Guess what? Our Christmas tree is up!!
If you're a North Londoner then you should head down to Kentish Town station as fast as your crumpled Ugg boots can carry you to grab yourself a good 'un. They've still got loads and they're far better value than I've seen in Garden Centres for a while, plus it seems more natural to be bartering on a street corner so you can go ahead and push your luck a little.
We did just that and had a lot of them shaken out so we could choose our lady Fir (she's a big girl). What she lacks in height, she makes up for in girth. She nestles in her little corner perfectly too.
Once we had bought our tree we picked up some red wine, ingredients for my new Christmas burgers and headed home to decorate and celebrate. The rest of Sunday was spent, dancing around the living room listening to Christmas tunes, decorating Fir, the room and ourselves.
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| St. Mark's Basilica, Venice: The discerning advent calendar of choice |
I love using Christmas as an excuse to totally kitsch up our living room. I'm a massive Jeff Koons fan, so if I had it my way everything would look like Carnaby Street in December all year around. A little bit of Venetian glamour in the form of The St. Mark's Basilica advent calendar makes for a great Christmas table centrepiece surrounded by scented candles.
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| Red roses and glitter sprayed fircones on the window sill |
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| Our new impeccably tasteful friends (can be bought in large Paperchases) |
Christmas Burgers: Venison burgers with cranberry sauce, cinnamon-caremalised onions and cheese, served with sweet potato, courgette and maris piper fries.
Ingredients:
Venison burger patties (I make my own with venison mince, egg yolk and breadcrumbs but you can buy them in a surprisingly wide range of supermarkets these days too - lamb is a great substitute otherwise)
1 large white onion
1 large sweet potato
1 large maris piper
2 large courgettes
2 egg yolks
Plain flour
Breadcrumbs
Olive oil
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Salad (as you like - for inside the burgers)
Cranberry sauce (for spreading on the patties)
Mature cheddar (enough for a slice each)
4 irish rolls
Recipe:
First off heat your oven to 200 degrees and put a deep roasting dish with 1mm in the bottom in to heat. Meanwhile cut up your festively coloured chips. Your sweet potato and normal potatoes can be cut into skin on 1.5cm x 1.5cm beauties, but your courgettes will need a little more attention. Halve the courgettes in the middle, then cut these into thin strips - about 2-3mm in width. Take the potato and sweet potato cut chips and dust with flour and seasoning before placing them into the hot oil roasting dish. Check back on them after about 20 minutes and give them a shake to turn them. They should take about 1/2 hour it total and may need some of the oil dabbing away once they're done.
Cut up your onion into 1mm thick discs and place in a frying pan with a little olive oil, a drop of honey and your spices. Brown the onion slowly whilst you prepare your courgette. Separate the yolk from 2 eggs and place in a medium sized bowl, take another bowl of a similar size and pour a little flour and breadcrumbs into the bottom. Mix together with your hand. Now place all your courgette strips into the egg yolk and move them around until they're evenly covered. Once this is done, heat a large frying pan with a little oil on a high heat and one by one take a courgette strip, dip it in the breadcrumbs and place into the frying pan - you may need to do 2 batches, as each strip should be making contact with the pan until it's browned. Turn the strips as they brown on each side - this should take 3-4 minutes per side. Your onions should have browned up by now, at which point place to one side and cover to keep warm.
Now it's burger time. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and cook the burger patties, allowing 4-6 minutes per side depending on how well done you like them. It's safe to have venison rare, even though it's a game meat - I always do but as you like it. Whilst your patties are cooking, gently brown the tops of your halved burger buns. I actually do this by placing them on top of the toaster so they crisp up in strips and don't get stuck inside, but an oven grill is ideal too. Now chop some leuttice and cut slices of cheese. Once your burgers are a minute away from being done, place cheese slices over them so that they melt.
I like to spread cranberry sauce and mustard on the lower bun, place the pattie ontop with the cheese, followed by the Christmassy onion, as it melts the cheese more. A nice spicy Rioja will go the best with this dish, as it brings out the cinnamon. Enjoy.
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