Shirazi - Christmas Magic: festive favourites made easy

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First published as a hardback in the United Kingdom in 2012 by Pavilion Books
Old West London Magistrates Court
10 Southcombe Street
London, W14 0RA

An imprint of Anova Books Company Ltd

Design and layout Pavilion, 2012
Text Kate Shirazi, 2012
Photography Pavilion, 2012

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Commissioning editor: Emily Preece-Morrison
Designer: Georgina Hewitt
Photography: Emma Solley
Food stylist: Kate Shirazi
Copy editor: Kathy Steer
Indexer: Patricia Hymans

Ebook ISBN 978-1-90910-816-5

Hardback ISBN 978-1-86205-972-6

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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When I think of Christmas, two clear memories spring to mind: firstly, waking up in the middle of the night, knowing it was far too early to think about putting the light on. Pushing a toe, I would feel a knobbly weight at the end of the bed. A little more toe wiggling would elicit the most wonderful rustling and crackling sound the sound of a very stuffed sock. It would have been one of Dads, chosen for maximum length and capacity. Father Christmas would have done some good work indeed. Much could be gleaned from an investigation with the feet from beneath the blankets. A comic would be poking out of the top and there would be the slight whiff of a novelty soap and maybe a sign that Father Christmas had been to a joke shop whoopee cushions were big business in our house. Memory number two is far more applicable to this book the feasting! Proper, no holds barred gluttony. The two biscuit rule disappeared for a day. There would be cake as well as the obligatory box of assorted biscuits. We knew it was good because there were biscuits after breakfast, crisps before lunch, multiple desserts, tea and then supper too, quite possibly followed by chocolates. If you didnt go to bed feeling mildly unwell, you hadnt done a proper job.

These days, I am less keen on the stuff-it-all-in-in-one-day approach to feasting, but I am still very concerned about the food on Christmas Day being spectacularly delicious. I suspect my calorie intake is much worse than all those years ago because, in fact, I extend the feasting by many days. Instead of the one big blow out, I do rather enjoy lots of smaller samplings. There may be drinks parties, lunches with friends, dinners with family, Boxing Day picnics (a bit of a tradition for us) and general high quality grazing over the period of about 10 days.

Christmas food should be special; out of the ordinary. In my world, far more important than the calorie count, is the is this what I really, really want to eat? factor. The joy of Christmas cooking is that the house smells headily delicious with never-ending wafts of cinnamon, clove and ginger, mingling with roasting meat, red wine, oranges and the foresty, pine whiff of the Christmas tree. Heaven.

I cannot pretend that Christmas feasting is cheap. When I shop, I do want value for money, but would rather have a really splendid, but smaller piece of meat than a larger, inferior one. I want any turkey, goose, cow or pig that gets scoffed to have had a decent life and a decent end. The huge chest freezers in the supermarket full of plastic wrapped giant frozen turkeys make me feel like having a small weep. Those birds are cheap, really cheap; too cheap. They havent been reared or fed properly, and, after their demise, have been pumped full of water. I dont want to be involved in any part of that. The turkey I buy will come from a proper butcher who can tell me where the turkey comes from. Indeed, generally when I order my turkey, it is still wandering around a field blissfully ignorant of some woman in a butchers shop signing its death sentence. It will be so good that not only will we eat it on Christmas Day, but also there will be lots of leftover meat, which will be fought over, and the bones will make the most delicious soup. We will eat the whole thing. I use the very same argument with whatever meat I buy. Buy less, buy better and eat the whole lot. Yum.

My next rant is about eggs. You know whats coming please, please buy free-range eggs. Hens should never be kept in cages. Hens are intelligent, funny creatures that do us a great service by laying eggs. They dont even try to bite you when you remove the eggs. Putting them in cages for a cheaper egg is wrong on so many levels. Wrong, you hear me? Wrong.

When it comes to Christmas cooking, my top tip is: dont drive yourself mad. If you want to make everything and will enjoy making everything, go ahead. No one will think any less of you if you buy marzipan instead of making it or stash some shop-bought shortcrust pastry in the freezer its really good; dont even think of making your own filo (phyllo) pastry. That way madness lies. I never make my own puff pastry. All butter puff pastry from a shop is consistently better than anything I make myself and I also dont like the harsh reality of seeing quite how much butter is involved. I really love cooking but I want to cook what I want to cook, especially at Christmas. Stand up for your rights and dont let anyone bully you into making cranberry sauce if youd rather buy a jar. Life is too short.

Every year I am flabbergasted by the panic buying that goes on at the supermarket during the two days before Christmas. Shops are shut for one day. Yes, just the one day at a push, two. It is like Armageddon is coming and all provisions that will be eaten in the shelters of doom will be of very high quality and frankly, too perishable. Candles, batteries and canned goods are needed in panic situations, not Stilton, smoked salmon and cream. Having said that, batteries are crucial unless you want to see some crumpled, wobbly chinned faces when you realize that batteries are not included. Buy what you need, when you need it. With a more thought-out approach to Christmas food shopping, the bills really dont escalate out of control and the jars of weird stuff in cognac that seemed essential in the supermarket can stay on the shelf and out of your trolley. This is where lists are crucial. I love a list. I cannot pretend that I dont deviate from the list. I defy anyone not to, but with a list, you do actually manage to get what you require in the correct quantities.

The only thing left to say is get the carols on the radio, have a slug of the sherry and Happy Christmas Cooking!