Place the cream, milk and sugar in a pan and scald, (this means bring up to heat but do not boil). Take off the heat and leave to cool for a couple of minutes. Whisk the egg yolks with the salt. Pour the slightly cooled milk on to the eggs whisking all the time, return the custard back to the pan and on a low heat cook until the mixture thickens slightly and covers the back of a spoon, don't be tempted to rush this stage, it will take approx 4 minutes, and if you turn your heat up to high you risk turing the custard into scrrambled eggs.
Remove from the heat and leave to cool for approx 1 hour.
Pour your custard into your ice cream maker and churn for 20-30 minutes until soft firm peaks. Crumble in your Christmas pudding and mix well, pour into a tub and place in the freezer to finish setting, this will take a couple of hours. Enjoy with a warm christmas pudding, mince pies or on it's own.
Love love love this time of the year when everyone makes that extra special effort and all the lovely warm aromatic spices come out to play, I love to make my christmas mincemeat a few months before I am going to need it so that the warm brandy and mixed spiced oranges can work their christmas magic in creating the most sumptuous rich decadent boozy brandy orange spiced mince pies.
Glorious Old Fashioned Mince Pies
Ingredients
Old fashioned short crust flakey pastry
450g plain flour
110g cold lard diced
100g cold butter grated
180ml ice cold water
1 lrg pinch of salt
1 beaten egg wash
100g light brown sugar
The Boozy Mincemeat
5 kilner or glass storage jars
1ltr lady or earl grey tea
500g currants
500g raisins
500g sultanas
400g suet
1/2 bottle of good brandy
100ml orange liqueur
250g citrus peel
2 oranges zest and juice
500g soft dark brown sugar
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground ginger
In a large bowl add the currants, sultanas, raisins, citrus peel, orange zest, juice, mixed spice, ginger, and the hot tea, mix well, cover and leave over night if you can for the fruit to absorb all the liquid. Next add the fruit mix to a large saucepan along with any liquid that is left in the bottom of the bowl, add approximately a third of the bottle of brandy, orange liqueur and the sugar, bring to a bubbling simmer and reduce until you have a thick syrupy glaze, when you can drag your wooden spoon through the fruit and you can momentarily see the bottom of the pan it is reduced enough, remove from the heat and add a generous glug of brandy and the orange liqueur, stir in and leave to one side to cool down slightly.
Once your fruit mix is only just warm, add the suet and stir in, then heat your oven to 200 degrees, pop your sterilised (basically super clean and dry) jars and lids into the oven for 5-7 minutes to sterlize, remove your jars from the oven and fill with your gorgeous boozey orange mincemeat pie filling, I like to finish off the filled jar with another wallop of brandy or flavoured liqueur at this point, seal the lids and leave to mature for a couple of weeks or months, these make great christmas gifts and awesome mince pies for friends and family.
To make this great pastry place the flour and salt in a large bowl, add the cold grated butter and cut through with a knife, add the cold cubed lard and roughly rub into the flour, you don't want a breadcrumb texture you want large rough chunks of lard as this will melt during baking creating lovely airy flakey pockets. Add the water and bring together to loosely form a ball, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for half an hour before using.
Roll out the pastry and using a scone cutter cut out all your circles then either place a generous spoonful of your gorgeous mincemeat in the centre of the circle, egg wash the sides and then pop another circle on top and gently push the edges together, these are old fashioned flying saucer mince pies, alternatively you can line a muffin tin and make mini mince pies, why not get creative by cutting out a star or heart from the top of the pastry lid.
Egg wash the tops, sprinkle with light brown sugar and bake at 200 degrees for around 15 minutes, then share with friends, family, neighbours and the postman.
Christmas Dinner Left Over Pie
I love making this old fashioned Hot Water Crust French pie, I am not as traditional these days as I was when I first started making this pie in this fluted French tin for my market stall (search bar has recipe) which would be a layered game pie with a brandy chicken liver pate force meat, but I found I rarely got to use this tin. So nowadays I enjoy using this tin for special pie moments like Christmas Day Left Over Pie, I always use my hot water crust pastry with home rendered crackling lard the best ever melt in the mouth pastry.
Ingredients
(serves 4-6)
Hot Water Crust Pastry
450g plain flour
1 egg beaten
220g lard
10g salt
180ml hot water
1 egg beaten for egg wash
Pie Filling Ingredients
(this can be any fillings you want)
Left over turkey meat
Left over roast potatoes
Left over gravy
Left over cranberries
Left over stuffing
Sea salt and black pepper
Method
First make the hot water crust, place the water and lard in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, in a bowl place the flour and salt and cut in the beaten egg, pour over the hot lard and bring together with a wooden spoon and as soon as you can handle the dough knead for a couple of seconds and form in to a ball.
Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees C, grease the sides of your pie tin. cut off on third of the pastry and leave to one side, this is for the pie lid. Roughly roll out the remaining pastry to about an inch thick and fold in to the tin to line, press the soft pliable pastry in to all the ribs of the tin and up the sides, trim off any excess that is hanging over the top of the pie tin.
For the pie lid, roll out the remaining pastry and place the tin on the pastry, cut around the pie dish. If you have any left over pastry cut out some decorative leaves or hearts for the top.
Now to layer, I went with cranberries first followed by turkey, stuffing, gravy, repeated that again and then finished off with crushed roast potatoes and Brussels sprouts, if I had more cranberries I would have finished off with a final layer. Egg wash the top of the pasty and place the pie lid on the pie, crimp the edges and decorate the top with leaves, skewer a small hole in the centre of the pie.
Brush the pie with egg wash and place in the oven to cook for around 35-45 minutes until golden and crisp. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin. The pie is ready to serve, but I like to egg wash the sides and pop back in the oven for 10 minutes to set the glaze and then serve.
Serve with creamy buttery mashed potatoes and fresh sprouts and any left over gravy.
Left Over Christmas Cheese Mac n Cheese
This is one of the best left over dishes ever!!! I just love the thought of all the left over Christmas cheese, heck any cheese anytime of the year, being used for the ultimate Mac n Cheese. I will admit that I prefer macaroni or linguine above penne pasta when it comes to this kind of oozey cheesy sauce, however penne pasta is what I had in the larder when the craving took hold and that is that!
INGREDIENTS
(Serves 4)
1 ltr Jersey top gold milk
1 small onion whole
3 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
100g butter
100g plain flour
500g strong cave aged cheddar like Montgomery
(Any left over cheese will do)
Salt and white pepper
Fresh ground black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
Peel the onion whole and using the whole cloves as a stud pin the bay leaf to the onion, pop in the milk and bring to almost a simmer, take off the heat and leave to infuse while you make the roux.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour, keep stirring over a low heat and cook out the roux for five minuets, start to add the milk, a ladle at a time, stirring all the time until all the milk has been absorbed, now on an almost simmer cook out the sauce for 20 minutes, stirring every minute or so.
PAXTON WHITFIELD AGED CHEDDAR TRUCKLE
Funny story, years ago when we first started to become more interested in food we had this TRUCKLE for Christmas, we did not really enjoy the cheese, because we did not realise that the outer was a muslin cloth, this we had eaten as a crust on the cheese !!!! I still do not know how we managed to do that! We still blame the wine !
Season your white sauce with a hint of salt and white pepper, a touch of nutmeg and some freshly ground black pepper then add your grated cheese, the amount of cheese will depend on your left overs and taste buds. Gently warm through until the cheese has melted and you have a smooth sauce.
Cook your pasta and drain, toss in the sauce, now Italian's are more about the pasta and less with the sauce, with this dish I am all about the sauce and less about the pasta! It is the oozey sumptuous rich creamy moorishness of the cheese, a lip smacking gorgeous dinner.
Pour the pasta into a oven proof dish, sprinkle more cheese over the top and pop in the oven for 20 minutes to brown off then enjoy.
Mini slow braised steak and Guinness pies, Yorkshire puddings stuffed with rare beef and horseradish cream topped with fried onions, Mini hand pie pasty’s filed with Beaujolais wine braised lamb and red current jelly, hand raised pork pie, pork and Stilton old spot sausage rolls and rare meat platter along with plenty of cheeses and sour dough rustic bread.
This is a all at once cook, I start with the jelly first as it needs a couple of hours to render down while I make and cook the pork pie. I think of pork pies as a two day tease, this is because the pork pie needs to rest over night before pouring in the jelly and setting again overnight in the fridge ready for the excitement of sharing, giving and eating with everyone on day two or three.
Ingredients
(serves 6-8)
Hot Water Crust Pastry
600g strong plain flour
2 beaten eggs
7g Himalayan sea salt
5g white pepper
1 tsp fresh chopped thyme
110g lard
110g butter
240ml water
The Pork Pie
800g pork shoulder diced
200g belly pork minced
200g bacon minced
10 sage leaves finely chopped
4 sprigs thyme chopped
1/2 tsp mace
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp Himalayan sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
The Jelly
1 pork hock or 2 trotters
1 ltr water
1 onion skin on halved
1 carrot rough chopped
1/2 stick celery
1 garlic clove bashed
8 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 tsp mustard powder
1 pinch celery salt
2 leaves gelatine (optional)
First get the jelly underway in a pressure cooker for 1 1/2 hrs or casserole dish for 3-4 hrs place all the ingredients in your pan, bring to a simmer and place on the lid. Once cooked remove the trotters or pork hock, the latter makes a wonderful dinner with some buttery vinegar mashed potatoes and pease pudding or stuffed in a suet bacon and onion pudding roll, a memory straight from junior school dinners!
Now to check if your pork jelly will set without the need for gelatine, which it should once cooled, place a saucer in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, take a tablespoon on the jelly stock and place on the cold saucer on your work top, leave for two minutes and assess the thickness of the set cooled jelly. If too running then add the gelatine leaves by soaking in water to soften for 5 minutes and then stirring in off the heat. Leave your jelly to one side while you bake the pork pie.
Next make the pork pie filling mix all the ingredients together and reserve to one side to infuse their flavours while you make the hot water crust pastry.
To make the hot water crust is really simple place the lard, butter and water in a saucepan and melt without allowing a simmer, in a large mixing bowl place the flour, salt and ribbon through the beaten eggs, make a well in the centre and pour in the hot lard and butter mix, using a spoon gently bring together until just combined, using your hand knead the mix for a minute until a smooth ish ball is formed. Take 2/3 of the dough and place in your tin pressing the sides up and forming the base, place in your pork pie meat, lay your pastry lid on the top and crimp the edges, I like to take my left hand ready to pinch the pastry from the underneath of the tin lip and pastry, while my right hand will push the top pie crust pastry in to the two pinch fingers, this gives a great crust finish. Make a hole in the centre of the pie and decorate with leaves.
Place the pork pie in a pre heated oven 200 C for half an hour, then lower the heat to 160 C for one hour, remove the pork pie from the oven and remove the french tin, glaze the sides with egg wash and place back in the oven to cook for a further 10-15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool, stuff with your homemade jelly then allow the jelly to set in the fridge overnight, then your good to go, enjoy this glorious pork pie it is a outstanding pie.
Yorkshire Pudding Rare Beef, Horseradish Cream and Crispy Fried Onions
This is such a lovely way to eat a rare beef sandwich, I got this from Andy Bates, but have used my own yorkshire pudding recipe as it works every time, I love this simple twist on the great Sunday Roast, it brought back a memory of old fashioned Sunday's, when Sunday's were something special, where the local village pub closed at 2pm and then there was a big family roast dinner, then the afternoon was very quite with everyone on the sofa and dad asleep in the chair, (I lived in a wonderful 12th century village pub for most of my childhood) . The juicy roast beef sandwiched in the yorkshire pudding with the thin crispy chewy onion rings and the creme fraiche horse radish really deliver a full burst of the Sunday flavour and texture to your taste buds.
FOR THE YORKSHIRE
Ingredients
200g plain flour
200g milk
200g eggs
1 pinch salt
1 tbsp fat
Very important to weigh these ingredients. Mix the eggs with the flour with the salt until no lumps then add the milk to make a smooth batter, leave to rest on the side for at least 1 hour if you can. Pre- heat your oven to 200 degrees, place 1/4 tsp of goose fat or dripping in to each well of your yorkshire pudding tin, ten minutes before cooking place the tin in the oven so that the fat is smoking hot, as fast as you can remove the tin with the hot fat from the oven and pour in the batter mix and return back to the oven, do not be tempted to open the oven door at all! Cook for 15 minutes or so and the yorkshire puddings should have risen high and be light, crisp and ready.
CRISPY GORGEOUS FRIED ONION RINGS
Ingredients
2 large onions fine sliced into rings
100g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
2 ltr oil for frying
Heat the oil to 190 degrees. Separate all the onion rings and toss in the seasoned flour really well, fry in batches until crisp and golden, and drain on kitchen paper, I like to sprinkle a little salt over the hot crisp cooked onion rings and then find I have to protect them from everyone trying to eat them before I have loaded them on the yorkshires.
RARE ROASTED FILLET OF BEEF
Ingredients
3lb centre cut of fillet of beef
50ml oil
Salt and pepper
Rub the fillet of beef with the oil and sear in a hot pan until caramelised all over, Place in a pre-heated oven 180 degrees for 15 minutes or so for rare, 20 minutes for medium rare and 25 minutes for well done, remove from the oven and wrap in tin foil and rest for half an hour. For easy slicing I chill the fillet for a few hours or overnight before slicing. Once sliced I season with sea salt.
ACCOMPANIMENTS
100ml creme fraiche
4 tbsp horseradish sauce
150g lambs lettuce or micro salad
To assemble very simple pull or slice open the yorkshire puddings, paint on a small amount of horse radish cream, then some salad leaves, then fold on the beef, then top with a dollop of horse radish creme fraiche and finish of with generous mound of crispy onion rings.
Sausage rolls
These are the best every flaky melt in the mouth seasoned sausage rolls, a real treat in this house so when there ready come and get em cos when there gone there gone! To up the game sprinkle in some Stilton cheese on top of the sausage meat.
Ingredients
(makes 12)
6 of your favourite sausages
1 pack all butter puff pastry
(or 1 qty homemade rough puff pastry see below)
1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1 tsp fresh chopped thyme
1 pinch sea salt
1 pinch white pepper
2g Stilton cheese optional
1 beaten egg for glaze
If making your own rough puff pastry place all the ingredients except the butter in a bowl and bring together to a rough ball, roll out to a 1/2 " thick rectangle, slice the butter into 12 slices, place 3 butter slices on the top first half of the rolled out pastry and fold up the bottom half covering the butter, turn the folded pastry 90 degrees and roll out to rectangle again, repeat 3 more times, wrap in parchment paper or cloth and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
This is roughly how your rough puff pastry will look inside, all the layers of butter are what will melt and make your rough puff, puff up and become light, melt in the mouth pastry.
Pre heat your oven to 220 C / 385 F. Thinly roll out your pastry, store brought or homemade, cut two long rectangles around 4-5" wide and 14" long. In a large bowl remove the sausage meat from the skins, add the herbs, sea salt and pepper, mix to combine. Divide the sausage meat in to two, place along one side a third of the way in on the strips of puff pastry, brush the long side with the egg wash, roll over the pastry from the long side away from you, creating a long sausage roll.
Cut the roll into 3 large sausage rolls, 6 medium or 9 small bites, glaze with the egg wash, place on your backing tray and cook for 20-25 minutes until crisp and golden, enjoy fresh straight from the oven.
Gorgeous little flaky buttery short crust parcels of joy...
Stuffed full of slow braised leg of lamb in beaujoulis villages red wine with red currents, rosemary and a stock vegetable reduction giving your tastebuds that WoW Nom Nom I want another mouthful with each bite. These are one of my party/picnic nibbles that I am infamous for and I know my friends always look forward to these and a gift bag of extras to go home with too, one of the reasons that I love cooking.
Beaujolais Lamb Pasty’s
Pastry Prep Time 5 minutes / Pastry Chilling Time 30 minutes / Pasty Cooking Time 25-30 minutes
Slow Braised Lamb Cooking Time 3 hours
Ingredients
(makes 15)
The Best Ever Flakey Short Crust Pastry
900g plain flour
220g butter grated
200g lard diced
10g Himalayan sea salt
(home rendered down lard with crackling is the most flavoursome, recipe below)
360ml ice cold water
1 beaten egg for wash
Place all the ingredients except the water in a large mixing bowl and roughly combine, add the water and bring the mixture to a ball, wrap in parchment paper and pop in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
Home Made Lard
1 kg pork back fat
1 side pig skin
Heat your oven to 220 C / 385 F, place the fat and skin in the pan, cook for 1 hour, remove from the oven and drain off all the crispy crackling infused lard that has rendered down, that's it you just made lard! I drain my lard into a 1lb loaf tin, pop in fridge to set then cut into a couple of bars, wrap in parchment paper and store in the fridge, you can also store your lard in a glass ball mason jar.
For The Slow Braised Lamb
1 leg or shoulder of high welfare lamb
1 bottle beaujoulis villages/burgundy red wine
500ml water
1 tbsp red current jelly
1 onion quartered
2 carrots peeled
1 bulb garlic halved
1 stick celery halved
1 leek halved
2 sprigs rosemary
1 pinch Himalayan sea salt
1 pinch black pepper
To Slow Cook The Lamb
Pre heat your oven to 200 C, place all of the ingredients in the pan, place in the oven and let the lamb brown off for approximately 30 minutes, reduce the oven temperature down to 160 C, cover the roasting tin and leave to slowly cook for around 2.5 hours, the lamb is perfectly cooked when you can pull on the bone and it just easily slides away from the meat. Leave the lamb to rest for a while, remove the whole vegetables from the roasting tin, using two forks or your hands pull the lamb apart, mix well in the cooking stock. The lamb is now ready to be used.
To Make The Pasty's
Pre heat your oven to 200 C / 385 F, roll out your chilled pastry nice and thin, not to thin, I use a 4" pastry circle cutter, but you can make these any size, but I find the smaller pastys more yummy, brush a little egg wash around the rim of the pastry place a large tbsp of lamb in the centre, pull up the pastry from each side and pinch in the centre on top of the lamb, then repeat bring the sides up together down the left side, then right. Place on a baking tray, I like stone, egg wash and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden.
Left Over Roast Meats
Boxing Day Platter
This to us is the ultimate extra bonus of Christmas. The Leftovers! We love love love leftovers! Fabulous cold cuts, bubble and squeak, oh and in the top favourite's pickles, beetroot, chutneys, pate, pork pie, pickled onions, mustard's, jamon's and cold cuts of meat. Why Why Why do we only eat this at Christmas, I ask ?
