Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities (22 page)

• Take the saucepan off the heat, and gradually whisk in the beef stock. When all the stock’s added, put the pan back on the heat and cook, whisking to make sure any lumps are banished, over a medium heat for 2 minutes.

• Crumble in the Stilton, then drop in the redcurrant jelly and turn up the heat to let the gravy bubble for 5 minutes.

• Check the seasoning, adding salt and pepper as needed, and then the remaining tablespoon of port, along with any bloody juices – what we called red gravy when I was a child – from the carved beef. Pour into a warmed gravy boat.

THOUGHTS FOR BEEF LEFTOVERS

There is nothing, really, to be done to cold roast beef, and I say that in the best way possible. Cold, it’s a dream with the Beetroot and Horseradish Sauce, some bitter leaves – spiky witloof or a tangle of watercress – and a hot baked potato dolloped with sour cream and chives. In fact, there’s not much that doesn’t go with cold, sliced roast beef: echo the flavours it came with when it was hot by serving the beef cold alongside a green salad tossed in a dressing of blue cheese whisked with sour cream, a splosh of milk, a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and a spritz of lime; or perhaps add that tang another way by slicing the beef with some charred peppers (out of a jar is fine, if the quality’s good) and drizzling the plate with some anchovies whisked to a viscous liquid with olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and very finely chopped parsley. Scatter more parsley on top of the divine but murky drizzle on the plate.

Or you can take this thought further East and drape a platter with slices of red roast beef, and make a dressing by whisking together some freshly grated ginger, brown rice vinegar, a little soft light brown sugar (to temper the vinegar), soy sauce, a scant amount of vegetable oil and a drop of sesame oil, then stir in some sliced spring onion, freshly chopped coriander and pour over the glistening rare beef.

My mother always made a salad, when any cold beef was coming to an end and what was left was too stubby to carve thinly, by shredding some crisp lettuce, chopping the beef, dicing some cornichons, throwing in a few capers and some small cooked, cooled and halved new potatoes, and making a thick, oily, Dijon-mustardy dressing. It’s a hard one to beat.

THE PORK OPTION

ROLLED STUFFED LOIN OF PORK WITH RUBIED GRAVY

ITALIAN ROAST POTATOES WITH GARLIC AND THYME

CHRISTMAS SPROUTS

BEETROOT ORZOTTO

PANETTONE PUDDING

ROLLED STUFFED LOIN OF PORK WITH RUBIED GRAVY

There is no denying that this is a complete showstopper. There is also no denying this is a fiddly undertaking, but it’s worth it. Besides, if a meal isn’t worth making a special effort for now, when is it?

The butcher can do a lot of the work for you; you certainly couldn’t embark on this using a generic, untailored supermarket joint. So, ask the butcher for a fillet end of pork loin, with the rind and bones removed, but be sure you get to keep the rind and have it scored at the same time: this makes fantastic crackling when roasted separately in its own tin. You can also ask the butcher to open up the pork for you, so that you have a fairly level oblong of meat to stuff and roll up, but otherwise I’ve tried to show how you can do it yourself.

I like using smoked bacon to wrap round the stuffed joint, but whether the bacon’s smoked or not is a matter of taste: what is essential is that it’s streaky but fairly generously sliced; if the bacon rashers are too thin, they will burn before the pork’s cooked.

Unlike the goose that is stuffed with fresh cranberries, the spicy filling that swirls its way through the pale pork meat here is studded with dried cranberries. Mixed with the sweet, tart berries, the garlic, cloves and cinnamon make this like a Christmas porchetta, with the bacon and its fat keeping everything juicy; so often, a pork loin is indigestibly lean, but not this one, for just as the stuffing keeps it tender from the inside out, putting the meat in a marinade while the stuffing cooks and cools starts the tenderizing from the off.

Inspired by the notion of a seasonal porchetta, I like to expand on that theme, by making sweet, soft diced Italian roast potatoes instead of the old-fashioned English roasties. But neither would be wrong here.

Serves 8–10

3.8kg fillet end loin of pork, rind and bones removed and reserved, to give approx. 2.2kg loin

450g streaky rindless bacon, plus extra for stuffing (see below)

string to wrap round the rolled loin

FOR THE MARINADE:

250ml olive oil

125ml white wine or vermouth

30ml Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon Maldon salt or ½ teaspoon table salt

FOR THE STUFFING:

125g streaky rindless bacon

2 onions, peeled and quartered

4 cloves garlic, peeled

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

handful of fresh parsley

3 × 15ml tablespoons olive oil

200g dried cranberries

• If the butcher hasn’t already opened up the loin for you, lay it out in front of you vertically, and then slice partway through the centre of the meat laterally to open it out like a book, but without cutting through the “spine” as it were.

• Bash the meat (you may want to cover it with clingfilm first) so that it is as flat and as evenly thick as possible. It should now resemble a rectangle in shape.

• Put all the marinade ingredients into a large freezer bag, with the opened, flattened loin. Leave the bag overnight in the fridge (in a lasagne-type dish) or just while you are making the stuffing and waiting for it to cool.

• Put the 125g bacon into a processor with the onions and garlic cloves. Add all the spices and parsley, then process until it is pretty well mush.

• Heat the oil in a wide, shallow pan and fry the spiced mush gently for about 10 minutes, then add the dried cranberries and cook for a further 5 minutes before taking off the heat.

• Let the stuffing cool completely before you stuff and roll your loin.

• Twenty minutes before you want to stuff the pork for roasting, take it out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

• Take the pork out of its bag and marinade, shaking off any excess liquid, and lay it flesh-side up (de-rinded side down) on some baking parchment or greaseproof paper, with the long side facing you, and the short sides at right angles to you.

• Spread the stuffing over the pork but leave a good 2.5cm border all the way around the edge. Then roll up the loin from the long side to make a long, fat, stuffing-filled sausage. I know it looks, in the pictures, as though I’m rolling from the short side but, believe me, I’m not.

• Wrap the 450g bacon rashers around the loin to cover the white fat on top.

• Cut off lengths of string and, starting from the middle, slide the string under the meat, then tie up the sausage with a tight knot on the top.

• Tie the loin at intervals of about 4cm so that the meat is secured all the way along. Tuck in any rogue bits of meat or stuffing that may poke out at either end.

• Arrange the bones in a roasting tin so they form a rack to hold the stuffed loin, then sit the loin on top of the bones. Place in the oven for 2¼–2½ hours.

• Once you’ve put the loin into the oven, place the scored rind in a separate shallow roasting tin and sprinkle with salt. Cook alongside the pork on a separate shelf – it will only need about an hour, so your best bet is to put it in the oven halfway through the pork’s cooking time.

• Insert a meat thermometer, if you have one (and it’s advisable), into the pork, to make sure the meat is absolutely cooked all the way through. When the thermometer reads 75°C, the pork’s ready. If the bacon has browned too much but the pork needs more cooking time, just cover it with foil and put it back in the oven for 10–15 minutes before checking again.

• Once the pork is cooked, let it rest out of the oven, but leave the crackling in, while you make your Rubied Gravy, next recipe.

• When the gravy is done and you are ready to carve the pork, cut off the string ties and pull them away from the meat. Then cut the pork into thick slices, about 2.5cm, that way each slice gets a good ribboning of stuffing without falling to pieces.

• Serve the pork dribbled with the rubied gravy, and break up the crackling to serve alongside.

• Should you have any pork left over, know that it is heavenly cold, just as is, or stuffed into a sandwich; mayonnaise and cranberry sauce are both gratifying additions here.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Stuff and tie the loin up to 6 hours ahead. Keep covered in the fridge. Allow 20 minutes at room temperature before putting in the oven.

RUBIED GRAVY

The cranberry sauce from a jar gives an added fresh tang to the dried cranberries of the stuffing. If you want to go fresher still, make a downsized version of my Redder Than Red Cranberry Sauce, using ruby port in place of the cherry brandy. You could, indeed, make the regular-sized cranberry sauce and not bother with this gravy; but I’d rather proceed as follows, and unashamedly dollop some cranberry sauce out of a jar to make it.

And this gravy really is rubied: it glints gorgeously like a strange, savoury coulis as it’s dribbled over the pinkish swirled rounds of pale meat.

1 × 195g jar cranberry sauce

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

250ml chicken stock

60ml ruby port

• Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring a little to dissolve everything.

• Let the gravy bubble away for 5 minutes. When it’s ready – it should look glossy but still quite runny – pour into a jug, and serve with the pork, above.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the rubied gravy up to 3 days ahead. Keep covered in the fridge.

ITALIAN ROAST POTATOES WITH GARLIC AND THYME

Serves 8–10

1.5kg (about 8 medium) waxy potatoes

cloves from 1 head of garlic (unpeeled)

2½ teaspoons dried thyme

125ml olive oil

Maldon salt or table salt to taste

1–2 tablespoons chopped parsley

• Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7. Cut the unpeeled potatoes into 2.5cm cubes and put them into a large roasting tin, or divide them between 2 tins.

• Add the unpeeled garlic cloves and sprinkle the thyme and olive oil over. Move the potatoes around so that they get slick with oil, evenly covered in thyme and dispersed with the garlic cloves.

• Roast the potatoes in the oven for 1–1½ hours, depending if they are in one tin or two, or until golden; if they are crowded in one roasting tin they will take longer to crisp up than if they are spread well apart.

• When the potatoes come out of the oven, turn them out onto a warmed platter to serve with the pork, sprinkling first with a little salt and a light scattering of fresh parsley.

PANETTONE PUDDING

I wanted to offer another suitable seasonal alternative to steamed Christmas pudding and since panettone is the sweet, fruited bread of Christmas in Italy, this pudding seemed perfect. It’s not quite a panettone version of traditional bread and butter pudding. I wanted something with a little less of the nursery, and more elegantly, but not fussily, partified. This is it: the slices of fruit-studded, warm-spiced bread are baked in a custard made aromatic with muscat, without even a drop of cream to sully its winey clarity. Instead, you can serve some whipped cream (with or without a little Cointreau, Grand Marnier or Triple sec whisked in), or some vanilla ice cream if you prefer, on the side; and maybe a plate of frozen summer fruits, thawed – with all the vile mushy strawberries removed and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds in their place – gently stirring in the zest of a clementine/satsuma, so that the orange-oil permeates this Festive Fruit Salad, and dusting with a little icing sugar or dousing with a small slug of Cointreau (or alternative) as you take it to the table with the pudding.

Serves 8–10

750g panettone

1 × 375ml bottle dessert wine, such as Beaumes de Venise or other reliable muscat

8 eggs

100g caster sugar

500ml full-fat milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons icing sugar

• Preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 2/3.

• Slice the panettone and lay the slices in a large baking dish (about 41cm × 25cm, or 26cm square, and just over 5cm deep) that you are happy to bring to the table.

• Put the dessert wine into a saucepan and bring to an almost boil, but do not let it boil. Take off the heat.

• Whisk together the eggs and sugar, then whisk in the warm wine, followed by the milk.

• Add the vanilla, and pour the liquid through a sieve over the panettone slices. Let the dish stand for 15 minutes before it goes into the oven.

• Bake for 50–60 minutes until the top is golden and the underneath soft but not wet.

• Let it cool down until warm, about 20 minutes, though longer would be fine, and then thickly dust the top of the pudding with the icing sugar pushed through a small sieve, before bringing to the table. The glorious puffiness of the pudding will subside once it’s out of the oven, so don’t worry about that. You can, indeed, make a virtue out of its fall from grace and even bake it in the oven before the pork goes in, so that by the time you serve it, the pudding will be set firm, and you can cut it into squares with neat ease.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Assemble the panettone the day before. Cover and keep chilled. Let the panettone stand out of the fridge for 15 minutes before going in the oven as directed.

YOU SHALL GO TO THE BALL: THE VEGETARIAN OPTION TAKES CENTRE STAGE

CHILLI-CHEESE CROSTINI

SEASONALLY SPICED NUTS

ROAST STUFFED PUMPKIN WITH GINGERY TOMATO SAUCE

GINGERY TOMATO SAUCE

RED CABBAGE WITH POMEGRANATE JUICE

CHRISTMAS SALAD

AUSTRALIAN CHRISTMAS PUDDING WITH HOT CHOCOLATE-CHESTNUT SAUCE

HOT CHOCOLATE-CHESTNUT SAUCE

ROAST STUFFED PUMPKIN WITH GINGERY TOMATO SAUCE

There is something so magnificent about a whole pumpkin stuffed with jewelled rice, that it doesn’t really need too many side dishes to detract: its starchy interior means you can forgo potatoes or the orzotto; and the vibrant sauce precludes the need for a pile-up of condiments. Still, for once I think a couple of nibbly things on the table to start would balance this well, and you could add a sense of munificence and plenty – always important at this time of year – by having either the red cabbage with the pumpkin, or the pomegranate-scattered Christmas Salad after, or both. Indeed, why cut back? At Christmas there must be room, even before the richness of the Australian Christmas Pudding and its thick chocolate-chestnut sauce.