Greetings from Twixtmas. In a year when I've rarely known what day of the week it is, I'm wondering if this shapeless stretch of time is feeling more or less odd. I haven't decided yet, but here are a couple of quick food reports from the last few days.
STOLLEN UPDATE
You may recall my Stollen-baking tribulations from earlier in the month. Yesterday we opened the better of the two efforts and started eating it, and I am pleased to report that it's really quite passable. In fact it's been so long since either of us has had a Stollen that we can't remember what we're expecting, texture-wise, but we're happy with the dense-but-not-hard result, and the taste is really very good indeed. I'm calling it a success, and definitely worth trying again next year with maybe a slightly more generous quantity of yeast.
We don't eat much meat most of the time, but do indulge at Christmas. This year we ordered in a venison haunch from the Dorset Meat Company in early November. At the time, we were planning to spend Christmas with my parents, but even then it seemed prudent to have a back-up plan, foodwise. Sometimes being a terrible pessimist has its upsides.
We had a bottle of Dornfelder wanting to be drunk, and past experience suggested it would be good with game, so I decided to cook the meat in the German Sauerbraten style, which uses gingerbread/lebkuchen/printen in the sauce. I've never done meat like this before, so it was a bit of a risk -- especially the 'marinate in wine and vinegar and things for 5 (yes!) days bit -- but it turned out as a complete triumph. Soft meat, tasty sauce, not as much hassle as it seemed it would be.
I followed this recipe (in German), but this English version is pretty similar, and in future I think I'd follow it regarding when to add flour and thicken the sauce.
And the remains were amazing in a Boxing Day everything leftovers on white bread sandwich.
QUINCE REDUX
The decanter you see above is filled, unusually, with quince vodka, which I started in November and didn't think would be up to much for Christmas. It could have stood a bit more steeping, but is surprisingly flavourful. When I decanted it on 22 Dec, it tasted very unfinished -- like quince + sugar + vodka, all the tastes separate -- but it mellowed and melded very quickly. Another success.
MULLED APPLE
Here's a recipe I've just invented today for tasty and not-too sweet seasonal non-alcoholic warm beverage:
- 700ml bottle good apple juice
- 300ml (ish) water
- 1tbsp wine-mulling spice (or one of those mulling tea bags)
- 1/2 tsp green aniseed if you have it
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
- 5 (ish) cloves
- 1 tsp lapsang souchong tea leaves
- sugar to taste
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