One Fat Man

A Michaelmas Feast - 29th September: Accompaniments

One of the difficult things about a large meal with a large bird can be timings. Vegetables that can be prepared in advance are good, particularly where it’s a two part cooking process. You can par-cook the green vegetables, cool them quickly and then reheat (with a quantity of double cream as in the case of the petit pois a la Francaise recipe). Red cabbage can also be made in advance.

Space in the oven can be difficult too. The only way to get around it – if you have a small oven – is to cook some things ahead of time. Chipolatas wrapped in bacon can easily be cooked in advance and reheated whilst the bird rests. The same is true of baked apples.

Baked Apples

Baked apples are a traditional thing to serve with a Michaelmas Goose, being perfectly in season.

They are simple to make.

Apples – 1 per person

Prunes – 2 per apple

Nutmeg – a little

Gin – a jigger

Earl Grey tea

Butter 4oz, melted

Soak the prunes in the tea and gin, together with the nutmeg. Meanwhile core the apples. Pop two prunes into each apple. Pour over melted butter and bake for 45 minutes.

The baked apples were not the hit of the meal, but I rather liked them.

 

Seasonal Vegetables a la Francaise

See my earlier recipe here. This time I used peas, runner beans, kale and leeks.

Red Cabbage

(feeds about 20 – worth doing lots as it freezes well)

Two red cabbages

An onion

A couple of large cooking apples

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

A couple of ounces of sugar

¼ pint of port

A little water - perhaps

A little red wine vinegar

Butter

Shred the cabbage, and finely chop the onion and apples. Melt butter in a very large pan. Fry cabbage, onions and apples a little. Add spices and sugar, and then the liquid. Bubble it about a bit. There shouldn’t be too much water.

Put in a lowish over (150 ish) for three hours, checking every forty minutes, stirring, and maybe adding more water if necessary.

Roast Potatoes

Par-boil these and then give them about 45 minutes in a hot oven. Put a tin of goose fat in the oven for 15 minutes before you need to put the potatoes in. They can go in 15 minutes before the goose is ready and then finish off whilst it rests.

Sauces

Bread sauce and apple sauce are both very easy, and I can’t be bothered to write about them... except to say that I love bread sauce. Giblet gravy is made by simmering the giblets with carrot onion and herbs the night before the feast, and making a stock. Then use the stock, together with pan juices, to make a gravy.

A Michaelmas Feast - 29th September: The Goose

It has long been traditional to eat Goose at Michaelmas. This is for several reasons. The first is quite clearly that late September is the first point of the year when the geese are big enough to eat, they are also still young and not too fatty, which arguably makes them rather nicer than they are at Christmas. The second is that Michaelmas was one of the four ‘quarter days’. That is, it was a day when servants were hired and debts were paid. These quarter days (the others being Lady Day, Christmas and Midsummer) also fall on or around the two equinoxes and the two solstices – this year’s Autumn equinox having been on the 22nd September – so it is clear that feasting has long been traditional at these times of year. Often the quarter day debts, rents, and pay packets, were paid in kind rather than in cash, and a common form of currency was the goose, which contributed to the tradition of eating a Michaelmas Goose. It is said that eating goose at Michaelmas ensures a prosperous year financially. We can only hope.

My first goose memory:

I remember having goose for my uncle’s birthday, which falls on the 30th December. It was decided one year (probably by my Granny) that we would have goose, I must have been about three at the time. The best thing about this for me was going to collect it from my Great Aunty Mary who has a small-holding in Lingfield. As a child it was always a source of great excitement to visit Aunty Mary. This was for several reasons... the food (usually her own excellent North Ronaldsay lamb), the chickens – which usually resulted eggs to take home, and the tractor, which was inedible but majestic... even though it was invariably in the garage. Collecting the goose was a wonderful moment, and I have a very clear memory of it. It was also the moment when I really started to connect food on the plate with food in the farm. I got some of the feathers from the goose to take home and I remember seeing Uncle David bring the goose out. There were still some feathers on it and it's long neck too. I knew exactly where that goose had come from and I knew it was a goose. I’d possibly even met it. In these days of supermarkets and homogenized... everything, this must be increasingly rare for children. Such a pity.

On with the meat of the thing:

I served Michaelmas Goose with Forcemeat Stuffing, Sage and Onion Stuffing, Chipolatas and Bacon, Roast Potatoes, Baked Apples, Red Cabbage, Seasonal Green Vegetables a la Francaise, Bread Sauce, Apple Sauce, and Gravy.

The first step is to order your goose. I ordered mine from Goodmans Geese, because I saw them on the Two Fat Ladies many years ago (and more recently on DVD, given that I have the box set and that it’s usually on in the background). Goodmans also do a Michaelmas delivery service, and I got a large goose (12 and a half lbs) for £70 delivered, which I thought was actually pretty good. I had wanted to support my local butcher but they could only get me a frozen goose – a pain to thaw, but they freeze very well – for over £100! Here is how the goose looked when she (I don’t know her gender, but she seemed female) arrived:

Get the bird oven ready the night before. This involves stuffing her and putting her into her tin. The stuffings are as follows, the quantities are somewhat approximate as I tend to do it by feel. But you can find stuffing recipes all over the internet:

Forcemeat:

An onion – finely chopped

8oz good sausage meat (mine came from the nice chaps at The Ginger Pig)

Sage and Parsley, quite a lot of the latter

A handful of breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper

The liver of the goose chopped finely

 

Mix it all up and pop it in the bird. Neck end.

 

Sage and Onion:

Another onion – finely chopped

A good quantity of chopped sage

Salt and pepper

A good bowlful of bread crumbs

An egg to bind

A couple of knobs of butter – melted

 

Mix it all up, it should cohere together well but not be too wet. Pop it in the bird – other end.

Some people don’t like to stuff both ends, but if you’ve got the oven hot enough and the whole thing is at room temperature before you begin then it will certainly cook. With this in mind, when the bird is stuffed leave out of the fridge for 12 hours or so before cooking. Often a good place to leave it is in the oven – provided that the oven is stone cold.

Before putting the goose on to cook prick the skin all over, and particularly under the wings. This is so that the fat drains out of it, and there is a lot of fat. Roast on a rack, so that it’s not sitting in its fat.

A goose of 12lbs will take three hours at about 200C. Every 20 – 30 mins pour the fat off into a basin, and baste the goose with boiling water. You can use the fat for the roast potatoes and you can freeze it to use at other times too.

When the cooking time is up and the juices are running clear take the goose out and leave covered with foil to rest for about half an hour.

I must admit that I’d never cooked a goose before, but the combined knowledge of duck cooking and turkey cooking seemed to work to my advantage and it was very nice... and the leaflet from Goodmans was very helpful too. Of course, what I should have done is call Aunty Mary, and ask for her advice.

A Michaelmas Feast - 29th September

Saturday was Michaelmas, the feast of Michael the Archangel. I decided a couple of months ago that I would do a traditional Roast Goose. This, over the weeks that followed, developed into a rather elaborate affair, but I think it worked quite nicely. I certainly had a lovely time.

We managed to squeeze eleven of us round the table – William, Tom, Guy, Lettie, Ed, Henry, Nick, Freddie, Tris, Laura and me – all mentioned by name because I think that’s important.

Quite a lot of prosecco, red wine, and port and madeira went into making the evening a hit, but hopefully the food contributed as well. Over the next few days I’m going to post blogs on the various courses. In the meantime here’s a picture of the goose to whet your appetites.

I hope you had a very happy Michaelmas!

Bird for the Ascension and an attempt at Giuncata.

I've not been well. Indeed I've had a nasty sore throat, and been feverish. I think it's my tonsils flaring up, as is their wont.So my culinary activities have been rather scuppered.

I had particularly wanted to do something special for the ascension, as my grandmother - to whom I was devoted - was born on an Ascension Thursday.  On the Sorrentine Peninsula they make a curd cheese called 'Giuncata' on the ascension. They let it drain in rush baskets and eat it with honey and brandy. I decided that a rudimentary curd cheese would do the trick. But my illness rather prevented me from doing the necessary research. I did have a half-arsed go at it, by boiling up some milk in a pan with vinegar and cream. This is the basic method for a homemade curd cheese. I sort of presumed it'd work and I'd have a lovely quick recipe to impress and delight. Well, it did work, but I didn't get much cheese out of it. Do you know how much milk it takes to make cheese?! A VAST QUANTITY is the answer, and I did not have a vast quantity, especially given that I spilled some (but there's no use crying over that now). The resultant cheese (which took all of ten minutes to make) was rather delicious, but so small in quantity as to not really be worth a photograph, nor a blog. I also think it was a mistake to attempt it whilst ill. This is the problem with me and paracetemol. Half an hour after taking it I believe I'm invincible, and have a go at making cheese.

By next ascension I promise to have properly researched the methods, and quantities, and to offer you up a delicious giuncata. For this year, however, it'll have to be another chicken dish. The reason for this is that chicken is a bird, and it is traditional to eat a bird on Ascension Thursday... because birds fly heavenwards, much as our Lord did on this magnificent feast. This is convenient for two reasons. First, it means I can simply give you my 'roast-a-chicken-with-garlic-because-my-singing-teacher-has-told-me-chicken-and-garlic-will-make-me-better' that I did on Tuesday using all sorts of oddments from the 'fridge. Secondly, it gives me a good opportunity to expound upon my theories regarding roast chicken.

I ardently believe that a chicken likes to be roasted hot and fast to get the fat out, and that it also needs stock to help the breast stay moist and decent flavouring, because the flavour has been bred out of even the happiest of free-range chickens.

So for this chicken I did the following:

1. Untrussed it.

2. Rubbed it all over with butter. Seasoned it well. [Remember that salt brings out flavour, but that pepper adds a new flavour of its own. I rarely use much salt. My granny cut it from everything because of high blood pressure and my mother and I consequently do the same. Strangely none of us cut alcohol, fat, or sugar. In the grand list of 'bad things' salt seems easy to give up. My chief exceptions for this are: dough, aubergines, chicken, pasta, occasionally tomatoes, bloody marys and CHIPS. Hooray for low blood pressure and healthy eating].

3. Put half a bulb of garlic and half a lemon up its bottom.

4. Put it breast-side down in the tin, poured half a pint of stock round it and popped it in a hot oven for half an hour.

5. Got it out, turned it over, put new potatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, green olives, parsley, corriander, some more lemon, pepper, chilli, onion and the other half of the bulb of garlic (and quite a bit  more garlic) around it. Added some of the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes and a bit more butter.

6. Put it back in the oven for another half hour. Got it out, turned the potatoes about a bit, basted it. Put it back in for another half hour.

7. Took it out of the oven.

8. Ate it.

I did much of this in a lemsip induced haze. But it turned out rather well. So there we are. Bird for the ascension, and giuncata for next year.

P.S. Of course, in England, we will be celebrating a stupidly ersatz transferred feast of the Ascension on Sunday... because the English bishops in their infinite wisdom... blah blah blah blah need I say more(?) blah blah...

 

Surrexit Christus Alleluia - Easter Cake

I have no truck with the simnel cake. Not only do I not particularly like it, but it became quite firmly a mothering Sunday tradition... and whilst I think its origins were Easter based its dalliance with another day now makes it feels like an imposter in this holy season. Nevertheless, I do like the symbolism of the balls on top of the marzipanned simnel cake. 11 balls for the 11 faithful apostles. Poor Old Judas. He remains a problem for me. Our redemption would have been impossible without him, so perhaps we owe him a debt of gratitude in some sense. Just as we sing of the 'necessary sin of Adam' in the Easter Exsultet, we might also think of the necessary betrayal of Judas. I tend to spend quite a bit of Easter praying for Judas. I'm sure he's beyond hope, beyond redemption... but where would we all be without him?

But I digress. Instead of the simnel cake we make a light almond cherry cake, the recipe for which my mother found in a magazine many Easter moons ago. Then we decorate it as if it is a simnel cake. As this is very much my mother's recipe she kindly helped with the baking, which was not in any way a stressful experience for either of us. Top marks go to our trusty electric mixer, which is the same age as me.

Ingredients

1lb glace cherries - washed and halved

10 oz self raising flour

3 oz ground almonds

10 oz unsalted butter

10 oz caster sugar

Zest and juice from one lemon

5 large eggs, beaten

9 inch cake tin, greased and lined

Apricot jam

Icing sugar

12 oz block of shop-bought marzipan

Preheat the over to 350F/180C. Cream the butter until soft in an electric mixer. Add the the sugar, and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. You must use an electric mixer. I tried making this cake in November in an attempt to recreate the cherry cake from Nash's in the covered market. I was in a log cabin in the Missouri countryside at the time and there was no electric mixer. The cake didn't get enough air into it and was a bitter disappointment. Although it was rather nice lightly toasted with a little bit of butter on it.

Once the butter mix is light and fluffy add the lemon zest and then you can start to add the eggs, but do so gradually, otherwise the mixture will separate. Give a good burst with the mixer between each addition. When all the eggs are in fold in the flour and almonds.

Toss the cherry halves in a little flour (theoretically this stops them from sinking to the bottom of the cake). Fold the cherries in, but reserve a good handful. Once the larger quantity of cherries has been incorporated pour the mixture into the tin, and smooth down. Now thwomp the reserved cherries in at the top, pushing them in until they are just under the surface, and smooth the cake mix over the top. This will ensure that at least some cherries are near the top. Pop the cake into the oven for 1 hour, then reduce the temperature to 325F/170C and give it a further half hour to forty minutes.

Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool for 5-10 minutes in the tin. Then turn it out and let it cool on a wire rack.

When the cake is completely cool roll out the marzipan (using icing sugar as you would flour when rolling pastry) use the cake tin to cut a perfect circle the correct size. Brush the top of the cake with apricot jam, and pop the marzipan over the top, fluting the edges with your fingers. Then make the little balls with the leftover marzipan and use a little jam to glue them in place.

This year I've tied a nice blue ribbon round the cake, and put three dainty little chicks in Easter bonnets on the top. Well, they are meant to be Easter Bonnets, but personally I think  they look like Air Raid Precautions warden's hats. I also think that the cake, when covered with a basin, looks like a scene from a bizarre paschal Logan's run. 

Finally, here is a photograph of a cockerel that I made - from scratch - out of chicken wire, papier mache, crepe paper, and raffia when I was 12. He comes out every Easter, and to this day I overbearingly insist on receiving compliments about him from all who visit. I think he's very handsome. For the chicken fanciers among you I feel it's important to say that he's a Rose Comb White Dorking, such as this magnificent fellow. Dorkings are one of the oldest British breeds, thought to have been introduced to these shores by the Romans. I cannot stress enough how much I would like to keep chickens of my own. Anthony Worrall Thompson does.

Happy Easter!

 

Pigeons for the Purification of the BVM – 2nd Feb.

Last week it was the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Presentation as it’s now known… or Candelmas as it was traditionally known in England, even though that tends to have an Anglican sort of ring to it now.

The reason it’s called Candlemas is because the priest blesses candles and they get distributed to everyone, and the choir merrily sings the Nunc Dimittis – which obviously includes the following; ‘Lumen ad revelationem gentium et gloriam plebis tuæ Israel’. Along with Simeon we celebrate the arrival of the Light of the World. It is also, sadly, the end of Christmas. Or it traditionally was, and is the day we put the crib scene away.

The reason I decided to do some dainty little pigeons is because in Luke ch 2 we hear about the two young doves or pigeons brought by Mary and Joseph to the Temple as a sacrifice for their first born son.

I feel a bit bad having taken so long to get the recipe up here. But it’s been a hectic sort of time of late.

Pigeons with Honey-Roast Beetroot and Cumberland Sauce

3 pigeons (I was cooking for three people)

6 rashers smoked streaky bacon

Butter

1 onion

4 sticks of celery

2 shots of gin

A handful of Juniper berries

Some good chicken or game stock

4 good-sized beetroots (raw)

Honey

Olive Oil

For the Cumberland Sauce -I’m sorry dear reader, I just followed St Delia for this. Make this the day before, or earlier in the day, you can reheat it a little before serving – the microwave (sorry) works best for this. This is a classic sauce to have with game. It's also good cold.

Method

Chop the bacon, onion, and celery and fry in a large casserole. When they have just started to get some colour remove from the pan, and melt about a tablespoon of butter. Now add the little pigeons. Brown them on all sides, don’t be afraid to give them some good colour. Now return the onion, bacon, and celery to the pan, move the pigeons to the top, and allow to heat through. Pour on the gin and let it evaporate. Then add the juniper berries and the stock, leaving the liquid level about half an inch below the top of the pigeons. Turn the pigeons over so that they are breast-side down. Cover, and pop in the oven at about 160C for about 25 minutes. Meanwhile wash the beetroot well, you may need to peel it a bit, but not all of it. Whatever you do be careful – beetroot stains! Chop the betroot into thick slices of just under half an inch thick. Lay them in a roasting tin or pyrex tray. Drizzle liberally with olive oil and honey.

When the twenty-five minutes are up take the pigeons out of the oven, remove the lid and turn the pigeons over. Brush the breasts with butter. Put back in the over uncovered, together with the beetroot. Turn the oven up to 200 and time for 15 minutes. When this time is up turn the beetroot slices over and return to the oven for another 15 minutes. If after this time the beetroot seems a little hard then give it a bit longer, reserving the pigeons out of the oven with the lid on.

Serve the pigeons on a bed of the bacon, onion and celery mixture, together with Dauphinoise potatoes, and sprouting brocolli, and put the Cumberland Sauce on the table so people can help themselves.

Leftover Cumberland sauce will go deliciously with ham.

Et Verbum Caro Factum Est: Happy Christmas!

Well, Happy Feast of St Stephen… and more importantly, Happy Second Day of Christmas. I’ve just sent Mother Mattos out to shoot a couple of turtle doves for supper. I always like the Feast of St Stephen, and we remember it in our house for two reasons.  First, St Stephen is the patron saint of Altar Servers – and I was an altar server. Secondly, he is my father’s patron saint, being his confirmation name. St Stephen was the first martyr, and he was stoned to death. Hence the reason my father chose him as his confirmation saint, because he too was stoned (it was, after all, the 1960s).

The Christmas food tends to overshadow poor old St Stephen. But it is today – St Stephens Day – that I will make myself a massive Christmas sandwich and eat it with a spiced pear and a big mug of cider. This is, for me, the main event - the Christmas Day luncheon itself being just a Sunday Roast with delusions of grandeur. There is one thing without which my Christmas sandwich would be incomplete. That thing is chestnut stuffing. Just as the whole business with the Turkey is an extended pre-match entertainment before THE CHRISTMAS SANDWICH, I firmly believe that the Turkey is simply elaborate packaging for the stuffing. 

A note on cooking the Turkey:

I get the Turkey oven-ready and in the oven the night before – it will then be at room temp when the oven goes on. I don’t brine. What I do, is lard, by which I mean add fat to the bird to keep it juicy. I don’t actually use lard for this, I use butter. I rub it all over with butter. I put butter under the skin. Then I cover the whole thing with bacon and roast it in a big tent of foil, basting every 45 minutes or so, and removing both foil and bacon for the last 40 so the breast can brown. The whole thing takes about 4 hours and it's always juicy. Well, as juicy as it can be. I also give the bird proper resting time once its done (about 40 minutes), which helps. But most importantly, I stuff both ends. Parsley stuffing in the neck cavity. Chestnut in the, errr, other end. The Chestnut stuffing is the purpose of this post. Given that the big day has passed it’s less a recipe to use, more a paean of praise to stuffing (forgive the tautology, I think the stuffing deserves it). The other Christmas foods can wait, and be handled next year. I’ve taken the photos already.

Chestnut Stuffing

1lb Chestnuts

½ pint milk (enough to cover chestnuts in a pan)

2 oz bacon

1 tsp chopped thyme

2 oz melted butter

1 tsp sugar

Salt and Pepper

The method for this is an involved process. It begins with the buying of the chestnuts. The hard truth is that chestnuts go off, so get in with your hands, and squeeze them. You want fat chestnuts without much give in them. Those that feel a bit dry and squeezy are likely to be past it.

Once the chestnuts are home the sooner you can do the next bit the better, and you can do it well in advance of Christmas Eve [as soon as there are chestnuts in the shops]. You need to make a cross shaped slit in the top of each, going through the hard outer shell, and lightly piercing the soft inner shell (but not cutting the chestnut up). Use a sharp knife for this, and be careful. The worst is a blunt knife that will slip off the chestnut and attack you.

Once you’ve scored the chestnuts, put them in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, and boil lightly for 10 minutes. Now get out your asbestos fingers, and peel the chestnuts – both the hard outer shell and the soft inner one, down to the yellowy flesh beneath (anything very dark brown/black is mouldy so chuck it). You can – and should – let the chestnuts cool a little, but you need to do this whilst they are still pretty hot. Leave those waiting to be peeled in the hot water so they stay supple. Peeling the chestnuts is not fun work. Offer it up for the Holy Souls.

Once the chestnuts are peeled place them on some paper towel to dry. [If you’ve done this well in advance of Christmas Eve  then you can open-freeze the chestnuts on a baking tray on parchment (transferring to a box once they’re frozen). Get them out on the morning of Christmas Eve to thaw].

When you’re ready to make the stuffing itself put the chestnuts in a pan and cover with milk. Simmer for about ten minutes, until they are tender. Enjoy the smell.

 

 

Take the chestnuts out of the pan with a slotted spoon, and save the milk in the pan. Now put the chestnuts, together with bacon, thyme, sugar, seasoning, and melted fat into a food processor, and mash together until fairly smooth – you want some nice bits of chestnut to remain. The consistency should be fairly stiff, but pliable! If you think it is too wet, add a few breadcrumbs, too dry at a little milk. Now pop it in the bird.

Having made the stuffing, you now get a little treat. I always use the chestnut milk to make myself a nice chestnut hot chocolate --- which is great if you like chestnuts with chocolate. I use a good quality unsweetened drinking chocolate, which is very bitter (like me) and I add sugar to taste. I also don’t sieve the little bits of chestnut out of the milk (you may wish to).

[ps, in the background, the giblet stock is going great guns]

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!!!