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Useful Foods
Christmas Menu A
Christmas Menu B

Deep-fried Brie with Apricot Sauce

  • 1 circle of brie: Dunbarra is both Irish and vegetarian
  • fine breadcrumbs
  • Either
  • 6 tbsp chick-pea or soya flour + 12 tbsp water mixed well together or
  • two free-range eggs, beaten with 2 tbsp water
  • 12-16 dried apricots
  • sunflower oil for frying

Method:

Cut the brie into triangular wedges. dip in the chick-pea/water binder, or into the beaten eggs. Then dip this into breadcrumbs, coating well. repeat the dipping and breadcrumbing until all the brie and coating mixture is used. Place the wedges in the fridge to chill until you are ready to cook, or put into the freezer for approx. 30 minutes.

Put the apricots into a saucepan and cover well with water, then bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until soft. Otherwise, put them in a bowl, cover with water and microwave for 5 minutes. Process until smooth.

When you are ready to serve, either deep or shallow fry the brie wedges, and serve with the apricot sauce and a mini-salad.

To prepare ahead: both the coating of the cheese and making the apricot sauce can be done the day before.

Cashew Nut Roast

  • 225 g / 8 oz cashew nuts
  • l00 g / 4 oz white or wholemeal breadcrumbs
  • 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp olive oil, or 25 g / l oz butter
  • 2 free-range eggs, beaten
  • 150 ml / ¼ pint milk, whole or skimmed, or soya
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped sage or thyme
  • 1 tbsp parsley
  • salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 200oC / 4OOoF / Gas mark 6. Fry the onion and garlic in the oil or butter for about 5 minutes until soft. Take off the heat. Grind together the nuts and breadcrumbs finely, and add to the nut mixture. Then add all the other ingredients and mix well. Line a l Ib loaf tin with baking parchment or greaseproof paper and oil lightly. Put in the nut loaf mixture, and press it down flat. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until firm.

To prepare ahead: the nut roast can be made a day or two in advance, and left in the fridge in the loaf tin.

Red Pepper Sauce

  • 3 red peppers
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 250 ml / 8 fl oz vegetable stock
  • 50 g / 2 oz breadcrumbs
  • salt and pepper

Method:

De-seed the peppers, remove the pith and wash them, then chop roughly. Put these, the onion, garlic and stock into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Cover the lid and simmer softly for about 20 minutes until the peppers are soft. 5tir in the remaining ingredients and puree well in a food processor or blender. Re-heat to serve.

To prepare ahead: the sauce can be made a day before.

Stir-fried Sprouts

This is a variation on a recipe in the VSI book, Simply Vegetarian It is an interesting and unusual way to serve this most traditional Christmas vegetable.

  • 575 g / 1¾ lb sprouts
  • 4 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 1-2 cloves garlic, finely crushed
  • 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • salt to taste

Method:

Trim and wash the sprouts, then slice thinly - this is best done in a food processor, and the sprouts should then ‘shred’. In a wok or deep saucepan, heat the oil until 'smoky' hot. Add the sprouts, garlic and lemon zest, and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Then add the lemon juice and salt, turn for another minute then serve immediately.

To prepare ahead: this dish is best cooked just before serving. The sprouts can be prepared (i.e. trimmed and washed) on Christmas morning - if you have a food processor it's best to slice them just before cooking to keep the nutrients. Otherwise you can slice them in the morning too.

Carrot Batons

  • Approx. 450 g / 1 lb carrots, well-scrubbed or peeled
  • salt

Method:

Cut the carrots into 'batons' of approximately 2 inches long and about 2 matchsticks wide and deep (it’s not important to get it too exact!). When you're ready to cook, just boil in salted water for about 2 minutes.

Lemon Roast Potatoes

  • Approx. 900 g / 2 lb potatoes, peeled
  • 1 lemon
  • salt
  • sunflower oil

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F / Gas 6. Cut the potatoes into half, or quarters if they're big. bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the potatoes and cook for about 10 minutes. While they're cooking, zest the lemon and squeeze the juice out. Drain the potatoes, then, with the lid on the saucepan, shake it well to roughen up the edges. Pour a thin layer of oil into a roasting dish and heat it in the oven. Add the potatoes and sprinkle with the salt, lemon zest and lemon juice (be careful, because the lemon juice can cause the oil to spit). Turn them with a slotted spoon so they're well coated, then place in the oven for approx. half an hour, then turn them. Add the cashew nut roast at this stage and cook them both for 30 - 40 minutes.

To prepare ahead: The potatoes can be peeled and left in a bowl of cold water the day before.

Dried Fruit Salad

  • 450 g / l lb mixed dried fruit: e.g. peaches, apricots, prunes, pears, apples
  • 50 g / 2 oz soft brown or demerara sugar
  • 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
  • 6 tbsp rum or brandy
  • 90 g / 3½ oz flaked almonds

Method:

Wash the dried fruit, then put it into a bow!, cover with plenty of water and leave to soak overnight. Next day put into a saucepan with its soaking water adding more, if necessary, to make the water just level with the top of the fruit). Add the sugar and cinnamon stick and bring to the boil. Let the mixture simmer away, without a lid on the saucepan, for about an hour or until nearly all the liquid has boiled away. Remove from the heat and add the rum and nuts. Leave to cool, then serve at room temperature with cream or custard.

To prepare ahead: this can be made the day before, then stored in the fridge.

=vegan

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