New Year’s Eve is one of the most difficult gigs to cater. The whole evening is geared towards inducing euphoria, although a sigh of gratitude that we can now all go to bed, or at least get on with watching Jools Holland, is the most you can muster if you’re over 40. No meal is really up to that task. I’ve done the whole edible-gold-leaf-in sauternes-jellies thing, and spent days preparing lavish meals (most of them during the 1990s), but I’ve given all that up now. Even if you go casual, you can end up in the kitchen resentfully cooking on your own. There was a memorable pizza party (the pizzas were homemade, of course) for friends and their children that I just couldn’t pull off, despite having a double oven. Those who ate the first pizzas were still hungry for more when the fourth lot were going into the oven. I wanted to cry. Pizzas from M&S would have been difficult enough to juggle, but doing your own without a pizza oven (those things cook pizzas in seconds) was sheer stupidity.
My New Year’s Eve Chinese-inspired dinner – also attended by children – was another epic fail. A meal that requires you to make lots of dishes doesn’t get off the starting block. The low point of the night was watching the kids – aged between seven and 11 – picking up pork meatballs with chopsticks and firing them at each other. That was when I decided ‘no more’. Since then, I’ve cooked more doable dishes – Marcella Hazan’s slow-cooked leg of lamb with juniper berries was perfect, as all I had to do was keep turning the joint over in its pot. But this year, I don’t want to do anything at the last minute.
この記事は BBC Good Food UK の December 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は BBC Good Food UK の December 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
'I make food that's multipurpose'
In our series on managing the rising cost of living, we asked you how you're adapting and for your tips on making the grocery shop go further
Subtle flavours for sunny days
Enjoy the many May bank holidays with something dry, refreshing and fruity
Kung Pao & Beyond by Susan Jung
Editor Keith Kendrick indulges his love of fried chicken with this celebration of the whole bird
'THE WORLD'S BEST'
Sandwiched with meringue and cream, this light and airy Norwegian party cake is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser
The power of growing your own
Growing veg offers more than sustenance for some, be it a means to connect with their country of birth, or a way to recreate flavours enjoyed overseas. Here I speak to growers - for businesses and at home - about why they got into it and what it means to grow your own
Our school dinner meals go down a storm
A desire to pay it forward led Samantha Couzens to meeting her best friend Penny Hill, and the pair have been cooking together ever since
Johnny Godden's fish & chips
The boss of Cornwall's Flying Fish Seafoods shares his favourite recipe, evoking memories of his childhood
watercress
Rich in vitamins and minerals, this salad leaf also adds a fresh burst of peppery flavour to a variety of dishes
let's eat more fish
Try this nutritious midweek main that's effortless to make and counts as two of your five-a-day
veggie weekdays
Go meat-free Monday to Friday and enjoy more of your five-a-day with these cost-efficient recipes