I don't fancy yours much

Our festive celebrations have, for some years now, been a mix of French and British traditions.  However, one French tradition we will never embrace is the love of foie gras.  The damn stuff is everywhere at this time of year.  Supermarkets advertise it in all shapes and forms for weeks in the run up to New Year (a more prominent celebration than Christmas here). The food magazines (or gastro-porn as I call them) that I buy are stuffed with recipes involving foie gras.  More than once we've received a foie gras as a present (rapidly re-gifted to others). There is no escape.

I am not going to use this article to publish a bunch of half-arsed online research into the production of foie gras - if you're reading a food site like this then chances are you already know what it is and why I would find it morally dubious.  Judging by its popularity and price, I can only assume that it must taste amazing.  I will never know.  I just think that there are so many other amazing things to eat that the suffering endured by the birds (and everyone who knows me knows I hate birds!) cannot be justified. A rampant carnivore such as myself seldom likes to look too closely at the source of some of the things that grace their table, but even I have a moral compass of sorts.  So we'll stick to the usual turkey and assorted lumps of roasted flesh and just hope there's no foie gras on the menu when we are invited to dine.

Hope your festive prep is all going tickety boo.

Number of mince pies baked so far this year: 84

Bob's Sweet Mincemeat

Ingredients:

• 650g light brown sugar


• 2kg dried fruit (sultanas, currants, raisins)


• 100g candied peel


• 75g flaked almonds


• 4 medium apples. peeled and cored


• 3 lemons


• 2 heaped tablespoons cinammon


• 1 tablespoon mixed spice


• Bushmills Whiskey

Method:

• Roughly chop all the dried fruits, almonds, candied peel and apples in a food processor.


• Place in a large container (one that has a lid)


• Sprinkle in the zest of the lemons, the sugar and spices and mix thoroughly.


• Pour in the juice from the lemons and mix again.


• Splash some whiskey over it all and mix again.


• Cover and place in a cool area for at least 24 hours, stirring occasionally and adding more whiskey if desired.


• Spoon into sterile, air-tight jars and keep in a cool place until needed. (Makes about 6 large-ish jars)

You Won't Believe Your Mince Pies

Mince pies are an integral part of a British Christmas, but are almost unheard of in the South of France.  For those of you that don't know, they are a sweet pie usually made with a shortcrust pastry and filled with a confiture of dried fruits called 'sweet mincemeat' (for reasons that escape me). And whiskey.  In our house there's always whiskey.

In the UK ready-made mince pies will be stacked to the supermarket ceilings by now but there are those who still make their own, using jars of shop-bought mincemeat.  Before we moved to France it never occurred to me to make my own mincemeat, but the prospect of a Christmas without mince pies did not bear countenance.

Traditionally, sweet mincemeat has suet in it, but this again is not available here and I have found that if enough moisture is added in the form of lemon juice and whiskey then it makes no difference to the taste or texture, and you have cut out unnecessary fats.

I would have loved to have shown you a picture of this year's first batch of mince pies but, as usual, the camera cable is AWOL, despite nobody apparently having touched it.

Recipe for sweet mincemeat is here.  Sweet shortcrust pastry favoured by me and mine is here. Last year I made over 240 mince pies. So far this year: 24 and counting........