Recipes and Menus for January

Saucy Dressings aims to complete this post – four weeks’ menus and recipes, plus a few spare by the end of 2021.
Every year an additional week’s menu, with the links to the individual recipes, is added.
For food in season in January, follow this link.
For music to listen to while cooking in January, follow this link.
You might also be interested in these posts:
Week’s menu for January: number one

“All the doors in this spaceship have a cheerful and sunny disposition. It is their pleasure to open for you, and their satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done.”
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
January’s name is derived from the Latin, ianua, meaning ‘door’. It’s the month that opens onto the New Year, you want the first person who comes through your door after midnight to be bringing salt (symbolising money – people used to have their earnings paid in salt, hence the word ‘salary’), or bread and wine (symbolising plenty).
This is the month to take advantage of the scallops, the rhubarb, and the oranges in season.
Saturday lunch:
- coleslaw (why make your own? this one is special), ham and
- best ever baked potatoes
OR
- prawn Tom Yum soup; solution to all problems
OR
- a lively cherry tomato salad for the depths of winter with warm, crusty bread
FOLLOWED BY
- leftover, light-as-air brandy butter biscuits
Sunday evening pasta:
- spaghetti with best ever tomato sauce
Monday evening meat:
Tuesday evening:
- leftovers or night out!
Wednesday evening poultry:
- poulet de Bresse with
- wonderful wedge potatoes and
- roasted translucent vegetables
Thursday evening dinner party:
- starter: scallops with rum and lime
OR
- starter: chicken mousselines with an orange and cardamom sauce
- main course: hog’s back, crispy-skinned, all day and night, pork
- vegetable: with spicy aubergine
- pudding: elegant Nutella cake with rote grütze
OR
- pudding: warm panettone and butter pudding with hot whisky or rum syrup and cold ice cream
Thank God it’s Friday drink:
- Revolver
- serve with Russian roulette pimientos de Padrón
Friday evening fish:
OR
Week’s menu for January: number two
Saturday lunch:
- cheesy-quichy-souffly – a sort of tart/souffle hybrid, a souffle in a pastry case, light, puffy, very cheesy – which is also good when eaten cold the following day. It becomes solid and intense, easy to eat in your fingers, good for picnics and lunch boxes
OR
- dead-quick asparagus ‘souplé… an asparagus souffle made with a tin of soup
Sunday evening pasta:
- with Tuscan (or Lincolnshire) cavolo nero and spicy Spanish chorizo – the creaminess comes from yoghurt so it’s healthy – or as healthy as pasta can be…
Monday evening meat:
- French boeuf bourgignon with English dumplings umpired by Swiss chard. A warming winter stew
Tuesday evening:
- leftovers or night out!
Wednesday evening poultry:
- lime-glazed chicken with peppery rocket and crushed potatoes. The fresh, zingy chicken and the peppery rocket are balanced by the mellow, comforting potato
Thursday dinner party:
- starter: Chamonix winter salad with beetroot crisps
- main course: pomegranate venison
- vegetable: celeriac dauphinois with accents of red onion
OR
- vegetable: a warm red radicchio salad
- pudding: whiskied orange brioche
Thank God it’s Friday drink:
WITH
- smoked salmon canapés (use up any leftover smoked salmon from Christmas)
Friday evening fish:
- happy-go-lucky hake: this is a very simple dish of hake, bacon and mushrooms
WITH
- Asian Cabbage and Cashew Salad, or what to do with leftover cabbage
Week’s menu for January: number three

Saturday lunch:
OR
OR
- a salad of blue cheese, grapes, walnuts and celery – food pairings galore
FOLLOWED BY
Sunday supper:
Monday evening meat:
Tuesday evening:
- leftovers or night out!
Wednesday evening poultry:
- Traditional Family roast chicken
- Broccolini
- Sublime roast potatoes
- Bread sauce
OR
- marvellous mustard glazed chicken with
- Mrs H’s quick travelling spinach with a secret
- and crushed lemony potatoes
Thursday evening dinner party:
- with drinks: married-all-along chipolatas with mustard mayonnaise
- starter: special and Spanish stuffed aubergine starter
- main course: circus pork pie
- pudding: lemon meringue pie
OR
- pudding: bright blood oranges winking through a marmalade glaze over wintry warm steamed puddings
- after dinner: sweetmeat lovechild between Ferrero Rochas and Nutella
Thank God It’s Friday drink:
OR
and to eat with it:
Friday evening fish:
OR
Week’s menu for January: number four

Saturday lunch:
- cabbage forc’d with ham and other goodies
- homemade Maryland hybrid shortbread chocolate chip cookies
Sunday supper:
- Sausages with chutney sauce
Monday evening meat:
- Country Thatched Pie
Tuesday evening:
- leftovers or night out!
Wednesday evening poultry:
- Red Rooster Fried Yardbird
- Aloo Palak (spinach with potatoes)
- Garlic and cucumber raita
Thursday evening dinner party:
- With drinks: pesto palmiers…. or other palmiers
- starter: stuffed portabello mushrooms
- main course: Brazilian style fried chicken with elephant garlic
- vegetable: Portuguese punched potatoes
AND
- vegetable: zesty carrots
- pudding: holy heavenly trinity of caramel, rum, and chocolate – Angel Delight!
Thank God It’s Friday drink:
- Alpine eclipse….. and to eat with it:
- Houmous with sausages
OR
Friday evening fish:
- Christian Taylor’s sea trout
- Hearty, healthy grain and green salad