Jamie Oliver's Chicken Liver Parfait

Turkey or Goose, Chocolate log or Christmas pudding, Bread sauce or Cranberry sauce. Just a few of the choices we have to make at this time of the year.

I've been watching a selection of the plethora of Christmas cooking programmes on TV and I have been taken with Jamie's offering. I love the fact that he still shoves a bit of this in and pours over a bit of that 'my son' and that his food generally has the aesthetic appeal of a car crash. It makes me think that it must, at least, taste great.

I've decided to try some of his chicken liver parfait. It looks a lot easier that Raymond Blanc's 'Bain Marie' version, and just as tasty. The fat content is high but someone told me the other day that calories consumed within the next two weeks really don't count - so happy grazing!



1kg raw chicken livers
500g butter (250g melted)
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
1clove of garlic (fried in butter and oil before adding chicken livers)
salt and pepper to season
10 ml brandy

Well if I say so myself that was delicious and much easier than other recipes that I've tried.

We enjoyed an unoaked Chardonnay with this.

Roast Rib of Beef

There are few Sunday dinner meats that can compete with the majesty of a juicy roast rib of beef. It is truly, in my opinion, the king of roast dinners. I sear mine first to give the flavour a head start, but you can just pop it in a hot oven (200°C /180°C fan) for 15minutes per 450g for rare or 20 minutes per 450g for medium. Rub some sea salt, black pepper and light oil into the room temperature meat first.

Beef and Port Gravy

You'll have to excuse the shaky camera work here - my cameraman had gone out Christmas shopping.




I ended up using about 300ml of fresh beef stock; 1.5 tblsp of plain flour; a slug of Port and salt and pepper to taste. Using the fat and juices from the beef makes this superbly rich and tasty gravy.

Delia's Christmas

Although I'd love to think of myself as a bit of a Nigella, in truth, I feel it's Delia with whom I align my cooking style most. 'Sumptuous in the extreme' is the tagline for her new series - I really hope so.

So it would seem that, unless I have a pantry full of homemade preserves and a freezer full of seafood (actually on that point I seem to be okay) then I am not ready for Christmas. In fact, unless I have a month's worth of supplies bursting forth from my cupboards ‘Anderson style' then the holiday season will simply not come to pass at this house.

We're doomed then, you see we don't even like Christmas pudding here and I really don't think that even Delia can tempt us to alter our taste. It would seem that very few people are fond of the more traditional Christmas victuals - and who can blame us - dried fruit; brandy flavouring; impossible to cook moist meat. There seems little point.

It's the way that we conduct ourselves at Christmas that I find fascinating. We shop - myself included - as though the shops will be closed for a fortnight. We wake up early with a drug addicts necessity to successfully purchase every item on the list. We argue with other drivers in the car park over a parking spot. We queue - nothing new there then - up the length of large supermarkets to pay for the items and we invariably have to go back because  'We really don't want to run out of ...'

Roll on holidays - this is Christmas England style!