You need this:
400ml full fat milk
1 Bay leaf
6 black peppercorns
¼ peeled shallot or small onion
30g butter, cubed
20g plain flour
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
A saucepan
A jug that will hold at least 500ml with a strainer
A whisk

You do this:
Put the milk, bay leaf, pepper, cloves and onion in the saucepan and heat the milk  to just under boiling (this will take a few minutes). Remove the saucepan from the heat and strain the infused milk into the jug.
Next, wash the saucepan and put it back on a medium heat, add the butter and melt it (don’t brown or burn it) and gently whisk in the flour. Still over the medium heat, little by little, add and whisk in all the hot milk as it simmers – cooking at too high a temperature will burn the sauce.  Then, turn the heat down to the lowest setting and simmer the sauce, stirring occasionally to get a smooth creamy sauce and then season to taste.

TIP: A lot of Béchamel recipes tell you to stud an onion with cloves, warm the milk and infuse it for some time, I reckon this is an easier way and gives just as much flavour.

You do this:
Peel and chop the shallot or onion and the garlic, put the saucepan on a medium heat adding 1 tbsp olive oil, the chopped vegetables and the herbs. Stir and when the onion softens stir in the tomato puree and cook for a minute or two to remove the acidity. Tip in the tin of tomatoes, turn the heat down and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, blend to the consistency you like and season to taste.

This is a great all round tomato sauce, use it for everything from pasta and pizza, to chicken or fish or you can spice it up and use in middle eastern dishes

ENJOY!

Ask yourself this question: if it comes out of a packet, do you really know what you’re eating?

It’s not illegal to eat horse meat in the UK, but you need to have a choice whether or not you do, and know whether it’s contaminated with antibiotics and drugs.  I’m not opposed to “nose to tail” eating, I’ll eat most things, but I do like to know what it is before I eat something!

In our global food producing economy, mass produced food scares the living daylights out of me and I avoid it as much as I possibly can.  I’m always a bit suspicious of labelling that says “CAUTION:  Although extra care has been taken to remove all bones, some bones remain” – this actually appears underneath the ingredients list on the now infamous “Findus Beef Lasagne”.  I would expect that to appear on packaging for fish cakes not beef lasagne.

However, when we look at how the processed food industry mechanically reclaims meat from animal carcasses, turning it into unrecognisable sludge, adding the contents of a chemistry lab to preserve it and to make it vaguely palatable, then reforming it into something that resembles food; Isn’t this reason enough for not touching processed food?

Yes! We’re busy, tired and just grab food off the supermarket shelves that is quick to prepare and eat, and we trust that it comes from a reputable source and contains what it says in the ingredients.  None of the processed food companies or supermarkets want to take the blame or responsibility in this disparate industry for what has gone horribly wrong.  In the Findus case, the meat originally came from Romanian abattoirs, was shipped to a French processing plant, then on to Luxembourg to be made into ready meals then eventually to the UK.

Stringent testing needs to be implemented at all levels in the supply chain (which we all presumes happens) and accountability needs to be a number one priority within the food industry.  Hasn’t anyone yet learnt the lessons from previous food scares?

The BBC’s Evan Davis and Michelin starred chef Alan Murchison both tweeted their anger at this disgraceful affair

“If you put your name on something you should bloody well know what it is” Evan Davis

“Surprise revelation that cheap food is unethical, support quality artisan producers, it is the only way forward”- Alan Murchison

My advice is, eat food in its most natural state and know where it’s come from.

The main white sugars:

Granulated Sugar, this is the all-purpose crystal white sugar you buy to add and sweeten everything from hot beverages to breakfast cereals

Caster Sugar is granulated sugar but grated finer so it dissolves easily, used in baking. It is so named because it had to be fine enough to be shaken out of a confectioner’s shaker or “caster”. Called superfine sugar in America

Icing Sugar is granulated sugar that has been crushed to a fine powder, it dissolves very easily and is usually used for cake decoration or icing or as a fine dusting on desserts, Known as confectioners’ sugar in America and Sucre glace in France

Sugar Cubes or Lumps are usually granulated sugar crystals that have been “glued” together with corn syrup which make them slightly slower to dissolve than granulated sugar on its own; they are usually used for aesthetic purposes in hot beverages

Preserving or Jam Sugar contains slightly larger crystals than granulated sugar sometimes with pectin (a setting agent derived from fruit) added. Used, as it says, for Jam and preserve making

Palm Sugar is extracted from the Asian sugar palm tree; a light palm sugar is used extensively in Thai cuisine. A darker palm sugar is often called jaggery and has a distinct almost winey aroma and is mostly used in Indian, Indonesian and some African cuisines.

The main brown sugars:

Brown Sugar (often called light brown sugar) is white sugar with added molasses, used in baking it adds a little extra moistness and caramel flavour.

Dark Brown Sugar is the same as light brown sugar but with more molasses added.

Demerara Sugar originally came from the Demerara colony in Guyana but is now more widely grown. It is normally medium brown in colour, the natural colour of cane sugar but different varieties can be more golden with a crunchy texture and a mild molasses flavour. It is typically enjoyed instead of white sugar, with coffee, cereal or sprinkled on fruit and yogurt. Its sparkle and crunch lends itself to use as a topping on cakes and bread puddings.

Muscovado Sugar is a specialty raw sugar, moist with high molasses content and a strong molasses flavour, very dark brown in colour, and slightly coarser and stickier than most brown sugars. It is often used in cookies, gingerbread and chocolate cake as well as marinades, savoury sauces and chutneys. It also is made into a light muscovado variety for biscuits, cakes, savoury dishes and toffee sauce.

Syrups
Invert Sugar is made from a sucrose water solution (a basic sugar or stock syrup) heated with the addition of acid. It is used extensively in ice cream, sorbet, glazes and sauces, and fondant making. Fudge and caramel sauce also use the non-grainy texture that invert sugar gives.

Treacle or Molasses. There are a number of grades of treacle. The darker the treacle, the more bitter it is. Treacle is generally added to a recipe for colour, flavour and moisture, rather than sweetness. Recipes such as gingerbread use treacle or molasses with sugar also added, treacle is common in liquorice, baked beans, and barbecue sauce.

Golden Syrup is made at the sugar refinery from raw sugar and filtered through charcoal to give it a clear appearance and delicate flavour.

Maple Syrup comes from the sap of the maple tree. Grade A Maple syrup is the highest grade and is graded by colour, flavour and sugar content. The lower, darker grade syrups are used in baked goods and glazes. Some cheap maple flavoured syrups are usually made from corn syrup with maple flavour added.

Corn Syrup, Corn is the second largest sugar producing crop. Corn syrup begins as a starchy liquid that is converted into sugars by the addition of acid which results in a syrup that is much thicker than standard sugar syrups. It is less sweet than sugar syrup because it contains a lot of glucose. This syrup has become popular for food makers because it’s cheaper than white sugar but it has a reputation for being unhealthy and fattening

Sweeteners

There is a pretty extensive list of manufactured sweeteners and really by definition they should really be called “artificial sweeteners” as they are synthetic sugar substitutes.  Look for names like Acesulfame, aspartame, sucralose, sorbitol and saccharine.  Artificial sweeteners are many times sweeter than regular sugar and appear in most manufactured foods, drinks and ready meals. A lot of savoury foods also contain artificial sweeteners, check the label and read the ingredient list, you’ll be surprised!

A couple of interesting facts about sugar
1) The government recommended daily intake (GDA) for sugar is 90g, just one 500ml can of cola contains 60g of sugar, that’s 2/3rds of your daily intake (incidentally, even one can of Red Bull, the energy drink, has 27g that’s still 1/3^rd  of your daily intake!)
2) As nation we now consume nearly as much sugar PER WEEK (1½kgs) as we consumed PER YEAR (2kgs) at the beginning of the 20^th century!

The Turkey:
Buy a fresh turkey on the bone, (organic and free range if possible)

What weight turkey should you buy?
I reckon you need about ½ kg (that’s approx.1lb) of meat on the bone for each person, this will give you enough for a meal with some left over.
6-8 people: 4kg turkey
10 people: 5kg turkey
12 people: 6kg turkey
(a lot of  people over calculate and have turkey leftover meals through New Year’s day!)

Make sure you have the right size roasting tray for your bird and that it will fit in your oven.

Take the turkey out of the refrigerator at least an hour or two before you cook it so that you don’t put a very cold piece of meat into a hot oven and reduce the oven temperature.

Cover the breast with a good quality streaky bacon (to baste the bird and stop the breast meat drying out) Season and put the bird on a roasting rack over a roasting tray so that the turkey roasts and doesn’t “boil” in its juices.

If you want crispy dark skin, remove the bacon for the final hour of cooking.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC (Gas 5) and place the bird in the middle rack of the oven.

Timing? Around 40minutes per kilo weight plus a further 20minutes or so “resting” in a warm place-that is for a 6 kg turkey you need to cook it for roughly 4hrs plus another 20minutes.

Resting the bird allows the meat to “relax” and the juices inside to return naturally throughout the meat giving you an overall moist and tasty bird, cover it with some aluminium foil to retain the temperature.

If you have a meat thermometer the internal temperature at the thickest part of the bird meat should be between 65ºC and 70ºC if not and you are not sure whether the turkey is cooked, push a thin sharp knife or skewer into the meat and the juices should run out clear.

TIP:

Don’t put anything into the cavity of the bird (some recipes suggest filling it with stuffing or onions etc.) this only makes the bird more difficult to cook evenly as you need the heat to cook inside the bird as well. If you want to put a couple of bay leaves, thyme sprigs and/or sage leaves inside for extra flavour, these won’t affect the cooking at all.

Roast Potatoes
Maris Piper potatoes make the best roast potatoes.
Peel and cut the potatoes to size and place in a saucepan of cold, salted water, bring the water up to the boil, reduce it to a simmer for 10minutes and then drain the potatoes thoroughly giving them a shake to rough up
Use some of the fat from the cooking turkey and carefully place the potatoes in a roasting tray, spoon in the fat and move the potatoes around to get them covered in the fat, season with freshly ground black pepper, sea salt and a few sprigs of thyme. The potatoes will need to cook for around 1 hour or so, depending on the size you cut them
TIP: adding a few small knobs of butter to the potatoes as well as the fat will give them an extra flavour

Brussel Sprouts
Use small ones; don’t worry about a cross in the base, that makes little or no difference.remove any outer leaves that are damaged or blemished and plunge them into boiling salted water for no more then 10 or 12 minutes, or you will end up with grey soggy vegetables (one reason why kids hate them so much!)
TIP: I Iike to then fry a few lardons (strips) of streaky bacon in a pan, add the sprouts and a few diced cooked chestnuts, a pinch of nutmeg and seasoning
Roast Parsnips
Once again, don’t buy the big woody ones. If they are small you can peel and halve or quarter them and roast them in hot oil with a little butter and seasoning. If they are quite big you will have to cut out the hard, woody centre before cooking. depending on the size you cut them they will take 30-40 minutes
TIP: Parsnips, being a winter root vegetable, contain natural sugars, and will caramelise when roasting. You don’t really need to add honey or brown sugar etc.
Red Cabbage
Thinly slice and place in a saucepan with about 50ml of water, a teaspoon of redcurrant jelly (to sweeten) and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar (to hold the red colour) and cook over a low heat for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally, season to taste
TIP: for an extra dimension, add a grated apple about 10 minutes before you finish cooking the cabbage. Cold red cabbage is great with cold meats and will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.
Stuffing:
Serves/Makes: enough for 6-10
You need this:
250gr good quality sausage meat (from your butcher0
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 shallots finely diced
1 teaspoonful chopped thyme
1 teaspoonful chopped sage
50gr home made breadcrumbs
1 egg yolk
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
You do this:
Gently fry the shallots until opaque, set aside to cool. Meanwhile, mix all the other ingredients together and then add and mix in the cooled shallots. Wet your hands and pick out tablespoon size amounts and roll into balls. Put into a roasting dish and cook in the oven 180ºC (Gas5) for 15-20 minutes
You can make these a day or two in advance and keep in your refrigerator
Pigs in blankets
Take one good quality chipolata  and one rasher of streaky bacon per person
Lay the bacon on achopping board and run the blunt back of your cooks knife along the rasher to flatten and stretch it. Lay the chipolata at an angle to the bacon and roll the “pig” into its “blanket”. Roast in the oven 180ºC (Gas5), middle shelf for 25 minutes
Cranberry sauce
You need this:
1 pack (300g) fresh cranberries
Zest and juice of ½ orange
1 level tbsp caster sugar
You do this:
Put all the ingredients into a thick based saucepan, turn on the heat, bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to a light simmer for 5minutes or until the cranberries burst. Cool, serve.

ENJOY! Merry Christmas!

The next day, preheat the oven to 120°C (250F/gas mark1/2)
Remove the cling film and cover lightly with foil and cook for about 3 hours in the gentle oven. Remove and stir again as it cools then tightly pack into a cooled, sterilised jar (wash it thoroughly and stand in 120°C (250F/gas mark1/2) oven for 15 minutes to sterilise). Seal and store in a cool, dark place until you need it (a couple of weeks will mature it nicely).
 

This is my recipe for a fabulous crumbly mince pie pastry
You need this:
250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
50g icing sugar, sifted
125g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
pinch of cinnamon
1 egg, beaten (free-range and organic if possible)
a splash of milk

You do this:
Sieve the flour into a good sized bowl (you need to get your hands in it) and sieve the icing sugar over the top, add in the butter and, with your hands, work the cubes of butter into the flour and sugar by rubbing your thumbs against your fingers until you end up with a fine, crumbly mixture. Lightly mix in the cinnamon.
Add the eggs and milk to the mixture and gently work it together till you have a ball of dough. Don’t work the pastry too much or you won’t get a nice crumbly short pastry, it will become elastic and chewy. Tip the mixture on to a lightly floured  work surface, gently flatten it and wrap it in cling film and put it into the fridge to rest for at least half an hour.

TIP: don’t knead it too much and try to work with cool or cold hands (run them under a cold tap to get them as cold as possible)

To make the mince pies
You do this:
On a lightly floured surface and with a dry lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the pastry to the thickness you like and cut out the mince pie bases, place them in your pie tin, add a spoonful of mincemeat, top with a pastry lid, brush with a little milk and dust with caster sugar with a pinch of cinnamon in. bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C (gas 5/350F) for 15-18minutes or until cooked.
ENJOY!

You do this:
Make up the Earl Grey tea using 3 teabags and leave the teabags in the tea until it has brewed and cooled enough ready to soak the fruit (doing this will make sure you get that great tea flavour in the bread).
Place the dried fruit  into a large bowl, pour over the tea and mix it a little. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and leave to soak overnight.
When it has soaked overnight and you are ready to make the bread, preheat the oven to 175C/325F/Gas 3.
Add the flour, sugar, beaten egg and mixed spice to the soaked fruit and mix well.

Grease the loaf tin and spoon in the mixture.
Bake in the oven for one and a quarter hours, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

When it is cooked, remove from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes or so and it will come away from the sides of the tin a little which will then make it easier to turn out onto a rack and allow to cool completely.

Serve slices of the tea bread spread with unsalted butter.
ENJOY!

You need this:
250ml double cream (see TIP)
125ml full fat milk
3 egg yolks
40g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g cooked Christmas pudding (see TIP)
An electric mixer with a balloon whisk and an ice cream maker

You do this:
Whisk the egg yolks in the electric mixer for a couple of minutes and then slowly whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended (about a minute or so). Pour in the milk, cream and vanilla and whisk for a further minute or two to blend the ingredients together.

Meanwhile, chop the Christmas pudding into small, breadcrumb size, pieces, (although the size really depends on whether you want fine bits in your ice cream or larger chunks)
Transfer the mixture to your ice cream maker, and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions.

EAT. ENJOY!

TIP: I used double cream, milk and the fabulous Christmas pudding, all organic, that were produced and delivered to my door by Riverford Organic Vegetables www.Riverford.co.uk
TIP: Instead of Christmas pudding, use mince pies, (including the pastry!) Riverford make the best I’ve tasted

Oven preheated to 180⁰C, small frying pan, kitchen blender, electric whisk, 4-6 ramekin dishes (depending on their size) or two oven proof dishes

For the vegetables, you do this:
Heat the oil in the frying pan and gently fry the vegetables until they are just cooked with a little crunch, remove from the heat and allow to cool a little while you prepare the other parts of the dish.
To make Hummus you do this:
Put  everything in the blender and whizz up to a paste, add a little of the chickpea water if the mixture is too stiff and adjust the flavouring to suit your taste – more garlic, more lemon juice, seasoning or olive oil.
To make the soufflé you do this:
Make sure the bowl you are going to whisk the egg whites in is clean, dry and grease free. Whisk the egg whites into firm peaks, gently fold in the chopped herbs and then gently fold in the hummus.
Divide the cooked vegetables between the ramekins or oven dishes and spoon equal amounts of the soufflé mix over the vegetables.
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes to cook the “soufflé” – it won’t rise like a regular soufflé but the mixture will cook and look like one.

SERVE. EAT. ENJOY!