food for christmas

Pumpkin Bread

Method:

Empty the bread mix into a large mixing bowl. Measure out 320ml of WARM water and add to it 2 TBS of the olive oil.

Add the liquid to the dry mix and proceed as per packet instructions until you have a ball of dough. Leave to rest for 5 minutes under a clean tea towel.

Knead vigorously on a floured surface for 3 minutes until the dough is smooth.

Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin to a thickness of 1.5 cm and transfer to a flour dusted baking tray.

Poke fingertips in all over the dough so as to create little ‘pockets’ and ‘wells’ in the surface. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to prove for 30 minutes in a warm place.

While the dough is proving, fry the pumpkin and chorizo pieces together over a medium heat, tossing the pumpkin in the chorizo oil until the pumpkin is cooked through.

Remove from the heat and add the sliced onion, smashed garlic, and remaining 6 TBS olive oil. Toss all together well.

When dough has proved, top evenly with the pumpkin mixture, pushing fingertips in again to re-emphasise the dips and ‘wells’ in the dough.

Sprinkle with the grated parmesan, season with a little salt and pepper and bake at 200c for 20-25 minutes until baked and golden brown.

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Canapés

Method:

Slice the baguettes, slightly on the diagonal, into 15 pieces.

Griddle or toast on both sides (no need to bake beforehand).

Spread some soft cheese onto the slices and then top with some smoked salmon.

Top with half a black olive and serve.

Ingredients:

1 x 300g pack of two Ready to Bake Sunnyhills Baguettes

1 x 200g The Cheese Emporium Soft Cheese

1 x 200g Pack Almare smoked salmon slices

Delikata pitted black olive

Ingredients

• 60g/2½oz butter
• 10 fresh sage leaves, chopped
• 1.5kg/3lb 5oz butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, cut into 2cm/1in pieces
• large pinch chilli flakes
• 40g/1½oz parmesan (or a similar vegetarian hard cheese), coarsley grated
• 6 tbsp crème fraîche
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation method

1. Melt the butter in a wide, heavy-based, lidded pan over a low heat. When the butter is foaming, add the sage and fry one minute.
2. Add the butternut squash pieces and chilli flakes. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the squash is tender, stirring occasionally.
3. Lightly mash the squash, using a fork, then stir in the parmesan and crème fraîche until well combined. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

   

   • Ingredients

   • 5 tbsp duck fat
   • 16 medium-sized Maris Piper or King Edward potatoes (each about 175g/6oz)
   • 8 garlic cloves
   • 8 sprigs thyme
   • sea salt

   Preparation method

   1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
   2. Parboil the potatoes in salted water for 7-8 minutes until almost cooked (they will still feel firm when pierced with a knife). Drain thoroughly using a colander, then shake the potatoes around a little in the colander until the outsides are roughened.
   3. Put the duck fat for the roast potatoes into a small roasting tin and heat in the oven for five minutes.
   4. Add the drained, roughened potatoes to the tin of hot duck fat, then sprinkle over the garlic cloves, thyme and sea salt and mix until the potatoes are well coated in the fat.
   5. Return the tin to the oven and roast for 45-60 minutes, or until golden and crunchy.
   6. Ingredients
      • kg/2lb 3¼oz Brussels sprouts, trimmed
      • 8 rashers cured bacon, cut into lardons
      • 250ml/8¾fl oz double cream
      • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
      • salt and freshly ground black pepper

      Preparation method

      1. Cook the Brussels sprouts in a saucepan of boiling salted water for 8-10 minutes. Drain and refresh in a bowl of ice and water. Drain again when the sprouts have cooled.
      2. Add the bacon lardons to a non-stick frying pan, and fry over a medium heat until crisp.
      3. Add the cream and crushed garlic to a small pan and bring to the boil.
      4. Stir the sprouts into the crisp bacon; then stir in the hot cream.
      5. Season with salt and pepper and serve straightaway.
   7. 

      Ingredients

      • 9 medium carrots, peeled, topped and tailed
      • 250g/9oz butter
      • 150g/5½oz sugar
      • 3 tsp salt
      • 4 star anise

      Preparation method

      1. Use a clean scourer to smooth the carrots and remove any peel marks (optional).
      2. In a pan combine 400ml/14fl oz of water, the butter, sugar, salt and star anise. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and add the carrots. Cook until the carrots are tender (approximately 45 minutes) and the volume of liquid has reduced by half.
      3. Serve the carrots as a side dish with the reduced cooking liquid poured over.

         Ingredients

         • 1kg/2¼lb parsnips
         • 125ml/4fl oz vegetable oil
         • 80ml/3½fl oz maple syrup

         Preparation method

         1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
         2. Peel the parsnips and then halve them crosswise, then halve or quarter each piece lengthwise.
         3. Place the parsnips into a roasting tin. Pour the oil over the parsnips and mix them well so that the oil covers all of the pieces.
         4. Pour the maple syrup over the parsnips and transfer the roasting tin to the oven. Roast the parsnips for 35 minutes, or until they are tender and golden-brown.
         5. To serve place on a clean serving dish.

      4. Ingredients

         • 450g/1lb fresh cranberries
         • 300ml/10fl oz ruby port
         • 115g/4oz caster sugar
         • 125ml/4fl oz fresh orange juice
         • 1 tsp corn flour
         • 1 tsp English mustard powder
         • 1 tsp lemon juice
         • pinch of ground cloves
         • 75g/3oz sultanas
         • 55g/2oz flaked almonds
         • 1 tbsp grated orange rind
         • 1 tsp grated lemon rind
         • salt

         Preparation method

         1. Combine the cranberries, port, sugar and orange juice in a pan over a medium heat, for ten minutes, until the fruit bursts.
         2. Combine the corn flour, mustard, lemon juice and cloves with a little water to make a paste and stir into the berry mixture.
         3. Next, add the sultanas, almonds, orange and lemon rind, simmer for five minutes, season and then chill. Serve with your Christmas turkey.

         This crowd-pleasing bread sauce recipe by Nigella Lawson is an easy extra for Christmas Day and is just as good served cold with leftovers. The recipe appears in Nigella's book Feast, published by Chatto & Windus.

         Ingredients

         • 1 day-old loaf unsliced white bread
         • 1 litre/2 pints full-fat milk
         • 1 onion, peeled and quartered
         • 4 cloves
         • 2 fresh bay leaves
         • 1 tsp white peppercorns
         • 2 blades fresh mace or heaped ¼ tsp ground mace
         • 2 tsp salt
         • 30g/1oz butter
         • 2 tbsp double cream, optional
         • 1 fresh nutmeg, for grating

         Preparation method

         1. Remove the crust from the bread and tear the stripped loaf into a mound of rough chunks or cubes about 2cm/¾in in size. You should end up with 175-200g (6¼-7¼oz) of cubes. If the bread is not slightly stale already, leave the pieces out on a wire rack to dry out.
         2. Pour the milk into a saucepan. Press a clove into each quarter of the onion.
         3. Add the onion quarters, bay leaves, peppercorns and the blades of mace (or sprinkle the ground mace into the pan) along with the salt and bring to the mixture almost to its boiling point.
         4. Remove the pan from the heat. Cover the pan with a lid and let the ingredients infuse for at least half an hour, though you can leave it for a few hours if that helps with your cooking schedule.
         5. After the mixture has infused, place the pan back on a very low heat. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves and the blades of mace.
         6. Add the bread to the saucepan and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring every now and then, by which time the sauce should have become thick and warm.
         7. Just before serving the bread sauce, add the butter to the saucepan and stir until the butter has melted and combined with the sauce and season, to taste, with salt.
         8. Add the cream (if using). Grate over quite a bit of nutmeg, adding more once you have poured the bread sauce into a warmed bowl or gravy boat.