Mushroom and chestnut or turkey pie

Another recipe that caters for the carnivore and the vegetarian. This one uses up chestnuts and turkey left over from Christmas. It is based on a Hairy Bikers recipe

• Soak 15g dried mushrooms in 150ml of freshly boiled water
• Melt 50g butter and fry 2 sliced leeks over a low heat for 5 minutes covered. 
• Turn heat up slightly and add 350g mushrooms (button or chestnut - slice if large) and cook for 5 minutes. Drain the rehydrated mushrooms reserving the liquid. Roughly chop and add to the pan along with 2 sliced garlic cloves and leaves from a large sprig of thyme.
• Add 50g (heaped tablespoon) plain flour and stir 'until you see a roux has formed around the vegetables'. Stir in 1tsp Dijon mustard and 100ml marsala and stir until incorporated.
• Make up the reserved mushroom liquid to 300ml with vegetable or chicken/turkey stock. Gradually add it to the pan. Bring to boil then down to a simmer and stir until thickened.

Split between 3-4 individual pie tins. Add either whole chestnuts (from vac pac) or bite size chunks of turkey. 

Leave to cool

• When cool preheat oven to 170C Fan.

Cut out ready rolled puff pastry to create lids for the pies. Use a beaten egg to seal the pastry to the pie dishes and to egg was the tops. I used the remnants to create a 'T' or a 'C' on top of each pie to indicate if turkey or chestnut. Cut a couple of slits in each pie.

Bake in the oven until the pastry is golden brown (about 30 minutes)

Tinga - Turkey or other

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan. Fry two sliced onions for 10 minutes or until softened. Add two crushed cloves of garlic and fry for another minute. Add 2tbsp chipotle chilli paste, 400g tin of chopped tomatoes and a heaped teaspoon of sugar (any type, although the recipe I based this on was light brown soft sugar). Simmer for 20 minutes until the liquid has reduced slightly.

If using left over roast Turkey or Chicken - add shredded meat at the most 10 minutes after the chilli and tomatoes. 

At that 10 minute mark I moved some of the Tinga sauce into a separate pan so the vegetarian in the family could have it with a plant based equivalent to chicken.

Serve in tortilla wraps with salsa, guacamole etc

Christmas Lunch 2020

Himself did a most excellent job of creating crown and boning the legs of the turkey.

We ate the stuffed turkey crown from Jamie Oliver's Turkey Two Ways recipe (the stuffed legs are in the freezer for a future date). 

For our locally sourced darn fine bird, 25 minutes per kilo at 180C and using digital thermometer to check was between 60 and 65C gave us a nice moist turkey.

Stuffing: 

I used Jamie's Apricot and Sausage Stuffing with a bit of a variant

Melt 50g butter with a dash of olive oil in a frying pan. Lightly fry two relatively finely chopped onions with about 20g torn sage leaves (mix of purple and green from the garden worked well), zest from 2 clementines, grated nutmeg and season with pepper unto the onions are starting to become translucent. Stir in the liver from the turkey (trimmed and sinews removed), 100g chopped dried apricots. Add 100ml Marsala (or something similar) and cook on medium-high heat for 15 minutes until the onions are soft. Leave to cool completely. Then add 200g breadcrumbs and 400g sausage meat and combine well using hands (aka squidge together!). Use half to stuff neck of bird and then the other half to stuff the boned legs. Roll and tie the legs. 

Gravy:

I added the vac pack chestnuts to the gravy as per Jamie Oliver suggestion for chestnut gravy. Lost the will to push through sieve after a few minutes - mainly as our sieves are too fine to make this easy - but the gravy was yummy despite this and I whizzed up the veg and chestnuts with stock and some left over veg for an extremely good soup on 27th.  

Parsnips with carrots, sprouts, stuffing balls (from a packet of sage and onion stuffing) with pigs in blanket traybake worked ok-ish. See https://www.itv.com/john-and-lisas-weekend-kitchen/articles/christmas-dinner-traybake for timings. Potatoes roasted separately and I added chestnuts towards the end 

Slow cooker - Gammon

500g smoked gammon joint

200ml orange juice

1tsp ginger paste

1tbsp honey

2tbsp soy sauce

All into slow cooker on low (if you're around then first hour on high) Cook for 8+ hours.

It'll be falling apart :)

Either thicken the juices with cornflour or reduce until desired consistancy is reached

Bombay Chicken One Pot Roast

Another one pot roast chicken - this time curried. Based on a recipe from Tesco.

1. Mix 4 tbsp tikka curry paste with 2 tbsp Greek yogurt and rub all over a 1.9kg chicken. Season well, then put in the fridge for 30 mins (or overnight) to marinate.
2. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200°C. Blitz 1 large onion, 2 large cloves of garlic and a 3cm piece of peeled ginger in a food processor to a chunky paste. Heat 2tbsp olive oil in a large, heavy-based, lidded casserole. Gently fry the paste for 5 mins, stirring occasionally, until softened. Stir 1 tsp ground cumin and tsp ground coriander and cook for 1 min.
3. Pour over 1.5 400g tins chopped tomatoes and 300ml hot chicken stock; season well. Add 500g baby potatoes potatoes, then put the chicken on top. Roast uncovered for 20 mins.
4. Reduce the oven to 160°C. Baste the chicken in sauce, then cover and cook for 1 hr 20 mins or until cooked through and the juices run clear when a skewer is inserted into the thickest part of the meat.
5. Transfer the chicken to a warm serving plate, loosely cover with foil and set aside to rest for 15 mins. After 10 mins, add 100g sliced greens (eg cabbage or kale) to the sauce and simmer on the hob, uncovered, for 2 mins. Add 100g baby spinach and cook for 2 mins.
6. Return the chicken to the pot and scatter with coriander to serve, then carve. Serve with naans etc

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Mr B's Sticky Sausage Casserole

Ingredients:

6 sausages, the better the better (or a pack of 12 good quality cocktail sausages)

4-6 shallots, peeled, whole (minimum, use more if you’ve got them). Roughly chopped onion will also do.

1 large carrot, diced 

1 garlic clove, chopped

Lardons/pancetta/ chopped streaky bacon

1 glass red wine

Half pint of stock

Half a tin of chopped tomatoes (I bung the whole tin’s worth in and cook longer to reduce)

Sage, oregano, parsley, pinch of each if available

Method:

Heat oven to 170^o C

Brown sausages in a casserole dish then remove. Use a piece of kitchen towel to remove some of the fat if required, then add the shallots, garlic, diced carrot and pancetta and cook for a bit, scraping up all the tummy bits stuck to the bottom. Replace the sausages, pour in the wine and wait till it bubbles. Add the stock, herbs and seasoning if required, you may find the stock and lardons make if salty enough already, and stir everything up. Put the casserole lid on and place in the oven for 40 mins min. (Check the liquid level from time to time and add more if necessary.)

Curried Lamb meatloaf

Not too bad a change from my 'normal' lamb meatloaf

Whiz up to a coarse texture 350g cooked lamb (trimmed of fat and cut into chunks), a roughly chopped onion, a crushed clove of garlic, a cored and quartered eating apple and 1tbsp of curry paste.

Pulse in 90g breadcrumbs and an egg., Stir in 1tbsp chutney.

Put into a lined 1lb loaf tin, cover with foil and cook in 180C oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and cook for another 10 minutes