Original Recipes
Created | Updated Dec 27, 2008
Pumpkin and Chestnut Soup
10 Chestnuts
One small Pumpkin (about the size of a gala melon)
600ML Chicken stock (or 600ml water and a stock cube, if salty forget adding salt at the end)
15g Butter cut in to cubes
Peel the chestnuts in whatever way you see fit; Usual method is to make a cut on the curved face and roast or blanch for 5 mins before peeling.
Place the peeled chestnuts in a pan with the pumpkin flesh, minus the tough exterior and the seeds and stringy bits from inside.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
Blitz.
Grate nutmeg over and season with salt if needed.
Whisk in the butter.
Serve
If you prefer, the butter at the end can be replaced by yoghurt or cream. Tinned or vacuum packed sweet chestnuts can be used and the pumpkin can be replaced by butternut squash.
Venison, Roast Haunch of
750g Haunch of Venison draped with unsmoked streaky bacon, tucked underneath if long enough.
Place in a gratin dish which leaves only a little room around the meat: enough to be filled with a handful of shallots (topped, tailed and pealed) a handful of carrot batons and of celery batons; 2 bay leaves; 6 juniper berries lightly crushed so they remain in one piece. Season the vegetables with pepper.
Oven to 230˚C. Meat in for 20 minutes (if under 2kg)
Before removing meat, place half a jar of redcurrant jelly in a dish/jug and microwave to make it easier to spoon/pour.
Remove meat from oven and reduce temp to 160˚C. Spoon/pour the redcurrant jelly over the meat (only a little seems to remain on top).
Return to oven for 18min (12min per 500g).
Remove meat and rest for 20 min in foil. Place vegetables back in oven wrapped in foil for last 20 min. Sieve juices and add to gravy or serve juices alone, thickened or not.
Cauliflower purée
Cauliflower
Diced onion
Large knob of butter
½ tsp Turmeric
Milk
Sweat the onion in the butter and turmeric whilst you prepare the cauliflower, add the cauliflower and sweat for a few minutes
Almost cover with milk, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes or more until the cauliflower is cooked.
Remove the cauliflower and onion with a slotted spoon and transfer to a liquidiser or food processor. Purée adding the milk from the pan if required. Season to taste.
Goes nicely with scallops.
Goose, roasting
1 goose, wiped inside and out with kitchen paper
1 small festive gathering
1 apple
1 onion, pealed
1 lemon
fresh sage
trivet (wire rack)
2 roasting tins
wide aluminium foil
Preheat oven to 220˚C
Salt the goose inside and out
Roughly chop the onion and apple, quarter the lemon and ram these, along with 2 sprigs of sage, inside the goose. Prick the skin
of the goose all over to allow the fat to drain out during roasting.
Place the trivet in to the first roasting tin, and place the bird on to this, breast side down.
Roast for 10 minutes.
Turn down the oven to 170˚C
After 20 minutes, remove from the oven and turn the bird.
You are now left with the task of dealing with the excess fat which will be pooling in the roasting tin by now. This is where the second roasting tin comes in:
transfer the bird and trivet to the second tin and return them
to the oven, leaving you with a tin of goose fat to deal with at your
leisure. I use this tin to roast my potatoes in, after having removed the excess fat to jars for another day (I
keep these for a month, in the fridge.)
Now the bird has been returned to the oven, cook for a further 25 minutes per kg minus 20 minutes, basting frequently.
If the goose is getting too brown you can cover it with foil towards the end of cooking.
Check to goose it cooked by either using a meat thermometer (75˚C) or ensuring the juices run clear.
Once cooked, rest, wrapped in foil for 15-30 minutes before carving.
SWEET PASTRY
6oz flour
3 oz butter
make "breadcrumbs" using fingers
3 Tbsp caster sugar
3 egg yolks
bring together with knife
if not coming together yet, add double cream (I used about 30ml)
Form a ball and work the "dough"
Rest in fridge for 2 hours
Remove from fridge and allow to come to room temp for about 30 mins.
Roll out, leave 2 mins before lining dish with it.
