Food signups!

[nopseud]

I'm putting together a poll for trips (and investigating afternoon tea options), so there's still time to make a suggestion on this post if there's something that you'd like to do in Bath.

Meanwhile, here is the annual call for volunteers for cooking and minioning in the kitchen. There will be the traditional Pies on Friday, Sunday will be Christmas in June, and Thursday is usually taken care of by leftovers. So we're looking for volunteers for four evenings.

If you're planning to make a traditional Christmas contribution to Sunday, please leave a comment here with what you'd like to make, so we can make sure we have a good spread of different options. To start that off, Pen will be bringing a turkey.

The kitchen this year is quite bijou, so please keep that in mind when planning your meals, although anything that requires larger surfaces for rolling out etc can probably be done in the dining room.

Comments

[saba1789]

Afternoon Tea \o/

Definitely up for minioning! Not sure I want to cook again but lemme think about it. Will also have to ponder Christmas cooking. Maybre Kartoffelklöße??

ETA: will there be gravy? then I'm def suggesting/making Kartoffelklöße. Also, our traditional Christmas dessert of Wackelpudding (basically jello) with vanilla sauce.

[nopseud]

There will definitely be gravy. The Kartoffelklöße look great -- would you like me to bring my potato ricer?

Looking at the wiki page suggests that you'll probably need to bring the Wackelpudding mixes over with you. At least, I'm 100% confident that you can't get woodruff flavoured jelly in Morrisons. Actually this is a good representative sample of the kind of jelly flavours it's easy to get here.

[saba1789]

Um, my family has never made Kartoffelklöße from scratch so my plan was to just bring packages with me actually :DDD:
Was also thinking the same for the Wackelpudding :) (we always have red and green)

[stellamira]

Will there be more sides? If not, I will happily eat Kartoffelklöße, but if you don't want to bring that many packages, my family always makes Semmelknödel from scratch and we could do half and half? (Although I am also willing to learn to make Kartoffelklöße, I'm just not sure if people would enjoy the first tries. :D )

[saba1789]

If you wanna do Semmelknödel I'd be all for it!!

[fleurrochard]

I mean, I can definitely bake Christmas cookies for dessert? (I absolutely have gluten free recipes. :D)

[nopseud]

Ooh, Christmas cookies! I used to have a German coworker who made Christmas cookies and they are the best :-)

[fleurrochard]

:D
I will consult my recipes then...

[saba1789]

We should have Vanillekipferl!! Which I can also do if you'd prefer to make something else :)

[fleurrochard]

We totally should have Vanillekipferl, but I was thinking of making some sort of macaroon, so I'll let you do that. ;)

[ephemera]

I plan on bringing with me a homemade Christmas Cake (Somerset Fruitcake - sadly not gluten free)

If an additional festive vegetable is needed, I could do either red cabbage, or baked swede, or roasted peppers with fennel and tomato?

[nopseud]

Christmas cake and any of those veggies sounds perfect.

[pensnest]

I'd vote for red cabbage, if it could be done in a slow cooker? (Or perhaps either of the others might also be done in a slow cooker?)

[ephemera]

I haven't made it in a slow cooker, but I'm sure it could be. The suede can be ovened in advance and reheated in a microwave, and the peppers are intended to be ovened in advance and served at room temperature, if cooker space is the issue?

[saba1789]

I don't like cooked peppers so I'd rather you made one of the other options.
I can also just not eat them but since there is other things on offer I wanted to mention it.

[ephemera]

So I'm popping some recipes here, as I'm super happy to have "what's available in the supermarket when you go to stock up" decide which veggie side. I make, and for convenience when designing a shopping list - it will be easier to check here than in three different recipe books from another city ;)

Braised red cabbage with apples

For each head of red cabbage, two sharp eating apples, or one cooking apple, one large onion (red for consistency) + nutmeg, cloves (ground or whole, whatever's going to get used elsewhere) red wine vinegar (or white or cider) Maybe two or three heads depending on what else is on the menu?

(Can be done on the stovetop, in the over, or, I am pretty sure, a slow cooker.

Baked Suede

2 large swedes
400 ml single cream
200ml dried breadcrumbs
1 egg
molasas or brown sugar, but I sometimes skip that step.
nutmeg, ground ginger.

(Needs a decent sized casserole dish, and oven space, but works well to make ahead and reheat in a microwave.) 175c, 1 hr.


Roasted peppers

Equal numbers of largish red peppers and small or medium sized bulbs of fennel ("a serving" is half a pepper, but not everyone will fancy these, but leftovers won't be a problem, so maths is total #people divide by two?) One tin of whole canned tomatoes per four peppers. Black pepper, olive oil, lemon juice.

(Needs a roasting tin (180C, 1 hour), but to be cooked in advance, and served at room temperature the next day.)


Other things. Has someone proposed a veggie Non Turkey thing? What I have for *actual* Christmas every year is Quorn Roast. If you want me to bring one with, I have one in the freezer I can bring down, although I would expect a good-sized supermarket to have them year-round Cranberry sauce from a jar with a slug of port mixed in is traditional with this, and I wasn't smart enough to buy one of those port minatures back in January, and our supermarket isn't selling unseasonable cranberry sauce. Other things I have in hand and can bring with if it's useful, veggie gravy granules, and packet stuffing mix, for, lo these things are traditional unto me ;)

(The fruit is soaking for the cake as I type)

[ephemera]

Also, Wensleydale cheese and apples, to go with the cake?

[rikes]

Will minion!

[sperrywink]

I can minion too

[stellamira]

If you need more vegetables for Christmas dinner, I could make honey-glazed carrots.

I'll volunteer for cooking duty, I just have no idea what to make? Causa, maybe, if people don't mind that this is traditionally a starter and eaten cold. Essentially, it's mashed potatoes filled with whichever, so a vegetarian option is easy to do.

[turlough]

Honey-glazed carrots sound delicious!

[chalcopyrite]

For Christmas in June, I'll also put my hand up for cookies (baking and eating!), and our other traditional Thing is porter cake. If I can find an oat stout, that can be gluten free.

I can also cook one of the days... the usual spaghetti or something else if I get inspired.

[saba1789]

Yay your spaghetti!!

[msktrnanny]

I’ll cook. Anyone have anything ‘American’ they’d like?

Also happy to bake cookies or make candy for the festivities. And some sort of side dish. Will consult with the other USians about that.

[turlough]

I can cook! If you haven't all gotten tired of my chicken yet I can do that again. Or I could mix it up a bit and use chili sauce instead of mango chutney in the sauce :-)

[saba1789]

Never tired of your chicken!! And I'd prefer mango chutney to chili sauce.

[turlough]

Chutney chicken it will be then :-)

[fadedsouls]

YAY!! Love your chicken!

[pensnest]

\o/ After all, you may eat it all the time, but *we* only eat it once a year. Hmm. Maybe you could do more, so there are seconds?

[msktrnanny]

Glad to see requests have been made, I look forward to your chicken every year!

[turlough]

Looks like my chicken has become a Camp tradition :-D

[fleurrochard]

I'll happily minion. :D

Also, I could make my chocolate cake if that is wanted? ;)

[saba1789]

CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!!! Which I just made yesterday because it's the easiest and tastiest cake!! <3

[fleurrochard]

It is, isn't it? :D
Regular, or mint-chocolate?

[turlough]

I vote for regular!

[fleurrochard]

Regular it is then!

[nopseud]

Ooh, regular, please!

[fleurrochard]

That can be done!

[turlough]

I've been pondering the logistics of bringing some of my mother's pickled herring since there won't be time enough to make it at Camp. (It needs to be made at least four days before eating.) I'm going to consult with her but I THINK it might be possible.

Oh yes, sadly the small kitchen will preclude making Swedish gingerbread cookies. I could bring some shop-made ones, though they're not really the same. Or I could maybe make some traditional Swedish Christmas candy. I'll try to remember to bring some recipes.

[nopseud]

Oooooooooooh, home-made pickled herring! {bounces} I hope the logistics work out.

Christmas candy sounds fun. I'll bring my weighing scales.

[turlough]

I'm fairly sure it will be possible *keeps fingers crossed*

Do you have a cooking thermometer you could bring too? Otherwise I could always bring my own.

[nopseud]

I have this meat-probe style thermometer that I'm planning to bring anyway for the turkey, but I don't know how well it would work for sugar.

[turlough]

It looks very much like the one I use and that works just as well with sugar as it does in the oven so I think it will be fine. (And if it doesn't I just have to use the old-fashioned method of testing a dollop in cold water :-)

[fadedsouls]

I can minion for sure.

Can't think of anything to make, but if anyone knows of any Norwegian stuff they want me to bring or make, let me know and I'll see what I can find.

[nopseud]

I started reading about Norwegian Christmas food, and now I am drooling. Roast belly pork is a great choice for Christmas. The dry-cured lamb ribs sound really interesting, too. And I really, really want to try rakfisk, but that sounds like the kind of thing that you probably can't take on a plane :-)

Maybe gingerbread, or some other kind of biscuit/cookie?

[stellamira]

Have we decided on a (rough) cooking schedule? If I'm cooking and depending on what I might need to bring some things or recipes. (Also for the Christmas dinner, if Saba and me should make two kinds of Klöße/Knödel.)

[nopseud]

Sorry for the missing schedule! I'll get on it right now. We have three empty nights and four volunteers, so maybe you could share an evening with KC, so there can be cheesy and non-cheesy options?

Definitely make the Klöße/Knödel. They sound yummy.

[stellamira]

Oooh, good idea sharing with KC.

Don't worry, I was mostly asking since you need dried bread rolls and/or pretzels for the Knödel, and as far as I understand, most bread rolls available in the UK are the soft, slightly sweet kind? Or ones with seeds on top? I could bring some from home, then, and I should probably buy them tomorrow so they'll dry till Sunday.

[nopseud ( as admin)]

Morrison's bakery and their pre-packaged rolls are a fair representation of the kind of bread generally available here.

Bath is a bit of a foodie place so there might be specialist bakeries that would have the right stuff. I wouldn't want to guarantee that, though.