This right here is the holy grail of dips. A bastardised version of a Delia Smith recipe for
blue cheese dressing, I think from How to
Cook 2, it's served us well all through the festive season and is the main
culprit for all that weight gain... During my last, tired months living in York
it was constant munching of blue cheese, not chocolate that gave me a
body-shape akin to a Moomin. Luckily, I like Moomins! This dip is definitely
Daddy’s favourite - mine too- as it knocks the socks off any drab old sour
cream and chive number. My mum’s allergic to penicillin so blue cheese is off
her menu but we still had to keep shouting at her whenever she sneakily took a
spoonful. Honestly, you’d think if you were allergic you’d just respect that
but no, not in this house! We eat this dip with crudités but it’s also great with barbequed chicken wings,
which we had tonight! You can use any blue cheese you have around; for
us, that meant an enormous chunk of Blacksticks Blue but Gorgonzola, Dolcelatte
and even Stilton work very well.
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.
When I was small we used to drive to Manchester and stop off
at a little bakery up some steps in Chinatown. Inside there were glass-fronted
displays of all kinds of sweet and savoury soft doughy buns, glazed and shining.
We always bought something sweet with bean paste in it, which got thrown out
after we’d taken one bite each in the back of the car but the star of our
purchases was always the pork buns. The dough itself was sweet and pillowy soft
but that filling! Tender roasted pork with honey and five spice. I didn’t know
what char siu was back then but now I try to recreate those flavours every time
I’m out of ideas with a piece of pork sitting in front of me. This time around
I had a few pieces of pork belly to use up, so I felt that the time was upon me
to try and recreate my Manchester favourite.
Gyoza dumplings are some of my favourite nibbly things out
there. They cost a bomb to eat in restaurants and let’s face it, the North is
hardly blessed with places to eat them, unless you fancy braving Yo!Sushi and
its rotating belt of dubiously warm plates. However, they cost next to nothing
to make at home; all you need is to source the wrappers from a Chinese
supermarket and you’re set. I made these for our traditional Christmas Eve
buffet, which is a little nibbly things dream, peppered with dozens of amuses
bouches that I spent all day happily preparing.
