Recipes

One of the side effects of Christmas is our collective abandonment of sense and reason. For these rare festive weeks alone, we briefly enjoy types of food and music that would repel us at any other time of the year. Even the most fashion conscious and à la mode will, in December, develop a fondness for bright, itchy knitwear, often adorned with flashing lights. We all go a little bit mad.

Food for thought The next day is even better. The Boxing Day turkey curry has become the most hotly anticipated tradition of the season in my house. I use Jamie Oliver’s recipe for ‘Peter’s Lamb Curry’ from his second cook book (back when he was naked and said, ‘Pukka’ a lot), which I prepare in advance on Christmas Eve in readiness. Come Boxing Day, just heat it up, chop up the leftover turkey and stick it in.

Along with our taste, our sense of scale disappears too. On Christmas Day in millions of households, as sure as the turning of the earth, enough food to feed two rugby teams until bursting point will be prepared to cater for a party of roughly eight people.

The last time it was my turn to cook, I was determined to rein in this appalling excess and was very strict with my portion-control. I felt terribly smug and self-congratulatory until I realised that I’d denied our party the best part of Christmas dinner… the leftovers.

No matter that during lunch you fill yourself like a foie gras goose, somehow, miraculously, by the time you’ve sat through the Dad’s Army repeat on BBC1, you’ll suddenly find there’s room left for a doorstep turkey-butty with thick white bread: the highlight of any Christmas Day feast. If you have an ice cream maker, I highly recommend that you pre-prepare a plain vanilla base (you’ll find plenty of recipes online). Take your ice-cream maker out of the cupboard of obscurity that it shares with the toastie-maker and potato-ricer, pour in the base, then add spoonfuls of leftover Christmas pudding (which tends to be about 85% of it). Serve after the curry to your delighted guests.

Breakfast can only mean one thing. Christmas Dinner Leftover Bubble & Squeak cakes! If you made mashed potatoes for the big day, so much the better. If not, make some up the night before so you’re good to go on Boxing Day morning when you’re feeling a little fragile.

From everyone at Paysanne, we wish you a truly happy Christmas and a fantastic 2023.

BOXING DAY BUBBLE & SQUEAK BREAKFAST CAKES.

Serves 8 (approx)

J 1kg Marius Piper potatoes J 40g butter J 500g leftover Brussels sprouts and carrots J 50g plain flour J Salt and pepper J Olive oil J 8 free-range eggs

Cai Ross is co-owner and Maitre d’ of the award-winning Paysanne Bistro in Deganwy, which has been serving French country-style food to the fine people of North Wales since 1988. He also writes for Calibre Magazine, BBC Good Food, HeyUGuys.com and The North Wales Weekly News

First, make yourself a glass of Andrews and put on some gentle soothing music. If you don’t have leftover mash, boil the potatoes for about 15 minutes then drain them. Add the butter and a pinch of salt, then mash until smooth (you can always use that potato-ricer you found next to the ice cream maker). Next, take the leftover sprouts and carrots and finely

chop the lot.

In a large bowl, stir the sprouts and carrots into the potatoes and season with salt and plenty of pepper. When it’s all cool enough to touch, take a handful and shape into round balls. Shake some flour onto a plate and press each ball onto

the flour on both sides, pressing them down so they start to look like thick

hockey-pucks.

Heat a good slug of oil in your biggest, non-stick frying pan and shallow-fry the cakes, four at a time, for two minutes each side. Carefully lift them out and keep somewhere warm while you fry up the eggs. Serve hot, topped with a fried egg (a few rashers of bacon wouldn’t go amiss either if you’re so inclined).

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