Part 2. Roll on 2022…

Christmas lunch – The challenge with this sort of meal is that all need to be catered for with food which complements the trimmings of a ‘traditional’ roast…With only three of us eating turkey, I baulked at buying a crown and managed to find a small(ish) whole bird, which I roasted slowly in the low oven in the Aga, stuffed with sausagemeat and a lemon and with paprika, garlic butter under the breast skin. This was cooked breast down for the first 40 mins and allowed to rest after cooking, to free up oven space. Nut roast for the two non-carnivores, recipe adapted from the BBC goodfood website to make it low FODMAP and gluten free (gf bread for the breadcrumbs, garlic oil to replace the garlic, celery to replace the onion). This was made and cooked on Christmas eve, so only needed heating through on the day, so could also go in the low oven in the Aga. Shop bought vegan sausage wreath with stuffing for child #2 – looked good and tasted good too. The above ‘centrepeices’ all served with mushroom gravy, made during the week before Christmas and frozen until the day, recipe from vegetarianrecipesmag.com, a really ‘full’ tasting gravy with enough heft for the carnivores, roast potatoes, dredged in chickpea flour after par boiling, honey roast parsnips, pan-fried sprouts with pomegranate seeds (whilst not the same as done with lardons, still very christmassy!) and peas. (The family will not allow me to serve a roast without…). Child #2 had shop bought vegan pigs in blankets – yes, it doesn’t sound right, somehow, but they were ok. The carnivores had traditional pigs in blankets. Bread sauce as the final offering, made the previous day, adapting Nigella’s recipe to make it gf, low FODMAP and vegan, so whole onion to flavour the soya milk which I then removed, soya cream to pep it up and gf bread. The consistency wasn’t as usual, but, with additional milk and cream added, it still worked really well. And breathe…

Desserts followed – A choice of: Heston’s orange Christmas pud, doused in vodka (our addition!), homemade vegan, gf mince pies, raspberry and lemongrass trifle (Nigella’s recipe again), a selection to suit all tastes and eating requirements. In the evening, we offered a cheeseboard and fruit for those who felt the need to pick at something (despite not needing to!).

Boxing Day breakfast – Tradition dictates Christmas cake, with copious amounts of tea or coffee, depending on your preference… The writer her indoors always makes the cake and this year made a vegan and non vegan version. Both iced with homemade vegan royal icing – that chickpea water gets everywhere. I’ll admit I was surprised by how good the icing was; I may not have the best palate in the world, but I couldn’t taste the difference and the texture was spot on! Child #1 has to give this a miss given the copious amounts of nuts present, so defaulted into toast, followed by trifle – well, it is Christmas and we all eat and drink things that perhaps we shouldn’t at times when we shouldn’t, so hey ho!

Boxing Day lunch and supper – enough of everything for leftovers, served with mashed potatoes, bubble and squeak, pickles and salad. The writer had stepped up to the plate yet again and made a coleslaw with red and white cabbage and dairy-free yoghurt as well. There does come a point when something that looks and feels healthy seems somehow to mitigate the rest of the eating and drinking – perhaps I’m delusional, but fresh lettuce and assorted other leaves, crisp tomatoes and cucumber need to come out on Boxing Day too.

So what have I learnt from the all the above? With enough time, planning and thought, it is entirely possible to meet a variety of differing dietary requirements without overly compromising taste, texture, satisfaction. It also really helps if more than one person is thinking about it and doing it! To think about it a different way (and to go back to my old teaching habits at the end of a lesson) – what went well and even better if…

www – Christmas cake with vegan icing, nut roast with mushroom gravy, carrot lox and scrambled tofu. In fact the overarching plan basically worked, so pats on backs all round for this!

ebi – bread sauce needs re-trying, as do the dauphinoise potatoes, so better use of soya dairy substitute products – more practice required. Also greater thought about homemade vegan options that work with the overall pattern, rather than just buying in…

The next food-related job in the house is a great one – try to finish up all the unhealthy food lying around, including chocolates and assorted sweet goodies before the new year really kicks in and we all start some sort of post Christmas detox. This is difficult for us as January is a birthday month, so ‘Dry January’ consists of dry white wine, dry cider, dry martini………

Eating: We used far fewer eggs than we had envisaged, so a spate of different shakshoukas (can be spelled a variety of ways, so google with an open mind) for brunch. There are some fabulous recipes out there for them – the guardian series ‘how to make the perfect’ has one, bbc goodfood website etc. and they are eminently playable with and adaptable for whatever you have hanging around or need to use up. Little bit of fresh chilli on top of the one above to add to the heat on a cold winter’s morning.

Drinking: Child #2 had a recent weekend in Vienna and this appeared over Christmas. Nice and dry, yet with a slight fragrance that went well with a prawn dish we had.

Listening to: Having just blasted our way through Succession (yes, it is as good as everyone says it is – great, great tv), the soundtrack by Nicholas Britell has been added to playlist for the moment!