“I’m no good at chatting up and always get rebuffed,

Enough to drive a man to drink, I don’t do no washing up”

But you will always find me in the kitchen at parties!

And that is exactly where I spent most of my Saturday.  Not just at the party but throughout the day as I prepared, cooked and presented the tasty food that I was to serve at my festive banquet.

Festive Banquet

• Christmas Cocktail: Pointsettia
• Savoury Pesto Palmiers
• Spiced Nuts
• Cranberry and Soy Glazed cocktail sausages
• Pigs in blankets
• Savoury cheese twists (aka Just the blankets!)
• Chocolate peanut butter cups
• Cheese board with Chilli Jam
• Charcuterie: jamón, salami, chorizo
• Crudités and Humous
• Olives
• Chocolate reindeer

As with all my parties, if my guests wish to bring things to add to the table then fantastic.  The following were brought by others:

• Chicken croquetas
• Tuna Croquetas
• Nigella’s Christmas Cookies

When I woke up on Saturday morning (after Friday’s hair of the dog beer that then became 5 pints and a kebab!) I thought it best to make a start with menial tasks until I was fully awake and alert to go about measuring and weighing ingredients.

Knife in hand and with several foil platters at my disposal I went about chopping the vegetable crudités and arranging them onto platters; putting the charcuterie onto platters.  Covering the platters with cling film and into the fridge.  Job done.

°Next job…

Chocolate peanut butter cups.

Ingredients:

• 200g smooth peanut butter
• 50g soft butter
• 200g icing sugar
• 50g soft dark brown sugar

1st: Put all the ingredients into a food mixer and blend together until you have the consistency of coarse sand.

2nd: Then squidge a teaspoonful of this mixture into small petit four cases.  I find it easier to roll the mixture into a ball before pressing it in.  Approx 50 of these can be made.

• 200g milk chocolate
• 100g dark chocolate

I didn’t use milk chocolate as I don’t normally use it for cooking so I just used 300g of dark chocolate.

3rd: Melt the chocolate by whatever method you prefer and top each of the peanut butter cups with enough chocolate to cover them.

4th: Sprinkle with any decoration that takes your fancy.  I opted for green and red sugar strands (confetitos).  What can I say?  As camp as Christmas!

I put these peanut butter cups into the fridge to help set the chocolate and to get them out of the way.

The following recipes are in a previous blog titled “Nigella is for life not just for Christmas!”  click on the link to take you to these recipes.

Spiced Nuts

Cranberry and Soy Glazed cocktail sausages

I made both the spiced nuts and the cocktail sausages in advance and then put them into sealed foil containers ready to be warmed up in the evening.

A couple of hours before lift off, I made the Pigs in Blankets and Pesto Palmiers.

Savoury Pesto Palmiers

1st: Unroll the puff pastry onto a floured surface.

2nd: Spread the pastry with pesto from a jar.

3rd: Grate parmesan cheese to cover the pesto.

4th: Hold one end of the pastry and fold into the centre.  Repeat with the opposite side.  Fold in half and cut into thin strips.

5th: Place cut side up onto a baking sheet.  Bake at 220ºC for 15mins or until golden.

Pigs in Blankets & Just the Blankets

1st: In a bowl put 375g Self Raising Flour, a heaped teaspoon of salt and 20g of grated Red Leicester.

2nd: In a measuring jug add 125ml of Whole Milk, 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil and an egg.  Mix together and pour the wet ingredients into the dry.

3rd: Once combined into a ball, roll out the pastry onto a floured surface.

4th: Cut the pastry into small rectangles.

5th: Roll each cocktail sausage into the blanket.  For the veggie option just leave out the sausage to create a pastry cheese twist.

6th: Egg wash each blanket and bake in the oven at 220ºC for 15mins or until golden.

As my guests arrived I started baking both the palmiers and pigs in blankets, whilst warming the spiced nuts and the cocktail sausages at the same time.

I will say one thing though: the poinsettia cocktail (1 bottle cava, 500ml of cranberry juice and 125ml of cointreau of which there were 5 bottles of cava!) was also in the kitchen.

Hence spending most of my time in the kitchen at parties!

From welcome cocktail and savoury nibbles to a sweet little something at the end, I hope I’ve been able to give you lots of ideas on how to throw a Christmas Party where your guests are impressed by your food & drink and want to be invited again next year!

Here’s to another great year in food.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Gastrorob