Updated: Select photos available here.

Inspired by too much Saturday Kitchen reading too many food blogs, a desire to reciprocate my mother-in-law’s amazing culinary generousity, and a bit more time than I should have, I collaborated with my brother-in-law James to create a three course meal for Amanda and Ulla between Christmas and New Year. After 6 hours of shopping and cooking, the courses were:

Roast butternut squash soup

Roast loin of pork with crunch crackling with a port gravy, served with
Roast potatoes
Stewed red cabbage with apple and red wine
Shredded and whole stir-fried brussel sprout leaves in a Vichy-style sauce
Golden-syrup glazed roast chanterey carrots

Stewed apples and blackberries with chewy meringues and vanilla ice-cream

It was a fairly spectacular meal and James and I had huge fun creating it – from traipsing up and down Portobello road sourcing all the ingredients (highlight; my not realising a butcher was halal and asking if he had a loin of pork… to be served with the friendly rejoinder “quick, shoot him!”), to managing multiple ovens in the house to get everything cooked on time, to James’ handy timing schedule.

Of course, given my affection for soup I thought I’d give you the low-down on Mr Worral Thompson’s soup recipe from the BBC’s food archives (btw, Pob (my friend who works on the BBC food site!) , if you’re reading this, your search still doesn’t work! I had to dig it up via Google!) — it is awesome. Whilst I’m not sure it was necessary to roast he butternut squash in multiple segments (halves would have worked and reduced cooking time) the final result of the soup was rich, sweet and savoury in one, perfect consistency and really, really moreish. Next time we make it, I might try adding some curry flavouring to add an exotic hint to a very British winter soup. Served with a “cheffy drizzle” of olive oil, this was a perfect winter warmer.

If you’re curious about the rest of the menu, let me know and I’ll write more!