For the last couple of weeks I've been thinking about what to serve for Christmas. I have absolutely no minimalistic tendencies and will feel like a failure if the table isnt groaning and my family isnt crying at the end of the day.
I'm thinking about little side dishes to have on the side of whatever beast I decide on this year. Obviously I'm going to have potatoes and sprouts, probably carrots and I'm making some sauerkraut, but I'm sure there's something a bit more interesting that will become my holiday classic, out there. Now is the time to have these crazy experiments. By the time you have a family you should really have your crazy traditions down. It's a shame I don't have a crazy aunt that makes spam stuffing or something.
I'm using Moro East for the cauliflower recipe (which can also be found
here) and Home Cooking the Flavel Way for the balls (they were supposed to be sardine balls, but all I had was mackerel in tomato sauce).
Flavels was a maker of gas stoves and produced this cookbook for hosewives in the 50s. It's exactly as old fashioned as you would expect, I bought it in a charity shop and it's quite charming. You can always find these slightly naff old book in second hand shops, and I can't resist. It's like a time capsule,
here's an interview with a chef who collects old cookbooks. His motivation is to learn and he has a problem with the fact that modern cookbooks give excrutiatingly elaborate instructions for every process, which inhibits learning. Older book don't even tell you the temperatre that the oven is supposed to be, you're meant to use your intuition and the inevitable trial and error forces you to learn to be a better cook. The problem is that nobody is going to want to waste ingredients on something that might fail, but the implication that you can just wing it does appeal to the ego.
And look at it!
There is a recipe for tinned sardines next to one for lobster, like you know, whatever, have one or the other for dinner tonight. A modern cookbook would have a two paragraph apology for the extravagance of one and the paucity of the other printed alongside.
For this you're meant to just combine all of the ingredients, roll in breadcrumbs and bake in the oven. I'm using mackerel instead of sardines, fish sauce instead of anchovy essence and panko instead of brown breadcrumbs.
They look almost like truffles when the come out of the oven, and taste pretty nice too.
The cauliflower is eaven easier, just fry in olive oil, sprinkle with the ground spices and lemon and serve. It's lovely, and makes your house smell aniseedy and warm. V. good and a great way to make your cauliflower phobic boyfriend eat almost an entire head of it.
