The Casson family traditional New Year's Day meal is BBQ. Specifically, BBQ on Calblanque beach in Murcia, conversing with friends, scouring the sands for driftwood to build a fire, which we later then light to warm us as it gets dark, and generally making the most of the day off.
Having had a quiet New Year's Eve, Dave and I chose to forgo the pub and stay home on the 1st. We pottered around, cleaning, tidying, writing letters, watching TV and plotting out projects for our new home. For dinner, after such a rich meal the night before, we opted for a simple crab linguine loosely based on a Ben O'Donoghue recipe from the BBC. His recipe involved passing brown crab meat through a sieve and later adding white crab meat to the dish. I hadn't been able to get white crab meat when I did the shopping on the 30th - too close to New Year's Eve! And, frankly, I could not be bothered passing the meat through a sieve and I am sure that Seafood & Eat It had prepared the crab so that it was all ready to go.
As O'Donoghue's recipe suggests, I boiled the fennel with the linguine. Meanwhile, I heated the crab in a pan with butter, lemon juice, white wine, a touch of paprika and fresh coriander. When the pasta was ready, I mixed the crab sauce through and served it topped with some fennel fronds and a little dollop of caviar that I had left over from the night before.
If you read The Scotsman article you will note that there is a theme to New Year's Day food in that it tends to be symbolically circular. Well, I served my dinner in a round bowl, that should surely count!
