole 750ml bottle of good dry Riesling (if you can't find it another dry white wine will do) and stir it well until you have a milky sauce. Add your chicken, two bay leaves, and a chicken stock cube or pot. Simmer everything gently, until the sauce thickens. Clamp the lid on, and simmer everything together really slowly for about an hour, being sure to give the pan a good stir every 15 minutes or so to pick up all the sticky bits at the bottom of the pan (they provide a lot of flavour).
4)To serve with the casserole, you could have rice or mashed potatoes, but a nice option is some cooked buttered pasta, a shape like conchiglie or tagliatelle would be nice, don't use the fusilli I had (I'm sorry to be a hypocrite again, but it's all I had) and plenty of fresh dill.

Korean Beef Noodles

I had a planned trip to Setonaikai yesterday, in between seeing the new Star Wars film (it was so epic) and then Spectre, which was a little underwhelming. I came out with a bottle of Fish Sauce (squid brand, the best) which I had planned, but my self control didn't stretch as far as not buying something that I've been looking for since I saw Nigella cook with it in her Korean Calamari recipe- gochuchang paste.
Gochuchang is a Korean fermented chilli paste, an essential condiment in Korea. It's nice and sweet, but also has a soy-sauce vibe from the fermentation. It is very spicy, but not so much that it kills the flavour. If you can't find it, use a Chinese sweet chilli sauce and add more chilli, but if you get the chance to buy it, DO!
1)Marinate some stir-fry steak (sliced sirloin for example) in a mixture of one tbsp of gochuchang, a small glug of soy sauce (don't add too much as it overpowers), a tbsp of Mirin for sweet aroma, about 2 tbsp fish sauce 2 tbsp rice vinegar and a pinch of sugar. Let it marinade for a good few hours, or overnight in the fridge.
2)Slice some veg, good choices are spring onion, carrot and baby corn. Also slice up some garlic thinly, and a seeded red long chilli. It may seem odd to add a chilli as the sauce is so firey, but long ones, especially with the seeds removed, really only add as much heat as the spring onion; you get sweet bell pepper flavour and a delicate piquancy. It's important that you slice everything into thin vertical strips rather than chunks, as then they cook faster and mix into the noodles. Stir fry in a wok in a little flavourles vegetable oil for about 3 minutes.
3)Remove the beef from the marinade and pour in the marinade to the wok and cook until it reduces.
4)Add the beef and cook for a brief couple of minutes, you don't want to overcook it.
5)Toss some cooked, drained glass noodles (beanthreads or rice Vermicelli) into the meat and veg. I prefer to add the toasted sesame oil here- if I was just briefly toasting asparagus spears for sushi or a light starter, I'd cook with it, but against the wok's intense heat and the other intense flavours, it's precious nutty flavour would get destroyed, so use it here as you get a slick pile of noodles, not dry and rusty and all the toasty, delicate flavour. A Korean staple is a bowl of Bibimbap, a rice bowl with raw vegetables and gochuchang and it's always topped with a fried or raw egg. I decided to adopt this here, and topped the noodles with a runny fried egg for richness.

Ceviche

I don't often cook Mexican, but when I do, like today, it proves rewarding- the ingredients that are used in it's cuisine often add instant flavour and are so quick and refreshing to cook. This recipe is one of many light meals I plan to cook to make as much room as possible for the chocolate and turkey on Christmas day (I do not plan to hold back eating anything on the big day) so it is simply cool cold fish mixed with lots of herbs and vegetables and some light tortilla chips to serve.

Ceviche itself is firm-fleshed white fish (in this case Basa and Whiting) chopped into pieces and somehow cooked in acid. It looks cooked, but retains a fresh taste and texture that you wouldn't notice had the fish been baked in an oven. It is great to serve at a party as finger food, a starter, or as the meal like it is here.

1)Chop 500g fish fillets into very small chunks. The whiting wasn't skinned in my case, so I used my offensively lazy shortcut of cutting it, slicing the flesh, not going through the skin and then tearing off chunks of meat. It's pretty satisfying. Then, sprinkle it well with about two teaspoons of rock or sea salt and leave it while you prepare the other ingredients. It's good to leave it in salt as it draws out moisture and already starts to tenderise it, and opens it up to more flavours. Chop the stalks of a big bunch of coriander (cilantro as you may know it by), you want the stalks here and leaves later to get a big boost of flavour and it seems a massive waste to just use the leaves. Mix it with the fish with about a teaspoon of garlic powder (or just a minced clove of garlic) and cover entirely with lime juice in a shallow dish. You could use a bottle of bought lime juice, but squeezing fresh limes (you'll need about 4 depending on the dimensions of your dish) gives a much better flavour and those little cells of pulp add great intensity to the finished dish. Cover the dish in cling film and leave out for around 10-15 minutes, whether you want the fish almost sashimi-like, medium rare or well cooked will depend on how long you leave it. 

2)After 45 minutes, remove it from the fridge and drain the fish of the lime juice. Return to the dish and combine with deseeded and finely chopped confetti of red chilli, the finely chopped leaves of coriander, a bunch of chopped fresh basil and two finely sliced spring onions. Although I don't wholly agree with cooking spring onions in place of large white ones, I do always use them in place of large ones raw, as they are so much more palatable. As well as this, roughly chop a handful of black olives which add nice colour contrast and sweetness. My favourite way to chop an avocado, is to run the knife around the whole thing vertically, twisting both halves, removing the pip, and then slicing them vertically by horizontally not through the skin, then using a spoon to disembowel the flesh. It adds great volume, plus extra richness and meatiness. 

3)Combine your chopped veg with your fish, plus a pinch more salt and caster sugar for balance, and to bring everything together with gloss, about two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Serve piled onto a tortilla chip or with a pile of paprika spiked cous cous for a fabulous no-cook dinner.

Sausage Rolls

Shop-bought cold sausage rolls depress me. The meat and greasy, dry pastry look such a poor quality I can't even contemplate them. Meat is red not grey. Therefore, if you make these, the difference is so great you won't be able to tolerate bought ones.

I don't know why but shop-bought pastry used to be avoided by me. I was too much of a snob. But now, I try to have some in the freezer or fridge as often as possible because it is just so useful, and, let's be honest, I could never make puff pastry anywhere near as good, so why bother? 

1)Roll out your pastry to about a cm thickness, then take a wad of sausage meat, and spread it in a log neatly on the left side of the pastry. You could leave it there, but a nice festive addition I like to use is finely chopped sage and dried apricots, but you could use any other herb, sun-dried tomatoes- anything you like. Place them to the right of the log, almost under it then proceed rolling. This is easy if the pastry is still quite cold, but not left out so it goes difficult to handle. The time it takes to prepare the sausage meat should be enough to let the pastry soften. Unless you have ninja speed. Why are you reading this if you have ninja speed. Roll it up tightly, keeping it as round as possible as you go, then press the seam down. Some recipes will ask you to put the sausage meat in the middle of the pastry, then fold the side over, but then it's not a roll...It's a fold? Slice the log into whatever size you want, then place the rolls on a baking sheet and refrigerate for about 15 minutes, so they hold their shape.
2)Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and take your sausage rolls out of the fridge. Prick with a fork or slash the tops, then brush with egg wash (just a beaten egg), trying to not let it seep down the sides too much. Bake for about 20 minutes, until puffy and golden and serve whenever you like, cold or hot.

Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

I'm barely half-through my Christmas Present list, and the presents look more and more desperate. Today's hugely simple recipe, courtesy of Mein Lieblings TV Chef Nigella Lawson, is Chocolate Pistachio ( pis-ta-key-o) Fudge, made without the insane faff of sugar thermometers, but condensed milk.
When I read the ingredients I was shocked at the chocolate content, but after trying a few squares I could tell it wouldn't survive with sweet milk chocolate- it has to be good and dark. The pistachios don't add much flavour, but add a lot of texture and a gorgeous fleck of green.
1)Melt 350g of 70% dark chocolate with 1 397g tin of condensed milk and a knob of butter over a gentle heat. I've become embarrassed to say that I now use good-quality baking chocolate rather than real chocolate because I'm so dire at melting it I would burn anything that's not reinforced against my incompetence. In the meantime, bash some pistachios in a freezer bag until in smaller chunks. Mix with your melted chocolate, then pour the mixture into a foil or grease-proof paper lined baking tray and leave to cool before setting in the fridge. Cut into squares and give stingy handfuls to your recipients. It is very rich. You can tell them that.

Adapted Thai Cinnamon Prawns, thank you Nigella

I don't care what ya'll bullies on twitter think, I loved 'Simply Nigella' and it's diverse recipes. It was great that Nigella was exploring new fields of cookery and healthier recipes. Yeh, she missed the mark a few times and altogether it probably wasn't as good as 'Nigella Express' or 'Nigella Kitchen' but as always there were some stand out winners, henceforth these cinnamon prawns.
This recipe is adapted from her Thai prawns from episode 1, where Nigella received the greatest backlash for her avocado toast recipe. It was utterly fabulous, and I decided to add a bit more veg, a bit more richness and texture from cashew nuts and didn't use as many weird ingredients like whatever the hell soy ketchup is to add my own touch. It was delicious- warming but fresh, sweet but super savoury and just so good. Definitely making again and you should too!
1)In a large wok, heat a little oil and add some green beans, thinly slivered baby corn (cut it with the knife parallel to the corn, so you get long strips not small chunks). Cook for a minute or so, flipping regularly. Add some strips of celery chopped the same, but use the paler, sweeter shoots in the centre of the plant because they are most similar to the original Chinese celery. Cook for another minute. You could use a large frying pan for this, but I dug out my big wok which I don't use often and quickly learned it should be used a lot more- it somehow cooks everything evenly at such a high temperature, and it remains very steady. After the vegetables have gone limp, add a handful of cashew nuts.
2)Add a star anise and two cinnamon sticks to the pan, and toss them around well to start releasing their flavour. Add about 2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce, about 1 of rich oyster sauce, some ground black pepper, a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, about a cm of freshly grated ginger and about 100 ml of water and a chicken stock pot. Let it bubble a little and then add some raw King prawns. Cook for only about 2 minutes, when they curl well.
3)Now add one of my favourite ingredients, some rice Vermicelli or beanthreads soaked in boiling water until soft and drained. Toss them well into the liquid and try to thread the vegetables through the noodles. To serve, chop some more celery leaves over it and eat the Thai way, with a fork to pick up noodles and other paraphernalia and a spoon to shovel it down the hatch.