Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities (9 page)

• Fry about a third of the tortilla strips in the hot oil and, as they scorch, remove to some waiting kitchen paper. Add and heat another third of your oil and continue like this, with the rest of the tortilla strips and oil. The home-fried tortilla chips may seem disappointingly soft in the pan, but they seem to crisp up as they cool slightly on the kitchen paper and, later, serving plate.

• Ladle the hot soup into bowls, and arrange the hot tortilla strips, the cheese, avocado, coriander and lime wedges (for spritzing) in separate dishes on the table to add to the glory of the occasion and to the soup.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the soup then cool, cover and keep in the fridge for up to 1 day. Bring slowly to the boil to reheat then simmer very gently until piping hot. Avoid too much stirring or the chicken will become stringy.

THREE SEASONAL SALADS

CHRISTMAS SALAD

RED SALAD

CHARGRILLED PEPPERS WITH POMEGRANATE

CHRISTMAS SALAD

It is predominantly the colour – for all that I have another red salad – that makes me think of this as a Christmas salad. But then, the starring role played by the Christmas fruit – the pomegranate – would surely be justification enough. This is the salad I bring out time and time again at Christmastime, either to bring a little joy and colour to a quickly gathered together tableful of leftovers, as a side dish when the food really needs no more than a light accompaniment, or even as a starter, so people have something to pick at as I do a little last minute this-or-that.

At this time of year, given my pomegranate-predilection, my fridge is full of those packets of all-done-for-you seeds, and the amount here represents half what I’d expect to find in a packet. If you’re going for the whole fruit, use the seeds from a whole pomegranate.

If the salad is a starter, I tend to throw in the red peppers; as a simple side dish it is elegant perfection without.

Serves 6

2 heads red chicory

1 large head radicchio or tardivo

2 red peppers (optional)

seeds from 1 pomegranate, or 75g pomegranate seeds from a tub/packet

FOR THE DRESSING:

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon honey

juice of 1 clementine/satsuma

1 teaspoon lime juice

pinch of salt

3 × 15ml tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• Tear the chicory and radicchio or tardivo into pieces into a salad bowl.

• If you are using the red peppers, deseed them and cut into 2cm strips, and add to the salad.

• Sprinkle some of the pomegranate seeds over, then whisk together the dressing ingredients to pour over the salad.

• Toss everything together, then do a final sprinkling of pomegranate seeds over the top before serving.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients, pour into a clean jar or an airtight container and keep cool for up to 3 days.

ABOVE:

Chargrilled Peppers with Pomegranate (back left); Christmas Salad (back right); Red Salad (front)

RED SALAD

This is a fantastic fallback not least because it’s a speedy, low-effort way to turn something as basic as cold meat or baked potato into a substantial supper. Indeed, you could fork a little best-quality drained, canned tuna straight in and be done. However, even as someone as far from the vegetarian end of the spectrum as could be, I am more than happy to have this, quite simply, as is.

Serves 8

2 × 400g cans red kidney beans

1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped

4 teaspoons good-quality red wine vinegar

250g cherry tomatoes

2 × 15ml tablespoons extra virgin olive oil a few tablespoons finely chopped parsley (optional)

• Drain and rinse the kidney beans in a colander to get rid of the dark sludge from the tins, then rinse again and put into a serving bowl or dish.

• Put the chopped onion into a small bowl and pour over the vinegar. Leave to macerate for at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours.

• Halve the cherry tomatoes and put them into the serving bowl.

• Now tip in the macerated onions and toss through the beans and tomatoes. Drizzle over the oil and toss again, sprinkling with some parsley if you want; I like the way its greenness brings out the red.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the salad, without adding the tomatoes, up to 1 day ahead. Cover and keep cool. Add the tomatoes and parsley (if using), about 1 hour before serving.

CHARGRILLED PEPPERS WITH POMEGRANATE

It was only a matter of time before I came back to the pomegranate. I am relaxed as to how you combine the peppers with the pomegranate. I often make this with frozen bags of chargrilled peppers, which I tip out, unthawed, onto a baking sheet and roast in a hot oven for about 20 minutes. These I often eat warm, with some olive oil and lemon juice (or freshly squeezed pomegranate juice mixed with lime) tossed through, along with a handful of pomegranate seeds. For my cold version I simply use chargrilled peppers from a jar, in place of the roasted packet ones.

Below is the method you’ll need if you’re chargrilling the peppers yourself. It isn’t difficult, just fiddly. Sometimes, I like an excuse to busy myself undemandingly in the kitchen. At other times, I unashamedly take the shortcuts above.

This salad is also good if you leave the peppers raw, just deseeded and cut into 1cm-wide strips, all juicy and crunchy, as are the pomegranate seeds, only the peppers are markedly sweeter.

If I know all parties will be agreeable, I make a dressing by blending or whisking 2 anchovy fillets with a tablespoonful of red wine vinegar and three of olive oil. Otherwise, the dressing below is perfect.

To turn this into a first course, simply add some crumbled feta or sharp goat’s cheese. And whether I’m using raw, packet, jarred or home-charred peppers, I like to go for a mix of red, orange and yellow, to create an edible flame on the plate.

Serves 8

6 peppers (ideally a mix of red, orange and yellow, but never, ever, ever green; all red is fine though)

seeds from 2 pomegranates, or 150g pomegranate seeds from a tub/packet

2 × 15ml tablespoons fresh pomegranate juice

2 teaspoons lime or lemon juice

60ml extra virgin olive oil

1 × 15ml tablespoon garlic oil

½ teaspoon Maldon salt or ¼ teaspoon table salt

3 × 15ml tablespoons drained capers

• Preheat the oven to 250°C/gas mark 9.

• Cut the peppers in half, remove the stalk and seeds, and sit them cut-side down on an oven tray or a couple of trays. Roast in the hot oven until they blister; about 15 minutes should do it.

• Take out of the oven, and quickly tip the blackened peppers into a big bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with clingfilm and leave the peppers to cool enough to handle.

• Use your hands to peel off strips of charred skin (don’t worry if some is left on) and, as you go, put torn strips of peppers into a serving dish.

• When you’ve done all of them, add most of the pomegranate seeds to the peppers and toss well.

• Whisk together the pomegranate and lime juices (or lemon juice, if using), the olive oil, garlic oil and salt. I often just put everything into an old mustard jar with a lid, and shake. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently but well.

• Add the crocodile-green capers, the perfect salty counterpart to the juicy sweet red peppers, and toss again, taste for seasoning, then add a final scattering of rubied seeds.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the salad, without the capers, up to 1 day ahead. Cover and keep cool. When ready to serve, add the capers and toss again. Check the seasoning then scatter with extra pomegranate seeds.

SERVE-LATER SIDES

RED CABBAGE WITH POMEGRANATE JUICE

BOSTON BAKED BEANS

PISELLI CON PANNA E PANCETTA

POTATO, PARSNIP AND PORCINI GRATIN

RED CABBAGE WITH POMEGRANATE JUICE

I couldn’t have Christmas without red cabbage, and I never veer far from the way my mother cooked it – that’s to say, I give it a long, slow stewing with something sharp, something sweet. This recipe takes in my unabating pomegranate pash but, instead of using the seeds, I go for the juice that comes in bottles. Make sure you go for the unadulterated, unsweetened variety; that much is crucial.

I love this with ham (hot or cold), or with turkey or roast pork, but I think it might be at its unsurpassed best (it’s a close-run thing) with the Roast Goose. The important thing to bear in mind is that, as with all stews, this improves as it stands, so not only does it help you to make it in advance, it positively helps the red cabbage and, thus, your dinner, too.

Although as a regular sidedish, this is fine for 10, it stretches easily to half that again as part of a Christmas dinner; when there are so many components, people tend to take relatively small helpings – and I’m talking about my family here, which is really saying something.

Serves 10

2 × 15ml tablespoons vegetable oil

1 red onion, peeled and halved

scant 15ml tablespoon Maldon salt or 1 teaspoon table salt

2 red apples

1 head red cabbage

3 × 15ml tablespoons soft dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground allspice

750ml pomegranate juice

• Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan (with a lid) or a flameproof casserole. Finely slice each halved onion into thin half-moons and add to the pan along with the salt. Fry for about 5 minutes until the onion begins to soften but doesn’t burn; the salt will help to prevent it from burning.

• While this is going on, quarter the apples (no need to peel), cut away the cores and chop them roughly, and add them to the softening onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 5 minutes.

• Finely shred the cabbage and add it to the onion-apple mixture in the pan, stirring slowly and patiently to mix. Add the brown sugar and allspice and stir, then pour the pomegranate juice into the pan.

• Let the mixture come to a bubble, then give another stir, turn down the heat, put on a lid and cook very gently at the lowest possible heat for 2–3 hours, stirring occasionally. It really won’t get overcooked. Taste for seasoning only when you’re ready to reheat, as the flavours won’t have mellowed and come together properly until then.

• To reheat, put the pan back on the stove over a medium to low heat, stirring occasionally, for 15–20 minutes.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the red cabbage up to 3 days ahead. Transfer to a non-metallic dish or bowl then cool, cover and keep in the fridge. Put the cabbage back in the pan, and reheat as directed. Check the seasoning before serving.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Make the red cabbage as above and leave to cool. Spoon into an airtight container and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in a cool room and reheat as above.

BOSTON BAKED BEANS

This continues the seasonally warming vegetable theme – here, a pale pulse, after the deep-red cabbage with pomegranate juice – that combines the savoury and the sweet, and although this is less obviously Christmassy than the others, tell me that after you’ve had a vat wafting its spiced way through the kitchen as you cook. The scent is heady and welcoming as the beans seem to mull in the bacon, mustard, spice and sugar.

These might not be baked beans as a Bostonian (or Messrs Heinz or Campbell for that matter) would cook them, but they work for me – and for anyone I’ve ever, proudly, fed them to. I warn you now: they are addictive. Must be the salt and sugar, which also – alas – explains why they taste so good.

It may be an obvious pairing, but this begs to be eaten with sausages.

Serves 8

500g haricot beans

2 × 15ml tablespoons garlic oil

125g smoked streaky bacon, chopped somewhere between finely and roughly

1 onion, peeled and chopped

100g grainy mustard

2 × 15ml tablespoons tomato purée

100g dark muscovado sugar

1 litre water, plus 60ml

1 × 15ml tablespoon cider vinegar

2 teaspoons Maldon salt or 1 teaspoon table salt, or to taste

• The night (or day) before you want to make this recipe (which could be 2 days before you plan to serve it), soak the beans in plenty of water for 24 hours.

• Once the beans are soaked, drain and rinse them and put aside. Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas mark 2 and heat the oil in a large, flameproof casserole or an ovenproof pan with a lid.

• Fry the chopped bacon briskly in the hot oil and, after about 5 minutes, turn down the heat and add the chopped onion. Cook alongside the bacon for about another 10 minutes.

• Add the mustard, tomato purée and sugar and 500ml of the water, stirring everything together well.

• Stir in the rinsed beans, and then add a further 500ml of water. Bring to the boil and let it bubble for 10 minutes.

• Put a lid on the casserole or pan and transfer to the oven for 2–2½ hours or until tender.

• Remove from the oven and add the remaining 60ml water along with the vinegar and, after tasting carefully (don’t burn your mouth), the salt if wished.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Cook the beans for 2 hours then cool and spoon into an airtight container. Keep in the fridge for up to 2 days. To reheat, return to the pan and stir in the extra 60ml water along with the vinegar and salt. Cover with lid and bring slowly to the boil, stirring occasionally. Simmer for 10–15 minutes or until piping hot.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Cook and cool the beans as above. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge then reheat as above.

PISELLI CON PANNA E PANCETTA

(Peas with Pancetta in Cream All’Italiana)

Even though we constantly read how Italians use olive oil and never butter or cream, of course this is not the case – or certainly not in northern Italy. Funnily enough, however, it is a southern Italian, a Calabrese by the name of Lisa Grillo, who brought this combination into my life. And as grateful as I am to her for so very much, this must be chief of the blessings she has brought me over the years.

Yes, it’s rich, yes it’s got lots of cream, bla, bla, bla, as the Italians say, without an “h”, but it is Christmas for goodness’ sake.