CHRISTMAS DAY 02#

Roaring fire, wrapping paper on the floor, little children running around and plenty of fizz. Yep it had to be Christmas Day ( even if it is one day late! ) To some this may have been Boxing Day, but here we'd pushed Christmas Day back and were celebrating it in full force! 

The fizz of the day was Gusbourne an English Sparkling wine that was recently mentioned on a BBC programme The Twelve Drinks of Christmas. Having never had an English 'fizz' before I jumped at grabbing a bottle or two when I saw them at Selfridges. It really is delicious and I would buy it again. A hit with the family too!

Mum got back into her element today and created an astonishing 3 course feast! The main event was a Beef Wellington! I haven't had Beef Wellington for years, so I was incredibly excited about having it on our "Christmas Day".

After a glass of bubbles it was time for prepping the Beef Wellington. John was at hand with stringing the meat before it was wrapped in puff pastry that had been spread with mum's home made chicken pate and sauté mushrooms. There is a version of my mum's pate here on the blog - FIELD MUSHROOM & FARMHOUSE PATE.

John and Lou are both both trained cordon bleu chefs and know their way around prepping meat. Which John showed his skills on one of my previous posts HERE.

But today he showed us how to string the fillet beef before searing it.

Little Josh took mum and I for a walk run to work off our delicious meal!

We returned back home, and like any other classic Christmas Day, we sat around the fire and had one of mum's mince pies with a slice of red cheshire. Trust me you have to try a mince pie or Christmas cake with red cheshire, it's delicious and I believe it stems from my mum's Lancashire roots. She informs you also have a chunk red cheshire at the side of apple pie (not crumble) with cream on top! I haven't taken it that far before which now my mum is desperate to rectify!

Merry Christmas hope you all had a great festive break! 

Crimbo Mince Pies!

I love mince pies, especially with a slice of crumbly Red Cheshire Cheese! My family have always had a bit of Red Cheshire to hand when the mince pies are out.

You know originally the mince pie did contain meat :-O mincemeat was a way of preserving meat by mixing it with fruit, spices and alcohol. The initial mince pies were large rather than bite size.

I cheat a bit and buy ready made mince meat, but I do intend in making my own...
But I always think the pastry is key! I like it on the thin side, so when you take a bite it melts in your mouth.....

Here is the recipe I use for pastry: (makes 18)

• 200g plain flour
• 50g ground almonds
• 140g butter, chopped up in small pieces
• Zest of one orange (a zested is so much easier than a grater)
• 50g golden caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk

1. Preheat oven to 190oc/fan. Mix flour,ground almonds, butter, zest & caster sugar, until they bind.
2. Then add the yolk, roll into a ball, wrap in cling and chill in the fridge for at least 30mins.
3. Roll out the pastry on a sheet of cling (this helps prevent it cracking up). Use pastry cutters to cut out the rounds you need.
4. Bake in the oven for around 12mins in the oven.Cool in the tins for 5 mintues then cool on a wire rack.

I've eaten four already!!