Christmas Countdown 22 Recipes for a Merry Christmas
If you have been. Thank you for reading. This concludes the 22 recipe Christmas Countdown. All thats left for me to say is “I hope you have found these recipes useful & you have enjoyed, reading these blogs.
Click the photos below to take you to the individual recipes. OR the blue link below will take you to all the recipes, mentioned below in the drop down menu of Christmas Countdown.
WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HEALTHY & HAPPY NEW YEAR
Christmas Countdown. We all need a quick warming meal, in the run up to Christmas. this recipe for Sweet Potato & Pork fits the bill. All you need is a roasting tin, some veg and your pork, which has been placed in a quick, cheats marinade for a few hours. Throw it all in the oven & forget about it, while you wrap those presents. In 45mins to 1hr, depending on the thickness of your meat, you have a delicious, one pot pork dish ready for the family. If you want to add another veg, serve on some lightly steamed, kale or Cornish spring greens. Yum.
Veggies Look away NOW
Spicy Pork & Sweet Potato Bake.
Serves 4. Equipment: Large Roasting Tin. Oven temp 200c 400F Gas 6. G/F D/F
For the cheats Marinade:
4 Tbspns Sweet Chilli Chutney.
2 Tbspns Runny Honey
2 Tbspns Light Soy Sauce
5 cm Fresh Ginger, grated.
2. Cloves garlic Crushed
2 Tbspns Red Wine Vinegar
Mix all the above ingredients together in a bowl, spread over the meat, turning occassionally.
1 kg Belly Pork Slices, or 4 Pork Chops.
4 Sweet Potatoes, Quartered, unpeeled.
2 Large red onions, peeled & quartered.
1/2 kg Carrots, cut into large chunks.
Veggie Base
Chilli Marinade
Marinade in the mixing
METHOD:
Place the chunky veg, in a single layer, in a large roasting tin.
Place in a preheated oven & cook for 45mins -1hr, depending on the thickness of the meat.
(If you do not like your meat as crispy as in the photo, move the tray down a shelf, 15mins before the end of the cooking time.
Serve with freshly steamed veg.
If you have any particular recipe requirements or questions, please leave a comment below & I will answer tomorrow.
Until then. Have a great evening.
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Day 15 of Christmas Countdown. Its that time of year, when everyone is talking Turkey, but do you want to be eating it for days? As well as being an ecconomical dish to serve, at this time of year, you can also make variations, by changing the vegetables & spices. Turkey thighs can be bought quite cheaply at this time of the year, from you local butcher http://W J Beaven Quality Butchers Your butcher will be selling the turkey breasts to local resaurants & will then bone & roll the thighs for sale in his shop. These are a far better buy £2.99 per kilo, (last week) than if you buy the Turkey drumsticks which you see in the large Supermakets, they are roughly the same price per kilo, but you are paying for a large amount of bone & gristle. If you are a family of 2 or 3 this Christmas & don’t want to be eating Turkey until New Years Eve this could also be an cheap & time saving solution.
Of course, you don’t have to use a turkey thigh for this recipe, just as you can change the veg & spices, you can also use chicken thighs. But. You do have to adjust the cooking times *See note in recipe below.
Roasted Medditerranean Veg
How do you like your chicken
Bake me
RECIPE Serves 4. G/F D/F Lowfodmap. Prep time 30mins Cooking Time 1.5 hrs. Oven temp 350f 180c Gas Mk 4
Boned & Rolled Turkey thigh joint ( approx 2.5k )
2 Medium Sweet Potatoes, Unpeeled, & scrubbed, chopped into large chunks.
2. Red Onions, Peeled, Quartered & seperated.
4. Medium Carrots, Unpeeled & scrubbed. Cut into large chunks.
4 Large sticks of celery. Cut into 5cm lengths.
1/2 medium Swede, Peeled & cut into large chunks.
4 Tbspns Cranberry Sauce.
2 Tbspns Rapeseed Oil
Fresh Rosemary, Thyme, & Parsley Chopped
2 Tbspns Cider Vinegar.
Seasoning.
METHOD
Preheat the oven, to the above temperature. At the same time place the rapeseed oil in a large roasting tin in the oven. When the oven has reached the right temp. Remove the tray & place the turkey thigh in the oil, turning to coat.
Returm to oven & roast for 1/2hr. Remove the turkey thigh & add all the chopped veg, to the roasting tray.
Add 2tbspns of Cranberry Sauce & toss with the juices & oil in the pan.
Coat the Turkey thigh with the remaining Cranberry sauce & place on top of the veg, together with the herbs & seasoning. Sprinkle over the Cider vingar. Return to the oven & roast for a futher hour, until the turkey is cooked through. ( Juices run clear when pierced with a knife).
Leave the turkey to rest for 15mins & carve into slices. Place on top of the veg & juices from the tin & serve with a green veg of choice.
Ready to serve.
*If using chicken thighs or breasts, place the poultry on top of the chopped veg & roast for 1hr (until cooked through). There is no need to roast the meat first, this only applies if you are using a larger joint of poultry.
*Use, courgettes, peppers & aubergine chunks & replace the Cranberry Sauce with pesto. Top with Chicken Thighs. Cook & serve with Pasta & grated Parmesan Cheese.
Well, there we have it. I hope I have given you the inspiration to ring the changes & think of your own combinations. There are many to be had. Enjoy.
The Italian touch.
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Day 2 of our Christmas countdown deals with pastry. Ok, there are plenty of ready made pastries on the market, but there is nothing nicer & more satifying than making your own.
Apart from the fact that there will be no hidden, additives in your homemade pastry, you also have the opportunity, to ring the changes, by using different flours. You need to experiment with this, as some flours, Rye for example, produces a lovely nutty tasting pastry, but it can be quite heavy, needing the addition of a bit more liquid than when using normal plain flour.
Always, use the best quality flour that you can afford, cheap flours contain bleaching agents, to retain the whiteness & the quality of the wheat used in the milling, is not always of great quality. All this reflects in the final taste & texture of your finished result. I personal use Mathews Cotswold flours, in all my baking. In the photo above, you can see pastry made with their Maize flour, which make a beautifully crisp, golden pastry, suitable for quiches, tarts etc. Recipe below:
Short crust pastry.
Makes 1kg enough to line 4 x 20cm Quiche or Tart tins. Allegens:: Wheat, Egg.
450g Maize Flour
115g Unsalted butter- chopped into small pieces.
115g White Cooking Fat – chopped into small pieces.
1 medium free range egg, beaten & made up to 8 tbspns with ice cold water.
Large pinch of salt.
METHOD
Place the flour & salt into the bowl of a stand mixer.
Using the K beater, mix on speed 3 until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. DO NOT OVER MIX.
With the mixer running, gradually add the egg & water. Until the mix forms a ball. Remove from the bowl & lightly knead on a floured surface. Wrap in cling film & chill for 30mins, untill ready to use. Never over work your dough, & keep all ingredients chilled. Warm over worked pastry, results in oily, heavy pastry. Always bake in a metal tin, placed on a pre heated oven tray (place in oven, when switching on). This conducts the heat better. NO soggy bottom. As a general rule, this pastry bakes at 200f 400c Gas 6 for 15mins, reducing to 180f 350c Gas 4 for a futher 20mins, depending on your recipe & oven.
Three Cheese & Bacon Deep filled Quiche
No soggy bottom
Quiche anyone?
The above recipe makes, 1kg of pastry. you can halve the quantity, but I think it is always better, from a time point of veiw, to make a larger quantity, & divide it into portions & freeze for later use. You can line 4 tins with the pastry & pop into the freezer. When needed you have them ready to fill & bake.
To make a gluten free version of Shortcrust pastry. Replace the above flour with the following:
200g Buckwheat Flour
250 Brown Rice Flour.
Omit the egg & use nine tablespoons of chilled water. Follow the method as above.
Fill you flan.
Have fun choosing your fillings, both sweet & savoury, get creative
On tomorrows Christmas Countdown, we will be dealing with Rough Puff Pastry & Christmas Cake Pies?
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It’s that time of the year again. You’re rushing around like a headless turkey, trying to get everything done, buying presents for his parents, trying to calm down the over excited kids and all of a sudden, your remember. “Ahhhh I haven’t iced the cake”. Presuming you made one in the first place! Well, of course you did. You like to feed your family, wholesome, natural foods, not products loaded with chemicals, preservatives & goodness knows what else.
You are a domestic goddess, you know what’s good nutrition wise, for your brood, you substitute butter for low fat spreads, to keep their hearts healthy, buy low sugar products to help their teeth & weight & try to get them to eat their 8 a day – no chance – . But. During all this healthy eating campaign, are you aware of what is actually in those substitutes? & their food mile foot prints? Do you read the ingredients list, in small print, on the back of products?
We need to be a couple of generations older, to know what some of these additivies will do to us – think smoking – Are you mindful of the ecco damage we are doing to our planet? – think Orangutan – What is wrong with cooking & making fresh healthy food from scratch. Yes, I can hear you all crying “TIME”. Well it is time. Time to get yourself organised, spend less time on FB & that glass of Chardonay every night & prioritise your week, as you CAN do it, you owe it to yourself & your family.
Time, verses ready made products. The food industry is well aware of this, by persuding us to buy these tempting, ready made, calorie & chemical laden products.
This brings me back to the title of this blog How do you like your Icing? Please read in conjunction with my previous blog Marzipan
Always read the labelThanks white stuff
Ready to roll, (cake covering or fondant) is the most common, store bought icing. While it takes a little while to make, but you can soon whip it up in that lovely food mixer that stands, unused on your work surface. One thing you can be sure of, you know exactly what it contains. Just take a look at the ingredients list in the store bought products above.
Icing Sugar
Boiling Sugar & Water Syrup
Home made, Fondant Icing
Royal icing (piping, decoration). Is much easier to make, again in the mixer. Both icings are also much cheaper to make than their store bought counterparts.
Store bought Royal Icing for piping
Read the label
What I really don’t understand, is that so many of us seem to be aware of & indeed want gluten free, dairy free, Lowfodmap, lactose free, vegan, vegetarian etc, but we don’t seem to care about the additives, artificial chemicals & goodness knows what that is added to our foods.
Its also not just about the Supemarkets. Don’t forget those ready made cakes you purchase, whether from a Farm Shop, Bakery or a social media advertiser of home made cakes! Do you check their ingredients? Can you be sure that they home make their own cakes & icings & don’t resort to packet cake mixes, store bought icings & decorations? Always beware of the words “hand made”.
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In the long term, all these additives could be doing us untold harm. Who knows, only time will tell. So. Make the time, to home make your food from scratch, or you my find YOUR time is shortenened, in the long run.
Next year, my blog will include a weekly update of seasonal foods, with recipes & ideas on how to priorotise your time & feed your family with healthy home made foods.
So. Whats in your icing this Christmas?
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