Big Day. And it's all about the food!
Naturally, I rose later than I should have, and realised there was quite some food preparation that probably should have been done the previous day. So I did my usual Christmas Day thing of rushing around and almost forgetting to eat breakfast. This leads to the first glass of champagne being drunk on an empty stomach and being sent straight to my head, which is a poor foundation for the rest of the day.
I did get round to having some scrambled eggs.
For our starter I had planned Scallop Ceviche but Jimmy was unsure he would like them this way. We compromised by ceviching one each and searing two each. I broadly followed this recipe and would highly recommend it: My favourite dish: Andrew Turner's scallop ceviche with avocado. Lack of attention to detail meant that I used all the avocado for the avocado purée, and, lacking light soy sauce, I used dark. I should probably have wiped the marinade off the ceviche but it didn't affect the taste. Definitely doing that recipe - and variations on it - again!
I'm not really into Christmas but I do like fancying up the table a bit and lighting some candles. The crackers were spectacularly poor - the present being 3 stickers with stars on them. an all-time low, I think.
The lighting didn't help photographing the food, and I was getting steadily merrier, so the one photo I took of the turbot was dismal. A pity because it tasted delicious. I used this Pan-fried turbot with champagne sauce, leeks and sprouts recipe but it needs re-writing - thankfully I noticed this a few weeks ago and didn't cook the fish until after the sauce had been repeatedly reduced.
We had great plans to stuff ourselves with all sorts of foods, but other than a handful of chocolates later in the evening, the only other food I had all day was shop-bought Christmas pudding. Life is too short to make Christmas pudding, especially when there is a Marks and Spencer in town.
I was served too large a portion and left quite a bit of it!
