Specially Selected Christmas Dinner
 |
| Hand Prepared 5 Bird Roast |
Christmas dinner is a meal that shouldn't leave you stressed out and sweating in the kitchen it should be tasty but easy. When Aldi asked me to try out their
Specially Selected range I was looking particularly for something special for Christmas dinner. I don't visit Aldi too often as it is a bit out of my way so was delighted to see just how many interesting products they had in the Specially Selected range and, of course, they were all at good prices.
I cooked the
Specially Selected Hand Prepared Five Bird Roast. When I read the instructions I couldn't believe that you can cook it from frozen! What a bonus and perfect for anyone who needs to make an extra meal over the holidays, you can cook this bird from frozen in 2 1/2 hours in an electric fan oven and 3 hours in a gas oven or non-fan electric oven. You can see for yourself the different layers of poultry. The Five Bird Roast contains turkey, duck, goose, pheasant and chicken, it also has a really delicious Pork, Clementine and Cranberry Stuffing.
The Five Bird Roast is listed as feeding 6-8 people but we managed to get four meals for three people from it, admittedly we are not big eaters but it would certainly feed more than 6 people. It's also good cold and the layers hold together better when it's cold. After trying the Five Bird Roast, I hot footed it back to Aldi to buy another one to put in the freezer ready for my Christmas dinner.
I served the
Five Bird Roast with
Specially Selected Goose Fat Potatoes and
Specially Selected Heritage Carrots (not frozen).
And now for the prices:
Specially Selected Five Bird Roast £9.99
Specially Selected Goose Fat Potatoes £1.29
Specially Selected Heritage Carrots £0.99
Specially Selected Salmon Wellington £3.99
Specially Selected Whole Cooked Crab £3.99
Specially Selected Coquille St Jacques £3.99
Specially Selected Yorkshire Pudding £0.99
Specially Selected Gourmet Crackers £0.99
There is also a range of
Specially Selected Desserts including Specially Selected Dessert Shots, macarons and mini cheesecakes as well as the traditional Christmas Pudding and mince pies.
Labels: Aldi, Christmas, Christmas Dinner, Five Bird Roast, Heritage Carrots, Roast Potatoes, Specially Selected, Turkey
Christmas Gifts for Cooks and Bakers
Here we are in early December and Christmas shopping is in full swing. I thought I'd share a few gifts for cooks and bakers. Some of them have already featured at Farmersgirl Kitchen, others have only come to me recently but I feel they would be well received.
The Crockpot
You may have noticed that I'm a bit of a fan of slow cooking, and I really would recommend a Crockpot. They are slightly more expensive than other brands of Slow Cooker but you get what you pay for and it's a really nice piece of kitchen kit.
Who should you get this gift for?
1. Someone on a budget as you can use cheaper cuts of meat or ingredients like beans in the long slow cooking.
2. Someone who likes to bulk cook and freeze big tasty casseroles, breads or cakes
3. Someone who doesn't always know what time they will be home, the Crockpot will keep the dinner warm till you get there.
Slow Cooked by Miss South
This is my book of the year, it's an unassuming little volume which sets out to get the best out of slow cookers. There are few books that have grabbed me quite like this one has, it's just full of the most tempting recipes which are easy to make and from my experience so far, work like a dream.
Who should you get this gift for?
1. The person who is getting the Crockpot, it will ensure they get the best from their new cooking method.
2. Anyone who has a Slow Cooker and wants to expand their repertoire.
How much does it cost?
A Pair of Smokies
Yes, you read that right! Arbroath Smokies are one of my favourite foods, they are haddock which are tied together in pairs, then cold smoked creating a plump, moist and already cooked fishy treat. They are a taste of my childhood and I 'cooked' and served them in the simple way just like my Mum used to do. Just cut down the back bone and prise the two halves apart, remove the back bone, then place on a grill pan lined with foil. Dot with butter and grill for about 4-5 minutes until the butter has melted and the fish is just warmed through. Don't be tempted to overdo it or you will dry out the fish. Heaven on a plate.
These Arbroath Smokies were sent to me after I was waxing lyrical about my favourite fish on Twitter, many thanks to Jillian McEwan of
Fresh Food Express, the smokies were superb, so fresh and super tasty. Fresh Food Express will post Arbroath Smokies, Scottish Beef, Venison, Free Range Chicken, Wild Salmon, a Heavenly Veg Box and a whole lot more right to you or your gift recipient.
Who should you get this gift for?
1. Homesick Scots who drone on about Arbroath Smokies and how good they are.
2. Anyone who loves good food and likes high quality fresh food.
How much do they cost?
£8.40 for a pair of Arbroath Smokies
£24.99 for an Exceptional Smoked Fish Box from Arbroath
NB: I do live in Scotland but Smokies are just not the same unless you get them fresh from Arbroath (Fresh Food Express make sure they get their straight from the smokehouse)
Oregon Kitchen Timer with Clock and LED
This is a really useful little kitchen timer which has two channels, you can have your timer on one and the clock on the other OR you can have two different times set up which is brilliant if you are cooking or baking different things at the same time. I found the timer easy to set up and use and it is now my constant kitchen companion.
Who should you get this gift for?
1. Bakers (especially ones who burn the cakes!)
2. Busy people who run around the house multi-tasking and forget the time (you can take it with you as you go)
How much does it cost?
Oregon Kitchen Timer with Clock and LED RRP £19.99
Cheeky Monkey Cheese Making Kit - Mozzarella and Ricotta
This slim box contains everything that you need to make 2 kilos of cheese from 20 litres of milk (milk not included) I haven't had a chance to make it yet, but the instructions look simple and it looks like a lot of fun. There is also a goat's cheese version if you prefer, or get both.
Who should you get this gift for?
1. Anyone who likes a challenge in the kitchen.
2. Pizza lovers
3. Older children and teens would enjoy getting messy with this kit
How much does it cost?
It's a bargain at £6.00 +P and P
More fun gifts on the
Cream Chargers website: Molecular Gastromony and Popping Candy to name a couple.
Masterclass Crusty Bake Non-Stick Bakeware
We are all terrified of the 'soggy bottom' of Great British Bake Off fame,
KitchenCraft's Masterclass Crusty Bake Non Stick bakeware is a revolutionary new take on the award winning Master Class bakeware that creates the perfect crispy crust. Carefully selected, the Crusty Bake range in Master Class includes key items for baking and cooking anything dough and pastry related. I tested the
18 cm quiche tin in which I baked a
Mincemeat Tart (recipe coming soon) and crust was beautifully baked and slid easily out of the tin. I also tested the
Masterclass Crusty Bake Non Stick Pizza Tray, it's the idea size and again baked the crust to a nice crisp finish. The range also includes a baguette tray, different sized quiche tins, baking trays and loaf pans and they are Dishwasher, oven, fridge and freezer safe with Quantum 2 non-stick coating, Perforated holes, PFOA, PTFE and BPA free with a
20 year guarantee.
Who should you get this gift for?
1. Pizza lovers
2. Serious bakers of tarts, quiches and pies
3. People who are fed up with soggy bottoms and sticky bakes
How much does it cost?
Pizza Tray - £9.25
18cm Quiche tin - £8.75
OXO Good Grips Baker's Dusting Wand
This inauspicious looking gadget from those clever people at OXO Good Grips, is really worth buying. I've fiddled about with sieves and tea strainers to dust my baking with icing sugar or cocoa and it's always messy. The
Baker's Dusting Wand does away with the mess, because one side is perforated and the other is not, so once you put in your sugar, you twist the handle to close the ball and then simply shake over your mince pies or desserts or drinks. You can also use it to flour baking tins or your work surface when rolling pastry.
Here is it in action, apologies for the shaky camera action, dusting with one hand, filming with the other!
Who should you get this gift for?
1. Bakers and pastry cooks
2. People who like to shake cocoa or cinnamon over their coffee or hot chocolate
3. Gadget freaks (err that would be me then!)
How much does it cost?
RRP £10.00
OXO Good Grips 3 in 1 Adjustable Potato Ricer
Another great gadget from
OXO Good Grips, this is the 3 in 1 Adjustable Potato Ricer, perfect for making gnocchi but don’t have to limit yourself to just potatoes with the OXO Good Grips Adjustable Potato Ricer. This patented Ricer has three settings, easily changed with the twist of the dial, for many cooking tasks. While the fine setting is perfect for fluffy mashed potatoes, it’s also great for parsnips, carrots, turnips, gnocchi and more. The medium setting is ideal for spaetzle, and pressing water out of cooked greens and the coarse setting is perfect for chunky apple sauce, egg salad and pressing tomatoes for sauce. Since the disks are attached, there is no need to go searching for extra parts when you want to adjust settings. The brushed stainless steel Ricer comes apart for easy cleaning and has soft, comfortable non-slip grips.
I'll be showing you more of how I am going to use the Potato Ricer in future posts.
Who should you get this gift for?
1. Budding Masterchefs who want super smooth mash or vegetable purees
2. Gadget freaks (see previous item)
How much does it cost?
RRP £30
I hope that's given you a few ideas for what to buy for your friends and family who like to cook and bake. Many thanks to all the suppliers who provided me with these products to review.
Labels: Arbroath Smokie, Cheeky Monkey, Cheese Making Kit, Christmas, Cream Chargers, crockpot, Fresh Food Expresss, gifts, kitchen timer, Mozzarella, Oregon, ricotta, slow cooked
Chardonnay Poached Pears and a Slow Cooked Christmas
Christmas cooking doesn't have to be rich and heavy, full of sugar and fat. I love a lush sugary treat but sometimes it's also nice to have a lighter fruity dessert like these poached pears. The recipe, and the wine, were supplied by
Eisberg wines and I've replicated the recipe in it's original form below. However, I used my
Slow Cooker to poach the pears instead of a pan on the stove. I've added the slow cooker instructions below the stove recipe. I would also recommend removing the core of the pear from the base which is not mentioned in the original recipe.
I stopped drinking alcohol for 'Stoptober' and carried on into November, I did have one glass of wine when I was out for dinner recently, but really didn't want any more. I'm definitely on the look out for alternatives to wine, but I'm afraid this one didn't do it for me. I'm not a huge fan of Chardonnay and found that this non-alcoholic version was not dry enough for me, however it was very good in the recipe.
Eisberg Chardonnay Poached Pears
Serves
4
Preparation
time: Approx. 10 minutes
Cooking
time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
4
pears
500ml
Eisberg Chardonnay
2tbs
honey
1
whole vanilla pod, split almost all the way lengthways
1
cinnamon stick
1
orange, zest and juice
For
the orange mascarpone:
a
little orange zest and juice
2tbs
mascarpone cheese
1tsp
icing sugar
Method:
Find
a saucepan in which the pears will sit neatly with their stalks up and without
too much room around them. Peel the pears but keep the stalks attached and set
aside.
Pour
the Eisberg alcohol-free wine into the pan and add the honey, vanilla pod and
cinnamon stick. Using a vegetable peeler, peel most of the zest into the pan,
then remove the rest using a zester or grater and set aside for the mascarpone.
Squeeze
most of the juice from the orange into the pan but keep 2 teaspoons for the
mascarpone. Turn on the heat and stir gently until the honey has dissolved then
add the pears. Simmer very gently for 15-20 minutes until the pears are tender
then remove them onto a plate.
Turn
up the heat to high and boil the liquid until reduced and thickened to a glossy
syrup, which will take about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile,
place the mascarpone into a small bowl and stir in the reserved orange zest and
juice with the icing sugar.
Serve
the pears with extra syrup poured over and a dollop of orange mascarpone on the
side.
Slow Cooking
To poach the pears in your slow cooker, follow the directions in the recipe placing the pears, wine, honey and spices. Set the slow cooker to high and cook, covered, until the pears are tender and easily pierced with the tip of a knife, about 1 to 2 hours.
I didn't make the orange mascarpone, but instead served the pears with vanilla ice cream.
Eisberg alcohol-free wine is made in the same way as your favourite wine, but at the end of the process the alcohol is gently removed using one of the world’s most advanced processes, leaving all of the flavours of the wine, but none of the alcohol and with only a third of the calories.
There are four varieties in the range: A refreshingly aromatic Riesling, a crisp Chardonnay, a juicy succulent Rosé and a fruity red Cabernet Sauvignon.
The full range is available in Morrisons and selected varieties in Asda, Tesco, Waitrose, RRP £3.50
How to Enter the Slow Cooked Challenge
December Theme: Slow Cooked Christmas
- Make your recipe in your Slow Cooker or other slow cooking method and post a photograph and the recipe, or a link to a recipe, on your blog
- Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen
- Use the Slow Cooked Challenge logo in your post
- If you use twitter, tweet your post with @FarmersgirlCook and #SlowCookedChallenge and I will re-tweet it to my followers AND post your picture on the dedicated Pinterest Board.
Rules:
- Please do not publish recipes from cookbooks on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
- If you are using recipes from another website, please link to the recipe on the website rather than publishing the recipe.
- One entry per blog.
- Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.
Labels: Christmas, Eisberg, honey, Pears, Poached Pears, Slow Cooked Challenge
It's a Cracker!
Sometimes, when I'm not cooking, I like to make other things, crafty things. I was approached by
Cartridge Save to join in their Cracker competition, I was really delighted to do so.
Cartridge Save , the printer supplies company, have created a series of downloadable guides to help you with your Christmas crafting. From Christmas decorations to a leafy Christmas wreath and, of course, the instructions for how to make a
Christmas Cracker!
The instructions are easy to follow, although I did have a couple of tries at making the cracker. The first paper I used was really too thick and I had to abandon it, it does feature in the step by step photographs though. I finished up using two types of tissue paper, a gold paper and a red, snowflake decorated paper, a little scrap of which I had kept from last Christmas because I liked it so much.
You need a 20cm x 30cm rectangle of good quality wrapping paper or a triple layer of tissue paper. If using the wrapping paper, create a tear line to ensure a clean break, the tissue paper is fine enough to tear by itself.
Lay the cracker snap along the top of the rectangle and secure in place with glue.
Take 2 cardboard toilet rolls and cut one of them in half. Line up the three rolls at the opposite end to the cracker snap. Glue the paper and staret to roll the paper around them, making sure the paper is held securely by the glue.
The Christmas Cracker joke comes from
Activity Village where you can download a whole sheet of child friendly jokes. My gift is a little tube of Cath Kidston Bluebell Shower Gel and I had saved the gold foil hats from some crackers from a couple of years ago (I know, but we crafters keep everything!) anyway twist and tie one end of your cracker and fill with the gift, hat and joke. Then tie off the other end.
I used some wired ribbon to tie off the ends of my cracker and make a layer of the red tissue to go round the centre of the cracker. You will see my decoration for the cracker is a little different to the finished one. I played around with various paper flowers, small holly leaves and berries, ribbons, and doilies. In the end I felt that the decoration as seen above was just to big for the cracker, so removed the green layer, doily and bow.
I think it works much better as a smaller decoration. If you don't have a stash of paper flowers and bits and pieces, then you can decorate with small festive images or simply add some glitter.
Remember you can get the complete instructions from
CartridgeSave or like their
Facebook Page to see more Christmas crafts and competitions.
I'm entering this cracker for
'No Croutons Required' Festive Photograph over at
Tinned Tomatoes
Labels: Cartridge Save, Christmas, Cracker, crafts
Come to a party - At my kitchen table
Hello and welcome to my virtual Christmas Party! Come on in to the kitchen, I've prepared a delicious Winter Cocktail for you...
What's in it? Well it's made with maple syrup infused with rosemary and thyme and topped up with applejack or Calvados and cider, I can highly recommended it, the herbs help to cut through the sweetness of the maple and apple flavours. I'll give you the recipe before you go, if you'd like?
So who is driving? Oh that's a shame, but never mind, I have a drink that you can enjoy. It's a lovely
Spiced Winter Red Tea from
Tea Pigs. I'm not usually a fan of rooibus tea, but I really like this tea, the balance of spices is just right.
Now that you have a drink, can I offer you some nibbles to go with it? These
'Wonderful' Pistachios are very good and they come in a variety of flavours: Sweet Chilli, Roasted Salted, Salt and Pepper or No Salt.
Come and let me introduce you to a few people...I don't think you two have met before. I'll leave you to get to know each other and I'll be back in a minute with some canapes.
Ah here you are, would you like to try one of these little bites? These fun pastry cases are made by
Pidy, they are so handy because you can keep them in your cupboard and rustle up a party whenever required.
The
vol au vents? They are filled with Crushed Pea and Ham. Or you might enjoy one of these little
Veggie cups, the red colouring comes from dried beetroot, no artificial ingredients, they are so pretty. I've filled them with an 'All Day Breakfast' of egg, bacon and tomato on shredded lettuce.
I see you are eyeing up the
Spoonettes, they are really great for little bites. I've filled them with rice pudding sweetened with Clarks Maple Syrup and topped with spice plumped raisins and chopped almonds.
Ah I see you have a sweet tooth! I can also offer you a homemade mince pie served warm with some smooth and creamy, Clotted Cream Cornish Ice Cream from
Kelly's of Cornwall, how does that sound?
Don't tell me you are full! You must try a few chocolates, this Classic Christmas Selection from
Hotel Chocolat has so many glorious flavours, there's bound to be a festive flavour that grabs your attention. What would I recommend? Well I really enjoyed the Caramel Supernova and the Marzipan and Amaretto Truffle was pretty good too. But really? They are all good.
Thank you so much for coming along to my kitchen party and sharing a few party treats at my kitchen table. What did you say? Oh you'd like the recipes, but of course, here they are:
First the cocktail
Orchard Fete is the cocktail I served at the party, it comes from the book above
"Winter Cocktails" by Maria Del Mar Scasa with photographs by Tara Striano. Winter Cocktails is published by Quirk and distributed in the UK by PGUK RRP 17.99
Orchard Fete Serves 24 (but you can cut it down for smaller gatherings)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
8 sprigs rosemary, plus more for garnish
8 sprigs thyme, plus more for garnish
4 cups applejack (Calvados)
2 cups apple cider
2 750ml bottles alcoholic sparkling cider
Combine maple syrup, rosemary and thyme in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat and leave syrup cool to room temperature. Remove and discard herbs.
Stir cooled syrup, applejack and apple cider together in a punch or other serving bowl. When ready to serve, stir in sparkling cider.
Garnish cups/glasses with rosemary and thyme sprigs and serve.
As this remarkable recipe contains rosemary and thyme, I am entering it for
Cooking with Herbs the blog challenge run by my dear friend Karen.
I used
Clarks Original Maple Syrup for the cocktail. it's the UK's best selling maple syrup. It is a blend of pure maple syrup harvested from the Quebec region of
Canada, carob fruit syrup – made from the sugars of the Mediterranean
carob fruit – a low glycemic ingredient that has, gram per gram, 25%
less calories than sugar.
Spiced Winter Red Tea is naturally caffeine free combination of rooibus, orange, cloves and cinnamon form
Teapigs. It's a well balanced combination which convinced me to have another try at rooibus! A pack of 15 tea temples costs £4.49.
Nuts are great for snacks and nibbles and I was very impressed with
Wonderful Pistachios we liked all the flavours and cracking the nuts from their shells is fun and stops you eating too many at once! They are available at most of the major supermarkets and health food stores. 150g on sale for between £2.29 - £1.79.
Pidy have been creating a wide variety of ready to fill puff pastry, short crust, fonçage dough and choux pastry for over sixty three years. Pidy is very well known in the foodservice and catering industry and now they want to launch their most innovative pastry ranges to the home cook!
All the Pidy products are made with their award winning pastry recipe that the Pidy
family initially created in their little patisserie shop in Ypres,
Belgium back in 1952. I have attached two release and two images on two
of their newest retail ranges, the first one is their vol au vent and
award winning spoonettes range. The second release is on their very
innovative veggie cups range which are canapé cups that come in four
flavours beetroot, carrot, spinach and celeriac. They are made with 30%
real vegetable juice extract and no E numbers or artificial colours. Pidy have a wide range of retail pastry
products that are available through Pidy UK or through fine food retail
distributors such as Hider Foods. Pidy manufacture a huge variety of products,
including a specialist range of ready to fill pastries that cater for every
event or occasion. Pidy products are available through Amazon
Made with locally sourced milk and Cornish clotted cream, you can enjoy
Kelly’s delicious ice cream in a cone when you’re out and about or from
the comfort of your own home
Kelly's of Cornwall
Perfect to serve with warm mince pies or with hot chocolate sauce in winter. There are loads more great recipes on the
Kelly's of Cornwall website.
The
Classic Christmas Selection from Hotel Chocolat is the perfect way to end your meal, perhaps with a liqueur or a cup of coffee, But to be honest, I could eat them anytime.
This particular selection contains chocs some with alcohol, some without, dark, milk and white chocolates. In fact, something for everyone.
The Classic Christmas Selection costs £12.50 for 14 chocolates.
I hope you've enjoyed my virtual party, I received these products for review and was not paid for this post. All opinions are my own.
Labels: Christmas, Hotel Chocolat, icecream, Kelly's of Cornwall, mince pies, Pidy, rooibus, spoonettes, Teapigs, vol au vents, Winter Cocktails, Wonderful Pistachios
Homemade Christmas Gifts - Sloe Cordial
Sloe Gin is very popular, but I've made it in the past and it just lurks in my drinks cabinet and ends up getting thrown out. So this year I decided to make
Sloe Cordial a non-alcoholic cordial that can be topped up either with alcohol i.e. Gin, Vodka, Prosecco, dry white wine or with non-alcholic mixers like tonic water, soda water or lemonade.
I froze my sloes after picking, mainly because I didn't have time to make the cordial, but the freezing also helps break down the sloes and mimics the frost you are supposed to have had before picking them. I was rather pleased that I had because I was contacted by
Pattesons Glass with the offer of some jars or bottles to review. I decided to go for the bottles and make some gifts for Christmas.
Pattesons have a fantastic range of glass bottles and jars which are ideal for those of us
obsessed with keen on preserving in all it's forms, they are also great for styling in food photography and I'm sure you will be seeing more of these bottles in future posts. Jars are not too difficult to get hold of, but a great range of interesting bottles like the ones in the photograph above are much less widely available. I have plans for some flavoured vinegar for the larger bottles. The only drawback with these bottles is that they are only available in fairly large quantities. You can order a
sample set of three different bottles or jars for £10. If you want to order bottles, then you may wish to get together with a group of friends and share the bottles between you, as 50 is the minimum order. Pattesons also sell
Le Parfait jars in smaller quantities which are ideal for preserving.
Sloe Cordial
1kg Sloes
1 litre water
Juice of 1 lemon
Granulated Sugar (80g per 100ml liquid)
1. Bring the sloes, water and lemon juice to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Break up the cooked sloes with a wooden spoon or potato masher, don't bother about the stones as they will be sieved out later.
3. Simmer for a further 10 minutes.
4. Pour the mixture through a sieve. If you want your cordial to be clear you should line your sieve with a muslin and don't push the pulp through. I didn't do that and although the cordial is perfectly fine it isn't clear.
5. Clean the pan and pour the juice back in, add the sugar and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
6. Bring to the boil an simmer for another 10 minutes. Cool and bottle in sterilised bottles.
To drink, add 10 parts water to one part cordial.
I received a range of glass bottles from Patteson's Glass, I was not paid for this review and all opinions are my own. Labels: bottles, Christmas, cordial, gifts, glass bottles, glass jars, homemade gifts, jars, non-alcoholic, Pattesons Glass, Sloe Cordial, Sloes
Delia's Christmas Dried Fruit Compote
Over at Belleau Kitchen, dear Dom has challenged us with his usual
Random Recipe teaser. However, in my haste, I misread the challenge and instead of choosing a recipe from a cookbook that I received as a gift last Christmas, I thought we were to choose a 'Christmas Cookbook'. Doh!
I don't have too many Christmas cookbooks, just a couple of Delia's and the
Home and Freezer books that I blogged about last week. The original Delia Smith's Christmas was the one that came to the top of the pile and I opened it randomly and was delighted to find myself looking at
'Christmas Dried Fruit Compote'.This version of the fruit compote isn't on Delia's website, but I found it published in the Telegraph online.
When I went to my larder, inevitably, I didn't have everything I needed for the recipe, so substituted some different dried fruits. No figs and no prunes, I could have sworn I had some prunes but must have used them in the instant mincemeat. I had some lovely Medjool dates from the hamper I got from
Olives from Spain and some dried mandarins and cranberries, all lovely Christmassy flavours.
The original recipe calls for a liberal dose of Port, well my husband can't drink Port, it gives him migraines, so I used a couple of tablespoons of Amaretto, one of my favourite liqueurs. In the book Delia suggests that the fruit compote is served with flaked almonds, well I didn't have any of those either, so for this, by now VERY, Random Recipe, I used some nice green pistachio nuts to add to the festive colours.
I made the compote last night and was sorely tempted to have some on my porridge this morning, but remembered just in time that it was full of booze and I had to drive into town to the hairdressers! We had it this evening served with Greek yogurt and it was delicious, would be great with vanilla ice cream too. All in all I'm rather pleased that I misread the challenge as I wouldn't have come across this recipe otherwise.
I put up the Christmas tree today, it lives in the kitchen between the cook books and the stove, and is decorated with an eclectic mixture of totally uncoordinated baubles and pretty things I have been collecting since 1980 when we bought our first flat, indeed the coloured lights were a flat warming gift from a friend and they are still working. I used the tree and lights as a background behind the first photo of the Dried Fruit Compote. In the spirit of the Random Recipe challenge, here is a Random Christmas decoration from my tree.
Labels: Belleau Kitchen, Christmas, dates, Delia Smith, dried apricots, dried cranberries, oranges, pistachio nuts, raisins, Random Recipes
