Christmas, New Year

After Iceland, we returned to face the festive season full on. Which meant my wife went into full-on cook-and-bake mode, to my delight.

First up, the traditional-in-our-house Brussels Sprout soup:

 

Creamy and warming, and a good start to the Christmas feeling. I can recommend it even if you don't much like brussels sprouts, really: the best way to eat them is like this.

Next up, some scones to comfort me while I weep over the end of The Snowman.



We ate these with clotted cream and raspberry-and-ginger jam from Iceland. I'm a sucker for scones and cream, and the jam was just unusual enough to make this a bit different, a warmer spicier sort of taste overall.



Spinach, cheese and spring onion puff pastry swirls. We had manchego and gorgonzola in the fridge, so both of those went into these. Really fresh-tasting with the spring onions, really rich and gooey to eat.

And then of course, Christmas Day!



We're not big believers in a giant turkey on Christmas Day, so we usually go for a duck instead, and kept that up this year. Roast duck with orange liqueur glaze, roast potatoes, stuffing balls, brussels sprouts, yorkshire puddings, bread sauce and gravy. We drank it with sparkling yuzu flavoured sake, and it was great.

The duck was lovely, really juicy, and there was just enough of everything to leave a few leftovers but not huge piles of them.



The Christmas pudding was started weeks in advance and gradually topped up with more booze over time. Then it's steamed on the day, for two hours, and it is amazing. No storebought pudding is a patch on this type of thing. It's so soft, and light and moist.

Also, you can serve it with your choice of these:



That right there is like my idea of heaven, honestly. Cream and custard? Oh baby.

Other Christmas bakes that I have been presented with:

 

Leftover pies! With the meagre leftovers of the main meal, plus some cumberland sauce, wrapped in shortcrust pastry. Very good!



Cranberry and stilton swirled into bread! This was amazing when it was still hot and gooey, but a lot easier to cut when cold. Lasted us barely one day, because it was too tasty to not just wolf down.



and finally, rosemary and cheese scones! Very filling, these. Made from a Paul Hollywood pre-mixed flour thing, with extra cheese on top.

We also went out for food twice -- once popping into the cafe Timbers in Colchester Town centre, for quick comfort food after work.



Jacket potato with cheese and beans is very much comfort food.

We also went to the chain restaurant Chiquito over by Stanway Tollgate on new year's day for a meal with a friend.

 

Steak fajitas! Chiquito's little thing with their guacamole is that 'you get to grind it yourself!' which, er, okay? It looked pretty damned ground-up already, to me, but also devoid of much tomato, to my delight. Raw tomato isn't a good thing for me. Anyway, the meal was good. A little pricy, but the service was very good and I think they expect you to knock back the relatively cheap drinks to make up for the food prices.

Here's to more delicious things in 2017!