Nut Roast (V)

So Christmas is fast approaching. You have guests coming for Christmas Dinner and your friend or family member is vegetarian. You want to make them something equally special so why not make them a nut roast. Can be prepared the night before so no rush, stick in the oven on the day. You will need a 2lb loaf tin.

Makes 1 Loaf

1 Onion, diced
2 Celery Sticks, diced
2 Garlic Cloves, crushed
200g Chestnuts, cooked and ready to use
200g Mixed Nuts
100g Breadcrumbs
100g Stilton, Smoked Cheese OR cheese with a strong flavour, grated or crumbled
1 Egg, beaten
2 tsp Sage
Butter
Salt and Pepper
Small savouy Cabbage, 6-8 leaves
1 Small Potato

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan assisted. Line a loaf tin with tin foil. Grease with butter.

2. In a frying pan add a knob of butter, fry the celery, onion and garlic until softened. Allow to cool slight and add to a large mixing bowl.

3. Blanch the cabbage in a pan of boiling water for about 2 minutes, take out the leaves should still have some firmness. Line the leaves. Leave some over hang.  Add the potato to the pan and boil until you can mash it. Add this to the mixing bowl.

4. Blitz the chestnuts and mixed nuts in a blender or with a hand blender until you get small pieces. Doesn't matter if there are a few bigger pieces. Then in the mixing bowl add the nuts, egg, breadcrumbs, cheese, sage and plenty of salt and pepper. Give a good mix until combined. Add this to the loaf tin. Cover with the savoy cabbage.

5. Cover with foil and cook in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove foil then cook for a further 5 minutes. Slice and serve with vegetables.

Mincemeat

Seriously its simple to make your own mincemeat. Kind of got bored making a Christmas cake every year so this year im going to make those small bits of Christmas. Starting off making the Mince for the pies. Yes you could get the ready made stuff but I find it too sugary. So give this a go. For the vegetarian option use vegetarian suet instead of the original.

Makes 1 litre jar

500g Mixed Dry Fruit
100g Suet
1 Bramley Apple, peeled and grated
2 tsp Mixed Spices
80ml Brandy
150g Brown Sugar
Juice and Zest of an Orange
Juice and Zest of a Lemon

1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and give it a good mix.

2. Sterilize the jar before putting the mincemeat in the jar. Do this by cleaning with warm soap water and placing in the oven for 5 minutes at 150c.

3. Once the jar has cooled down, spoon the mixture into the jar. I would advise leaving the mixture to absorb the flavours for about 2 weeks before putting in the pies.

I will do the mince pies recipes in a couple of weeks. Watch this space

Bara Brith (V)

A Welsh bread made with dried fruit, tea and spices. In welsh it means 'speckled bread'. It tastes delicious and always a good companion with a cup of hot tea.

Makes 1 Loaf

450g Mixed Dried Fruit
1 Mug of Black Tea
225g Demerara Sugar
100g Glace Cherries, halved
1 1/2 tsp Mixed Spices
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 large free range egg
450g Self Raising Flour
100g Butter
2 tbsp Clear Honey
1 tbsp Caster Sugar

1. Put the mixed dried fruit in a mixing bowl with sugar. Pour the tea over the sugar and fruit, cover and leave overnight.

2.  Preheat the oven to 170c/150c fan assisted. Line a 2lb loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

3.  Mix the rest of the ingredients with the dried fruit mixture. Mix well.

4. Pour in the loaf tin and bake for 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours. To check its cooked all the way through skewer through the centre, if its cooked it should come out clean.

5. Cool on the rack. Sprinkle with caster sugar. Serve