Follow the food trail from today’s feast on my Cabinet of Cookery Facebook page. 

I ate the most minuscule of meals for dinner this evening. Tiny. Even by “supermodel” standards, the sort of meal a Victoria’s Secret model would most likely exist on during parade season. I do not make a habit of eating so little, except when I have been feasting throughout the day. As I did so today as I celebrated Orthodox Christmas with my family.

I had actually been eating gradually, ALL DAY. You see as I finished preparing each dish I would set aside a small portion, a sort of tasting plate for myself. Prosciutto wrapped grissini, basil tomato bruschetta, feta stuffed olives… After all I can’t serve up a course unless I have tried it first in case the seasoning or main ingredients need adjusting. It’s a sacrifice of sorts but hey, this responsibility does fall on the home cook – it is enjoyable though.
Now I can’t take all the credit for today’s lunch because members of my extended family expertly made several dishes. I could have easily commandeered the entire bowl of brown rice and vegetable salad that my sister-in-law Danijela made as it’s one of my favourites. Everyone else must have felt the same because there was hardly anything left by the end of lunch!
Of course my mother-in-law’s chicken soup from scratch with hand made noodles made for an excellent entrée. The children would have been happy just slurping down bowlfuls of that liquid gold for lunch, had we not insisted that they also move onto the next course. Bribing them with the promise of dessert also helped. 
It is traditional to serve either roast pork or lamb or both during Orthodox Christmas and so I decided on the latter. A rolled loin of pork was stuffed with apples that had been simmered with maple syrup, fennel seeds and sage. It was sweet and tender and terrifically tasty. The sticky shoulders of lamb were slowly roasted with a mixture of heady spices, then pulled off the bone and drizzled with fragrant pomegranate molasses. 

The secret to successful lamb is to start with a beautifully pink piece of meat, preferably on the bone. Then rub in your preferred herbs or spices and leave for at least an hour in the fridge for the flavours to infuse. I used a mixture of ground cumin and dried oregano, cinnamon and smoked paprika, a little sumac, the juice of a whole lemon and sea salt to taste. Sometimes I add a couple of tablespoons of honey but completely forget to do so today. Then I cover the lot in a baking tray with double foil and roast it for 3 hours at 170 degrees on a conventional setting(150 degrees fan-forced). Finally, turn on the grill to high, uncover the lamb and pop under the red hot element for 15 minutes to brown. Once ready, pull the meat off the bone/s arrange on a platter and drizzle with pomegranate molasses. Serve whilst still warm. 

As for the pork, once again source a good quality free range or organic pork from a reputable butcher. To prepare, I poured boiling water over the rind to open up the pores. Then I dabbed it completely dry with paper towels before rubbing in a good handful of sea salt and drizzling with a little olive oil.  The pork was placed in a heavy based baking dish and 500 mls of white wine poured in. Then into a hot oven at 225 degrees on a conventional setting for 30 minutes to get that rind crackling. Once the time was up, I turned the heat down to 170 degrees (again conventional setting) and roasted the 4 kilo piece of pork for 2 hours. Make sure you  rest the meat for 15 minutes before slicing up onto a serving platter.  

Bowls of spring onion flavoured potato salad, finely shredded cabbage in vinaigrette and a decadent plump fig, rocket and baked ricotta salad provided the perfect fresh flavoured partners to the selection of roasted meats.
As for dessert…a buffet of delights tempted us all – goodbye gluten free for today! Moist carrot cake with cream cheese frosting; textured oatmeal cherry slice; creamy tiramisu and caramel slice sat alongside a double tier platter of fresh seasonal stone fruits.

So you can see why all I could manage this evening was a cup of my favourite Twinings tea and a rosy hued nectarine. Then again, I may do a “Nigella” and nip into the fridge for a late night snack just before bedtime…