Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities (21 page)

• Add the butter and oil to the pan, then throw in the chopped onions and peppers and cook, stirring, over a medium to low heat for about 10 minutes.

• Stir in the garlic, then add the shredded turkey and cook until piping hot.

• Return the reserved toasted flaked almonds to the pan, add the olives and mix in.

• Whisk together the soured cream, turkey stock and egg, then pour into the pan, give a quick stir to combine and shake in the Tabasco sauce.

• Finally, add the flaked Parmesan and stir until it begins to melt into the hash.

• On serving, sprinkle with chopped parsley, if wished.

FOUR ALTERNATIVES TO CHRISTMAS TURKEY

THE GOOSE OPTION

ROAST GOOSE WITH PEAR AND CRANBERRY STUFFING

LIGHT GOOSE GRAVY

QUICK CASSOULET

BACON-WRAPPED CHIPOLATAS

PERFECT ROAST POTATOES

CHRISTMAS SPROUTS

RED CABBAGE WITH POMEGRANATE JUICE

MY MOTHER’S BREAD SAUCE

PRODIGIOUS PAVLOVA

ROAST GOOSE WITH PEAR AND CRANBERRY STUFFING

It’s true that goose has the older pedigree as the traditional Christmas roast, but if you are assembling in large numbers, it isn’t actually feasible. This bird has such a large carcass which means that one only just fits in an oven and won’t feed many more than 6, though with all the trimmings, it will probably stretch to 8–10. What the trimmings are, is up to you, of course, though I’ve suggested a similar line-up to the turkey’s. I also suggest, unless there are 6 or fewer of you, that you don’t reduce their portions; this way, if you wanted to be sure to feed 10 with a meat-mean goose, you probably could. It’s just that I start panicking unless I make too much food for everyone, but I do know in my heart of hearts that 2 small slices of meat is plenty when the plate’s piled high with stuffing, roast potatoes, sausages, bread sauce, sprouts and red cabbage.

Nevertheless, the disadvantage of the large carcass yields some positive returns, namely that you can fit in a lot of stuffing. And I do actually stuff the bird, as I no longer do my turkey, not least because a goose is so much easier to stuff than a turkey. And this sharp-sweet mix of grainy-fleshed dried pears and astringent cranberries – which becomes imbued with the flavour-deep juices of the goose as it cooks – is the perfect foil to the gorgeous richness of the dark meat.

If you have vegetarians coming, by all means make the Butternut Orzotto to supplement, though I do love this with the Beetroot Orzotto; but, as mooted earlier, if you want to serve the beetroot version, you must be prepared to lose the red cabbage. There’s only so much Seventies maroon the eye can appreciate at one table.

Serves 6–8

FOR THE STUFFING:

500g dried pears (see

Stockists

)

175g cranberries, fresh or, if frozen, thawed

100g dried breadcrumbs

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground ginger

zest and pulpy juice of 1 clementine/satsuma

1 onion, peeled and chopped

2 × 15ml tablespoons maple syrup

125g pecans

1 × 15ml tablespoon Maldon salt or 1½ teaspoons table salt

FOR THE GOOSE:

1 × 4.8kg fresh goose

• Either soak the dried pears overnight in cold water, or pour boiling water over them and leave to cool; this will take 2–3 hours.

• Drain the pears and put them into a bowl along with the cranberries and breadcrumbs.

• Add the cinnamon, cloves, ginger and clementine/satsuma zest and pulp.

• Stir in the chopped onion, maple syrup and pecans, and add the salt.

• Make sure everything is thoroughly mixed before you stuff the goose.

• Preheat your oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.

• Remove any excess fat from the goose cavity – this can go towards your roast potatoes – and remove the neck and giblets, reserving them for the gravy.

• Stuff the cavity of the goose with the pear and cranberry stuffing and, once stuffed, wrap the goose skin over, securing with a skewer.

• Sit the stuffed goose on a wire rack in a fairly deep roasting tin, as the goose will give off a lot of fat as it cooks and you don’t want spillage.

• Cook the goose for 3 hours (after about an hour, drain off the excess fat in the tin, and again every half hour or so).

• Remove to a board and carve judiciously.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the stuffing up to 2 days ahead and keep in the fridge. Then bring to room temperature and stuff the bird as directed.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Make and freeze the stuffing for up to 2 weeks. Thaw overnight in the fridge and stuff the bird as directed.

LIGHT GOOSE GRAVY

I’ll be honest, my first impulse to make an unthickened gravy came out of my fear of trying to fiddle about with the goose-roasting tin: I didn’t think I’d ever be able to skim off the fat and find some intense juice. But once I tasted the goose stock I’d made, I realized it didn’t matter. Nothing could improve the taste, and a thicker or richer gravy would be too much for the strong meat. Now, I feel it’s almost worth getting a goose just to make this delicate but, at the same time, deeply flavoured gravy. In fact, I may have to ask my butcher for as many goose giblets as he can spare, whenever he has them to hand. And don’t throw away the liver, even though you don’t need it here: unlike the turkey liver, this is well worth frying in butter and a few drops of garlic oil; add a glug of muscat wine (or sweet sherry if that’s easier) once the liver’s seared, then when it’s cooked but still pink inside, wipe the pan out with some good brown toast, and squish the liver on top with a fork.

A final note: because you don’t need the juices from the roast goose to make this lightest of gravies, you can make it ahead of the game, which I always find a boon.

Serves 8–10

neck and giblets of the goose (except the liver)

2 carrots, each snapped into 2 or 3

1 onion (unpeeled), quartered

5 cloves garlic (unpeeled)

1 stick celery, snapped into 4

generous bunch of parsley

1½ teaspoons Maldon salt or ¾ teaspoon table salt

1 × 15ml tablespoon peppercorns (white for choice, though black will do)

2 cardamom pods

1 × 15ml tablespoon maple syrup

• Put all the ingredients into a wide saucepan, and bring to the boil, then turn down and leave on a low simmer for 1 hour.

• Taste the stock or, now, gravy; it should be pronounced but delicate. If your saucepan is narrow, the water won’t evaporate as quickly, so you may need to give it another 20 minutes. Let taste be your guide.

• Strain the gravy, discarding all the solids, then pour some over the carved goose and put the rest in a warmed gravy boat to take to the table.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

As soon as you have bought your goose, remove the giblets and make the gravy. Cool, cover and keep in the fridge for up to 2 days.

THOUGHTS FOR GOOSE LEFTOVERS

The most important thing to say is that unless you let any leftover goose sit in any leftover gravy (you may not have the former, but I’d be surprised if you didn’t have some of the latter), the goose isn’t really worth discussing from this point on. I don’t know why it should be so, since goose is so fatty, but it seems to dry incredibly if it’s left to get cold untended. But pick off any bits of meat that you possibly can, and bathe them in the stock as it cools, and you have joy ahead.

I’m a fan of the thus-steeped cold goose (taken out of the fridge for a while first so it’s no longer at fridge-temperature) with no more than a cold roast potato or two and a pile of pickled red cabbage from a jar. And although I warned against colour pile-up for the Main Event, I’m happy to add my Beetroot and Horseradish Sauce here even if it is tonally too much with the strands of red cabbage. Believe me, I am so grateful to find this gem (think ruby) of a no-cook, no-fuss but still sensational supper for one or two, that I am hardly going to start quibbling about the colour palette on my plate.

Otherwise, you can make the Wild Rice, Cranberry and Pecan Salad, with goose in place of the turkey leftovers, but so rich is this meat that you may want to use much less goose in proportion to the wild rice.

I have only one recipe proper for leftover goose: a cassoulet, though admittedly a corner-cutting, quick-time version, that no doubt would not find favour in the cassoulet and goose region of France, but that keeps me happy on a cold night after a long day at Christmastime.

QUICK CASSOULET

Serves 2–4 (depending on hunger of eaters and what else is being eaten alongside

smear of goose fat

2 × 410g cans cannellini beans, or any good-quality canned beans, drained and rinsed

2 chorizo sausages, 110g total

250g leftover goose, chopped

200ml leftover light goose gravy

1 × 15ml tablespoon Armagnac, or brandy

75g breadcrumbs (or enough to cover dish)

2 × 15ml tablespoons goose fat

• Preheat your oven to 200°C/gas mark 6 and grease an oval gratin dish (approx. 25cm long) with a little goose fat.

• Put the drained and well-rinsed beans into a large bowl.

• Cut the chorizo sausages into fat coins, then cut each coin in half, and add to the bowl, along with the goose meat.

• Put this mixture into the prepared dish, pour the stock and Armagnac (or brandy) over, and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs to cover the top.

• Finally, pour the goose fat over and bake in the oven for 25 minutes – or until the crumbed top is golden and all is bubbling underneath.

• When cooked, the beans should have softened well in the liquid, though they won’t have absorbed it: this cassoulet has a spoonable, generously gravied texture beneath the crisp crumb topping.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Assemble the cassoulet the day before, cover and keep in the fridge. Allow 30 minutes at room temperature before baking as recipe.

THE BEEF OPTION

ROAST RIB OF BEEF WITH PORT AND STILTON GRAVY

PERFECT ROAST POTATOES

MAPLE-ROAST PARSNIPS

CHRISTMAS SPROUTS

BUTTERNUT ORZOTTO

RED CABBAGE WITH POMEGRANATE JUICE

BEETROOT AND HORSERADISH SAUCE

PECAN-PLUS PIE

WITH CRÈME FRAÎCHE AND VANILLA ICE CREAM

ROAST RIB OF BEEF WITH PORT AND STILTON GRAVY

There is something about a big rib of beef sitting proudly on its carving board at the table that makes that table, and those around it, so immediately celebratory. The extravagance of it, the ridiculous vastness of it: this is a proper, stand-up-and-clap feast.

The Port and Stilton Gravy, grapily aromatic and tangy, is the perfect festive foil to the juicy meat. Although its inspiration – the gloriousness of blue cheese melting on top of a steak from an American grill – is not in itself seasonal, port and Stilton are the essence of an English Christmas. Just the words “port and Stilton” make me hear the crackling of logs in the fire, smell the chestnuts roasting there, see twinkling tree lights and hear descanted carols. Too much? Maybe, but isn’t that the whole point of this time of the year.

Serves 8 (with leftovers), 14 without

3.8kg Scotch or black Welsh beef forerib (a 4-rib joint)

2 onions, peeled and cut into 1cm rounds

2 × 15ml tablespoons garlic oil

1½ teaspoons Maldon salt or ¾ teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

• Take your beef out of the fridge to bring to room temperature, which could take an hour or possibly more, and preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.

• Put the onion slices into a roasting tin and sit the rib of beef on top of them. Use the onion slices as props to help the rib sit up on its bones in an “L” shape.

• Smear the oil over the white fat of the rib, and sprinkle with the salt, thyme and cayenne pepper.

• Cook according to the beef’s weight and your taste. I like my beef nice and underdone, so I give it 33 minutes per kg/15 minutes per lb, which means, for a joint this size, a cooking time of about 2 hours unless the beef’s straight out of the fridge, in which case, add another 20 minutes or so. If you want medium beef, give the joint, from room temperature, 44 minutes per kg/20 minutes per lb, and if you like well-done meat, 66 minutes per kg/30 minutes per lb. As for feeding capacity, this size of joint will certainly look after a big tableful, from 8 with lots of leftovers to 14, without the definite promise of them.

• When the beef comes out of the oven, remove to a carving board and allow to rest in a warm part of the kitchen under a tent of foil for 30 minutes before carving; or just leave, tented in its tin, for the same time.

• Do not start clearing up the tin, even if you have taken out the beef, however, as you will need some of the pan juices and onions for the gravy, below.

PORT AND STILTON GRAVY

I love the mixture between rich, rounded ruby port and sharp, salty cheese. The onions, sweet and soft from the beef’s roasting tin, add depth as well as texture if you liquidize them, in a blender (it doesn’t work the same way in a processor) with the stock, which, in turn, is then combined with the port and Stilton.

But this Christmas gravy is good enough without, so if you don’t feel like blending or your onions are too blackened from the tin, you can dispense with this step without cause for concern.

2 × 15ml tablespoons fatty juices, from the roast beef tin

1 × 15ml tablespoon plain flour

125ml ruby port, plus 1 × 15ml tablespoon

cooked onions from the roast beef tin (optional)

500ml organic beef stock, “fresh” from a shop-bought tub

125g blue cheese

1 teaspoon redcurrant jelly

salt and pepper to taste

extra juices from the roast beef tin and carving board

• Make a roux by adding the 2 tablespoons of fatty juices from the beef tin to a saucepan, whisk in the flour, and then the 125ml of port, and keep heating and whisking over a fairly gentle heat, until thick and bubbling.

• If you want to blend the onions and stock, do so now, by putting any but the blackened onions in the blender goblet with the beef stock, and liquidizing. Or leave the stock just as it is, straight out of the tub.