Love Your Sprouts

The sprout.  Its not just for Christmas.  Not only delicious but the purveyor of  sulforaphane - a potent anticancer chemical. 
Its cool to like sprouts again so lets all eat lots over the holidays.

The best ways to cook 'em to retain their flavour and beneficial properties are stirfrying and steaming. The days of cutting a cross into the base and boiling for twenty minutes are over.








Fabulous Sprouts with Bacon.

Slice your little beauties and set aside.
In a deep frying pan, cook litte strips of streaky bacon in olive oil until crisp.
Now throw in a handful of pre-cooked chestnuts.  The vacuum packed ones are nice.
Lastly the sprouts go in.  Stir fry for a few minutes and then add a little water to the pan and put a lid on to create steam.
Cook like this for about five minutes or until the sprouts are just tender. 
The time taken will depend on how finely you have sliced them.

This is a delicious side dish at Christmas but add a tub of creme fraiche and a heap of parmesan and it makes a lovely pasta sauce at any time of year. 




Delicious Braised Red Cabbage

This is only a recent edition to our Christmas dinner but it quickly became an absolute favourite. Its also another dish that can be made a day or two before and re-heated, or frozen well ahead of time.

You will need:
1 Red Cabbage - finely shredded
1 Onion - finely sliced
2 Cooking Apples - sliced
Lots of freshly grated nutmeg
Red wine vinegar
Balsamic vinegar
Soft brown sugar

In a large pan, gently fry the onion in olive oil and a little butter until softened.
Next add the apple and stir again for a few minutes.
Then the cabbage goes in with about half a nutmeg, grated.
Slosh in the vinegar - about 100ml of each. And a heaped tbspn of brown sugar.

Combine and put a lid on.
Cook on a gentle heat until the cabbage is tender.  This will take about an hour.
From time to time, stir and check that its not drying out - add a little water if you need to.

What you don't use will freeze really well and reheat in the oven to go with sausage casseroles of the future.




Christmas Pie

The best thing about the Chistmas feast is the left-overs. What could be nicer than a re-fried sprout?  Well, this pie actually.

Its made in a 7" cake tin with hot water pastry and inside are layers of sliced turkey and stuffing and a seam of braised red cabbage.

Its lovely warm with gravy and vegetables or cold with a fresh salad.

Hot water pastry is really easy to make but its only workable while its warm - roll out and cut your lid before you start filling your pie.




Have a brillaint Christmas and don't stress out about the dinners.

Funny of the Week
Father Dougal is almost as excited as my household.

http://youtu.be/1hx6s_hpI8w