Holiday Homebrew

Gadzooks! The Holidays just flew by this year, and with them, many wonderful opportunities to mix, match and inadvertently murder our own beloved homebrew of Bellinis.

Christmas Day brought us to Lulu and Sinclair’s kitchen table, where we ate, drank, spat and put the world to rights. There was no spitting actually, there would never be any spitting at Lulu’s table, but we did laugh a lot, and I may have spewed a bit of roast parsnip on to Sinclair’s shoulder. Anyway, this year, Lulu had the good fortune to receive a stuffed goose as a present, flown in directly from France the day before.

The goose from Toulouse- isn’t that an Irving Berlin song?- was a gift from a foodie friend, who apparently 

escapes to France every year, in the days leading up to Christmas, and madly stuffs several geese with chicken breast, duck breast, pork with truffles, foie gras, and other glorious things. She then smuggles them back to England via Ryanair, and distributes them among family and friends… we were only too lucky to be a part of the gander trail. It was succulent, and lovely with Lulu’s own homemade stuffing, roast vegetables, slow-cooked chicken, and other holiday delicacies.

I brought the Bellini mix. Prosecco from Nicholas, the French wine shop, and some FunkinPro white peach puree. Emma, my fruit importer friend, had also given us a huge box of fresh fruit, with some small peaches too. I sliced them and hung the wedges on our glasses. See photo. These Bellinis were pretty, festive, but not very well made I think. Somehow, I’d messed up, though I’d like to blame the quality of the Prosecco. My generous amount of peach puree made them ever so smoothie-like as well.

Never mind, Lulu and Sinclair and Frank thought they were fine, and we had a wonderful meal anyway…

For Boxing Day, we were invited to Edith & Lou’s gorgeous home. Lou made Porchetta, a Roman dish, slow cooked pork loin, around 5 hours, with potatoes in olive oil and rosemary- The crackling alone was delectable, finger-licking good. He made potato gratin, braised cavolo nero and a zesty salsa verde. All washed down with a young Verdichio and a 07 Vinfandel from Francis Ford Coppola’s vineyard.

Edith showed us their large, beautifully landscaped garden which reminded me of the Delano Hotel in Miami, and her new, antique watch, a Christmas gift from Lou and their daughter- Every time she looks at it, they told her, she should remember how much she is loved. The sentiment alone made me all teary.

Besides searching for the right watch, Lou, delightful Bellini convert and devotee, had also apparently scoured the city searching for fresh white peaches. Frustrated, he ended up at the Ivy where Fernando Pierre, Director of the Ivy and Caprice Holdings helped him out with his peachy predicament, as Lou put it. He gave him an early Christmas present, a pro catering bottle straight out of the fridge. Coupled with a Prosecco di Valdobbiadene, these Boxing Day Bellinis blushed in confidence, and were merrily downed. Thank you Fernando!

Lou cooked. And how. We ate so much! We ate, we drank, we fell on the sofa and drank more, had pie and ice cream for dessert with a cup of tea, drank more, a glass of straight prosecco, ate a second dinner, and then watched the wickedly funny Eddie Izzard on dvd. We probably stayed much longer than we should have, longer than any other guests Edith and Lou have ever had on a Boxing Day afternoon, longer than any English, medieval banquet ever lasted. We’d eaten so much, we couldn’t move. But the kids were happy, we were happy, and Lou and Edith were happy.