Christmas food: Showstopping starters
Feta tartlet, with faked almonds and homemade chutney. By Deborah. @decent_dinnersfor1
- 500gr cooked and diced chicken breast
- 2 carrot julienne
- 1 apple peeled cored, and diced (leave it in cold water until mix with the other ingredients so it doesn’t go brown)
- 1 red or yellow pepper diced
- 3 celery sticks diced
- 100gr raisins or dried cranberries
- 100gr toasted and chopped walnuts
- Chopped parsley to taste
- 350gr mayo
- 100gr fresh cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, save some of the raisins and walnut for the decoration. You can cut and toast tortillas wrap to serve with it.
- 1 butternut squash
- 2 carrots
- Peel, chop, roast in oven at 180 for 20 mins with salt, pepper and oil
- 2 stems celery
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 10 g ginger
- Chop, sauté
- Add butternut and carrots
- 600 ml veg stock
- Add Simmer
- Blend 70 ml cream
- Add seasonoing
- 200g wholemeal flour
- 150 g plain flour
- 10 g honey
- 3 g salt
- 3 g baking soda
- 250 g buttermilk
- Combine.
- Garnish with pumpkin seeds or oats.
- Bake at 170 c for 20 mins in small bread tin.
- 1 box of filo pastry
- 360g or two packs of Macroom buffalo feta cheese
- 100g butter, melted
- 100g flaked almonds
- 50ml honey
- 200g homemade chutney
- 60ml olive oil
- 1 medium courgette
- 2 red onions
- 25g salt
- 30g fresh ginger
- 30g fresh garlic
- 100ml white wine vinegar
- 50 ml water
- 2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
- 50g brown sugar
Method
- To make the chutney, begin by finely dicing the onions, then place them in a medium saucepan with the olive oil on low heat. While that sweats off, peel your garlic and ginger.
- Slice the ginger before blending to ensure we don’t end up with a stringy chutney!
- Place the sliced ginger into a blender, along with the peeled garlic, vinegar, sugar, and salt. Blend until fine, and set aside, as this is the last thing we add to the pot.
- The onions should be well softened by now (trust me I know how long it takes to peel half a head of garlic). So go ahead and add all your spices, the mustard seeds, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and mixed spice. With your pan still on a low heat, allow those spices to gently toast off.
- In the meantime, prepare the courgette by cutting it down the middle length ways, and again, to quarter it. This makes it easy to cut the seeds out. Once the seeds are removed, slice once more down the middle length ways, then roughly dice into 1cm cubes. Add these diced courgettes to your now fragrant pan, increasing the heat, then adding in your garlic and ginger liquid. Place a lid over your saucepan and allow to come to the boil.
- Once boiling, turn down to a simmer and allow it to reduce, stirring occasionally. The chutney is ready when your vegetables have broken down and the liquid reduced by half.
- This festive chutney is a fantastic ingredient to make in advance. It can last for up to three months in your fridge, if stored in a sterilised container. And making it in advance means you can focus on enjoying the festive season, while still having invested your time and care into providing a delicious meal.
- For the tartlet, unroll your filo pastry and separate out eight sheets. Brushing each sheet with melted butter, layer four of these sheets onto of each other, then set aside and repeat with the remaining four. (These tartlets are forgiving so don’t stress if the layers aren’t perfect!) This should leave you with two stacks of filo, which you can cut in half length ways, then into thirds.
- Take your 12 pastry squares and gently press them into a muffin tray. Crumble the feta into each cup. Then place into an oven at 160C, and bake for seven minutes, or until beautifully golden brown. Remove from the oven and serve warm.
- Garnish with your toasted almonds, a spoon of homemade chutney, and a drizzle of honey for shine. Enjoy.
- 400g sausage meat, or sausages (skins remove)
- 50 g salted butter
- 8 filo pastry sheets (Phyllo)
- 1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
- 2 tsp thyme leaves
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp black or white pepper
- 1 large garlic clove, crushed
- 1 medium eggs, beaten separately
- 200g black pudding, casing removed
- 1 apple (such as cooking apple)
- 20g currants dried
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200C fan | 200C | 390C or equivalent.
- Put the sausage meat, herbs, salt, pepper, garlic and 1 beaten egg, crumble in the black pudding and grate in the apple, discarding the core and add all into a standing mixer and blend for about a minute until all the ingredients are mixed and there’s no big lumps. If you want to check the seasoning, fry off a little bit in a pan before tasting it.
- Melt 50g salted butter.
- Separate 1 sheet of filo pastry and cover the remainder to keep it from drying out. Place the sheet on a flat surface. Use a pastry brush to cover the pastry in a thin layer of the melted butter. Gently cut your pastry into four sheets.
- Take your meet mix and roll out a sausage like shape in your hands just thin like a cigar (make sure you wash your hands before and after using raw meat) lay it along the shortest edge of the each of four pre cut pastry sheet. Roll the meat mix in the pastry until there is only a little bit of pastry still showing. Add a little more melted butter and finish the roll. This will help the pastry to stick.
- Place the roll on a lined baking sheet then repeat with the remaining meat mix and pastry. Brush the outside of the rolls generously with the melted butter. If you run out, just melt a little bit more to finish the job.
- Bake for 20 minutes until light golden brown. They may need slightly longer depending on your oven. Use your eyes and judgement. If your oven does not cook evenly, turn the tray midway throug.
- Move to a cooling rack and try to let them cool a bit before serving. Enjoy.
App?
