Christmas Food Post 3: Recipes for Side Dishes
Stuffing
This was based on a BBC Food recipe for Apple and herb stuffing, selected for being not too much faff (as opposed to the existing family recipes, which either involve huge amounts of breadcrumbs or a lot of chopping of different ingredients). It was pretty tasty, but I'm not sure that apple was the flavour I really wanted, so I'll do something different next time. It'd be pretty good with pork, though. Here's my adapted version:
1 medium onion
2 small eating apples (1 large cooking apple would probably be even better)
6oz white bread, crusts cut off
at least 3tbsp fresh herbs (I think parsley and sage or thyme should probably be compulsory, but use whatever you think will go)
1 egg, beaten, and possibly another one or some milk
Knob of butter and splash of olive oil
Salt and pepper
Chop the onion finely and sweat gently in the butter, adding a drop of oil if it's needed to stop it from sticking to your pan.
If you grow herbs, go out and pick as many as are still growing. I got some sage, thyme and rosemary and a surprising amount of curly parsley, plus a symbolic leaf from the oregano and mint. Supplement with bought herbs as necessary - 2tbsp isn't really enough, and I'm not sure that (provided you like the herb in question) it would be easy to add too much of anything. Wash herbs and let them drain well.
Keep stirring the onion as necessary. You want it to get nice and soft, and possibly a little golden at the edges, but not brown. While that's happening, chop the apples finely.
When the onion's done, turn the heat off and stir the apple in. Leave off the heat while you create the breadcrumbs. Ideally this will be in some sort of electric chopping device (I have one of the sort that fits onto the end of a stick blender; it's sort of broken but holds together well enough for breadcrumbs), but if you haven't got one, just pull/slice the bread into small bits as best you can.
Put the breadcrumbs into a large bowl and pour the apple and onion over the top. Chop or snip the herbs that need chopping, and pull thyme leaves off their stem. Add to the bowl and mix well, adding salt and pepper to taste - quite a bit more pepper than salt, in my case. If you're going to leave it for a day or so, now is the time to put it into a container in the fridge.
When you want to use it, beat the egg and mix in carefully. If it doesn't hold together, use either another beaten egg (but not necessarily all of it) or some milk, and mix in until it does.
Makes enough to stuff a turkey and have some left over for stuffing balls. Stuffing balls will take about 30 mins in the oven.
Braised Red Cabbage
I think that this started out as a combination of two recipes, but I just make it up as I'm going along, these days.
1 red cabbage
1 red onion
1-2 eating apples or 1 bramley
Red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
1 tbsp muscovado or dark brown sugar
Spices, to taste
Butter or a plain-tasting oil
salt and pepper
Get out a lidded ovenproof pot that can also be put on the hob (if you haven't got one, improvise with a large frying pan). Shred as much red cabbage as will fit in the pot with an inch to spare, then take it out of the pot again. Slice the onion and fry it in the pot over a fairly gentle heat.
While it's cooking, grate the apple. When the onion is soft and golden-brown, turn off the heat and stir the apple into the onion.
Now go along the spice rack and choose some things that smell like they'd be good with the cabbage and whatever you'll serve it with. I only wanted a bit of spice this time, so I went for about 1/4-1/2tsp cinnamon and a generous couple of pinches of garam masala. I'd have put in a bay leaf as well, if they hadn't been hiding behind the stock cubes at the time. Juniper berries are good, as are thyme and rosemary, and I've seen recipes using star anise, too.
Stir the spices, the sugar, a pinch of salt and a generous amount of pepper into the apple and onion. Put about 1/3 of the cabbage into the pot, then 1/2 of the apple and onion, then cabbage, then onion, then cabbage. You can stir it all together if you prefer, but it's easier to layer it. Pour over 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar (red wine vinegar on this occasion), and put the lid on. I know this doesn't sound like a lot of liquid but the apples will release a fair bit as they cook.
Put in the oven (at about 150C-ish, I think) for an hour.
Take it out, give it a bit of a stir so you can see whether it's sticking at the bottom, and add another tbsp of vinegar if you need to. Put it back for another hour, or until the cabbage is soft and sticky, and is just beginning to caramelize around the edges.
Keeps well and goes with roasts, stews, pies, mash, sausages, roasted vegetables, and so on.
Brandy Butter
I made Mary Berry's brandy butter recipe this year, which was sufficient for generous helpings with a whole large Christmas pudding, plus a little bit extra.
It was good, but I think the icing sugar made it a little too sweet. I prefer the recipe I made last year, but unfortunately I can't remember the recipe I made last year and in any case I'd run out of brandy so it was made with half brandy and half rum. That was surprisingly good, actually, so I might try adding a dash of rum in future. I think the main difference was in using some golden caster sugar, which made the butter a bit crunchy but wasn't over-sweet.
This was based on a BBC Food recipe for Apple and herb stuffing, selected for being not too much faff (as opposed to the existing family recipes, which either involve huge amounts of breadcrumbs or a lot of chopping of different ingredients). It was pretty tasty, but I'm not sure that apple was the flavour I really wanted, so I'll do something different next time. It'd be pretty good with pork, though. Here's my adapted version:
1 medium onion
2 small eating apples (1 large cooking apple would probably be even better)
6oz white bread, crusts cut off
at least 3tbsp fresh herbs (I think parsley and sage or thyme should probably be compulsory, but use whatever you think will go)
1 egg, beaten, and possibly another one or some milk
Knob of butter and splash of olive oil
Salt and pepper
Chop the onion finely and sweat gently in the butter, adding a drop of oil if it's needed to stop it from sticking to your pan.
If you grow herbs, go out and pick as many as are still growing. I got some sage, thyme and rosemary and a surprising amount of curly parsley, plus a symbolic leaf from the oregano and mint. Supplement with bought herbs as necessary - 2tbsp isn't really enough, and I'm not sure that (provided you like the herb in question) it would be easy to add too much of anything. Wash herbs and let them drain well.
Keep stirring the onion as necessary. You want it to get nice and soft, and possibly a little golden at the edges, but not brown. While that's happening, chop the apples finely.
When the onion's done, turn the heat off and stir the apple in. Leave off the heat while you create the breadcrumbs. Ideally this will be in some sort of electric chopping device (I have one of the sort that fits onto the end of a stick blender; it's sort of broken but holds together well enough for breadcrumbs), but if you haven't got one, just pull/slice the bread into small bits as best you can.
Put the breadcrumbs into a large bowl and pour the apple and onion over the top. Chop or snip the herbs that need chopping, and pull thyme leaves off their stem. Add to the bowl and mix well, adding salt and pepper to taste - quite a bit more pepper than salt, in my case. If you're going to leave it for a day or so, now is the time to put it into a container in the fridge.
When you want to use it, beat the egg and mix in carefully. If it doesn't hold together, use either another beaten egg (but not necessarily all of it) or some milk, and mix in until it does.
Makes enough to stuff a turkey and have some left over for stuffing balls. Stuffing balls will take about 30 mins in the oven.
Braised Red Cabbage
I think that this started out as a combination of two recipes, but I just make it up as I'm going along, these days.
1 red cabbage
1 red onion
1-2 eating apples or 1 bramley
Red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
1 tbsp muscovado or dark brown sugar
Spices, to taste
Butter or a plain-tasting oil
salt and pepper
Get out a lidded ovenproof pot that can also be put on the hob (if you haven't got one, improvise with a large frying pan). Shred as much red cabbage as will fit in the pot with an inch to spare, then take it out of the pot again. Slice the onion and fry it in the pot over a fairly gentle heat.
While it's cooking, grate the apple. When the onion is soft and golden-brown, turn off the heat and stir the apple into the onion.
Now go along the spice rack and choose some things that smell like they'd be good with the cabbage and whatever you'll serve it with. I only wanted a bit of spice this time, so I went for about 1/4-1/2tsp cinnamon and a generous couple of pinches of garam masala. I'd have put in a bay leaf as well, if they hadn't been hiding behind the stock cubes at the time. Juniper berries are good, as are thyme and rosemary, and I've seen recipes using star anise, too.
Stir the spices, the sugar, a pinch of salt and a generous amount of pepper into the apple and onion. Put about 1/3 of the cabbage into the pot, then 1/2 of the apple and onion, then cabbage, then onion, then cabbage. You can stir it all together if you prefer, but it's easier to layer it. Pour over 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar (red wine vinegar on this occasion), and put the lid on. I know this doesn't sound like a lot of liquid but the apples will release a fair bit as they cook.
Put in the oven (at about 150C-ish, I think) for an hour.
Take it out, give it a bit of a stir so you can see whether it's sticking at the bottom, and add another tbsp of vinegar if you need to. Put it back for another hour, or until the cabbage is soft and sticky, and is just beginning to caramelize around the edges.
Keeps well and goes with roasts, stews, pies, mash, sausages, roasted vegetables, and so on.
Brandy Butter
I made Mary Berry's brandy butter recipe this year, which was sufficient for generous helpings with a whole large Christmas pudding, plus a little bit extra.
It was good, but I think the icing sugar made it a little too sweet. I prefer the recipe I made last year, but unfortunately I can't remember the recipe I made last year and in any case I'd run out of brandy so it was made with half brandy and half rum. That was surprisingly good, actually, so I might try adding a dash of rum in future. I think the main difference was in using some golden caster sugar, which made the butter a bit crunchy but wasn't over-sweet.