I am tired of turkey!!!

[Judith in France]

I have decided that next year, always looking forward, it will be goose!!

[Malcolm Loades]

On 30/12/2021 12:03, Judith in France wrote:
> I have decided that next year, always looking forward, it will be goose!!
>

My lot (8 of them this year) are not keen on Turkey but love chicken so
I cooked 2 x 2kg Creedy Carver dry plucked hens.

Next year I plan on both a 6 month old Cornish Celtic cockerel and a hen
from lyonshill.co.uk or possibly only the hen and a Cote de Boeuf.

Malcolm

[Brian]

Judith in France <judith...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> I have decided that next year, always looking forward, it will be goose!!
>

Goose is a bit too fatty.

Depending on how many you need to feed, have you considered duck?

We roast one now and then.

[Graham]

My father used to rave about Worral-Thompson (sp) a tv cook who roasted
a goose directly on the oven shelf, with the fat dripping onto the
potatoes roasting below.

[Graham]

I can live without turkey as well. With all the restrictions, I have
just experienced my second xmas without. I usually go to my d-i-l's
parents on xmas eve when they serve their turkey. There would have been
several families there who were not in my cohort, so I didn't go.
I did take a seafood lasagne to share with my son's family on xmas
night. That has been a tradition for many years. Last year I delivered
it but didn't stay.
Graham

[Malcolm Loades]

On 30/12/2021 15:47, Graham wrote:

> I did take a seafood lasagne to share with my son's family on xmas
> night. That has been a tradition for many years.

We too have a tradition which never varies on Christmas Eve. Roast
Honey Glazed Gammon, Cauliflower Cheese and crispy fried potatoes. The
gammon is always served as one of the Christmas lunch meats so cooking
it for dinner the night before lessens the Christmas Day load a little.

Should there be some cauliflower cheese leftover that's another veg for
Christmas Day.

Malcolm

[Malcolm Loades]

On 30/12/2021 15:40, Graham wrote:
> My father used to rave about Worral-Thompson (sp) a tv cook who roasted
> a goose directly on the oven shelf, with the fat dripping onto the
> potatoes roasting below.
>

His name has hardly been mentioned in the past 10 years, let alone any
tv appearance. He was caught and admitted shoplifting wine and cheese
from a Tesco supermarket.

Malcolm

[Graham]

I missed that. I was extremely busy with work then and didn't have time
to keep up with all the news from the UK.
Presumably he felt entitled!
Graham

[Judith in France]

I have decided on going away!!!!

[Judith in France]

Graham can I have your seafood lasagne recipe please?

[Judith in France]

Gosh we had exactly that too on Christmas Eve although I cheated and bought the cauliflower cheese.

[Judith in France]

How very sad he did that, I liked his gruff and straight cooking.

[Graham]

It's an Anne Willan recipe and everyone raves about it. It is from her
book in the "Look and Cook" series that are long OOP.

Here is her recipe. My only modifications are to use ready-to-bake
lasagne sheets and to make double the amount of the sauce that is
specified here as I have never made a lasagne of any type where there
has been sufficient. This year there was some sauce leftover along with
some sole and shrimp so I added some salmon and made a fish pie with the
usual mashed potato topping. It is a fiddly but not difficult recipe.

Seafood lasagne (Anne Willan)

250g raw prawns
250g scallops
500g lemon sole fillets
2 shallots
30g butter
60ml white wine
15ml vegetable oil
250g fresh or dried lasagne noodles
90g Gruyere cheese
Salt, pepper

For the Sauce (I make double this amount)
small onion
500 ml milk
1 Bay leaf
6 peppercorns
500g plum tomatoes
175 g mushrooms
30g butter
30g plain flour
150ml double cream
6-8 sprigs fresh basil and parsley
1.25ml crushed chillies, more to taste

Prepare the seafood, shell shrimp if need be. Rinse scallops with
cold water, drain and pat them dry with paper towels. Cut very large
scallops in half. Cut the sole fillets into several pieces.

Peel the shallots and separate into sections if necessary. Slice
horizontally towards the root, leaving the slices attached at the
root. Slice vertically, again leaving the root end uncut, then cut
across the shallot to make fine dice.
Heat the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the chopped shallots and
sauté stirring, until soft but not brown, 1-2 minutes. Add the prawns
and scallops and season with salt and pepper.
Cook over medium heat until the prawns turn pink and the scallops
become opaque, 2-3 minutes. Add the white wine and bring just to
boil.
Remove the pan from the heat. With a slotted spoon lift out the prawns
and scallops and reserve them Set the cooking liquid aside.
Making the sauce
Peel and quarter the onion. In a saucepan, combine the onion, bay
leaf, milk and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, then cover and keep in a
warm place, 10 minutes. Meanwhile, peel, deseed, and chop the
tomatoes. Wipe the mushroom caps with damp paper towel and trim the
stalks even with the caps. Set the mushrooms stalk-side down on the
chopping board and slice them. Add the sliced mushrooms to the
reserved prawn and scallop cooking liquid and simmer 2 minutes. Set
aside.
Melt the butter in another saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the
flour and cook until foaming, 30-60 seconds. Take the pan from the
heat; let cool slightly, then strain in the milk. Whisk to mix.
Return to the heat and cook, whisking constantly until the sauce boils
and thickens, 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and simmer
about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Pour the double cream into the white sauce and then whisk vigorously
to mix. Strip the parsley and basil leaves from the stalks and
coarsely chop. Stir the herbs into the sauce with the crushed
chillies, salt and pepper. Set the sauce aside.
Peel and chop the tomatoes (or use canned chopped).

Fill a shallow saucepan with water, bring to a boil and add the oil
and 15ml salt. Add noodles one by one and simmer until just tender
3-5 mins for fresh 8-10 for dried.

Heat the oven to 180/350 degrees. Butter the baking dish. Ladle one
quarter of the sauce over the bottom of the prepared dish and arrange
half of the prawns and scallops on top.

Cover the sauce and prawn mix with a layer of noodles. Put the fish
pieces in one layer on top of the lasagne. Coat the fish with one
third of the remaining sauce and cover with lasagne noodles.
Add the rest of the prawns and scallops followed by half of the
remaining sauce, then cover with the remaining lasagne noodles. Ladle
the remaining sauce evenly over the top. Sprinkle with gruyere.

Bake lasagne in the oven until bubbling and golden brown on top, 30-45
minutes.