Dec 24 2008
Sacred Supper
A ‘traditional’ Christmas Eve Supper, with some drinks and a spiced pudding.
- Snowball
- Rouge Limonade
- Seafood Pot
- Holiday Hot Cake with Eggnog Cream
We had my maw and paw over on Christmas Eve; my mum left us her car so we could drive home on Christmas Day and in return we cooked them a ‘traditional’ Christmas Eve supper. Not my tradition- although it was so good we could probably start it- but apparently it is very much the done thing to have fish on Christmas Eve.
We kicked off with drinks and nibbles (some left over Maple Pepper Pecans from the pairty); a Snowball for Lizzie and I, a Rouge Limonade for Dougal. Nigella’s recipe for a snowball isn’t really any different to any other you will have had. I’m still not sure I’m a fan but my mum likes them so it was a treat to be able to offer her one. The rouge limonade is a sort of red wine spritzer- lighter than wine, probably quite good if it were really hot (like at a busy party) and you need chilled down, but nothing fancy. I’ve drunk things like it in France- perhaps it is suited to warmer climes!
The main event was the Seafood Pot. Our fabulous fishmongers, George Campbell & Sons on Ferry Road in Leith, had furnished with monk fish, salmon fillet, squid and surf clams. These are very simply cooked up, with butter and sherry and lots of steam. We served it, as suggested, with a fennel salad, which sadly I halved in size at the last minute in a fit of miscomprehension of my guests! The combination was lovely and made me realise that fennel is a flavour I need to make more of in my cooking. The finishing touch was a couple of lovely baguettes made by Dougal, which were just perfect for mopping up the juices.
Pudding, as suggested in the book, was Holiday Hot Cake with Eggnog Cream. The cake is made by pouring boiling water over a spiced cake batter and then baking the unappealing result! My solid tin wasn’t quite as deep as suggested and I was worried about fitting the water in, so we went for a springform tin. This may have been part of the reason that we lost some liquid to the inside of the oven, resulting in some bad burnt caramel smells! The other problem will probably have been that I failed to preheat the oven properly (which is to say, I set the temperature but didn’t turn the oven on) so it went into a cold oven, which may not have helped.
As a consequence, the finished product was a bit thin and lacking in bounce. The recipe was supposed to do many more people than we had, but in fact just went round the five of us (my little bro having turned up at this point for pudding and a lift to my Mum & Dad’s). Still, the flavours were good and the eggnog cream (cream with advocat whipped in it!) was a tasty accompaniment. Just not quite the steaming success I’d hoped! 
(Sorry, behind in my reading again so I’m a day late and a dollar short on this one!)
I made the Holiday Hotcake last Christmas exactly to the recipe and I found it to be very thin/saucy and didn’t make a large amount. She’s got a sticky toffee pud recipe in “Nigella Bites” that is very similar, but works much better. I agree though, the advocat cream was lovely!