Christmas Crasher

The fridge broke. It's true, on the day before Christmas Eve it died. All our food and drink had been bought and stashed and the fridge crashed and burned. Almost literally in the case of burning as the machine just got warmer despite the motor working very hard. We gave up on it in the end and fortunately it being cold in our shed, we were able to put perishables in there, where at a temperature close to what we would find in the fridge but at no cost, the food kept well until needed.

I didn't have to do any complex cooking this Christmas as we were away, but I did buy two large pieces of meat, a boned rolled shoulder of pork and a smoked gammon ham. Roasted the first for about 4 hours in a moderate oven (gas mark 5) after blasting it on full power for the first twenty minutes to get the crackling going.(Hint, put the pork uncovered in the bottom of the fridge ((or shed))after patting it dry with kitchen paper, provided the butcher has scored the skin well it will crackle up a treat).

Boiled up the ham and as soon as it had started to boil discarded the water - this gets rid of excess salt - and put in fresh, bringing it back to the boil then simmering gently for four hours. Believe me these were big pieces of meat. We had a small family lunch here - just 9 of us and ate the meat as cold cuts with pickles, baked potatoes, salad and coleslaw plus some excellent home-made bread supplied by bro-in-law and his partner. A lovely feast with red wine or white.

A tip, if you scrape the scum off the surface of the second lot of ham cooking water once it reaches the simmer and add a small peeled onion, a carrot and about six whole pepper corns with a bay leaf - at the end of the cooking time you're left with the most wonderful, rich, smoky ham stock. Pea and ham soup tonight.

How we decide on what to eat.

Actually this is quite hard. How do we, as a family think about and decide about what we want to eat? And when? What time? And how will we plan it so that the food arrives on the table at a time we all want to eat, but also meets demands for a senior teenager's need to get out and hit the streets with his mates?

Tonight it's not too hard. My senior teen was out all last night although staying with mates (causing maximum anxiety for my beloved wife who lay awake worrying about him) so he is likely to stay in tonight and eat A LOT and if he does go out this evening it won't be for long. So actually, deciding on the food we'll eat tonight isn't too hard - I'll decide because senior kid is too tired and the other two (wife and daughter) are glued to the TV with him so it's down to me. Har Har.

Meantime I am knocking up a meal which is a recipe-of-my-own I haven't done before. It's a mild, I suppose Korma type of curry with salmon instead of the chicken called for in the original recipe. I thought about it this morning and fancied a mild curry but without the chicken - besides, buying chicken breasts for one meal is ridiculously expensive. So I prepared the sauce, - 4 tablespoons of mayo, two of plain yoghurt, and other stuff you'll have to ask me about because I've got to go and cook it in a few minutes. But it does involve Mango Chutney and interestingly, apricot jam. So there.

It will be easy though. I have poached the salmon fillets earleir which were skinned, in milk spiced with pepper and a Bay leaf. When they softened but still had a little bite to them, (i.e. not horribly soft) I put them to one side and let them cool.

I'm going to gently boil some rice then warm the sauce. On warm plates I'll then put rice, chunks of salmon and pour over the sauce and serve to the table. I've already made a salad of Little Gem lettuce, sliced tomato, coriander and red onion which will go on the side. Lovely.

Mussels Power

Sadly we don't have a full-on fishmonger in the town where I live - it closed down about eight years ago. Our top-predator town supermarket has a fresh fish counter, which earns it a tick, but it's often not too inspiring. Mostly fillets of cod, haddock and salmon plus whole salmon and trout with a few crustaceans - prawns, shrimp and so on on display. Though you can ask for scallops and other stuff if you want, but they're usually frozen.

The supermarket in the next town has a good fish counter, much more interesting and yesterday my wife did the shopping there and came triumphantly back with three lovely bags of fresh Scots mussels, in the shell. I was a little worried that having been trucked so far they might be dying by the dozen but no - they toughed it out in the bottom of the 'fridge. When I took them out to clean them they were stunning to look at, ranging from that inky blue-black we usually associate with mussels to a light brown colour shot through with almost pearl-white stripes.

I put them in to cold water and pulled out the beards and cleaned the shells of rubbish, bits of limpet and other stuff. This is the worst bit of preparing Moules Mariniere (for it was that), having to put your hands in very cold water and spending a half-hour or so to clean the crud off and check for opened or otherwise dodgy mussels - those which are broken or open so should NOT be cooked and eaten. A couple of chopped red onions went in to a large casserole pot with olive oil and were softened over a low heat (about 15 minutes). Then I whacked up the heat and tipped the mussels in and put the lid on. Two or three minutes later I checked them, a few were opening so in went the best part of a bottle of Muscadet - you must keep a glass of white wine back for the cook. As soon as the liquor came up to the boil I turned the heat down to simmer and put the lid on - checking every two or three minutes to see if the mussels were opening.

All open? Yes, so tip them in to a large bowl then remove the mussels to a warmed, large dish and put them in the oven on a very low heat to keep them warm. I put the liquor back in to the casserole and added a couple of generous spoons of creme fraiche - ok, I put half a tub in - and whisked it up, then put the heat back on and brought the liqour up to a gentle simmer and allowed it to reduce. Poured the mussels back in and let it all simmer for a few minutes.

Place the mussels in warmed serving bowls and add a generous load of the liqour. Sprinkle chopped parsley over them and serve with french or any good crusty, fresh bread and some butter. This is fantastic on a cold winter night when you want something hearty which you will eat mostly with your fingers, scooping the mussles from their shells with the half shell of a used mussel.

A note on grit. Sometimes when mussels open during cooking they release grit, sand and other stuff which can sit in the liquor and if not got rid of, can ruin the meal if it gets in to the serving bowls. It can be got shot of by pouring the liquor in to a big bowl through muslin (or a clean dish cloth if all else fails)then returning the liquor to the heat. But sometimes the mussels have been grown in lovely clear, clean water on rope or sticks and produce very little grit or sand. You just have to check.

But it's a fantastic meal - the first I ever did with shellfish about 25 years ago and I never tire of it.

As you can tell by the length of this post.

Soup Dragon

The title of this post refers to the wonderful character in the 'Clangers', a well loved animated show that those of us of a certain UK age will know. The weather is foul here, cold, rainy, dark and wintry. So I've some squash roasting in the oven which will be added to some home-made stock and a few herbs with softened onion. Possibly some nutmeg too and hey... A warming autumn/winter soup. With crusty local bread - yum. Oh and I'm writing this by the fire with my Lurcher sleeping in front of it, I'm very lucky.