The Mains

And onward I trot!....To The Mains!

This was the lovely de-boned Turkey Crown I had from my local Butchers (Edmonstons). It weighed just over 2kgs and took about 1 hour 45 mins to cook in my fan oven. The quality speaks for itself  (especially as they had that many orders for them in all 3 men got lost in the walk in fridge) and the meat was delish. On Christmas day I cooked this simply with sea salt and cracked black pepper on the top, rubbed in with a little oil.

It fed me and Josh well and had plenty left over for a Turkey Gratin.

I got this recipe from the Co-op Magazine

You will need:

• Left over turkey chopped into pieces (enough to cover the bottom of your chosen dish)
• 15g unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 70g pancetta (or bacon lardons if you prefer)
• 1 clove of garlic (I upped it to 2 as i'm a garlic head)
• 25g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp mustard powder
• 600mls of semi skimmed milks
• 80g of mature cheddar
• 55g flaked almonds
• 25g of parmsan cheese

The original recipe suggests using individual ramekins which I have done but this also works well in a larger dish. You will need to adapt amount of ingredients for the sauce accordingly

1. preheat oven to 180 for fan or 170 for normal oven and place the turkey into your dishes to cover the base

2.. melt butter and oil in pan and add the pancetta and fry for a few minutes (I like mine crispy) and add the garlic. Stir in the flour and coat each pancetta cube. then add mustard powder (and a splash of white wine if you fancy) and gradually stir in the milk. The sauce will quicken thickly so make sure you keep stirring. Add the cheddar and season to taste.

3. Add paramsan to the top and cook for around 25 mins. 

This can be used as the main part of a roast or even with some crusty bread. I personally added a little more mustard powder for that punch.

Honey and Mustard Rub Perfect for a Gammon joint

I laced my gammon with cloves then mixed mustard powder with water to create a thick paste. I then added a couple of tablespoons of honey and mixed together well. I used a brush to add the majority of the rub to the gammon then drizzled all over. Cook as normal but keep a keen on the honey to make sure it doesn't burn!

Sorry about the lack of piccys here but Josh is out sledging and pics are on his phone!

Eat Drink and Be Merry

H

xx

Christmas Starters and Sides are here!

Happy Snow Day all - I have some time to write my blog. Hurrah!

So here goes.... The Starters and Sides!

These bad boys are my

Brie and Cranberry Twists.

I cooked these as one of my starters on family day, everyone loves a little nibbley bit. I got this out of mu BBC Good Food magazine and they are super easy and a crowd pleaser (my father-in-law was even enjoying them)

You will need:

• 12 sheets of filo pastry
• 1 block of brie - chopped into chunks
• Cranberry Sauce (I made my own which I will detail underneath)

So you need 3 sheets of the filo pastry to be together, the longest edge facing you. Brush the whole top sheet with a little melted butter. Along the bottom space 3 blocks of your brie equally making sure that you leave gaps at the end too and then add 1 tsp of cranberry sauce per block of brie. Slowly roll the filo pastry away from you so the brie and cranberry are enveloped. Cut out brie blocks leaving enough pastry each side to twist. Brush again with butter and grind a little black pepper. Pop in the oven for around 10 mins and viola!

So you'll want the cranberry sauce recipe. Here goes...This one I got from a tesco magazine for our first Christmas (so about 2 years ago) and i love it. Simple and zingy and def brightens up a simple roast.

Port and Cranberry Sauce

You will need:

• 400gs of fresh or frozen cranberries
• 3-4 tablespoons of port
• 2 clementines, zested and juices
• 75g of caster sugar.

Pop the cranberries, port and clementine zest and juice into the pain. Warm using a medium heat and simmer for 5 minutes until the cranberries have softened. Add the sugar, mix well and leave to warm for another couple of minutes. Set aside and cool at room temperature!

Asparagus, Parma Ham and Camembert Tart

I think out of all the starters this was my favourite. In fact writing about it makes me want to eat it. I cooked this for me and Josh on Christmas Day and did another for games night around Josh's parents house - it all went so i'm assuming that's a good sign.

Find the recipe right HERE!

For some reason I found the hunt for individual tart tins very challenging so opted for one big tart which was great for me as I got the chance to pick away at it on Christmas day night instead of the usual turkey sandwich.

The ingredients, sorry for the blur

torn parma ham and chopped up Camembert

pastry after first cook

ahh lovely asparagus

chopped and separated  May be worth waiting to chop once they have cooled, i was far too keen!

 Out of the oven....YUM!

And Out of the tin!

 The tart was great. I served it up with some rocket salad and a little drizzle of balsamic glaze. In the second tart i didn't quite have enough Camembert so opted for a brie/Camembert mix which worked a treat!

The Alternative Parsnip

This is what you will need - honey, turmeric  cayenne pepper and zests of an orange and lemon.

Prepare your parsnips in the usual way and par boil for around 10 mins. Place in a roasting tin and drizzle with olive oil. Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and  drizzle over a good amount of honey (to coat) a pinch of cayenne and turmeric and mix in. add the zest and place back in the oven until cooked.

The first time I made this I added a *little* too much cayenne and they were very spicy but it gave kick to the roast. Worked well on some roast potatoes too! This is why I adore Thomasina Miers - she is great!

I ate these far too quickly so no photo - sorry guys!


Curried Carrot Soup

Another Tesco classic. Get the recipe from right here!

I cooked this for family day as another optional starter. It manages to make around 6 portions but they arent particularly big. 

love the carrots

The spices I Used

spice covered onions!

The recipe gives you the option to make the cumin snaps, I have made them before and they were lovely but opted out for family day as not everyone likes the spice. Really gorgeous thick soup - I added lots of pepper to make it have that extra kick!

Bacon Wrapped Cranberry Stuffing

Another recipe that I have used for the past 2 years at christmas, the rosemary sprig really adds to the appearance!

The recipe calls that you buy sausages and then remove the meat from the skins but sausage meat is readily available over Christmas from the butchers or supermarket and saves the messing around!

all ingredients mixed together in a large bowl, try not to handle the meat too much as it will make it less tender.

Make the sausage meat into little stumps and tear the streaky back bacon in half if you can (mine from Edmonstons Butchers was really wide so helped when doing this) Roll the bacon around sausage meat mixture (its ok to overlap)

Good thing is if it is a tight fit, adding the rosemary sprig looks pretty and keeps it together

Cook for 30 mins or thereabouts and all done.

These were Tamsin's first sausage meat stuffing balls so I will let her be the judge of what it was like. Fancy one? come and get me :)

Prosciutto Wrapped Bread Sticks with a pesto dip.

By far the easiest of all of the starters to make - there is no cooking!

You will need:

• One pack of bread sticks
• 2 packs of prosciutto
• 125g of soft cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon of pesto (add more according to taste)

Place cream cheese in a bowl, add the pesto and mix thoroughly

Tear prosciutto slices in half and wrap around the top part of the bread stick  Pop them in a tall glass to serve.

I don't think i need to tell you to dunk your bread sticks in the mix, do I?

And there you have it....my starters installment!

Whats your fave of this lot then?

Eat Drink and Be Merry

H x

Epic blog preview

Happy New Year my lovelies….how was everyone’s holidays?

Well, the festive period was certainly a busy one – the busiest one ever in terms of food and cooking! I think that this year I may have overdone my experimenting, some of them I even forgot to photograph, and for that I am sorry.

As this post will be epic, I thought I’d give you a rundown of what to expect to keep you all excited then I can run away and write my backside off!

***drum roll please*** here goes:

Starters and sides…

·         Asparagus, Camembert and Parma ham tart

·         Curried Carrot soup

·         Brie and cranberry twists

·         Prosciutto wrapped bread sticks with pesto dip

·         Alternative parsnips

·         Bacon wrapped cranberry stuffing

·         Port and Cranberry Sauce

Mains…

·         Turkey gratin

·         Honey and mustard rubbed gammon

Puds….

·         Salted caramel chocolate tart

·         Jaffa cake pots

·         Chocolate orange ice-cream

I will also be filling you in on a couple of dining experiences over the holidays at The Parks in Uttoxeter and The Wolsely Arms near Rugeley.

I am hoping to get this all done by the end of the week at the latest. Especially as I have started content for my next instalment. I have a feeling that tomorrow will be a write off as it’s my first day back after a couple of weeks off!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

H x