Oxtail Soup

Everyone’s depressed and winter’s coming in. I’m not suggesting soup can solve much, but when I go back to Yorkshire I need it in my system to function. A big pan of something on the stove also warms the house up nicely. Coming back home makes me realise how blooming freezing I’ve been all my life; surely everyone ‘wears’ a duvet watching TV at night? Wait, you mean you don’t sleep in a hat?? I’m typing this while wearing a shawl for crying out loud.

Sprouty Side Dish

People associate sprouts with Christmas but my Dad wants them with every single meal in the winter months. He buys bag upon bag of them, silently depositing them in the fridge as wordless suggestions for me each week. Luckily, I’m a huge fan too and can eat them by the bowlful, even if he shouldn’t; sprouts are high in potassium, which actually interfere with his anti-rejection drugs! Apart from this risk factor, the primary problem with Daddy’s sprout consumption is that he’s a massive traditionalist and turns his nose up at anything other than a pure boiled “farty sprout”. My favourite take on sprouts is definitely the single cream and chopped chestnuts route but I decided to give this recipe a go because I was feeling guilty about a packet of marvellously rooty multi-coloured baby carrots I’d ignored but refused to throw out. It worked nicely as part of a hot buffet but would go really well as a side dish for dinner; try it with something gamey like pheasant or venison.

Spring Rolls

Sorry for the obese picture- classic NYE buffet. These are pretty simple to make, they just require having a bit of free time. I always make them with spring roll wrappers bought from Chinese supermarkets but this year -shock horror- we had so many buffets that we ran out and I had to use filo pastry. The results were ok but not as crisp and crunchy as usual; they actually tasted shop-bought, which made me feel that they were naff in comparison but hey, we still ate them all. What beasts. Obviously these spring rolls had turkey in them but put in whatever you’ve got; if you have tons of money then for goodness sake shove some prawns in there. I’ve even made them vegetarian a few times and no one’s even noticed because they’re so moreish.

Scotch Broth

Everyone’s getting so excited about Christmas but we haven’t got any of our decorations up yet! We don’t normally put our tree up until about the eighteenth, so in the meantime I think there’s time for a quick non-Christmas post. We’re big on soups in our house and if there isn’t any soup, then there’s a strong chance that Daddy won’t actually eat lunch, which is really annoying because he ends up wandering the house and invariably getting into a stink with one of us. With the days getting even shorter and even colder, it’s important that his immune system is tip-top so I often find myself slipping as much nourishment as possible into soups to trick him.