A Simple Supper Party Menu to Cheer up the winter Blues

What better way to cheer ourselves up than to get a few friends around but can we be bothered? Getting motivated is never easy this time of the year. Well, take a look at this menu of simple recipes and see what you think. There is very little cooking involved and it is light and bright and comforting too! The salad starter is enhanced by the addition of rich sweet seasonal fruit and served on a bed of charcuterie. The main course is a tangy comforting pasta dish that you can make using up left over cheeses or buying new of course. To finish serve a simple colourful mandarin and pomegranate jewel salad. What could be simpler?

Visit your local deli and try some of our wonderful local charcuterie made by Native Breeds or Trealy Farm, oh yes – and pick up some interesting pasta while you are there and the cheese too.

Bresaola with Pear, Baby Leaf Salad and Walnuts - Serves 4

8 slices of bresaola or prosciutto di Parma

Baby leaf salad - 4 small handfuls

1 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 firm pears, persimmons or figs

Juice 1 lemon if using pears

A handful of broken walnuts

Put two slices of bresaola on each plate. Put the salad leaved in a bowl, add the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and toss lightly. Make a pile of salad in the middle of each serving of bresaola. Cut the pears into wedges and toss in lemon juice and put on the salad. Divide the broken walnut halves between the plates. Serve immediately.

Rigatoni with Taleggio or Gorgonzola Cheese and Toasted Hazelnuts

- Serves 4 as main or 8 as starter

Delicious, simple and quick to make

Coarse sea salt

500 g rigatoni or similar ridged pasta

250 g taleggio, gorgonzola, stilton or any other left-over soft cheese

80 g butter

50 ml milk

75 g crushed toasted hazelnuts

Black pepper

100 g freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Fill a large pan with water, add a handful of coarse salt and bring to a rolling boil, add the pasta, stir and cook on high heat uncovered. Taste a couple of minutes before the suggested cooking time on the packet is up.

While the pasta is cooking, trim off the rind from the cheeses and discard. Cut the cheese onto cubes and put into a small pan with the butter and milk on low heat and stir until the mixtures melts into a smooth sauce.

Drain the pasta when it is cooked al dente and transfer to a large serving bowl, add the cheese sauce, half the nuts, half a teaspoon of coarsely ground black pepper, half the Parmigiano Reggiano and mix well.

Sprinkle the remaining nuts over the top and serve with extra cheese.

Mandarin and Pomegranate Jewel Salad – serves 8

16 mandarins

1 pomegranate

Pomegranate cordial

Water

Peel the mandarins and remove any loose pith from the peeled fruit. Cut into thin slices and arrange in a shallow serving dish.

Cut the pomegranate into quarters and turn out the jewels by pushing the pomegranate quarters inside-out; pull away and discard any pith.

Sprinkle the pomegranate jewels over the mandarin slices and add 4 tablespoons of pomegranate cordial and 4 tablespoons of water, stir and refrigerate.

Optional: add a tablespoon of your favourite citrus liqueur or brandy.

Pour a bottle of half decent red wine in a saucepan, add a glug of brandy, a slurp of honey, add an orange, sliced, a cinnamon stick, 6 cloves and a star anice and heat gently.

Spread a little luxury on some toast and served with mulled wine. What better way to celebrate the lighting of our Advent candles. My apologies; late again with my post. Great day at Abergavenny christmas food and drink fair. Tutored tasting went well. Bought lots of charcuterie, chocolates and other goodies for presents, ready for Christmas. Then had a delicious late lunch at the Hardwick - The Terrys certainly know how to train their girls - beautiful service! Back to the recipe now.....

Luxurious Venetian Liver Crostini

1 tablespoon of olive oil

15g butter

200g onion, finely sliced

2 tablespoon flat leaf parsley or marjoram, finely chopped

250g thinly sliced calves liver, or half quantities of lambs liver and half chicken livers

50-100ml hot stock

Salt and pepper

1 baguette cut into slices 1 cm thick

Extra salt


2 extra tablespoons parsley or marjoram, finely chopped

Caper berries or gherkins for serving


Heat the oil and butter in a heavy based saucepan over low heat. Add the finely sliced onion and parsley, stir and cover. Cook slowly for fifty minutes, adding a little water from time to time to prevent burning.
Cut the liver into slivers roughly the size of dominoes. When the onion is very soft, increase the heat and add the liver, turning it quickly to seal, add the stock and simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. Add plenty of seasoning and taste. Stir well.
Stain off any excess liquor. Transfer the liver and onion to a board or food processor and chop into grain size pieces with a knife and serve on tartine of crusty buttered bread or crostini topped with a little parsley or marjoram.

Whiskey and ginger Chrismas cake

I love a traditional Christmas cake; but like a lot of other people I find a little goes a long way (read - too many calories) Don’t let this put you off; the best thing about Christmas cake is that you don’t need to eat it all at once, it keeps well. After the festivities, wrap it up and put it in a tin and it will keep for as long as you can resist it. We are all far too quick to throw food away and there is no need. All this said Christmas cake never lasts long enough in our house as my husband ploughs through it with no trouble at all and just when I have a fancy of a slice it has already gone.


Top tip: if you don’t have time to soak the fruit overnight; steep it in boiling water for 5 minutes and drain and toss in a clean tea towel to remove any excess water then stir in the whiskey etc.


Whiskey and ginger Christmas cake
150 g sultanas
150 g raisins
400 g currants
100 g stem ginger finely chopped, rinsed in boiling water and drained
Juice and fine zest of 1 lemon
Juice and fine zest of 1 oranges
4 tablespoons whiskey
2 tablespoons ginger wine
200 g plain flour
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon mixed spice
50 g chopped whole almonds
200 g salted butter
200 g muscovado sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons golden syrup

Pre-heat oven to 140C, gas mark 1

Line an 18 cm cake tin with baking parchment

Put the dried fruit, ginger, mixed peel, citrus rind and juice, whiskey and ginger wine in a bowl, cover with a cloth and soak overnight.

The next day sieve the flour and spices together into a bowl.

Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat hard until light, fluffy and very pale. Put the eggs in a small bowl and beat with a fork. Add the egg to the creamed butter and sugar, a tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. If the mixture starts to curdle add a tablespoon of the sieved flour mixture.

Fold in the flour and spice mixture and the fruit and chopped nuts and golden syrup.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tin.

Tie brown paper around the tin. Put your cake on the lower shelf of the oven for 4 – 4 ½ hours or until firm to the touch. Test with a baking skewer; if the skewer comes out dry it is ready. If not return the cake to the oven for little longer.

Leave to cool in the tin then wrap in foil and store in a plastic bag.

Unwrap from time to time. Pierce with a cocktail stick and feed with a tablespoon of spirit.Take care to re-wrap the cake carefully each time.

Born with cider running through my veins

Cider cup

I always say that I was born with cider running through my veins! My maternal grandmother's family home was a cottage with its own cider mill set in a vast cider apple orchard that ran down to a stream. Linton in Gloucestershire  is a small fertile area of gentle rolling countryside with its own micro-climate, crisscrossed with tiny roads that connected once major cider producing orchards.
I now live, not far away in Herefordshire home of two of the best known cider producers in the country and an infinitesimal number of craft, cider makers. It is no surprise then, to say that I never tire of drinking cider. I like the rougher dryer more genuine varieties rather than the mass produced ciders sold in many pubs.
Given my love for it I also love to make cups and punches with cider. They are festive, traditional and practical when large numbers of people are involved. They can be mixed in advance and the sparkling elements added when ready to serve. Use chilled ingredients or an ice block rather than adding lots of ice which can make the punch watery.

1 wineglass of brandy (apple brandy if possible)
1 vanilla pod
25 g sugar or more to taste depending on the type of cider uses
1 L best cider
500 - 750 ml soda water
1 thinly sliced lemon and extra lemon juice
1 dessert apple cut into wedges and sprinkled with lemon juice

Put the brandy in a punch bowl or large stainless steel pan. Slit the vanilla pod, scrape out the seeds and add to the brandy. Add 25 g sugar and leave for at least an hour or until required.
When ready to serve top up with the cider and 500 ml soda and stir well. Taste and add extra sugar and soda as required.
Add the fruit, stir again and serve with a ladle.

Star struck mince pies

Apologies for not posting this recipe as promised we have been having problems with our internet connection over the weekend.
A mince pie should be a rich melt in the mouth experience. So keep pastry light and roll it as thinly as possible. I use all lard and no butter but I have given a half and half quantity. Lard makes extremely light pasty and is a hugely undervalued commodity but I know many of you would prefer to find some butter in your pastry.
If you don't make your own mincemeat add a finely chopped cooking apple and a little extra spirit to shop bought to subtle-up the flavour. If you want to make your own, take a look at my special mincemeat recipe in the previous post. One more thing don’t over-do the mincemeat because it will boil out of the pies.

makes 24

Equipment
2 x 12 mince pie trays, greased
2 fluted pastry cutters 7cm and 6cm
1 star shaped cutter 4-5cm

400 g plain flour sieved
Pinch salt
100 g butter and 100 g lard cold from fridge cut into cubes
Cold water
caster sugar for sprinkling
extra flour for rolling
Icing sugar for serving

Filling
1- 2 pots good quality mince meat
1 cooking apple or hard pear finely chopped
2 tablespoons brandy or rum

Pre-heat oven to 180C gas mark 4

Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl, add the chopped fat and rub in with the tips of your fingers to form crumbs.
Add 6-8 tablespoons cold water and mix with a knife and bring the dough together in a ball with the fingers.
Flour a work surface. Cut the dough in half and roll out a piece at a time as thinly as possible and cut out 24 discs with the larger of the two cutters.
Line the greased mince pie trays with the pastry disks.
Tip the mincemeat in a bowl, add the chopped apple and the brandy or rum and mix well. Add a generous teaspoon of mince meat to each pie.
Now roll out the other ball of dough, dusting the work surface first with more flour. This time cut out 24 discs with the smaller cutter. Then cut a star shape into the middle of the disks without taking out the "star".
Using a pastry brush paint the edges of the pies with cold water and put the starred lids on top and seal. Paint the lids with cold water and sprinkle generously with caster sugar and bake in a pre-heated oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until crisp and lightly golden.
Leave to cool in tins and then transfer to a rack until quite cold. Store in an airtight tin or freezer until required and reheat in a warm oven and dust with icing sugar before serving.

Wish upon a pudding - get stirring and steaming......

Mum’s Christmas Pudding
makes 1 large, 2 medium or 3 small (570ml) puddings

Christmas pudding is not only a once a year treat but wonderful theatre when flamed with brandy and carried to the table with just ceremony. Heat a cup full of brancy in a small pan, light it and pour over the pudding in the kitchen. Put out the lights and carry it to the table. Everyone will be delighted!
This is my mother's recipe, it was my grandmother's too, it is plain and delicious. Make half quantity or give puddings as presents: nothing tastes better than homemade.


200 g currants
200 g sultanas
200 g raisins
150 g flour
1 level teaspoon mixed spice
1 level teaspoon mace
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch cloves
200 g bread crumbs
200 g suet
50 g chopped almonds
50 g ground almonds
200 g muscovado sugar
200 g carrots, peeled and roughly grated
100 g mixed peel
3 eggs
500 ml brown ale
A glug of dark rum

Put the fruit in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Stand for 5 minutes then drain in a colander and leave to drip until required.

Put all the dried ingredients in a bowl up to and including the sugar and mix well, then add the grated carrot, mixed peel and drained fruit and mix again.

Put the eggs, 300 ml of the brown ale and a glug of rum in a bowl, mix briefly and then pour over the other ingredients. Stir and stir, giving everyone in the house a chance to stir and tell them to make a wish. It may be necessary to add a little extra ale if the pudding mixture is too dry.

Grease the pudding basins; divide the mixture between the basins and cover with a double square of greaseproof paper and muslin. Tie up with string just below the rim and then take the four corners of the muslin and tie together. Stand the pudding basins on a trivet in a large pan. Add enough boiling water to come half way up the basins.

Cover the pan with a lid and bring back to the boil, then simmer over low heat for 4 - 8 hours depending on size, topping up the level of the water every hour.

Leave to cool then remove the greaseproof and muslin and replace with fresh. Store in a cool dark place until required.

When ready to eat, steam for 2 hours or microwave for 5 minutes.



Turn out onto a beautiful heat resistant dish. Put a teacup of brandy in a small pan and heat gently. When hot pour over the pudding, set light to it and carry to the table with great ceremony.

Mix up your mincemat - cooking was never so easy

Christmas mincemeat


Homemade mincemeat is so simple to make and sooo much nicer that anything you can buy in the shops, that it is really a shame not to make it yourself. This quantity keeps me in mincepies for the whole of December. If you think that is too much make half - if you don’t use it all it will keep until next year. Jars of homemade mincemeat make lovely presents.

Nearer to Christmas I will be posting my new marzipan and mincemeat tart recipe so make sure you keep a pot back for that.

Top tip: if you don’t keep dried fruit in the house simply buy a 500 g pack of mixed dried fruit and use that.

Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir well; cover with a clean cloth and leave to stand overnight or for 12 hours. Transfer to sterile jars and seal. Use as required.

300 g currants 200 g sultanas
150 g whole mixed peel finely diced
6 tablespoon dark rum
Grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
2 teaspoons mixed spice
Half nutmeg grated
Good pinch ground cloves
375 g cooking apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
375 g firm pears, peeled, cored and finley choped
75 g blanched almonds chopped
350 g dark muscovado sugar
250 g suet

Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir well; cover with a clean cloth and leave to stand overnight or for 12 hours. Transfer to sterile jars and seal. Use as required.