a grain-free family christmas

With four passionate cooks in the family – my three sons Sam (the photographer for my cookbook), Alex (about to open a new restaurant @ogofcardiff), Louis (our expert on eastern cuisine) and myself – great joy is had in discussing the finest detail of what to serve for Christmas dinner. Since my childhood there has been a tradition of cooking the festive meal whilst listening to the Christmas Eve carol service of my father’s college, Kings, on the radio. With the main preparations done, Christmas Day afternoon is reserved for a bracing walk up the Black Mountains to sharpen our appetites for the ensuing feast.

Louis’s partner Jess preparing Brussels sprouts (left) and Alex bringing a dish of roasted root veg to the table on Christmas Day (right).

We can be lots of people: all my family – that’s to say Sam, Alex and Louis and their families, often my sister Ali and hers, and the occasion is always enriched by the company of our wonderful international music students. We welcome everyone with some ‘natural’ French bubbly and large green Spanish Gordal olives. Our meal begins with a clear beetroot soup (found on page 30 of my book) inspired by the Polish barszcz, served at the beginning of the Wigilia (vigil) feast. Poles traditionally fast during the daylight hours of Christmas Eve and then, at dusk, the youngest child is sent outside to watch for the arrival of the first star. On its appearance, the family shares pieces of oplatek (Christmas wafer) and wish each other joy for the forthcoming year with a kiss. Barszcz is light, tasty and so pretty – a gorgeous way of starting Christmas dinner.

The habit of having something to carve for Christmas dinner appears to die hard. I cannot help but to feel that this is somewhat counterintuitive for vegetarians – but having one centrepiece dish that is ritually shared amongst the gathering is surely the point. For me, the term ‘nut roast’ conjures up a dead weight for the digestive system, but the recipe for what I call ‘mock goose’ (see page 123) – full of toasted cashews, sunflower seeds and creamy Rosary goats’ cheese from Ty Caws – delivers something entirely different. (The absurdity of the English eighteenth-century creation of mock turtle soup has always amused me, and Lewis Carroll’s mock turtle in Alice in Wonderland is a splendid character – so why not ‘mock goose’ for Christmas?)

The family (minus Sam, who is behind the camera) gathered round the table for our Christmas dinner

The mock goose is always served with a creamy mushroom sauce with a touch of fresh tarragon and a hint of tamari (see page 124). Our favourite stuffing is prune, olive and mushroom (see page 125) and we also serve a very simple but tangy cranberry relish (see page 124) that includes a whole orange – flesh, skin, pith and all. Alongside, we have roast carrots, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes to complete our main course. There is a pause for beautiful artisan sheeps’ cheeses, made by Andy and sold weekly in Cardiff’s King’s Road Yard market. Perhaps Don Quixote’s favourite Manchego and a mature Brie deliciously oozing around the plate! We eat these with a light winter salad of rocket, young spinach and lettuce leaves from the garden.

But I suspect that, for most of us, the pièce de resistance is the dessert. Over the years I have made excellent grain-free vegetarian Christmas puddings, full of organic dried fruits, almonds, carrots, ground mace, ginger, allspice and cloves and, of course, brandy. (Blanching the almonds in boiling water and trying to remove the skin without burning one’s fingers is one of Alex’s earliest cooking memories). But, as is the case with many families now, Christmas pudding has fallen from favour. To take its place, I had the idea of a Christmas bombe: saffron and pistachio ice cream with a thick layer of bright, beautiful raspberry sorbet on the outside. As you’ll see when I post the recipe later this month, the bombe makes a spectacular finale to Christmas dinner. Its shape is appropriately reminiscent of the erstwhile Christmas pudding – you could even stick a sprig of holly on top if you are so moved. It has intense flavours to delight and is deliciously light after the Christmas Mock Goose.

Happy feasting to you and yours!