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........

Bob's Butter Dumplings

Ingredients:

• 100g butter


• 400g sifted flour


• salt & pepper


• water

Method:

• Dice the butter


• Add sifted flour and seasoning


• Rub with fingertips until well mixed


• Add a little water, a dribble at a time


• Work into smooth dough


• Roll into even balls about the size of golf balls


• Pop into the top of your stew and cover, leave to cook around 12-15 mins

Let me show you my dumplings

I never seem to have the time to get recipes written up at the moment, but there is much in store! Honest! I have had a very busy month so have tended to fall back on standard family meals rather than experimenting.  Beef stew, made with a very cheap cut off beef and cooked slowly (I use beef cheek) is substantial and warming for when your people come home after a long winter day. What makes it even nicer is good old-fashioned dumplings.

Whilst traditional British dumplings are made with suet, this is not something available in this country.  Suet has a higher melting temperature than other fats and, apparently, this makes for fluffier dumplings.  I used to get visitors from the UK to bring me suet, but decided I might as well try experimenting with butter.  The results have been delicious, just as fluffy as my suet ones, and with a nice buttery taste. Recipe here.

I am working on our Christmas menu, and will be posting recipes for homemade mincemeat and mince pies, pork pies, tiramisu log, gingerbread men and more. Tis the season to gain 5 kilos.

Cheesecake au dog fur, anyone?

Grrrr. Sunday I made a beautiful rasberry cheesecake, with mixed red fruits on top. The no-bake recipe that I use requires a few hours in the freezer to set, then remove from freezer about an hour before eating.  The Daughter was too impatient to wait for the damn thing to defrost, so when she cut into it in its semi-rock-hard state, it cracked down the middle and half of it ricocheted off onto the floor. Being a teenager, she is a great believer in the '5 second rule'.  Having three dogs and knowing exactly when that floor had last been mopped, I ruled against. Arrrrrgh! Hulk angry!

I was pretty much incandescent and lost all appetite for cheesecake (THAT's how upset I was).  Not my most mature moment, but I put my heart and soul into my food and to see it trashed like that..... well you might as well kick me in the fork and spit in my face.

Other than that, I have been tinkering around with different breads, such as cheesy baps (pwahahahah) and garlic dough balls (balls!), partly because I am enjoying improving my bread-making, partly because having the oven on warms up the kitchen a treat at this time of year. Perhaps I'll post some recipes/tips for breads later this week, but for now it's lunchtime. Hulk hungry. Bon appetit.

Just Add Season

Well the posts are thin on the ground again, but expect things to soon explode in a flurry of seasonal preparations.  Although we thoroughly embrace the culture of our adopted country, sentimentality (and a love of food everywhere) means that there are many British traditions that we include in our Christmas. For a bunch of atheists we certainly put a lot of effort into celebrating somebody else's festival, although I have been known to use some pretty obscure reasons to pop a cork. Today is St Brice's day. True story.

Anyway, brace yourselves, Internet, for my tried-and-tested mincemeat recipe and much, much more.  I am also toying with the an article on the cultural differences between French and British celebrations, if anyone is interested (and even if they're not).

Here's to you, St Brice: here's mud in your saintly eye!

Chocolate Pinwheels

• 240g flour


• 120g butter


• 120g sugar


• 4 tsps cocoa


• 1 medium egg

Method:

• Cream together the butter and sugar


• Beat in the egg


• Sieve in the flour


• Work into a dough, then divide into two portions


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• Knead the cocoa into one of these portions


• Roll each piece of dough out into even rectangles, about 1/2cm thick


• Place the chocolate rectangle on top of the plain


• Roll up together, length-wise for small biscuits, width-wise for fewer, larger biscuits


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• Cut into 1/2cm slices and placed on a lined baking tray


• Medium oven for about 10 minutes


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