Finally: the holidays are here. It has been a rather full-on, top-speed, no-time-for-sitting-around autumn and winter, and so last night I celebrated by holding a holiday feast.
I spent all afternoon plotting with recipe books.
Outside on the balcony, the weather was frightful. I harvested armfuls of kale and pak choi plants which had decided to bolt in the milder temperatures of the past few weeks.
And with the help of candles, a gorgeous poinsettia and some wonderful carols on the radio, the flat started to feel marvellously Christmassy.
The best bit about this Christmas holiday celebration was the two bottles of wine that had arrived for me in the post that morning. Stowells Light had asked me to review some of their rosé wine, which was hardly a chore, so I agreed.
The big boasts of this wine are that it contains just 60 calories for a 125ml glass, which is 30% less than a typical glass of wine, and it is only 5.5% proof. I was quite curious as to whether this would mean the wine would be boring and disappointing, but this fortunately wasn’t the case, as it would have cast a bit of a dampener on my holiday feast.
As I tucked into the wine while cooking the feast, I found it had a wonderful full-bodied taste: sweet, but not too sweet, fruity and not at all acidic. This isn’t a wine that makes you feel a bit squiffy after a few glasses, which I welcome, not least because I’ve already had enough full-strength wine at Christmas parties and drinks receptions over the past couple of weeks as it is, and also because I love drinking wine to be sociable, not to be a bit squiffy.
As for the feast itself, here’s what I cooked:
Starter:
Rosemary flatbread with smoked applewood cheddar, caramelised red onions and a dash of paprika on top.
Main:
Chicken and honey tagine with raisins and apricots, lemon cous cous and sauteed pak choi and kale.
Pudding:
Homemade brownbread ice cream garnished with violas.
Afterwards, we sat down with our last glass of rosé, feeling wonderfully chatty, and watched a trashy film with a bowl of homemade popcorn. That’s what holidays are all about: good food, friendship, and good wine.
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