Christmas Eve

This year we spent Christmas Eve dinner chez moi, for a change, and to be a bit different, I did a tapas feast, with help of course. There were quite a few dishes, let me run through:

Salt Cod Croquettes

Chorizo in Red Wine

Roasted Aubergine Dip

Marinated Grilled Lamb

Tomato Salad

Marinated Artichoke Salad

John Dory with Watercress and Sherry

Piquillo Peppers with Raisins and Pine nuts

Spanish Crab Dumplings

Salsa Verde

 

It was a delicious assault of flavours, nicely balanced and all linked through sherry in various forms – joy in a glass! – including the manzanilla we drank.

 

The salt cod croquettes were the ones I have previously made. They are both pretty easy to make and delicious, if a little laborious. You soak the salt cod for a couple of days, changing the water a few times a day. Then, cube it and put it in a pan with a mix of milk and water and a few flavourings – bay, peppercorns and suchlike. Bring this to the boil and simmer for five minutes at the most. Strain the cod and when you can touch it, flake it into a bowl, removing the skin and bones. Set aside. Make some choux pastry and then add the cod to this along with flavourings you wish – parsley, a touch of garlic, some lemon, it could go on. This mix can then be refrigerated until you need it. You they fry off the croquettes in batches by dropping small quenelles into heated oil, drain after they have turned a golden brown on all sides. {This recipe is adapted from Modern Spanish Cooking, the cookbook from Fino, by Eddie and Sam Hart – thank you for a great book.}

 

Most of the other dishes are adapted from generic recipes. The aubergine was a variation on Baba Ganouj, with some sherry vinegar used – I got some wonderful Pedro Ximinez balsamic like vinegar from Brindisa.

The only slightly odd one was the crab dish. I wanted to make crab gyoza as I had some gyoza wrappers and I really enjoy them. The brother and I set out to make a Spanish-ified filling for them. Cooked off a finely chopped banana shallot and some garlic and set it aside to cool. To that we added some sherry vinegar, some parsley and chervil, a touch of smoked paprika and some saffron. We then adjusted for seasoning and set it aside. It fell to me to fill them and they went well, not as elegant as the pleated ones you see in restaurants but that’ll come with practice I guess.

 

We then had some cheese – just a touch – and delicious it was too. We followed that with some dessert. We had two, a Clementine and Muscat jelly made by the mother. It was delicious and came out of the December issue of Waitrose Food Illustrated – well worth a try. The other dessert was borne out of the brother’s desire to make something flavoured with lemon and cinnamon. We decided to go for a syllabub. Now, powdered cinnamon in syllabub didn’t strike me as a great plan so I put the zest and juice of four lemons in a jam jar and added three broken cinnamon sticks and left it to infuse for a week or so. We then followed Elizabeth David’s recipe for a syllabub – it is exceedingly good but also must come with a warning not to operate any machinery or try to form any conscious thought due to the alcoholic nature – 4floz sherry, 2 tablespoons brandy, juice and rind of a lemon, 2 oz sugar and 300ml double cream. Dissolve the sugar in the liquids and then slowly add the cream in whilst whisking. Whisk until it holds soft peaks )this takes quite a while so use an electric whisk if you have one or if you aren’t He-man).

 

And that kind of put paid to the rest of that evening, the brother and I waved off the rest of the party and set to a bit of clearing up and then collapsed, to rest up until tomorrow and….

 

 

CHRISTMAS DAY!!!