Meals for the masses

To celebrate this New Year's Eve, some friends and I will be descending on my parents home in Devon to enjoy some country air and some good food.

My parents are going to be away, so I will be mistress of the house and responsible for a group of about 12 people for several days. On New Year's Eve there will be a few more of us, and I want to feed them a great meal before the celebrations get going.

I really need ideas for feeding a group this size. From the 12 people around the table in the run up to the New Year, to the 20 who will be there on the big night.

Anyone have any ideas for filling this many hungry mouths? All I have so far is sausage and mash (yawn) and a delicious chorizo, sausage and lentil stew which I cooked on Saturday and I think could definitely be done on mass.

I'd love to hear your go to dishes for feeding a hungry crowd...

A-List

On a lighter but still Christmas related note, I have begun compiling a list of gifts for myself. The gathering of just some of the items I am coveting in a serious way. These are not fleeting desires but rather the pieces I have spent the year trying to justify buying, but haven't quite been able to.

Maybe it's a little indulgent to put a big old list of things I want but don't really need (other than the puppy of course) however I think the reality is that those who can do like to give and receive. I already have my Christmas gift buying trips sorted - one in London, the other in Paris - and I really do love finding the perfect things for my friends and family. I think this is a time to go for quality over quantity, invest in key pieces which will last a long time and to shower those you love with items they will always hold dear.

Derek Rose Woburn Silk pyjamas

Diptyque candle (multiple)

heal's Cashmere Cable knit throw

Lemon tree

Michael kors perfume

Pasta cutting machine

Pinhole drawing on vintage photograph from Etsy seller Restless Things

Malti-poo puppy (yes, I know that creating an uber cute designer dog by crossing two different breeds is considered ethically dubious, but in this instance I have to ignore this in favour of this utterly gorgeous creature which seems perfectly happy to me - cue the angry comments)
Holga camera (and a polaroid too please, now that it's back)

May we all be together next year

I am a strong believer that Christmas is a time to gather with family and friends to take stock of the year gone by, and the one ahead.

A time for amazing meals gathered around an enormous table where everyone has to loosen belts and undo buttons to make room for the excess of food. With lots of good wine and fantastic cheese and no holding back. Where families and friends can debate and laugh and unwind together, often gathering all in one place for the first time in a year.

I am well aware how truly lucky I am that I enjoy a Christmas like this. A celebration without family feuds, toasting good health and happiness - I count my lucky stars every day. Last year was not like this; my darling, wonderful Granny had died less than a fortnight before.

We gathered in grief and sorrow, not that my family would every really call it this. There was no funeral, or memorial, at my grandpa's insistence. Instead my mother, auntie, uncle along with their partners and children (myself included) stood in a sad looking crematorium on a bleak day in Newton Abbot, cried a few awkward tears, sung a strange sounding children's nursery song that had been a favourite of hers and left.

Our grandparents (we only ever knew our maternal granny and granpda, my dad's parents died before I was born) typically didn't join us for Christmas, preferring their own company and the home comforts of their little cottage in Sussex. So last Christmas was no different, in theory.

We laughed and ate and drunk too much - like any other year - but there was a deep, lingering feeling that this was not how it should be.

Throughout her life, whenever my granny was asked to make a wish she would always quietly say "may we all be together, safe and sound, next year", and this time we were not. We went through the motions but there were no gifts, no Christmas tree and every time we lifted our glasses to toast one another we only thought of her.

This is the first time I have written about her, and it won't be the last. Having had no funeral I never got to talk about how incredible she was to anyone but my friends. It just isn't really the done thing with my family, we prefer to quip and argue and tease and outwit each other- and I like it that way.

Needless to say this Christmas will, I hope, be different to the last. Gathering all together for the first time this year we will indulge and celebrate and toast each other...and crack open the most expensive and delicious bottle of bubbly of all in celebration of my darling, darling granny Katy.

Simple pleasures

Treating myself to indulgent alternatives to tea and coffee makes the dark nights so much easier to bear.

Sadly I have been hit with the worst bout of toothache and until I can get to a dentist I won't be able to enjoy my warming treats.

Until then, it's nurofen and a lot of whining for me!

Recipe: Chicken surprise

T0 start, an admission.

There is no surprise in chicken surprise.

It is just an affectionate name that it has been given over the last 5 years in which it has become a staple meal. My boy, or friends, will say to me "Can we have chicken surprise", generally knowing I'd rather cook chicken than other meat and that I can throw something together with the contents of the fridge/cupboard for a last minute gathering. This dish is one which requires very few ingredients, and ones I normally have in the house or within 2 minutes of it (i.e.at the corner shop). Hence, when they request chicken surprise they now know this is what they will get. They ask for it a lot, so I can only assume it is good.

That is not to say you cannot include your own surprise, maybe a favourite spice or spirit to give it an extra kick...I'll just give you the basic recipe and you can add your own twist if desired!

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts

4 shallots

200 ml single cream

1 lemon

French mustard

Bunch of tarragon

White wine

Thinly dice shallots

Fry shallots in frying pan with layer of olive oil

Once shallots are browning add chicken, sliced into thick strips

Fry chicken until cooked through (about 20-25 minutes)

Add half the cream and chopped tarragon, to taste.

Add splash of white wine, squeeze of lemon and tsp of mustard.

Continue cooking and stirring and add cream as desired.

As a guide, there should be enough sauce for a couple of large serving spoons worth on top of each portion.

Serve, with roasted potatoes and butternut squash (well, that's what we do!)

Enjoy, with the remainder of the wine.

Recipe: Chicken, cream and tarragon pie

Chicken and Tarragon pie

Recipe by Joanna Weinberg in the Times

Pictures and comments by me

This was my first ever pie and I was really happy with it. I served it with roast potatoes and cavolo nero. I am aware there has been a lot of chicken recipes of late, I will get some slightly more adventurous recipes up soon.

This is a good one though, and making your own pastry is fun (although I did have a very large tantrum when I thought the pastry was too moist and wouldn't roll, my beloved had to take a lot of abuse for advising me against overflouring!)

Ingredients

Serves 4

For the filling:
6 mixed chicken portions or 1 chicken, jointed
2 bay leaves
1 onion, quartered
1 onion, finely chopped
4 sprigs fresh tarragon
4 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh tarragon
1 leek, sliced into fine discs, woody head reserved a few whole peppercorns
500ml fresh chicken stock
500ml milk
200ml double cream
2oz butter
2oz flour
a capful of dry Vermouth
sea salt and pepper For the crust:
240 g white flour, preferably Italian 00,
170g cold butter
pinch of salt
iced water with a squeeze of lemon
1 egg, beaten, to glaze

Method

Make the pastry by grating the cold butter into a bowl with the flour and salt. Rub through your fingers to combine. Add the iced water and lemon juice tablespoon by tablespoon until it comes together. Knead with floured hands and divide into two balls, one twice the size of the other. Wrap both in clingfilm and leave in fridge for half an hour.

Some people say there is no need to make your own pastry as shop bought stuff it so good now, and I did buy some ready made just in case. I wanted to try making my own though and it turned out great although I did have to use a LOT of flour to roll it and to stop it sticking to the surface as I rolled it.

Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. In a large saucepan, simmer the milk with the bay leaves, sprigs of tarragon, quartered onion, leek top and peppercorns for 15 min, then add the chicken and poach gently for 20-25 min. Set the chicken aside to cool, reserve the liquid, and discard the rest of the solids.

Bring the chicken stock to the boil, add the chopped onion and leek discs for a minute and then remove to the pie dish with a slotted spoon, reserving the liquid in the pan and boiling to reduce by half.

When the chicken is cool, remove skin and bones, and shred into bite-sized chunks with a fork, adding them to the pie dish. In a separate saucepan, make a roux with the butter and flour, using 100ml of the reduced stock and the poaching milk until it has the consistency of double cream. Combine in the dish with the chicken, onion, leeks and two thirds of the chopped tarragon, and season. Set aside to cool.

Roll out both pastry balls into discs 5mm thick. Line the pie dish with the large disc, brushing the edges with the beaten egg. Fill with the chicken mixture. Cover the pie with the remaining pastry, sealing the join with the tines of a fork dipped in cold water. Cut a cross in the centre to release steam, using a blackbird to hold up the pastry if the dish is deep. Glaze with the beaten egg and bake for 15 min before turning the oven down to 180C/Gas 4 and baking for another hour.

I also added a splash of white wine and some cream in the sauce here too. I think a bit of mustard would have been good also, and maybe some peas.

For extra gravy: Just before you eat, reheat the remaining reduced stock, adding the Vermouth, and boil off the alcohol. Reduce to a simmer, stirring in the cream and the rest of the chopped tarragon. Season well and decant to a jug.

I didn't use vermouth and added wine to the extra gravy instead.

Catch up

I failed in my daily updates. I do have an excuse but it is a rubbish one so I won't bore you.

Here are some photos from the last few weeks to make up for it.

October has been a beautiful month in London. Bright, sunny, cold and crisp days which are my favourite kind. Lots of cooking (I made my first pie last night), gorgeous meals out and seeing friends. Being completley broke has meant I have travelled far and wide to see friends who are generously cooking for me, and I'm very grateful for their kindness and culinary skills.

I also offer you a recommendation, a little bit of an insight into my mind which is sort of what I promised. This is my favourite blog in the world. It puts mine to shame, so I expect to never see you again - and I understand. She is, without doubt, one of the funniest writers out around and I was so thrilled when she featured my friend Max as one of her cute boys last year. He got an overwhelming reaction -and believe it or not it wasn't me over and over!