The Christmas Kitchen II

If it's the night before the night before Christmas, then it must be time to get busy in the kitchen.  I circled this day in the calendar as the day to get ahead of the game in the kitchen, and my productivity certainly didn't disappoint!

First up, homemade Christmas coleslaw.  Now, I love coleslaw (as long as it's good quality) but here's the thing - I'm the only person who has managed to make a coleslaw that Lizzie actually likes.  Even better, it couldn't be simpler - finely grate a few carrots, finely chop one onion, thinly slice half a cabbage, and mix together with mayonnaise.   Red cabbage arrived from the farm shop this week, which I think is just perfect for this tasty side, and to add an even more festive twist to it, I've chucked in a good number of dried cranberries - trust me, it's absolutely delicious!

Next up, a very simple potato salad.  Ensuring there are plenty of potatoes left for Christmas dinner of course, I peeled, sliced and boiled these for about 20 minutes, so that they're soft but not falling apart.  When cooled, I add a very finely diced onion, and stirred in with a copious amounts of mayonnaise.  It's really straight-forward - and you can garnish with chopped chives if you'd like.

"But what are you going to do with the remaining red cabbage?" I hear you ask.  I could save it for Christmas dinner of course, but since there's only so much room on the plate, I decided to pickle the remaining cabbage, as I know Lizzie's fond of it.  It's simple too - bring about 400ml of cider vinegar to the boil, and simmer with some bay leaves, dill, sugar and cracked black pepper (the recipe I read also throws in some red wine, but I'm not doing that.)  You should allow this to simmer for ten minutes.  In the meantime I thoroughly sterilise the (recently vacated) old mayonnaise jar using boiling water, then pack in the red cabbage.  Once the vinegar is ready, sieve and pour over the cabbage until the jar is filled.  I've also thrown in a tablespoon of mustard seeds.

Of course, you need something to go with the above, and what could be better than a festive bread?  I've found a brilliant bread flour made by Allinson's, called country grain, which I've found makes really delicious bread.  I use a fairly basic recipe - 400g country grain flour, 100g wholemeal bread flour, 20g dried yeast, 50g butter, and a pinch of salt.  Throw in a large handful of dried cranberries, mix it all together with 350ml of warm water, and then knead the dough for a number of minutes.  Then rest for an hour before transferring to a loaf tin, leave to rise for 30 minutes, then whack it in the oven for 40 minutes (I go longer than most recipes because I find it gives a much nicer crust.)  This will go with anything - for the best tea, I'm happy with a bit of butter and a nice wedge of cheese.

So there you go, a good festive morning in the kitchen, which frees me up to watch It's A Wonderful Life in the afternoon, safe in the knowledge that Christmas food and drink is well under control.  Unless, of course, the local puppy wants to stick her nose in...