Last night was going to be a quiet night cooking for Beloved’s Grandmother’s party today. The doorbell rang once. The Aunt and English Uncle appeared, and stayed for a drink. The Sherpa appeared to help with the cooking. The Brunette arrived with The Eldest Daughter from Manhattan. The Guitarist and his daughter turned up. The Lovely Teenager decided to stay another night. Beloved’s Brother suddenly appeared, looking shell-shocked by the number of people in the kitchen.

It was a perfect, Big Chill-ish type of night, with The English Uncle and The Guitarist strumming guitar, the rest of us drinking wine, and everyone staying for an impromptu dinner.

I will say that on the weekends I am always prepared for more people than we expect. We have the kind of house where people, quite literally, appear in the kitchen. Few bother to ring the doorbell, and it is not unusual for us to look up and see someone we love striding through the dining room. Which means, I always have enough food to feed the masses, just in case.

Last night I made a huge turkey curry with the leftovers, and there’s still enough for a couple of turkey pot pies for tonight. The English Uncle described the dish as being ‘a very gentle curry’, which is a perfect description.

Turkey Curry

2 to 3 lbs Cooked, diced turkey
1 can coconut milk
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 small bunch cilantro (I buy it cubed and frozen, made by Sabra, and keep it in the freezer, turning out around 6 cubes)
2 crushed cloves garlic
lemon grass (not essential, but delicious if you have it, and useful to keep if ever you fancy Thai. Again, mine is in a tube, kept in the fridge)
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
Seasoning.

I have used lots of guesswork with the quantities, and I would advise you to taste and change as you see fit. The good thing about these sorts of dishes is that you can be entirely flexible. You don’t need the lemongrass, or cilantro, although they add a certain delicacy, and honestly, if you were in a hurry, the curry powder alone would be enough.

Gently sautee the onions and garlic until soft. Add mushrooms.
Add can of coconut milk, and all seasoning.
Add turkey, simmer on low for around half an hour to allow flavors to hold.

Serve with white basmati rice.

Flowers for the hallway, and for The Volunteer.

Table flowers, and yes, those are peas. I wouldn’t normally do pink, but the flowers are also doubling for a party on Saturday night, and the honoree adores pink and purple orchids.

Mini-me laying the table.

The lovely Teenager, who helped with everything, particularly keeping Mummy sane…

More flowers - I adore those parrot tulips, and white and green are my all-time favorites.

Mini-me and the eldest son

Beloved carving.

Beloved and The Actor, catching up.

Me with the Beautiful Guru

The Maniac and Boots. Not sure who is more adorable.

The Eldest Daughter and The Maniac, Beloved and I

Lunch is served…almost

Leftover turkey sandwiches for dinner!

I am not a screamer, nor am I the type of woman who gets over-emotional.

Except when I’ve had seven nights of no sleep.

Today, I turned into a screamer. Happily, it wasn’t at the post-tonsillectomy terrible twosome, but unhappily, it was at The Republican, who, I believe, is sunning himself in Florida while I have been unable to work for two weeks, and am up to my eyes in medicine, sleepless nights, and crying Smalls.

This is when being a single mother aint so much fun.

Point being, after my mini nervous-breakdown, The Chef and The Volunteer turned up, unannounced, at ten O’clock this morning, and shooed me out the door.

‘Where am I going to go?’ I said.

‘Anywhere. Go get a manicure,’ they advised.

I went to get a pedicure. I looked such a fright I didn’t go to the usual place that is filled with all the smartest ladies in town, but some hole in the wall place that was empty. When I got back, The Chef had made me a cauldron of chicken soup (In actual fact I first typed children’s soup, which will give you an idea of my frame of mind…), and The Volunteer volunteered to pick up sushi.

This evening The Chef turned up and took all four of my children out to dinner, and The Sherpa is now upstairs reading to them, while I sneak out to The Sherpa’s house for a night, so I can get a decent night’s sleep.

You think your family live on the other side of the Atlantic, then you find out they are surrounding you.

Thank you to all of you. I couldn’t do this without you. You have my unending gratitude and love.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle

The first thing The Sherpa does is make gingerbread, which frankly, seems to me to be absolutely bonkers. The Sherpa is a wonderful cook, but she and I cook very differently. She likes fine, French food, and I like throwing things together, very easily, and eating family style. We threw a dinner party for her last year, and I asked, casually, whether she had any recipes she might like us to cook. ‘Oh yes,’ she said, her face lighting up. ‘I’ll bring them over tomorrow.’

The next day she appeared with a sheath of papers.

It was about three inches thick.

Apparently, whilst I was reading it, all the color drained from my face.

So, back to the trifle. The Sherpa does it all from scratch. I would strongly advise a gingerbread mix, adding the fresh and crystallized ginger to give it some zing.

If, however, you are like The Sherpa, you will want to do it from scratch, and even though I will think you are nuts, here is the recipe for the gingerbread:

Ingredients for the Gingerbread:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup dark molasses
1/2 cup apple juice
2 eggs
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Butter and flour a 10″ Springform pan. Heat oven to 350°.

Stir together flour, cinnamon, cloves, ground ginger, baking soda, and salt in a container.

In a large bowl, mix sugar with oil, juice, molasses, eggs, and fresh ginger in a large bowl. Mix in crystallized ginger. Stir in flour mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Then bake for an hour. Cool this for ten minutes, then remove from the pan and cool completely.

Pumpkin Custard Ingredients

3 cups half-and-half
6 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups puréed pumpkin, or about 1 1/2 cans

Scald the half & half in a heavy saucepan (which means take it to the edge of boiling, them remove from heat).

Beat  eggs, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Mix in pumpkin and half-and-half.
When it is smooth put in buttered baking dish which you then put into a bain-marie: put dish into larger baking dish, and fill larger dish with hot water to about 1″ below the rim of the custard dish.  Bake this at 325° for 50 minutes and start to check it. You want a set, firm custard and a knife inserted into the center should come out clean. Cool and refrigerate overnight.

To assemble your trifle get your trifle bowl out - I do have a couple of gorgeous crystal bowls left over from my wedding gifts all those years ago, but glass is fine too.

Whip one quart heavy cream with 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, then fold in 1/4 cup crystallized ginger, and set aside.
1/2 cup of gingersnaps or gingersnap crumbs

Spoon 1/2 of the Pumpkin Custard into the bowl and layer 1/2 of the gingerbread over that and 1/2 of the whipped cream over that. Do it again. Top the final layer of whipped cream gingersnaps, or gingersnap crumbs, and, if you like, drizzle with Calvados.

Only about three million calories a serving, but worth it, and who counts on Thanksgiving???

I have lifted this almost entirely from Delia Smith, who has the best Coulibiac recipe I have ever eaten, so my apologies and thanks…

Ingredients
1¼ lb (560 g) salmon tail fillet, skinned
1 x 375g pack of ready-rolled fresh puff pastry
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white basmati rice
1 cup fish stock
1 medium onion (or shallots), finely chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, finely sliced
1 level tablespoon chopped fresh dill
1 level teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 hardboiled eggs, roughly chopped
1 1/2 level tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
seasoning

To finish:
melted butter
1 egg, lightly beaten.

Pre-heat oven to 350.

First melt 1/4 cup of the butter in a medium saucepan and stir in the rice. When the rice is coated with butter, add the stock and a little salt and bring it up to simmering point, then stir well and cover with a lid. Cook the rice for 15 minutes exactly, then take the pan off the heat, remove the lid and allow it to cool.

As soon as the rice is cooking, take a sheet of buttered foil, lay the salmon on it and add some seasoning. Then wrap it up loosely, pleating the foil at the top and folding the edges in. Place it on a baking sheet and pop it in the oven for just 10 minutes – the salmon needs to be only half cooked. After that remove it from the oven, open the foil and allow it to cool.

While the salmon and the rice are cooling, melt the other 2 oz (50 g) of butter in a small saucepan and gently sweat the onion in it for about 10 minutes until it softens. After that, add the sliced mushrooms and half the dill, then carry on cooking gently for a further 5 minutes. After that, stir in the lemon zest and juice, some salt and freshly milled black pepper, and allow this mixture to cool.

Next, take a large bowl and combine the salmon, broken up into large flakes, the hard-boiled eggs, the remaining dill and half the parsley. Give all this a good seasoning of salt and freshly milled black pepper. Next, in another bowl, combine the rice mixture with the onion, mushroom and the rest of the parsley, giving this some seasoning, too.

Now for the pastry. What you need to do here is take it out of its packet, unfold it and place it lengthways on a lightly floured surface, then using a tape measure, roll the pastry into a 14 (35 cm) inch square. Now cut it into 2 lengths, one 6½ inches (16 cm) and one 7½ inches (19 cm). Lightly brush the baking sheet and surface of the pastry with some of the melted butter and lay the narrower strip of pastry on to it. Then, first spoon half the rice mixture along the centre leaving a gap of at least an inch (2.5 cm) all the way round. Next, spoon the salmon mixture on top of the rice, building it up as high as possible and pressing and moulding it with your hands – what you’re aiming for is a loaf shape of mixture. Then lightly mould the rest of the rice mixture on top of the salmon and brush the 1 inch (2.5 cm) border all round with beaten egg.

Next, take a lattice cutter if you have one and run it along the centre of the other piece of pastry, leaving an even margin of about 1 inch (2.5 cm) all round. Brush the surface of the pastry with melted butter, then very carefully lift this and cover the salmon mixture with it. The idea here is not to let the lattice open too much as you lift it, because it will open naturally as it goes over the filling. Press the edges together all round to seal, then trim the pastry so that you’re left with a ¾ inch (2 cm) border. Now using the back edge of a knife, knock up the edges of the pastry, then crimp it all along using your thumb and the back of the knife, pulling the knife towards the filling each time as you go round. Alternatively, just fork it all around.

If all that’s too complicated, which it is for me, and frankly, I’ve never found a lattice cutter, just lay the second sheet of pastry over the top, prick a pretty pattern with a fork, cut out some fish shapes and stick them on with egg wash.

When you’re ready to cook the coulibiac, raise the oven temperature to 425°F and brush the surface of the pastry all over with beaten egg and any remaining butter. Now place the coulibiac on to the high shelf of the oven and bake it for 20-25 minutes until it’s golden brown. Remove it from the oven and leave it to rest for about 10 minutes before cutting into slices and serving.