Christmas Dinner.Sunday December 26, 2010

There are not many things I miss from my life in the United States. The obvious ones being the children (some of the time), good friends, my garden etc. I’m sure that not many people would come up with missing an oven, but yesterday, cooking Christmas dinner I really missed mine.

Let me explain. It is not any ordinary oven. It is a 60 inch, cast iron Aga in claret red. Part of it stays hot all the time, giving not only constant heat and instant cooking, but warmth and comfort. It makes the kitchen THE place to be on a cold winter’s day and I miss it very much.

I was 14 years old when I saw my first Aga. I was babysitting for a couple in the next village and they had a red Aga in their kitchen. I fell in love with it and decided that one day, I would have exactly the same. I came close to having one when we were living in Surrey, just before the whacky lifestyle of traveling around the world kicked in. Just as well we didn’t spend the money then, because we were only in that house for a few more months before we headed off to the Far East. That house was rented and then sold when we moved to the United States in 2000.

Fast forward a further four and a bit years. After eighteen months in the States, two months in Israel, eighteen months in Stockholm and a further eighteen months in Paris we were back in the United States. The first house was sold and a second one bought. Only this time with the promise that I could re-do the kitchen and finally have my Aga. Whenever you say to someone (who knows about them) that you have an Aga there are two questions. What sort do you have and what colour is it? Mine is a two oven, gas, claret red. In addition, I have something called a “companion”. It is a standard stove, exactly the same colour as the Aga and made to look like an Aga but it isn’t. It is a regular stove that you turn on and off. Great for New Jersey summers that are so hot it makes nonsense to keep the Aga running pumping out heat that only competes with the air conditioning.

In total I have a hot oven ( 420 degrees F) a cool oven (at about 220 degrees F), a regular oven, a convection oven, a plate that can boil water in what seems like an instant, a cooler plate that is great for simmering, a 4 burner gas hob, and a grill (broiler to the Americans) I am in cooking heaven.

Cooking is a delight, never a chore and for a housewife that spends a lot of time feeding a family of four, that is such a bonus. Dinner parties, no problem – the capacity for producing food with an Aga is limitless and for everyone that has one, there is no other way to cook. For everyone else – bad luck.
Even professional cooks have them for their personal use. Jamie Oliver – white. Martha Stewart – baby blue.

So I miss my Aga. Never more so than yesterday. Here in Sao Paulo I have a pathetic oven that is so small that most of my pans don’t fit. There is one shelf and with heating elements at the top and bottom it means that you can’t put anything on the floor of the oven or near the top for fear of it burning. It often does when I forget.

Trying to cook two turkeys – I figured that one large one wouldn’t fit – roast potatoes, bacon rolls, sausage stuffing, bread stuffing, four different vegetables, gravy and steam a Christmas pudding whilst at the same time trying to keep everything hot and warm plates and serving dishes was going to be quite a challenge.

Steve, bless him had a great idea. Why not use the Barbeque? Fortunately, in the land of red meat and open fire barbequing, we had brought with us our American size, gas barbeque; complete with five burners, side burner and enough capacity to cook at least 50 hamburgers in one go. Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?

With an hour to go before serving time, the turkey was almost cooked and finished off in the barbeque, along with the sausage stuffing, plates for warming and a couple of serving dishes. That left room in the main oven to cook roast potatoes, bacon rolls and bread stuffing. The gas burners had vegetables, gravy and the Christmas pudding – phew. A first – Christmas dinner courtesy of the barbeque – who would have thought?

So no, I am not missing New Jersey too much. Especially, now that I have tackled and succeeded in cooking Christmas dinner,

It also helps that yesterday was about 84 degrees and the sun was shining. Contrast that with the UK that is in the midst of one of the coldest Decembers on record and New Jersey that is expecting 20 inches of snow tonight.

I’ll stick with Sao Paulo for the time being – Aga notwithstanding.