Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities (5 page)

PARTY PARMA HAM BUNDLES

Since I would find it hard to give a Christmas party without at least one plateful of these feast-time favourites of mine – salty pink prosciutto wrapped around sharp soft goat’s cheese and sweet, grainy dried figs – it didn’t seem fair to leave them out here, although they have had an outing in print with me before. They are positively the party perennial; their omission, for me, not to be countenanced.

Makes approx. 25 plumptious parcels

400g sliced Parma ham or other cured prosciutto, not sliced ultra-thin

200g ready-to-eat dried figs

150g mild soft goat’s cheese, such as Chavroux

• Cut or tear each slice of Parma ham into 2 or 3 strips.

• Scissor each fig in half or quarters, depending on their size, remove the woody stalks and spread a teaspoon of goat’s cheese on the cut half of the fig.

• Place the piece of fig cheese-side down on the centre of a strip of ham and then roll or fold up to make a bundle.

• Sit each bulging pink parcel so that the darkness of the fig is hidden plate-side.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the parcels up to 6 hours ahead. Sit in a single layer on a plate and cover with clingfilm. Keep chilled until ready to serve.

SEASONALLY SPICED NUTS

There’s something addictive about a bowl of warm, toasted bar nuts, and although I used to bring them out as a starter substitute at dinner parties, I have rejigged my usual seasonings to make these a little more spicily aromatic and find them just the thing to keep a crowd fed without too much commotion.

I don’t pay particular attention to how many of each nut I put into the mix, but just go for those packets of mixed, unsalted nuts; my last bag contained (in the order listed on the pack) cashews, almonds, pecans, macadamias and pistachios. If you want to buy nuts in single packets and mix, I’d simply go for pecans, almonds, Brazils and pistacchios. It’s the spicing, and the warmth, that’s key. Instead of the garam masala, you could use half a teaspoon each of ground ginger and ground cumin, and a pinch each of ground coriander, cloves and cinnamon. Indeed, it’s the ginger and cloves in the garam masala that make these taste so Christmassy in the first place.

Makes enough to fill 2 small, not tiny, bowls

500g mixed nuts

1½ teaspoons garam masala

1 teaspoon celery salt

2 × 15ml tablespoons olive oil

2 × 15ml tablespoons light muscovado or soft light brown sugar

3 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped to make about 3 teaspoons, plus 2 sprigs for garnish

sprinkle of Maldon salt or pinch of table salt

• Put a large frying pan on a medium heat.

• Line a large baking sheet or swiss roll tin with foil or reusable baking parchment and put at a handy proximity to the stove.

• Tip the nuts into the now-warm pan and toss or push about with a spatula for 3 minutes or so until they are lightly toasted.

• Add the garam masala and celery salt and push the nuts about in the pan again so that they are evenly coated.

• Add the oil, sugar and rosemary and stir about again to mix. When the nuts have darkened a little and are slicked with the sugary spice mix, tip them out briskly (before they burn) onto your prepared, lined sheet, and sprinkle with salt to taste.

• Preferably when still warm, arrange in small bowls, and tuck in a sprig of rosemary on top for a seasonal fir-tree flourish!

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

The day before, make the spiced nuts and tip them out onto a foil-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt. Cover with foil and keep in a cool place. About 10 minutes before serving, pop the nuts into a moderate (180°C/gas mark 4) oven to warm through.

DRUNKEN DEVILS ON HORSEBACK

When I was a child, this is the sort of thing my parents would have eaten at cocktail parties, parties my mother would go to in her white patent boots, angora mini dress and false eyelashes – hairpiece, too – and lips slicked in pale, shimmery colours with names like Moist Madder Pink. It seemed ineffably glamorous – I can smell her wafting scent of face powder mixed with Guerlain’s L’Heure Bleue now as I think about it – but also inexplicable: how could anyone want to eat a prune (the devil) or oyster (an angel) wrapped in bacon, and why they were on horseback was just as baffling. Now, I know (or think I do) that “on horseback” is a corruption of “hogsback”, to indicate the bacon.

Now, too, I’m happy – more than – to eat an angel-on-horseback, though less convinced that I want to make them; someone as clumsy as I am should not be let near an oyster shucker, ever. But a devil, which I like more, anyway – and mine are soused till sticky with Armagnac – is, if not child’s food, then certainly child’s play to make.

Makes 24

24 ready-to-eat stoneless dried prunes

90ml Armagnac

12 rashers American-style bacon, or 24 thin slices pancetta

• The day before your party, soak the prunes in the Armagnac in a covered bowl.

• On the day of your party, preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

• On a board, spread out a rasher of bacon and cut in half horizontally to give 2 shorter pieces of bacon, or use a whole pancetta slice. Then take a soaked prune from your bowl and roll it up in one of the half pieces of bacon, or a pancetta slice, securing it with a cocktail stick.

• Repeat this process with the remaining prunes, wrapping each one in bacon, and place them on a lined baking sheet.

• Cook the drunken devils in the oven for 10–15 minutes, then let them cool a little, to avoid burnt fingers and mouths, before plating them up to serve.

NOTE:

These 24 prunes use up exactly 1 × 200g packet of Oscar Meyer American-style bacon. If you can’t get American-style bacon, find thin slices of Italian pancetta, but double the quantity so you use one whole slice per prune, or use rindless streaky bacon and roll the slices out between plastic wrap to make them thinner.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Two days ahead, soak the prunes in the Armagnac. The day before, wrap in bacon and keep, covered, in the fridge. Allow 20 minutes at room temperature before cooking.

CRANBERRY AND SOY GLAZED COCKTAIL SAUSAGES

I couldn’t leave this out, even though you will probably have to follow round after with a packet of babywipes. A party just isn’t a party without a sticky sausage or three, and these are joyously seasonal. And nor do I stop here with this sweet, warm, sharp glaze: the ingredients can also be used as a marinade-cum-cook-in sauce for either 30 chicken wings or 20 small spare ribs, with equally lipsmacking results.

Makes 50

125ml Thai or Chinese sweet chilli sauce

60ml cranberry sauce, from a jar

60ml soy sauce

1 × 15ml tablespoon dark brown sugar

juice of 1 clementine/satsuma

juice of 1 lime

50 cocktail sausages

• Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

• Put the cocktail sausages in a foil-lined roasting tin or, better still, a throwaway foil baking tray.

• Mix the chilli, cranberry and soy sauces in a measuring jug and whisk in the sugar along with the clementine (or satsuma) and lime juices.

• Pour the glaze over the cocktail sausages and turn them so they are evenly coated, before putting the tin in the oven for 30–40 minutes, with a gentle turnover after 20, by which time they should be hot, burnished and gorgeously sticky. (If you’re cooking chicken wings or ribs, having marinated them overnight in the cranberry-chilli-soy goo, you will have to up the cooking time: the wings should need about 45 minutes; the ribs an hour.)

• When serving, provide cocktail sticks and napkins, or make sure you have finger bowls or babywipes to hand.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Put all the sausages into a large, sealable bag (or glass bowl) and add all the other ingredients. Shake or stir everything together until the sausages are well-coated and leave in the fridge for up to one day. When ready to use, just tip everything into cooking tray and cook as directed.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Make ahead as above and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.

WASABI CRAB CAKES

I cook crab cakes so often, and tinker about with them to suit my mood, that I can offer up any number of variants on the recipe below. I will try and contain myself, though, as too much choice can be paralysing rather than liberating. But feel free, if it suits you, to use 100g brown rice flour in place of the breadcrumbs. If you can’t find wasabi, use English mustard (powder or paste) as directed for the Japanese stuff and substitute lemon or lime juice for the rice vinegar.

Makes approx. 45 crab cakes

500g fresh white crab meat or frozen white crab meat, thawed

4 spring onions, very finely chopped

1 clove garlic, peeled and minced

2 teaspoons wasabi (Japanese horseradish) powder, or 3 teaspoons wasabi paste

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

3 teaspoons tamari or Japanese soy sauce

100g fresh breadcrumbs

groundnut or other vegetable oil for frying

lemon or lime wedges to serve

• Press and drain any liquid from the crab meat, and put the crab meat in a large bowl. Add the spring onions, garlic, wasabi, rice vinegar, soy sauce and breadcrumbs, and mix together to combine.

• Spoon or pinch out walnut-sized dollops, and press together tightly with wet hands or wearing vinyl disposable gloves, to form bite-sized crab cakes. Arrange the little crab cakes, on a clingfilm-lined sheet that will fit into your fridge or freezer (don’t freeze if using frozen crabmeat – see tips, below). You can have a double-decker arrangement if you put another layer of clingfilm on top of the crab cakes. Cover with a final layer of clingfilm and stash in the freezer overnight or for a few hours. If you’re using thawed frozen crabmeat, do not refreeze, but just let the patties sit for about 30 minutes in the fridge to firm up.

• When party time comes around, preheat your oven to 120°C/gas mark ½. Line a baking sheet large enough to take all the crab cakes with a double layer of kitchen paper.

• Heat a frying pan filled with oil about 5mm deep, take the frozen crab cakes out of the freezer, then fry the unthawed crab cakes until golden brown and crisp on both sides, which won’t take long.

• As they brown, transfer the crab cakes to the paper-lined baking sheet and put in the oven for 20 minutes to heat through, holding them in the oven to keep warm before serving, if required. If you’re using thawed crab meat, fry the patties for a few minutes a side only, though you can hold them in the low oven if you want to keep them warm. The crab cakes will not be quite as crisp, but they will be scrumptious.

• Remove the crab cakes to a platter or pair of plates, scattering lemon or lime segment wedges among them. They are lovely, too, with sweet chilli sauce. Use a good bottled one or, as I’ve done, mix a squirt of lime juice (to give extra sharpness and make it runnier) into the Chilli Jam.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

For previously frozen crab meat, shape the crab cakes the day before and arrange on a clingfilm-lined baking sheet. Cover with clingfilm and keep chilled overnight. Fry the chilled crab cakes as directed and keep warm in the oven for 20 minutes.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

For fresh, not previously frozen crab meat only, make the crab cakes and freeze overnight until solid. Fry from frozen as above and keep warm in the oven. The crab cakes can also be stored in the freezer for up to 1 month before cooking.

SHORT AND SWEET

CHOCOLATE PEANUT-BUTTER CUPS

EGGNOG SYLLABUB

CHRISTMAS ROCKY ROAD

The fact that there are a mere trio of recipes for something sweet here is not meant to hint at restraint or austerity on my part. It’s because there’s a whole chapter you can draw on to strike a sweet note as well as a seasonal one (see Joy to the World). You could add a trayful of bite-sized mince pies to hand around, or a nice fat Christmas cake standing proudly on display, with a knife for people to cut their own slices. The picture (see here) illustrates just this point.

Indeed, add anything you want, or add nothing: the three recipes that follow are simple, no-bake, quick-assembly and low-effort sensations that will keep you, and your guests, sweet.

CHOCOLATE PEANUT-BUTTER CUPS

These are really a homespun version of the famous Reese’s confection of the same name, embellished with gold to give a touch of seasonal glitz. I have on occasion used my children – their little fingers are better designed for the job – to press the peanut butter layer into the petitfour cases, but have generally lived to regret it. Anyway, this is not a hard job, just a boring one, and I find once I’ve accepted that, the mindless, repetitive activity can be positively therapeutic.

Makes approx. 48

FOR THE BASE:

50g soft dark brown sugar

200g icing sugar

50g soft butter

200g smooth peanut butter

FOR THE TOPPING:

200g milk chocolate, chopped

100g dark chocolate, chopped

edible gold buttons and stars to decorate (see

Stockists

) or other decorations,
e.g.
gold dragées or red, white and green Christmassy sprinkles

48–50 petitfour paper cases (preferably gold, see

Stockists

)

• Mix together the brown sugar, icing sugar, butter and peanut butter either by hand, using a bowl and wooden spoon, or more easily with a freestanding mixer (my preference) or processor to make a sandy paste.

• Use your hands to form scant 1-teaspoon discs to fill the base of about 48 petitfour cases placed in miniature tart tins or mini-muffin tins (each indentation about 4.5cm in diameter). Press the sandy mixture as best you can to form a layer at the bottom of each paper case.

• Melt both chocolates very gently, either in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water or, using a suitable bowl, in the microwave, according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

• Stir the melted chocolates together and allow to cool a little, then spoon 1-teaspoonfuls into each petitfour case, covering the sandy base.

• Decorate with a gold button or gold star in the middle of each chocolate-covered, peanut-butter cup. Or sprinkle over any other decoration of your choice. Put in the fridge to set for 30 minutes or so before serving.