Mother-in-law's Christmas Fruit Mincemeat

My Mother-in-law uses a different fruit mince for Christmas pies than I do,

so I nicked her recipe.

This recipe needs to be made up about a week before it is needed.

Ingredients:
500g raisins
500g saltanas
250g currants
250g butter
1ml nutmeg
375g brown sugar
150ml brandy
zest and juice of 1/2 orange
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
500g grated apples
15ml mixed spice

Method:
Mince all the fruit. Add all the other ingredients and mix well.
Place in a large sterilised jar and stir ecvery day for a week.

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Spiced Pecans In Chocolate

This makes a lovely home made gift.

Gift box it for a festive present.

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Ingredients:
For the chocolate:
200g milk chocolate
200g dark chocolate
200g white chocolate
75g butter

For the spiced Pecans:
100g butter
125ml Muscovado sugar
2.5ml cayenne pepper
2.5ml ground clove
5ml cinnamon
200g pecan nuts
Fruit such as dried cranberries, blueberries, raisins, glace cherries or crystallised ginger.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Melt the chocolate in three separate bowls over hot water. To each bowl of chocolate, add 25g butter and mix into the chocolate.
Melt 100g butter in a pan and add the Muscovado sugar. Add the spices and simmer gently until a caramel forms. Add the pecan nuts and mix into the caramel.
Prepare a baking tray, lined with baking paper. Spread the nut caramel in a flat layer on the pan.
Bake for 6 minutes in the oven, 180C, to dry the nuts.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Pour each of the chocolate melts over the tray of nuts randomly. When the chocolate is all poured on, spread so that the tray is all covered and the nuts are evenly spread out. The chocolate will be a little marbled. Try not to mix the different chocolates too much.
Sprinkle over fruits such as dried cranberries, blueberries, raisins, glace cherries or crystallised ginger.
Allow to set before removing from the tray. Break into pieces.

Garlic, Lemon and Cranberry Lamb

Every year, just before Christmas,

a chap my husband works with brings us half a lamb,

or if we are lucky, half a hogget.

A hogget is a lamb more than a year old,

but not as old as a sheep, which it becomes at three years old.

They are much more rich in flavour than their younger siblings.

We had the leg for our Christmas dinner.

Usually we do it with garlic and rosemary,

but this year we tried something new that turned out absolutely fabulous.

Try it and I'm sure you will agree.

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Merry Christmas one and all.

Ingredients:

Leg of Lamb or Hogget

For the Marinade:

peel and juice of a large lemon

6 cloves of garlic, sliced

250ml cranberry juice

250ml red wine

60ml olive oil

15ml dried oregano

a handful of fresh basil leaves chopped

10ml sea salt

For the Gravy

Juice from the marinade

50ml Cranberry jelly

15ml cornflour, slaked in a little water

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season

Method:

Score the surface of the lamb or hogget about 1/4 inch deep. place it in a large plastic bag in a container you can put in your fridge. Mix the ingredients for the marinade and pour over the lamb or hogget. Seal the bag, expelling all the air as you do so. Marinade over night in the fridge, massaging the meat once or twice.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Remove the meat from the bag and place in a roasting pan. Set the marinade aside.

Roast 18-20 minutes per 500g for rare,

20-25minutes per 500g for medium,

25-30 minutes per 500g for well done.

While the roast is cooking, pass the marinade through a sieve or muslin cloth to remove the solids. Reduce the liquid in a pan to less than half of the original volume.

Once the roast is done, place the joint on a wooden board to rest for 15 minutes, covered in foil.

Use the reduced marinade to deglaze the roasting pan. Add the cranberry jelly and seasoning and blend in before adding the slaked cornflour to thicken. The sauce should take on a translucent look.

Serve with festive vegetables and enjoy!

Double Stuffed Goose

Christmas is getting nearer

and the goose is getting fat.

And it will just have to get fatter

because we are going to my mother-in-law

for Christmas Dinner

and she won't eat goose.

She used to keep them as pets

and insists they are inedible.

;-))

Love you Mom,

but I also love eating goose at Christmas......

This is a great traditional way to do goose

for the festive dinner on Christmas day.

Ingredients:
1 goose, about 5kg more or less

For the Neck-end Stuffing;
100g dried cranberries, apricots or raisins (or a mix of dried fruits of your choice)
60ml medium sherry
1 small onion, chopped fine
2 rashers of unsmoked back bacon, cut into strips
50g butter
2 garlic cloves, chopped or mashed through a garlic press
450g good sausage meat
3 slices of fresh white bread, crumbed
30ml chopped fresh parsley
a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves stripped off the stems.
150g cooked chestnuts, roughly chopped
1 egg, beaten
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season

For the Bum-end Stuffing:
350g shallots, thinly sliced
60g butter
15g caster sugar
finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange
50ml fresh sage, chopped
85g roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
5 slices of fresh white bread, crumbed
1 egg, beaten
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season

Method:

To make the neck-end stuffing, soak the cranberries in the port for an hour. Fry the onion and bacon gently in the butter until the onion is tender and the bacon cooked.

Add the garlic and fry for another minute or so. Cool slightly then mix with the remaining ingredients, including the cranberries and port, adding enough of the egg to bind.

Fry a small piece of stuffing to test seasoning and adjust accordingly.

To make the bum-end stuffing, fry the shallots gently in the butter until golden, then add the sugar and the orange juice.

Simmer until the liquid has virtually all evaporated leaving a delicious jammy mass of shallots.

Pour boiling water over the sage, leave for one minute, then drain and squeeze dry. Add to the shallots, along with all the other ingredients.

Fry a small piece of stuffing to test seasoning and adjust accordingly.

Preheat the oven to 190C.

To prepare the goose, trim the excess fat from inside the goose. Pack the neck-end stuffing into the neck end of the goose, pressing it firmly and then tucking the flap of skin neatly down around it.

Secure firmly underneath with wooden cocktail sticks or a metal skewer.

Three-quarters fill the stomach cavity with the bum-end stuffing.

Prick the skin of the goose all over with a fork. Season with salt and pepper. Lay some of the fat removed from the cavity over the thighs to keep them moist.

Cover with foil and place on a rack in the oven with a tray underneath so that you can empty out the fat regularly.

Roast a 4kg goose for three hours, a 4.5-5kg goose for three-and-a-half hours and a 5.5kg goose for four hours.

Remove the foil for 30-40 minutes before the end of the cooking time so that the skin can brown and crisp.

To test it is cooked, pierce the fattest part of the thigh with a skewer. If the juices run clear then the bird is done.

Rest for 20-30 minutes, oven turned off with the door ajar, before carving.

Gravad Lax

Gravad Lax

(or Gravelax as some erroneously call it)

is a traditional Scandinavian dish served in the festive season.

Basically it is a sweet pickle made with salmon,

but the dill used in the pickling gives it an amazing flavour.

Served as a starter with a special mustard sauce,

it's a dish to impress.

This needs to be made about three days before you want to serve it.

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Ingredients:
750g salmon fillet
50ml sea salt, the flakes variety is the best to use
50ml Demerara sugar
10ml prepared English mustard
30ml brandy freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 large handful of fresh dill, roughly chopped

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Method:
Place the salmon fillet, skin-side down, into a wide, shallow dish that fits the salmon snugly.
Place the salt, sugar, English mustard and brandy into a clean bowl and mix well until the ingredients have combined to form a smooth yellow mixture.
Spread the mixture over the salmon's pink flesh to cover completely.
Grind over black pepper to taste and sprinkle the dill onto the paste-covered salmon, patting down to press the dill onto the flesh. No pink flesh from the salmon should be visible.
Turn the fish over in the dish so that the skin is facing upwards.
Cover the dish with one layer of cling film. Press the cling film down onto the edges of the fish to exclude as much air as possible before wrapping the film around the sides of the dish. Once this has been completed repeat the process with another layer of cling film.
Apply weights to the top of the fish to press it down into the dish (use a dish or board that sits nicely within the salmon dish, weighed down evenly by tins from your store cupboard or any other suitable weights).
Transfer the fish to the fridge and leave for 2-3 days.
When you are ready to prepare for your meal, unwrap the cling film from the dish and remove the salmon fillet. Brush the dill off the salmon.
Place the salmon fillet on a carving board flesh-side up. With a long, sharp knife, carefully carve very thin diagonal slivers of the pink flesh off the salmon.
Rewrap the fish in cling film and keep in the fridge if it's not all used in one go.
To serve, place on a clean plate and garnish with chopped fresh dill. Serve with buttered rye bread and a separate bowl of Mustard sauce.

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Mustard Sauce:
Ingredients:
30ml Dijon mustard
20ml sugar
1 egg yolk
100ml olive oil
30ml white wine vinegar
10ml fresh chopped fresh dill
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season

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Method:
Beat the mustard with the sugar and egg yolk until smooth. Whisk together the oil and vinegar, then gradually add to the mustard mixture, whisking thoroughly between each addition. Add the chopped dill and season with salt and black pepper, mixing well to ensure even distribution of the seasoning.

Christmas Mince Pies

Christmas mince pies are sweet fruit pies traditionally served in the Christmas season.

The recipe can be traced back to the 13th century

when the Crusaders returned from the holy land,

bringing with them the idea for a dish sized pie containing

mincemeats, fruit, suet and spices, such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

The pies were originally associated with

the offerings of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

brought to the Christ child by the three kings from the east in the Christmas story.

The pies were oblong, representing the manger in which the Christ child lay.

Even though the pies were banned in puritanical times,

they were brought back in Victorian times

as the small, sweet pies with suet, fruit and spices

that we know today -

no longer containing any mincemeat at all.

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Ingredients:
Pastry:
125g butter
125ml caster sugar
1 egg
5ml vanilla extract
500ml flour
7.5ml baking powder
Christmas fruit mince, which can be bought in the supermarket or homemade.
icing sugar to dust before serving

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Christmas Fruit Mince:

Although my source recipe for Christmas Mincemeat suggested that this should be made about a month in advance and should not be kept for longer than 6 weeks, I usually make this up as much as a year or more in advance.

The longer it is kept, the more mature and boosie it is.

The traditional recipe contains currants, which I find a little to potent,

so I use blueberries or dried cranberries instead.

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250g cooking apples, peeled and cored

250g blueberries or dried cranberries, or a mix of both

250g raisins

250g sultanas

250g prunes

250g dried apricots

125g glace cherries

125g chopped mixed peel

125g chopped walnuts, hazel nuts, Brazil nuts or a mix of all three

250g suet, minced

500g Muscovado sugar

10ml mixed spice

125ml brandy or rum

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Method:

Clean and mince the dried fruit.

Mix in a large bowl with the nuts and the chopped apples.

Fold in the suet, sugar and spice.

Add the brandy or rum and mix into the fruit. Make sure the liquor is enough to cover all the fruit.

Cover the bowl with cling film and leave for 48 hours to allow the fruit to absorb the liquor and swell.

Stir well and store in sterilised jars. Seal well and put away until required for the pies.

Method:
Pies:
Cream the butter and the sugar until it takes on a creamy smoothness.
Add the egg and vanilla extract; beat well.
Fold in the flour and baking powder, a little at a time to make a stiff dough.
Form the dough, which will have quite a sticky constituency, into a ball and transfer it to a flowered board to knead.
Knead the dough until it takes on a more firm constituency.
Cover in cling film and place in the fridge to firm up for about half an hour to an hour.
Prepare a 12 holed tart baking tray but buttering it and dusting with flour.
Roll the dough out on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut out circles of dough with a biscuit cutter. Fill the depressions in the tray with the circles of pastry.
Put about a teaspoonful of fruit mince in each tart and cover each with a smaller circle of pastry than the bases or with a star of pastry. The tarts do not have to be sealed if you use the star shape.
Bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes or until the pastry starts to take on a bit of colour.
Transfer the pies to a wire rack to cool.
These can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container.
Before serving, warm them up by putting them in the oven again for 5-8 minutes.
To serve, dust them with a little icing sugar.

Boiled Christmas Cake

Oops, I almost forgot the Christmas Cake.

Christmas isn't Christmas without Christmas cake!

Traditionally, Christmas cake is filled with fruit and liquor,

and it should be made in September, or there abouts.

As a child, I remember my mother and my aunt

getting together to make the family Christmas cake at Michaelmas,

which if my memory serves me correctly is in September.

Once baked, it was stored away in the pantry and

once a week my mother would 'bless it' with brandy.

We ended up with a fabulously moist, drunken cake.

Mmm mm mmmm mm m.

However, if you didn't make the cake in September,

here's a rush job that you can make

shortly before the day of celebration that is just as good,

almost...

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Ingredients:
350g dried soft prunes chopped
250g raisins
125g sultanas
175g unsalted butter, softened
175g dark muscovado sugar
175g honey
125ml coffee liqueur
zest and juice of 2 oranges
5ml mixed spice
3 large eggs, beaten
150g cake flour
100g ground almonds
2.5ml baking powder
2.5ml bicarbonate of soda

Method:
Line the sides and bottom of a 20cm, 9cm deep, round loose-bottomed cake tin with a layer of reusable silicon baking parchment. When lining the tin with the parchment, cut the parchment into strips that are twice as high as the tin itself. The height of the strips protects the cake, which will rise above the side of the tin, from catching on the outside of the cake tin.

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Place the fruit, butter, sugar, honey, coffee liqueur, orange juice, orange zest and mixed spice into a large wide saucepan. Heat the mixture until it comes to a gentle boil, stirring the mixture as the butter melts. Let the mixture simmer gently for ten minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

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Preheat the oven to 150C

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After 30 minutes and the mixture has cooled a little, add the eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and bicarbonate soda, and mix well with a spatula or wooden spoon until the ingredients have combined.

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Pour the fruitcake mixture into the lined cake tin. Transfer to the oven and bake for 1 hour 45 minute to 2 hours, or until the top of the cake is firm but has a shiny and sticky look. At this point, if you insert a metal skewer into the middle of the cake, the cake should still be a little uncooked in the middle.

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Place the cake on a cooling rack, and once the cake has cooled, remove it from the baking tin.

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Store in an airtight container until the day of serving. Although it is traditional to decorate the Christmas cake with marzipan and glucose icing, this cake is more suitable for royal icing, or just decorating with pre-made or bought edible decorations.

Christmas Icecream Bomb

For most of my life I lived in the southern hemisphere were

December was hot and icecream was so enjoyable.

Now that we are living in the UK, as a family,

we still enjoy having an icecream pud for Christmas,

instead of the filling fruit and stodge variety

of the traditional Christmas Pudding.

Of course, it has to have some alcohol in it.....

Ingredients:
125ml cherries, cut in half
125ml raisins
100ml brandy or rum
125ml Christmas pudding, crumbled up
60ml chopped walnuts
500ml icecream
a sprig of holly to decorate

Method:
Soak the cherries and raisins in your alcohol of choice for a couple of hours or overnight.
Mix all the ingredients together roughly.
Line a 2L bowl (freezer proof) with cling film and fill with icecream mix.
Put it in the freezer until required.
Remove from the freezer and turn out on a serving dish.
Remove the cling film and top the bomb with a sprig of holly to decorate.

Christmas Turkey Paté

My family are not very fond of turkey,

so I had to find a way to include it in our Christmas dinner.

This is my way of having turkey without all the fuss of having to cook a whole bird.

This meat mixture can be used to make great turkey burgers.

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Ingredients:

175g chopped chicken livers

125ml milk

100g raisins

125ml sherry

thigh meat from a turkey, skin removed, cut from the bone and chopped into small dice

350g belly pork, cut in small dice

175 g un-smoked bacon, cut in small dice

100g pure pork fat, cut in small dice

1 onion, finely chopped

sea salt and white pepper to season

100g white bread crumbs

5ml mixed spice

5ml french herb mix

30ml chopped fresh parsley

75ml brandy or whiskey

1 egg

24 rashers of streaky bacon

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Method:

Soak the chicken livers in milk for an hour or two, or overnight. The calcium in the milk helps to remove the toxins and bitterness from the livers.

Soak the raisins in sherry for an hour or two, or put them in the microwave for 30 seconds on high and leave for a few minutes for the raisins to plump up and the mix to cool.

Drain the sherry from the raisins if there is any left into the onions and sweat the onions in a dry pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the turkey meat, belly pork, un-smoked bacon, pork fat and chicken livers.

Put the meats through a mincer or pulse them in a kitchen blender. Do not make the mix too smooth.

Season liberally with sea salt and ground white pepper.

Add the onions, raisins, bread crumbs, spice, herbs, brandy and egg and mix well, using your hands to macerate the mixture. Once mixed, fold with a wooden spoon. The mixture should take on a firm texture. Put the mixture in the fridge for about half an hour to firm up well.

Line an 8 inch round cake tin with stretched streaky bacon in a radial pattern, almost half of the length hanging over the side of the tin. Fill the centre with meat mixture and fold in the ends of the bacon rashers over the top.

Put a fitting circle of baking paper (a cartouche) over the top, and place a small plate that fits inside the baking tin over the paper. Cover the baking tin with foil and make a rolled seal in the foil.

Bake in a hot oven for about 90 minutes.

Just before serving, turn out on a baking tray and put under the grill to crisp the top of the bacon covering.

Serve in wedges as a substitute for stuffing.

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Spiced Festive Ham

Christmas isn't Christmas without a festive ham for our family.

We'll even do without a turkey in favour of a ham.

Try this festive way of preparing it,

It's deliciously different.

Although you could use any white wine or cider here,

I rather like the flavour that "Pinot Grigio" gives to the meat.

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Ingredients:
2.5 kg boneless gammon or ham
1 bottle of Pinot Grigio, Italian white wine.
2.5L water
1 large onion, halved
2 cloves of garlic
1 head of fennel, halved
2-3 star anise
15ml coriander seed
15ml fennel seed
15ml mixed peppercorns
2-3 clementines, halved through the middle
so the segments are cut in half and
each half studded with a whole clove.

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For the Glaze:
12-16 whole cloves
60ml smooth orange marmalade
2ml cinnamon
2ml smoked paprika
5ml white wine vinegar

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Method:
Place the gammon in a large saucepan.
Add all the ingredients for the ham to the pan, adding some more water if the ham isn't covered.Bring to the boil, before reducing the heat to a simmer and partially covering the pan. Cook for about two and a half to three hours - approximately one hour a kilo simmering time, plus an extra 15 minutes.
When you are ready to glaze the ham, preheat the oven to 230C.
Remove the ham from the liquid and sit the ham on a board. Strip off the rind, and a little of the fat layer if it's very thick, and cut a diamond pattern into the remaining fat with a sharp knife in lines of about 2cm apart.
Stud the cloves into each diamond. Put the marmalade, cinnamon, paprika and white wine vinegar into a saucepan and stir over high heat, bringing it to the boil. Let the pan bubble away so that the glaze reduces to a syrup-like consistency.
Place a layer of foil over a roasting tray big enough to hold the ham. Place the ham on top of the foil. (This saves on washing up later as the foil can be discarded and there is little, if any, sticky residue to clean up.)
Pour the glaze over the clove-studded ham and then transfer it to the oven. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until the glazed fat is burnished.
Allow the meat to rest in a warm place for at least 15 minutes before carving it.

Apple and Cranberry Chutney

Cranberries always remind me of Christmas.

With them being available fresh and dried at this time of year,

I'm always looking for new ways to use them.

This festive chutney rather took my fance.

Ingredients:
750g Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
250g dried or fresh cranberries
1 onion finely chopped
350ml apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
200g sugar
5ml ground ginger
5ml ground turmeric
5ml ground cumin
5ml ground coriander
10ml salt

Method:
Chop the apples up into slightly smaller than 1 cm cubes.
Place them into a saucepan with all the other ingredients.
Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring to ensure a good mix.
Reduce the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes,
or until the chutney has thickened and the fruit has become soft.
Store in sterilized jars, ready for serving with any festive meal.

Festive Lamb Shanks

Lamb shanks used to be quite an inexpensive meal.

Perhaps not so now as they have grown in popularity.

Here's a nice way to make shanks into

a warming dish for the festive season.

I have used ginger, cinnamon and cloves

as these are festive spices.

If you don't like it too chilli hot

you can reduce the amount of chilli,

or even leave it out.

Ingredients:
30-50ml vegetable oil for frying
4 lamb shanks
2 white onions, finely chopped
10ml turmeric
5ml ground ginger
5ml ground cinnamon
10ml ground chillis or chilli flakes
6 whole cloves
2ml grated nutmeg
125ml raisins
100ml sherry
30ml honey
20ml light soy sauce
125ml red lentils
toasted almond flakes to garnish

Method:
Brown the shanks all over in a pan deep enough to cook them in. Remove them from the pan and set them aside.
In the same pan, braise the chopped onions until they are translucent.
Add the spices and mix with the braised onions. Cook on medium heat until the spices begin to release their aroma.
Soak the raisins in the sherry, warming them in the microwave for a minute to help them absorb the liquor.
Add the sherry and raisins, honey and soy sauce to the onion and spices and return the shanks to the pan. Baste them with the liquid in the pan, cooking for a minute or two.
Add enough boiling water to cover the shanks and return pan to the boil.
Reduce the heat, put a lid on the pan and simmer gently for about 90 minutes.
Test for seasoning and add salt if required.
Add the lentils and simmer without the lid on the pan until the lentils break down.
Serve with couscous and garnish with toasted almond flakes.