Hi everyone :)

We've decided to have a break from the usual traditional xmas fayre and for a change we're having a corn fed chicken (free range of course!)which I'm going to give an orange and rosemary glaze and for pud we're having a honey & ginger sponge with chunks of stem ginger and loads of honey instead of the heavy xmas pud.

It made me wonder what everyone else was cooking and I'm aware that not everyone will be celebrating christmas, but we all tend to have some special dish we cook around this time of year be it a cake, casserole, pud, bread or a warming winter drink. So I thought it would be nice to make each others mouths water and share our festive feasting ideas?

Debs

Hi Debs

After three weeks of ill-health which has meant not being able to contemplate Christmas at all, I did take the first step yesterday and make a start on the ubiquitous chicken soup which will be the main part of the welcoming buffet for the tribe who are descending on us for four days on Christmas Eve.

To a three pound whole organic chicken (I almost wrote child there - Freudian slip!!) I added half a head of garlic cloves, some celery, a leek, an onion, a handful of fresh parsley, a handful of dried sage and a handful of various types of dried thyme from the garden. I simmered all these for three hours and left it to cool overnight in our unheated outhouse. Tonight I shall remove the woody herb bits, take all the flesh from the chicken and cook some carrots and potatoes in the stock before whizzing everything up together, seasoning and then freezing until next Monday.

I have some homemade tomato soup ready as a starter for Christmas dinner for those who don't fancy avacado, tomato and mozerella cheese, so I just need to make some smoked haddock chowder.

Luckily, the Christmas pudding (made from my Grandmother's recipe with a carrot instead of eggs and vegetable suet) made two years ago will be plenty for this year and has had a further three hours steaming. Despite not being able to walk very much or stand for any length of time, my husband and I were able to make three Christmas cakes at the beginning of December, so no-one is going to starve!

Best wishes

Sarah

I love the sound of the chicken soup Sarah, although I would definately prefer the child free version lol!

I was hoping we'd get some more Winter recipes that I could add to a new planned 'Recipes' page on the website which would have herb recipes submitted by forum users and members. I was thinking that we could have a general recipes and also seasonal recipes for the kitchen and things like pot pourris, herbal bath soaks, hot toddies etc. So if anybody wants to submit a recipe for inclusion to the site then please do so either email it to me or post it in this thread.

I guess this is the time to say what herbal delights I did cook for Christmas

These are the herb-related recipes I used.

Sweet potato pie

3 large sweet potatoes peeled and sliced and cooked in unsalted water until soft
1/2 pint double cream
8oz butter
6oz sugar
4 eggs
1/2 whole nutmeg (grated)
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 500g pkt of shortcrust pastry (This lined one 10" pie dish and 1 4" pie dish)

Method
Line pie dishes. Drain and slightly cool sweet potatoes then mash until smooth. Add butter and sugar, beating well. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Fold in cream. Add ground spices and adjust to taste. Pour filling into pie cases and cook for 70 minutes in oven 190 degrees C. This can be served hot or cold and goes well as a dessert after something hot and spicy.

I first had it in Oregon after some southern style fried ribs and fell in love with it. We ate it on Christmas Eve after Tai red pork curry, chicken in sweet red pepper sauce and prawns in dark sauce courtesy of my eldest son.

Simple sausage stuffing

2tsps dried lemon and broad leaf thyme
2 tsps of dried red sage
4 tsps fresh parsley
All the herbs were whizzed in a coffee grinder after de-stalking
Turkey innards - heart, liver, neck meat covered with sold water and cooked for an hour and chopped into small pieces
2 lbs of sausage meat
1/3 stale white loaf made into breadcrumbs
1 large onion peeled and chopped into small pieces

Mix everything together in a large bowl. I usually make it the night before and leave in a cool place until it is time to cook, then transfer it into a cooking tray, cover with foil and cook for about 2 hours. This amount fed 11 people accompanying an 18 lb turkey together with 8 vegetables and bread sauce.

Grapefruit bitter aperitif

This is Rebecca Hartman's recipe from her Herbwife's Kitchen site http://crabappleherbs.com
Her entire recipe tells you how to make candied grapefruit peel and the grapefruit bitter, but I have condensed it into just the bitter recipe, which is what we made at the December herb workshop.

Slice up some grapefruit peel and remove most of the white pith. Put the slices of peel in a pot with enough water to cover them by about an inch. Add a pinch of salt. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer it for 15 minutes or so. Drain the peels and set aside the cooking water to make liqueur. Return the peels to the pot, add fresh water, bring it to a boil, and simmer it for another 15 minutes. Drain again (don’t forget to reserve the cooking water).

Bring all the reserved cooking water to a boil and reduce it by about a third. Now add 2/3 cup sugar per cup of water. Stir to dissolve. Let it cool and then add 1 cup of vodka per cup of liquid.

You need to allow plenty of time both for the reserved cooking water to reduce and for the sugar water mixture to cool. Pour finished bitter into a glass jar with a screw top lid, label and date.

When using, take about a shot glass full or less and add fresh grapefruit juice. It tastes wonderful!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas Day.

Sarah

edited to add Sarah's name instead of guest

Hi Sarah

The sweet potato pie sounds delicious, I may give it a try for new year! I'm happy to report that my orange and rosemary glazed chicken came out well and tasted divine! I didn't get round to making the ginger sponge pudding, we had trifle instead, a present from my sister who visited us on christmas eve. My sister took a big box of my rosemary shortbread with her as well as the last of the stem ginger shortbread much to Simon's dismay lol!

I'm planning a beef and cranberry casserole for new year, with green beans and herby mash potatoes. Either that or some honey and lemon thyme chicken with baked potatoes and salad.

I can heartily recommend the Grapefruit Bitter Aperitif, I was at Sarah's workshop in early December where we made the GBA and it smelt wonderful, it tasted good to, not like I expected, but then anything is better than motherwort tincture lol! Thanks for the link Sarah, I've now been able to print off the instructions to make the candied grapefruit. I'll try it with orange and lemon peel as well. The clemetines I dried made the kitchen smell wonderful and I used a lot of them to make some orange spice pot pourri to give as gifts.

Debs