Slack Lasagne: Saturday's festive catering: part 2

Part 2

(You can find part 1 here.)

So far my festive catering amounted to a large number of (undecorated) gingerbread (well, multiple spiced) biscuits and a lump of pastry.

Now I really was going to need to get on with the Yule log. First thing was to choose a recipe. I found a few ranging from the very chocolatey to the less chocolatey (I would be interested to know the link between chocolate and Christmas, the best I can make up is that it's a high calorie food to set you up with energy for the winter); with anywhere between 4 and 6 eggs. I eventually settled on a less chocolatey option with 4 eggs. The main reason I chose this one was that it used whole eggs – I didn't have to do any egg separation which is an operation I generally try to avoid. It's ok when it's just one egg (as in the pastry above) but becomes too risky when you've to separate lots of eggs and even riskier when you don't have a good supply of spare eggs.

Other reasons this was the best choice recipe:

* It was titled Bûche de Noel which sounded way more exciting than Yule log. For a while I thought that this translated as “mouth of Christmas” but wasn't convinced this is the right spelling for “mouth”. A quick check in the mini French dictionary confirmed that this is the case; bûche translating as “log” so not really being that much more exciting after all. (For reference mouth is “bouche”, which might be a culinary delight awaiting invention.)

* It used chestnut purée in the filling and I have had a tin of this sat in the cupboard for quite some time.

I measured the sugar (100g) and cracked in the eggs and my thoughts turned to decoration. I needed some small plastic Christmas things to go on top of the bûche. My best bet would be Barbara, my mother-in-law. Although a quick phone call revealed that she didn't own any she was conveniently just finishing “work” (at a charity shop so it should really be called “volunteer”). The convenient thing about this is that it is just next door to the most comprehensive catering shop in Plymouth and she kindly agreed to pick a few things up for me. Then I decided that I'd better go out and get some cream, and then by the time I got back (I had to go to the 2^nd nearest corner shop because the first one didn't have the right sort of cream) I needed some lunch, and then (after a little bit of cheese on toast expertly prepared by Matt) a visitor arrived. It was just before 2pm and I was under the impression that no-one was going to be arriving until at least 5pm. I had based my entire kitchen schedule on no-one arriving until at least 5pm. Nothing was ready for this first visitor but Matt came to the rescue and made some more cheese on toast. And then at about half past two the next visitor arrived (along with some lovely flowers for yours truly).

Since I hadn't really made a start on the “Bûche” I decided I should put this on pause to focus on the “proper” food and get the soup done. This was quite easy to do with sporadic conversation as it doesn't require too much concentration (I make a lot of soup). 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery, 4 leeks and 2 potatoes, all into a big pan with a little bit of olive oil and sweated off. Then after a bit of chatting I added enough hot water to cover it all and then chatted some more until the veggies were nice and soft. Then I poured in some red lentils (I suppose about 2 cupfuls) for thickening and protein and let it all cook a bit more while I chatted a bit more. (Matt would blend and serve later.)

I tried to continue my food preparation whilst not being too antisocial, but came to a bit of an impasse when I came to prepare the tin for the log. The recipe said I needed a 23 x 33cm swiss roll tin. I had a baking tray that was slightly thinner and longer and found some sort of tin that was a bit shorter. I had no idea if this tin was a swiss roll tin. I wouldn't know a swiss roll tin if it hit me in the face. I think this tin must have come from my granny. I was facing a quandary that (in the absence of a hotline to a certain baking doyenne) would best be solved by a call to my mum (also a baking doyenne in her own way). She recommended that I use the slightly shorter tin that may or may not be a swiss roll tin. I lined this and then the next guests arrived, I think it was just before 4pm. This was getting silly. I still had a bowl of sugar and eggs sat on the side, and was expecting a serious arrival of guests in an hour.