so its been a year. For our final entry we went for the now traditional new years eve meal. We cut it fine this year, having gone out and visited a cousin in town till late … we jumped in a cab and headed back home. It was an unfussy dish to blow out the year with.

I’d ordered some steaks from our butcher in Devon, and in the morning before we left the house we’d dumped the steaks in a freezer bag marinading in scotch, salt, pepper and olive oil. When we got in I peeled and chopped some desiree potatoes into thick chips which I parboiled in salted water. I then drained these and drizzled them with olive oil, seasoned, and put them on a grill pan in a hot oven allowing the heat to get to the underside of the chips. 15-20 minutes later as they started to go golden brown I put a stone-baked garlic bread in the oven, put some baby carrots and fine beans on the boil and started to fry off some sliced oyster mushrooms in a frying pan. I then added a halved beef tomato which was seasoned with oregano salt and pepper and continued to fry the contents of the pan until the mushrooms and tomato had caramelised, at this stage I decantered them to to a foil dish and put them in the bottom of the oven.

With the pan seasoned I added the steaks which were given a few minutes on each side till it was rare cooked. The assembly was then just a case of fitting it on the plate. Desert as you can see was an indulgent shop bought chocolate desert with heaps of ice cream.

And with that … you have our year of meals.

I won’t beat aroudn the bush I recycled a recipe, plain and simple. The prawn and dill tagliatelle. Zest and juice of a lemon, a whole heap of oil and pepper fry the prawns, add it to hot pasta and some diced french beans, serve with an exquisite and lazy M&S garlic bread.

Devour the christmas pudding remnants for afters. job done.

From what I can ascertain … a whole heap of turkey, winter vegetables (brussels … obviously) and stock. What makes this meal for me is the honest, down to earth artery clogging dumplings. Plain suet flour and water boiled with the soup completely makes the dish and reminds me I’m home.

It wasn’t all bad, it rejuvinated the dried turkey and was oddly peppered with sausages courtesy of my dad, but it lacked all the complexities of flavour that our huge bean based monstrosities conjour up. It was served with boil in the bag rice, naan breads and popadoms. Interesting … interesting.

Essentially the best bits of yesterdays dinner, sliced, diced, and fried served with a salad in the futile attempt of balancing the calorie suicide that was the bulk of the meal.

starter
prawns, smoked salmon, crisp salad and fresh rolls with home made thousand island dressing

main course
turkey (no surprise), stuffing balls, sausages in bacon, roast potatoes (nicely seasoned) brussels and petit pois.

desert
plenty of my nans three month old christmas pudding with brandy and cream plus optional fruit salad.