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No, no New Year Resolutions. Just hopes. For good health for another year for all of us, and for moves towards a more peaceful world in which the future for our children and grandchildren can be assured.
Christmas for my many Cypriot friends and acquaintances involved souvla for the majority, but a fair number preferred a large bird. Like the lady who cuts my hair: “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a turkey”, she said.
For us, it wasn’t turkey, but a “Roll Up”. A fresh goose, boned by our friend Sir Hugh (pictured as he was doing the business with admiring audience), flattened and covered with, in turn, layered slices of filleted duck, a boned chicken and savoury stuffing based on Snack brand sausage meat. Rolled up and tied, then cooked on Christmas Eve, it sliced beautifully on Christmas day, to be oven-warmed and served with a gorgeous gravy made from the cooking juices, a little redcurrant jelly and a generous dash of Port.
It was good, everyone said, and I enjoyed it. But the stand-out for me as always is the honey and vinegar glazed Snack gammon, baked and laced with orange liqueur. Why buy imported ham when these lovely joints are produced here?
The platters were completed with traditional Brussels Sprouts, Hungarian red cabbage and potatoes roasted in goose fat.
Left-overs are often frowned upon by gastronomes, but what better than slices of cold poultry and gammon with a really good chutney (see below for where to get some). Or finely chopped mixed meats incoporated into a risotto or pasta dish? Or, as we did to finish off the last bits of “Roll Up” and gammon, in Croquettes?
As for the wine, the goosey, gammony flavours demanded something red and full and what better than the bold New World style of the bouncy Greek from Evia Greece: Avantis 2007 Syrah? Bags of fruit, good but manageable tannins and well balanced oak. It took on all the flavours and complemented them perfectly.
After all this and other festivities and friends and family had departed we decided to celebrate the arrival of 2010 asleep, having earlier despatched some chicken escalopes with a glass or two of Ruinart Champagne.
Happy New Year!
