Pernici is the Italian word for partridge (singular: pernice).
In Maltese it’s hagel (singular: hagla).

Ours was a traditional Mother Debono (Mum, I salute you, cooking for 25 people, with no help allowed, is no joke at 69, you are a tower of energy!) Christmas lunch. Started off with Parma ham and melon as a canape with the pre lunch drinks whilst watching the Pope deliver his blessing (a family tradition dating back…oh, ever since we had TV). Then the fun started. A nice aljotta for starters, (as we always have fish on Christmas and New Year’s Day, another tradition much followed in my Matrice) followed by Mum’s excellent cannelloni with home-made bechamel, followed by roast stuffed capon, a baron of beef with Yorkshire pudding and a duo of date and confittura stuffed pork belly and suckling piglet (divine) with roast potatoes (mum does them in goose fat, something she learned form a St Dorothy’s nun in the 1950’s) and baked duo of broccoli and cauliflower, with Maltese sausages on the side, followed by a huge Christmas pudding (the suet one) and home-made custard, followed by a Christmas cake that my mum had been feeding with single malt for the last month, log and assorted pastini, washed down with copious amounts of wine (the only choice I am allowed to make, so I chose a Barolo and my current favourite, Greco di Tufo Mastrobernardino), after-dinner sherry (a Fino made by a friend in Jerez de La Frontera, who sends me a cask every year) washed down with copious amounts of our last reserve of Whittard’s Earl Grey tea. No wonder I am more like a bloody roly-poly than usual. It’s enough to last me a week. Incidentally my mother then whips up the most amazing pies from the leftovers, something that she does tomorrow.

We usually have pernici (don’t know what it’s called in English, Daphne, maybe you can enlighten me, I think they are a type of quail) from the guy who takes care of our fields, but he didn’t have any this year.

Incidentally, Daphne, do you hang the pheasants before cooking them. I believe you have to hang them by the tail feathers until they fall off. Is this true?

[Daphne – Mario, I am no longer thin. I don’t know what pernici are – but they are not quail as those are summien. Pheasants have to be hung, yes, but only when you’ve just killed them yourself. The ones you buy over the counter are ready sorted. I got mine from the butcher at Arkadia, Portomaso. They’re flown in fresh from France.]

Our Christmas lunch was non traditional.

Parmiggiano souffle (using left over egg-whites from another dish)
Whitebait & onion rings (mainly for the younger ones)
Cream of butternut pumpkin soup
Fillet steak with baked potatoes and vegetables
Cheese board with Roquefort, Parmiggiano & Chevre
Creme brulee (using blow torch Christmas present from daughter)
Averna

Look forward to controversial writings next year…..have a great one!

[Daphne – Serve the cheese between the main course and pudding/dessert, or not at all.]

This year I opted for a change in menu – from bland old turkey to fish. We had smoked salmon, tuna and swordfish carpaccio with some king prawns and Parma ham.

Next we had salmon ravioli. I wanted to have those large fresh ravioli from Pavi, but I hadn’t been there for a while and was disappointed on Christmas Eve to find out that the fresh pasta shop at Pavi had closed down. Had to settle for the small frozen packets. Turned out delicious anyway.

As main course I cooked some salmon fillets with a herb and sun-dried tomato crust, some fresh veg and broccoli. I had prepared some croquettess too, though we forgot these in the oven!
After some cheese and crackers, it was time for my dad’s pudding and M&S’s delicious Christmas cake.

May I wish you and your family a prosperous New Year.

[Daphne – The same to you, too. It’s incredible how many things get forgotten in the oven and refrigerator in the confusion.]

I wish you and your loved ones and all your bloggers the true meaning of Christmas today and always and a prosperous new year

Anthony

[Daphne – Thank you, Anthony; and the same to you all, too.]

God jul!

[Daphne – I think we should explain that ris a la Malta is the traditional Swedish Christmas dessert, which is similar to English rice pudding, but with the juice from imported Maltese oranges stirred in, hence the name. Of course, Maltese oranges no longer come from Malta, but from Tunisia – another field in which we’ve failed miserably at capitalising on our assets.]