food, reviews and of course coffee
So what food, drink and coffee blog posts were people reading this year? Interestingly none about coffee?
10 Trofie Pasta with fresh basil pesto, pine nuts and grated parmesan
5 Marks and Spencer’s Pork Medallions
4 Basil and pine nut margherite
The top three posts were the same top three in 2015. Well here’s to some better and more exciting posts for 2017.
I usually write a blog post about our Christmas lunch, in the main when it comes to the following year I can remember what worked well and what was less of a success.
A few years ago I spent over a hundred pounds on a four bird roast from Marks and Spencers. It was nice, but was very much a turkey with a little bit of goose, duck and chicken.
The Sainsbury’s version of the four bird roast is a goose stuffed with turkey, duck and guinea fowl. I will say that this is basically a stuffed goose; it’s 62% goose, 9% turkey and there is 8% duck and 8% guinea fowl. Like the Marks and Spencers’ roast it wasn’t cheap, but was half the price of the Marks and Spencers’ version.
This year I would have been tempted to get it again, however Sainsburys weren’t doing it this year. In the end I went with the Aldi Christmas Four Bird Roast again, which we had enjoyed last year.
The Aldi four bird roast was a little skimpy on the goose and duck, but I did expect that for a ten pound roast. It was simple to cook, but I did let it rest for thirty minutes which seemed to help with carving and the meat was very tender and moist.
It was quite tasty, stuffing wasn’t anything to write home about, but I did supplement it with some homemade stuffing, as well as bacon wrapped sausages.
Overall a success and good value for a tenner.
As you may be aware I decided to try another four bird roast for our Christmas dinner.
This was a Sainsbury’s four bird roast, a goose stuffed with duck, turkey and guinea fowl.
So how was it then?
Firstly it was very easy to cook, as instructed I cooked it in a deep roasting dish. I would certainly use a deep roasting dish as the stuffed goose does lose a fair amount of liquid. In addition the instructions recommend adding 500ml of water to the roasting dish, which I did.
I then covered the roast in foil and placed in a hot oven 220°C for 30 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180°C for a further two and half hours. At this point I removed the foil, removed some of the excess liquid and basted the roast. It was then cooked for a further 30 minutes. It was then removed from the oven and allowed to rest for 40 minutes. During the resting period I finished off the other stuff that needed to cook in the oven.
It was rather good, and a lot better than the Marks and Spencer one I had a few years ago. It seemed to work much better with the core of the dish been a goose over a turkey.
I was pleased with the roast potatoes, for which I used my regular recipe. Taking King Edward potatoes I cut them into smaller pieces than I normally would, so they would cook quicker. They were parboiled for eight minutes, drained and then roughened up. They were then placed in a pre-heated roasting tray with sunflower and olive oil. As I wanted them to cook quite quickly and there was a fair bit of other stuff in the oven, I dusted them with some plain flour. This helps to crispen them up when there is a lot in the oven or a lot of steam.
I also made my own stuffing. In the build up to Christmas I had tried a couple of fresh shop stuffings and wasn’t too impressed. What I found was that they were too meaty. I much prefer a more bread based stuffing and if it contains fruit or nuts, you can taste them. For our Christmas lunch I made two stuffings, one was pork and apple, the other was a fruit and nut. Using fresh breadcrumbs, fresh herbs, some decent pork sausagemeat, freshly chopped onion, egg to bind; and for one chopped apple, the other a handful of a festive fruit and nut assortment. These were then placed into a foil trays and baked in the oven.
We also had a nice mix of vegetables, parsnips, brussel sprouts, carrots and squash.
Overall I was very pleased with the meal, which was enjoyed by all.
Three years ago I managed to get in time and order a four bird roast from Marks and Spencer.
It went down well, but I did reflect afterwards:
Not sure if I would get it again, there was too much turkey in comparison to the other meats stuffed in there, but still very nice to have a mix of meats. Stuffings were nice as well.
When you look at the ingredients you get an idea why I thought that.
Turkey (66%) • Pork, Brandied Apricot & Cranberry Stuffing (8%) • Goose Breast (7%) • Chicken Breast (5%) • Smoked Streaky Bacon (5%) • Duck Breast (5%) • Poultry Stock • Water • Orange Slice • Dried Apricots • Rosemary • Salt • Ground Black Pepper.
It’s basically a stuffed turkey, the chicken, duck and goose only comprise 17%, but with 66% turkey it’s way too much turkey and at £120 is a little expensive for what is a stuffed turkey.
So what am I doing this year then?
Well, another four bird roast, but this time from Sainsburys. I did consider going to my local butcher, but their’s were too similar to Marks and Spencer’s, basically a stuffed turkey!
The Sainsbury’s version is different in that it is a goose stuffed with turkey, duck and guinea fowl. I will say that this is basically a stuffed goose; it’s 62% goose, 9% turkey and there is 8% duck and 8% guinea fowl. However as I have been meaning to have goose for a few years now, for me this is an ideal choice. It’s only 3.7kg, smaller than the 4.5Kg of the M&S version. It was also a lot cheaper at £80. I thought this was good value for money when you consider how more expensive goose is than turkey.
I am looking forward to cooking and eating it. As is now traditional in our house we will be cooking and eating our main festive meal on Christmas Eve.