MY CHRISTMAS TURKEY

In Spain celebrate Christmas Eve with a big dinner. Due to the Hollywood influence, turkey has become the food of choice though luckily (this was a really clever move) we did not import the tradition of eating brussels-sprouts.  I have cooked this turkey recipe for as long as I can remember.

You need:

- a turkey, as big as possible, as the whole point of Christmas is to have as many people as you can fit  around the table.

- if you want to give the turkey a bath you need : a big (bigger than the turkey) bucket  full of water, two bay leaves, two mandarines, an onion, two oranges, one lemon, a big handful of parsley, a glass of port, a teaspoon of nutmeg, two cinnamon sticks a handful of coarse salt and a handful of sugar.

- 5 (big) cooking apples (peeled and quartered)
- two handfuls of raisins
- a handful of sultanas
- a handful of dried currants
- three handfuls of dried apricots
- 2 handfuls of dried figs
- three onions ( peeled and quartered)
- two handful of pine nuts
- 6 bay leaves
- 110 gr of butter (room temperature)
- a glass and a half of port

I normally give the turkey a 'bath' the night before the day I  cook it. To be perfectly honest, I am not sure it makes any difference to the taste, but it sort of gets everybody into the Christmas mood and the children, especially the little ones, love to throw the ingredients into the bucket. If you want to do this just get the turkey into the bucket, cover it with water and pour all the ingredients  (cut the onion, orange and lemon in quarters and squeeze them a bit as you are getting them into the bucket) into it. Leave the bucket (covered with a lid) in a cold place. One of my little nieces is absolutely convinced she has seen the turkey swim and actually move its legs in this bath - there you have the magic of Christmas!

The following day take the turkey our of the bath and pat dry it. Put it on a roasting tray (if you want a really moist turley then roast it in a clay roasting tray, as clay retains the water much better than metal trays). Salt the turley inside the cavities. Mix the dried fruit, apples, onions and pine nuts and stuff the turkey with them ( both the front and rear cavities). Put your hands between the breasts and the skin so that the skin becomes loose and massage the breasts (I know, just do not think about it!) with 80 gr of butter. Finally put the three bay leaves between each breast and the skin. Salt the turkey all around and cover with the rest of the butter. Put two glasses of water in the bottom of the tray together with the port. If you have any remaining stuffing add it to the roasting tray.

I do 50 minutes per kilo at 200 degrees and cover the turkey with foil after 50 minutes and then I uncover it for the last 20 minutes. I also let it rest for 20-30 minutes covered with foil before eating it. Eat it with roast potatoes and carrots or any other vegetable you like (as you may have gathered I detest brussels sprouts). It is a massive success year after year.

CRANBERRY JELLY

A must for Christmas.

You need:

- 1.5 kg cranberries
- 300 ml red wine
- 200 ml water
-sugar (around 150 gr)

Boil the cranberries, wine and water and let them simmer for 45 minutes. Put the mixture over a muslin cloth and let it drip during the whole night (do not squeeze the muslin cloth). The following morning measure 155 gr of granulated sugar for each 300 ml of the red juice. if you get more or less juice then let your kids calculate the right proportion. Put the juice and sugar in a pan over medium heat and let it boil for 20 minutes (or if you have a food thermometer, until it reaches jam temperature) Pour into sterilised jars.

FILO MINCE PIES

These are always a winner and are made in no time at all. I actually prefer them to proper mince pies. Really easy for the children to help as well. You need:

- a packet of filo pastry
- a jar of mincemeat
- 100 gr of butter - melted
- a muffin tray

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Cut the filo into squares - you will need three squares per muffin hole. Grease the muffin holes with the melted butter. Then 'paint' each of the filo squares with melted butter. Overlap three squares on each muffin hole (see picture). Then fill in each case with the mincemeat. Finally take a little bit of the remaining filo and cut it into little squares (do this with scissors), cover the little squares with butter and sprinkle them on top of the mincemeat (you can avoid this step, but it gives it a nice crust). Bake in the oven for12-13 minutes. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

BEETROOT SOUP

I love this soup. As indeed anything beetroot. Making this with children, though, means getting their hands ( and yours) stained with pink (a colour that my children are not very fond of) I bought once latex gloves for all, but it makes a bit of a scary picture. This is a better trick: if you get your hands stained, get an orange and rub your hands with the white side of its rind - magic.

You need:
- 4 beetroots
- 2 tablespoons of oil
- 2 cooking apples ( diced)
- 2 onions ( diced)
- 2 teaspoons of dill
- 500 l of water
- salt
- one tablespoon of vinegar

Wash carefully the beetroots, put them in a pan, cover them with water and boil them for 30 minutes. Then put them under the cold tap of water and get rid of the skins (this is the 'scary pink' bit).

Heat the oil in a pan, add the onions, beetroots (quartered) and apples. Fry for 5 minutes. Then add the salt and water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-17 minutes. Add the vinegar and blend it. Serve with a bit of dill on top.

CHICKPEAS WITH SQUID

I was served this dish earlier this week at a business working lunch in Madrid. I was dying to ask the waiter for the recipe, but did not dare to do it out of concern that asking for a recipe at a business lunch where everybody else was male would make me look fluffy... I know... all that talk about feminism… Still, I have tried to replicate the recipe and tested it on some female friends (who are as 'up there' on gender rights as I am, but agree it is not OK to ask for recipes at business lunches...though they actually think it is OK to talk about football!)

You may think I am being immodest, but this is even better that the dish I tried.  So perhaps not asking for the recipe was not a bad idea after all...

You need:
- 200 gr chickpeas (soak them in water overnight)
- two table spoons of oil plus more oil for frying the garnish squid.
- half a green pepper
- a tomato (peeled)
- an onion (quartered)
- a quarter of a teaspoon of paprika (pimenton)
-900 ml fish stock (I do not often use stock but it actually makes a big difference here)
- a bay leaf
-a teaspoon of parsley
- two squids (cut it in mouthful pieces)
- 3 tablespoons of flour (or even better, 1 tablespoon of plain flour and 2 of chickpeas flour)
- salt

Put the stock, green pepper, tomato, onion, bay leaf, parsley and oil in a pan and heat it until it gets warm. Then add the chickpeas and salt. Let it boil and then simmer for 1.30 hours.  Take the tomato, onion, pepper and a cup of water out of the pan and blend it. Put it back into the pan and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Separately heat a pan (do not add any oil). Reserve the 'legs' of the squid and two squares of squid per person for the final garnish. When the pan is hot add all the squid except for the garnish and wait for  2-3 minutes so that they get a hard consistency. Add the squid to the pan with the chickpeas and boil for 10 more minutes.


Finally heat olive oil, coat the squid with the flour/s and fry them until they are golden on all sides (3 minutes in total)

Serve the chickpeas in bowls and add the fried squid on top of the soup as garnish.

The children liked seeing the change of texture of the squid when they are put on the pan. And my little ones never fails to enjoy any blending.

MINCE PIES

Now that you know how to make mincemeat, this is the way to use it. Invaluable for all those Christmas Carol services and school events.  I like them with very thin pastry: the key to this is to roll the pastry between two pieces of cling film. It allows you to roll it really thin and it also means you will make very little mess.

The rule for the pastry is twice the amount of flour for the amount of fat. We use:

- 140 gr plain flour

- a pinch of salt

- 70 gr butter (it is even better if you do half butter and half vegetable shortening) 

- 2.5 table spoons of cold water

-15 g of butter to grease the tray 

- a jar of mincemeat

- 2 tablespoons of milk

- a mould for muffins or tartlets 

Put the water into the fridge.

In a food processor mix the flour, salt and butter and pulse it until it looks like breadcrumbs. Then add the water and pulse again until the pastry comes together into a ball. Cover it with cling film and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven at 200 degrees.

Roll the pastry between two pieces of cling film. Cut it in round shapes with a  cutter or a cup. Grease the tin with the butter, put a round of pastry in each tartlet hole. Put one and a half teaspoons of mincemeat on top. Then cut little starts of the pastry and cover the mincemeat with them (you can obviously do this with a bigger single star cutter or any other shape or none at all) Paint the pastry with the milk. Bake for 25 minutes.    

MINCEMEAT

First Sunday of Advent and rainy weather, so the perfect time to make mincemeat. Over the years we have adapted a recipe that originally came from Delia (we have simplified it a lot) and works very well.

- 1/2 kg of cooking apples (diced)
- 300 g raisins
- 300 g sultanas
- 300 g currants
- 250 g mixed peel
- 300 g brown sugar
- zest and juice of two oranges and two lemons

- 50 gr sliced almonds

-225 shredded suet
- a pinch of cinnamon
- a pinch of nutmeg
- half a glass of rum (or brandy)

Mix all the ingredients in a big pan. Cook on medium heat for 45-50 minutes. Pour the mixture into sterilised jars (see our plum and damson jam recipe). As the jars are cooling down put them upside down so that you get rid of any air. The jars last for a long time (and certainly until Christmas)