I’m sure everyone has their festive menu’s already sorted. Their shopping list written, deliveries planned, meat ordered and so on. Down to the last detail. So my festive might have come to late. But if you are dithering then read on (and into the remaining parts as they appear) you might find some inspiration. And for those who have everything planned out with military precision well you might find some ideas for surpluses or things to make if you can’t get what you need for your menu on your final dash to the shops.
I cooked this menu last weekend when we had a pre christmas, Christmas dinner with my parents and my brother and sister in law. we’ll all be in different places with other bits of our families on Christmas Day so this was our festive get together complete with tree decorating, silly games, sherry and presents. and of course lots of food.
Here’s the menu:
Starter:
Selection of smoked and cured salmon
Terrine of Lancashire cheeses (recipe to follow)
Crispbread
Main:
Slow roast shoulder of pork served with two stuffings (Chestnut Stuffing recipe to follow)
Roast root vegetables
Roast potatoes
Sprout and peas
Lashing of ‘jus’ from the meat
Dessert:
Sticky ginger pudding
Clementine sorbet (recipe to follow)
Jersey cream
And in the spirit of making things easy for the chef so everyone could spend time chatting rather than sweating over hot stoves lots of it was ‘cheaty’ so bought in but from top quality suppliers. And some of it was very easy to make in advance.
Here’s where I sourced things from:
Salmon: Forman & Sons London Cure smoked Salmon and 3 gravadlax cures
Lancashire cheeses for the terrine (recipe to follow): Butlers Cheeses
Crispbread: Peters Yard (of course!)
Pork shoulder : Anna’s Happy Trotters
Sticky Ginger Pudding: Cartmel Village Shop
So that’s it delicious food from good suppliers making the menu easier but still delicious. Watch out for the recipes coming soon.