Category: food

christmas pudini bonbons

The glorious Nigella strikes with these utterly sublime treats. So much fun, and must’ve constituted at least three gifts! So easy too: cooked Christmas pudding (Sainsbury’s cheapest), mixed with booze and melted chocolate. Add melted white chocolate and top with cut glacé cherries (fiddlesome), and there you have it. Cute!

Christmas pudini bonbons:

125g dark chocolate, chopped and melted

350g Christmas pudding (either leftover or cooked and cooled)

60ml sherry, marsala wine or other pokey liqeur

2 tablespoons golden syrup

100g white chocolate

Mixed coloured glacé cherries, snipped

Mix the chocolate, pudding, booze and syrup together and form into balls. This is extremely messy!

Leave in the fridge to set for a couple of hours, then top with melted white chocolate and cherries.

Tags nigella lawson

food ham

revenge of ham

The ham was ready. Now for smoking.

I took the idea from various recipes to put it on to the BBQ and cover it over, providing a crude smoker. I was able to use some Apple Wood Chips from Colorado thanks to my good friend Dominic.

I was continually prodding it with my probe thermometer, waiting for the magic 76C to appear. This took about two and a bit hours with my small piece of meat. The window cleaner looked at me very strangely, playing with the BBQ in late December.

This piece was actually too strong, too briny. I tasted a piece and stamped the floor like a Tex Avery cartoon. I soaked it a little but it went too far. However I prepared a second joint the same way and that was very tasty indeed.

The photos make it look more pink than it did in real life – I didn’t add saltpetre (nitrite) to the mix, which encourages that rosiness.

food marsala pork sausages

sausage casserole

There must be a million of these types of recipes. And this one’s pretty straightforward: pork sausages fried quickly until browned, then a splash of Marsala for fun. A tin of tomatoes, cannelini beans and a jar of bacony pasta sauce, and after some bubbling away, that’s it.

Ladies and gentlemen, winter has arrived.

(PS. the ham wasn’t ready yet – another two days here I think)

beef food mushroom

stroganoff

A handsome, rich and satisfying meal. I’ll admit that’s one of the worst photos of food in the world, sorry. Tastes good though, promise.

I start by dusting strips of steak in flour and paprika, then frying quickly and leaving to one side. Then I fry an onion, garlic, thyme and sliced mushrooms until softened. Then a nice bit of flambé with brandy (although I used whisky tonight), some scary flames, and then the meat goes back in to warm, accompanied by some sliced gherkin. Some creme fraiche now, and after a touch of seasoning it’s there. Perfect with rice.

I must have made this with eight or nine different recipes, and it tastes the same every single time.