Speedy Green Pea Soup

Delicious colour, delicious taste!

Ingredients

300g frozen green peas

a small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

500 ml chicken or vegetable stock

1 or 2 tablespoons creme fraiche (optional)

salt and black pepper

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

20g butter

Method

Warm the oil in a medium pan and add the butter. Melt. Add the chopped onion and garlic and fry gently for 5 minutes. Tip in the frozen peas and the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 5 - 10 minutes, until all the vegetables are quite soft. Remove from the heat, add the creme fraiche and black pepper. Check if it needs salt. Liquidise.

Christmas Cake, Part 5

Ingredients
2 egg whites
400g. icing sugar
2 tsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. glycerine (from a chemist's)

About 23 December, put two egg whites into a spanking clean bowl. Beat till frothy then stir in the icing sugar. Beat really well until there are no lumps and the icing stands in peaks when you pull out a spoon. Beat in the lemon juice and the glycerine. The glycerine prevents the icing from becoming too brittle. I like a rough 'snow' scene and a kitschy cake and go for the same 'look' every year! If you want to copy it, get a large flat knife or palette knife and cover the cake thickly with the royal icing. Get the flat knife and lift and pull snow peaks all over the cake. Swirl the palette knife around the outside to give a flat surface. Ensure all the cake is covered evenly. Stick in all your well-loved family cake decorations. Leave it to dry overnight. The next day, get a fancy wired ribbon (about 150 cm) and tie it around the cake, finishing it with a big blousy bow. Stand back and admire!

Is it worth it?
There are lots of stages to a home baked Christmas cake, but the end result is fabulous. It's never hard work, but you do need to be organised. My six year old niece was transfixed by the 'white cake' and brought everyone in one at a time to look at it. She missed out on Christmas pudding because she couldn't wait to start on the cake.
Everyone just oohed and aahed over it and said there was no way you could buy such a nice cake. I had to divide what cake there was after Christmas amongst family members to take to their homes. You don't do that with a cake from M & S.
So, I would say, yes, it is worth it.

Enjoy!!

Christmas Cake, Part 4

The cake has matured for two months. Now it is about a week before Christmas. The cake is unwrapped and brushed with boiled apricot jam. This year, I used 400g ready-rolled marzipan by Dr. Oetker because it was on offer. Proper almond paste is not cheap to make because you need to use a large quantity of ground almonds. The best recipe I ever used was by Claire MacDonald and used orange blossom water amongst the ingredients. It was truly delicious. The Dr. Oetker marzipan had very little flavour! The point of covering the cake with marzipan a week before Christmas is that it should dry out a bit before topping with icing. Lay over cake and trim as per the photo. Leave uncovered for a few days.

Oatmeal Stuffing

Ingredients
200g coarse oatmeal
100g Atora-light vegetarian suet
1 onion, chopped finely
salt and black pepper
a pinch of dried thyme

Method
Combine the ingredients in a bowl and then use the mixture to fill the cavity of a large ready-to-roast chicken using a spoon. This is the quantity for a large chicken. When the chicken has been roasted, the oatmeal stuffing will be moist and delicious. This is a traditional Scottish stuffing, sometimes called skirlie, and can be used in turkey or pheasant as well, using the same proportions but altering quantities to suit the size of bird.

Christmas Cake, Part 3

The Christmas Cake is wrapped in greasproof paper, then aluminium foil. It has been labelled and it will be stored in an unheated cupboard (I always put it in the cupboard in the dining room) for two months. About ten days before Christmas it will get its layer of almond paste and a week later, royal icing.

More to follow!

Christmas Cake, Part 2

Following baking, the cake cools in its tin next to a freshly-baked granary loaf. It smells gorgeous!

The cake mixture is ready to bake.

The batter mixture sets rather than rise the way a Victoria Sponge would.

BAKING THE CAKE

Measure out

175g Lurpak Lighter

175g dark muscovado sugar

3 eggs

50g self-raising flour

100g plain flour

1 tablespoon black treacle (didn't have any, so used golden syrup)

1 tsp. ground mixed spice

Beat very well together in a food mixer for 3 minutes.

Stir in 50g blanched chopped almonds (this year I used walnuts instead). Stir in all the soaked fruit and sherry (see Christmas Cake, Part 1)

Grease and line an 8 inch/20 cm round cake tin (or a 7 inch/18 cm square tin). Spoon the cake mixture into the tin and level off the top. Put the cake on to a rack in the simmering oven of the Aga for 4 - 10 hours. When cooked, a warm skewer pierced through the centre of the cake will come out clean. If not cooked yet, bake for another 30 minutes or so and test again. Leave to cool in the tin.

In a conventional oven

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 1, 275°F (140°C). Wrap the tin in brown paper or newspaper and tie it with string. This is to protect the outside of the cake from burning. Bake on the lowest shelf of the oven for 4-4¾ hours. Sometimes it can take up to ½-¾ hour longer than this, but don't look until at least 4 hours have passed. A fan-assisted oven may need to be set at a slightly lower temperature.

A low fat cooked breakfast

Two lightly grilled turkey rashers, grilled mushrooms, a grilled tomato (with herbs) and a grilled hash brown. Poach an egg to accompany.