“IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT COUPLES IN SOCIETY DO, IF THEY AGREE TO ROLLING AROUND IN THEIR HIPPY BED, LETTING THEIR BABY SUCK ON THEIR T**S UNTIL YOU’RE BOTH 60, IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT – NO ONE SHOULD JUDGE ANYONE, I JUST THINK IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT TO AGREE ON HOW YOU WANT TO RAISE YOUR KID BEFOREHAND.”
Christmas Trimmings Recipes
CHRISTMAS TRIMMINGS RECIPES
BY SIMON WOOD
_____________________________
Honey mustard pigs in blankets
Ingredients
30 pigs in blankets
80g Colmans English mustard
80g runny honey
Chopped chives
Method
Cook the pigs in blankets until golden, add the honey and mustard in to a medium heat frying pan, heat until it bubbles and then add the sausages, glaze until sticky and serve with chopped chives
Vichy carrots
Ingredients
1kg Heritage Carrots with tops
125g Unsalted Butter
250ml carrot juice
125ml orange juice
2 sprigs rosemary
1 Star Anise
4 sprigs thyme
2 cloves garlic, crushed
80ml white wine vinegar
100g sugar or honey,
Salt and Black Pepper
Method
Pick the green leafy tops off the carrots and drop them into ice water.
Steam the carrots until just cooked, and then in a sauté pan add in all the remaining ingredients and bring to the boil, add in the carrots and cook for 10 minutes, serve with a little of the liquid and the crisp green leafy tops.
Ultimate roasties
Perfect Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes
Ingredients
2kg Red Skin Potatoes
2 Bulbs of Garlic (Halved)
1 Bunch of Fresh Rosemary
1 Bunch of Fresh Thyme
500g Goose Fat
Maldon Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5.
Peel the potatoes, cutting any larger ones so they’re all the same size
Wash the potatoes in cold water to get rid of any extra starch and place a large saucepan on to boil, season with a good amount of sea-salt.
Add your goose fat into a large roasting tray, the biggest you have. This is to make sure there’s plenty of room for the potatoes and heat to circulate, heat for 10 minutes while your pan of water comes to the boil
Now, add the potatoes to the water and parboil for 10 minutes, you want the outside soft and the inside with a little firmness remaining once ready drain in a colander and leave to steam dry for 5 minutes.
After 3 minutes give the colander a shake to help fluff up the potatoes so they look ‘Snowy’ – this will help to help them to crisp up later on.
Carefully remove your roasting tray with the hot fat from the oven and place on a suitable surface, add in half of your herbs and a bulb of your halved garlic and put it back in the oven for 5 minutes. After five minutes remove the herbs and garlic. You now have a nicely flavoured oil that will make your potatoes taste amazing!
If you leave the herbs in for the whole time it takes to roast your potatoes, they will burn and taste acrid! We will add in the rest of the herbs with 10 minutes to go to really lift the flavour!
Tip the potatoes into your roasting tray and turn with tongs slowly coating them in the flavoured hot fat, take care not to break them before seasoning well with the sea salt and black pepper.
Roast for 45 minutes, before turning each one to coat in more fat and ensure even colouring, now add in your remaining herbs and garlic and roast for a further 10-20 minutes depending on how much colour you want on them
Once golden and crisp drain any excess oil on a little kitchen paper
As a chef I find Its always best to do a little test at this point and eat one just to check the seasoning, sometimes I must do this three or four times, just to be sure!
Simons Christmas gravy
Ingredients
1kg Chicken Thighs or Wings or a mixture of the two
Olive oil
4 large carrots
2 Sticks of Celery
3/4 Bay leaves
1 Sprig of Rosemary
1 Teaspoon fresh Thyme
1 Teaspoon fresh Sage
3 White onions halved
2 Maris piper potatoes quartered
1 Tablespoon of your cranberry sauce
Celery Salt (1 teaspoon)
Ground Black Pepper
3 Pints of Chicken Stock
4 tablespoons cornflour
Method
Set the Stock and cornflour Aside
Add the remaining ingredients into a roasting tin and cover with olive oil. Roast until golden and the meat is easy to pinch away from the bone, approximately 75 minutes at 180c, 350f, Gas 4. Remove from the oven and shred the meat into the roasting tin and use a fork or a masher to crush all the vegetables Place over a flame or on the hob
Add 4 table spoons of the cornflour and mix well cooking the flour out and then add in the stock slowly stirring well and crushing all the flavour out of the vegetables and the chicken. Cook until thickened and dark brown in colour.
Check Seasoning and strain through a colander and then again through a sieve to get a refined finish to your sauce
Cranberry Sauce
Juice of 2 clementine’s
400g cranberries
200g light muscovado sugar
100ml port
The Method
Add all the ingredients into a saucepan and cook on a medium heat until sticky and delicious, store in sterilised jars in the fridge or give away as Christmas gifts!
Chicken fat brioche bread sauce.
Ingredients
500ml whole milk
500ml double cream
100g Chicken fat
25g unsalted butter
150g chopped white onion
10 white peppercorns
2 bay leaf’s
10 thyme sprigs
2 grated garlic cloves
200g brioche crumb
1g Ground Nutmeg
3g Maldon sea salt
Method
Sauté the Onion, Garlic, Thyme, Peppercorns, Bay Leaf and salt in the chicken fat and butter. Add in the Brioche crumb and stir before adding the milk and cream.
Add the nutmeg after 5 minutes and then cook for further 25 minutes and then blend until smooth.
Buttered chicken sprouts
Ingredients
1kg sprouts, shredded
150g chopped shallot
300ml chicken stock
Crispy chicken skin
100g smoked bacon lardons
Chopped Chives
250g butter.
Ground black papper
Method
In a saucepan over a medium heat add the lardons and cook until just starting to crisp up. Add in the chopped shallots and cook for two minutes, next add the sprouts, stock and butter and bring to the boil reducing slightly, season with pepper
Serve in a bowl topped with the chicken skin and chopped chives.
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