Khao Soi Noodles

After the carbfest that is Christmas I fancy clean spicy flavours in January so leapt on this easy, delicious dish from Claire Thomson’s The Art of the Larder.

As the title suggests the book is designed to help you make the best of ingredients you may already have to hand and is an incredibly useful and inspirational resource for everyday cooking.

Claire writes: Thai curry pastes add a pungent boost to many dishes. You can make your own, but there are some brilliant versions available to buy fresh or with a longer shelf life. The trick to getting the most out of them is to almost fry the paste along with the garlic, unlocking the flavour, before you begin adding any other ingredients. Use wide at rice noodles here in this fragrant spicy broth.

Khao Soi Noodles

Serves 4

50ml vegetable oil

4 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste – use more if you like it spicy (or less!)

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

4 boneless skinless chicken pieces (thigh is best), thinly sliced (equally, cold leftover roast chicken or pork here will work well enough)

200ml chicken stock

1 x 400g tin of coconut milk

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

200g rice noodles

Put the oil into a medium saucepan over a moderate heat and cook the garlic for about 30 seconds.

Add the curry paste and the spices and cook for another 30 seconds, giving everything a good stir.

Add the chicken and stir to coat in the sauce. Add the chicken stock, coconut milk, fish sauce and finally the sugar. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning, remembering that the fish sauce should make the sauce salty enough.

Cook the noodles according to the packet directions, then drain and divide them between the bowls. Top with the sauce and serve immediately with the garnishes.

GARNISHES

Choose any or all of the below; you want to add texture to the finished noodles:

• thinly sliced raw shallot or red onion • sliced spring onion
• beansprouts
• Thai basil leaves
• coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• mint leaves, roughly chopped
• peanuts or cashew nuts, roughly chopped • limes, cut into wedges
• chilli flakes

What to drink: Even if you’re not doing Dry January I’m not sure I’d drink alcohol with this with the possible exception of sake. Kombucha (fermented tea) would be a good alternative.

From The Art of the Larder by Claire Thomson (Quadrille, £20) Photography: Mike Lusmore

Fromage fort

If you’ve been doing your duty by British cheesemakers you may well have a few odd pieces lurking in your fridge you couldn’t bring yourself to throw away and which are now past their best.

But don’t chuck them. The French have this thing called fromage fort which is a pungent garlicky, spicy cheese spread which accommodates all your odds and ends. (Fromage fort means strong cheese and it certainly is!)

This is not so much a recipe as a method as you just freewheel with what you’ve got available.

You will need

Some odd scraps of cheese that have seen better days (I used the tail end of some Lincolnshire Poacher, Killeen and a washed rind cheese called Witheridge - probably about 175g in total You can use a blue but it tends to turn it a rather unlovely grey colour)

Garlic (I used 2 smallish cloves)

Dry white wine

Cayenne pepper or chilli powder

You will also need a food processor

Trim the rind and any scruffy bits off your cheese and cut into fine slices. Peel and finely chop the garlic

Put the garlic and cheese in the small bowl of your food processor and blitz until crumbly or smooth. How smooth it gets at this stage depends how soft your cheese is - leftover brie will obviously make it softer than cheddar.

Gradually add enough wine to make a spreadable or even dippable consistency. I used about 75ml

Add cayenne or chilli powder to taste. (If you mix it in the spread will turn pink which isn’t a big deal but I think it looks nicer sprinkled on top as in the picture above.)

Serve with crackers, breadsticks or sourdough toast.

If you’re going to eat it immediately you could also add some fresh herbs like chopped parsley or chives but don’t if you’re going to keep it for any length of time. It’ll last in the fridge for a couple of days.

You can use brandy or eau-de-vie instead of wine in which case get the consistency almost right with a little milk or water and add it cautiously, bit by bit otherwise it will taste even stronger!

What to drink: Crisp white wine, rosé, a glass of Beaujolais, maybe even a strong French beer like Jenlain.

Classic cheese ball

The cheese ball is an American party food classic. It’s a little retro, but retro food is fun, and a cheese ball is the kind of thing you can easily posh up and adapt to use your favourite cheeses, herbs, and seasonings.

In its original incarnation, the classic cheeseball contained cream cheese, fairly boring cheddar (typically the pre-shredded stuff you buy in a packet), onion, pimento, and Worcestershire sauce, all of which were mixed together, shaped into a ball, and rolled in chopped nuts.

In recent years, however, there’s been a revival of the cheese ball with clever cooks taking advantage of more thoughtful flavour combinations like feta and pine nuts and blue cheese and dates. When you use good cheese and experiment with herbs, spices, dried fruits, and toasted nuts, a cheese ball can become more than the sum of its parts.

I’m sharing below the recipe for my family’s classic cheese ball. Use it as a starting point for riffing. I recommend always including the cream cheese as it’s pretty essential for binding the ingredients. But do try swapping out the cheddar for other favourite cheeses, adding herbs and spices, rolling in herbs instead of (or in addition to) the nuts.

In the picture shown I’ve used a combination of cream cheese and Wensleydale cheese with chopped cranberries, rolled in toasted pistachios.

Classic Cheese Ball

• 200g cream cheese
• 200g cheddar cheese, grated (feel free to swap it for other cheese or a combination of cheeses)
• 1 tbsp finely chopped green pepper
• 1 tbsp chopped pimento
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• a pinch of salt and pepper
• chopped pecans

Method

1. Mix together the cream cheese and cheddar until well blended (you can use a food processor for this). Add all of the other ingredients except pecans and stir until combined.
2. Chill for 30 minutes then shape into a ball (it might help to put all of the mixture in clingfilm and use that to shape your ball). Roll the ball in the pecans. Serve with crackers (always crackers!).

What to drink: Given cheeseball is party food I recommend party wine with it. A soft juicy red like a merlot or a sauvignon blanc would both work well

Spiced almond biscuits

One of the most captivating Christmas cookbooks is Anja Dunk’s Advent a book of ‘festival German bakes to celebrate the coming of Christmas’. It’s full of the most amazing recipes and beautifully illustrated with lovely photographs and linocuts.

Anja writes: “These biscuits are traditional Advent sweet treats in both the Netherlands, where they are usually eaten around the 6th December (St Nikolaus day), and in Germany, where they are eaten throughout the whole run-up to Christmas.

Usually they’re decorated with images relating to Nikolaus, and more often than not have windmills depicted on them. You can also buy special wooden rolling pins with pictured squares carved into them specifically for rolling this dough out at home. I don’t have one of these and I certainly don’t have the patience to create the intricate decoration it would involve without using one. Instead I use pretty cutters (I think snowflakes work best) to cut out festive shapes.

Usually almond Spekulatius have a flaked almond base, but I’ve switched things up and adorned mine with them on top instead. These snappy (by this I mean crunchy and good to snap) biscuits are best eaten alongside a black coffee and are also brilliant crushed into a powder and mixed with melted butter to create a Christmas cheesecake or chocolate torte base.”

Spiced almond biscuits (Spekulatius)

Makes about 30

150g (1 cup plus

2 tbsp) plain (allpurpose) flour, plus extra for dusting

50g (½ cup minus 1 tbsp) rye flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

1½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp grated nutmeg

120g (²⁄‚ƒ cup) caster (superfine) sugar

Pinch of fine sea salt

125g (½ cup plus 1 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temp

1 egg

To finish

Milk, for brushing

50g (1¾oz) flaked (slivered) almonds

Put all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir with a wooden spoon. Add the butter and mix it into the flour using your fingertips until it has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg and bring everything together into a dough with your hands. (Alternatively, simply put all the ingredients into the bowl of an electric free-standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix until an even dough is formed.)

Heat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/375°F and line two large baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 3mm/1/8in thickness. Cut out shapes with your cookie cutter and gently transfer them onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 1cm/3/8in between each to allow for spreading. Re-roll the dough offcuts into more biscuits. Brush the tops with milk then sprinkle some flaked almonds onto each one, pressing them down gently to ensure they stick.

Bake in the oven for 10–12 minutes until golden all over. Allow to cool on the sheets for a minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container, where they will keep well for up to 4 weeks.

Advent is published by Hardie Grant at £25. Photograph and recipe © Anja Dunk.

See also Ren Behan’s Polish spiced cookies