Good food in new Good Food

The Christmas Good Food magazine has hit the shops and as I don’t subscribe anymore (because I prefer Delicious and Olive) I grabbed a copy. I also annoying saw that the new Delicious is out but I haven’t received mine yet – seethe! Delicious have done this before, not being very quick with delivering the subscriptions and you see it enticingly flaunting itself in the shops before you your copy turns up. Hmmm.

Good Food has launched a fine new website which definitely seems worth a look and has lots of classic recipes on it. I do like these websites, it really handy when you have a yen for a particular dish or suddenly find yourself with a glut of a particular ingredient especially when I am apart from my beloved cook books. If I find myself in need of inspiration I can consult Waitrose, UK Food or BBC Food and now I can add the BBC Good Food to the list.

December’s Good Food has a recipe for ‘microwave butternut squash risotto’ which does seem perfect for this season and is marked as ‘hassle-free comfort food’. I am not sure about cooking a risotto in a microwave however; as I think I’d really miss the soothing stirring and watching the magical transformation as the hard little grains slowly release their starch to make an unctuous soft, comforting mound of loveliness.

Other recipes that have possibilities are ‘sausage and apple toad-in the-hole’, ‘tear and share garlic bread’, ‘smoked salmon daupinoise’, ‘crab and herby hollandaise tarts’, ‘smoked haddock croquettes’, ‘Parmesan baskets with Parma ham and the rather boringly named ‘no-fuss tart’ which seems a rather pleasing combination of short crust pastry topped with cheddar, honey roasted ham, spring onions, wholegrain mustard and crème fraîche. Brian Turner does a 'mature cheddar and onion pudding' in lieu of a Yorkshire pudding, Rick Stein has a 'monkfish en croute with mushroom gravy', Gary Rhodes has a menu for two with ‘sautéed scallops with mushrooms and spinach’ and ‘slow roast honey and sesame duck’ and Gordon Ramsay and his terribly photogenic family cook up a ‘maple and mustard glazed ham’, ‘bubble and squeak cakes’ and other festive accoutrements. I am starting to devise the Christmas lunch feast - I can definitely see those crab and herby hollandaise bread case tarts featuring somewhere.