Christmas Cabbage

What is a Christmas dinner without cabbage, nicer some might say, here are two traditional Norwegian cabbage recipes. These can be made vegetarian, just substitute the beef stock with vegetable stock.

Makes 2 1l tubs

This is what you need;

• Red Cabbage

1 large red cabbage
250 ml beef stock (or just water and you can boil the cabbage with oxtail or cow, moose or Venice bone)
2 cooking apples
2 tsp vinegar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

• White Cabbage (Norwegian take on Sauerkraut)

1 large white cabbage
250 ml beef stock (or just water and you can boil the cabbage with oxtail or cow, moose or Venice bone)
2 cooking apples
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vinegar
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp cracked black pepper

Let’s get started,

Thinly slice the cabbage and roughly chop the apples, put the red cabbage in one saucepan and white in another.
Then add all the other ingredients bring to a boil and then let it simmer for 45 min.

Let it cool and transfer to a plastic container, this will last in the fridge for up to 2 weeks so you can truly prepare for your Christmas dinner, when you are ready to use just heat up and serve.

Enjoy x

GINGERBREAD

THE ultimate Christmas bake!

This dough made about 30 biscuits and a fairytale house.

This is what you need;

225g unsalted butter
12 tbsp golden syrup 200g caster sugar
100g light muscovado sugar
1tsp all spice
2 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp milk
900g plain flour
3 tsp bicarbonate soda

This recipe is super easy to make and give quite the result.
This is how you do it;

Preheat the oven to 180 fan, gas mark 4. Put butter, syrup and sugar into a sauce pan, over  medium heat stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the spices, once fully incorporated put your flour and stir vigorously add the milk to make the dough smoother.Leave to cool before you roll out to £1 tick cookies, bake in the middle of the oven  for 9 min, depending on your oven but they burn pretty quick so keep an eye on them.

If you are making a ginger bread house make sure that all the pieces are of equal thickness and make your blueprints before you start. If you want the measurements that I used just email me and I’ll send them over.

For the piping, mix 500g icing sugar, 2 egg whites and 1 tsp lemon juice divide into bowls and add 2 drops of the food colouring of your liking.

This is the perfect past time and if you have kids I can promise that this will keep the occupied for a few hours.
Enjoy x

A little tip, take a straw and make a hole in the ginger bread before baking and they will make fantastic place cards, Tree decorations and Christmas present tags.

Brownies

Bonfire night, a perfect night to make some triple chocolate brownies and watch the fireworks in your PJ’s.

Makes 15 large ones…

This is what you need:

250g unsalted butter
450g Sugar
6 medium eggs
200g self-raising flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla paste
1/2 tsp salt
300g mixed chocolate chunks (white, milk, dark)
1 roasting tin

Start by greasing your tin with butter and line it with grease proof paper, then preheat your oven to 180 fan, gas mark 4-5.
In a heatproof bowl over simmering water, melt 50g of the chocolate chunks with 50g of the butter and set to one side to cool. Put the remaining butter, vanilla paste and the sugar into a bowl and whisk until fluffy, by now the melted chocolate should have cooled so add this to the mixture, start adding your eggs one by one until fully incorporated. Sift your flour, cocoa powder and salt into the bowl and then fold in with a metal spoon, now for the final stage, add the chocolate chunks and roughly mix. Pour into the greased tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 35-40 minuted.

Let the brownies cool for about 15-20 minutes before cutting them up to little pieces of heaven.

Sausage Rolls

THE SAUSAGE ROLL….

Depending on the size you can get up to 15.

This is always a safe option, tastes amazing hot but also works next day for brekkie. This can also be made vegetarian. You can just buy your favorite sausages and take the skin off, or buy some veggie ones and put them in a food processor and use that rather than making the mix, I think it’s nicer to make it..

This is what you need:
1kg puff pastry (see yesterdays post)
500g finly minced pork
3 sage leafs, finely sliced
1tsp black pepper
1tsp white pepper
1 finely diced red onion
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp grounded nutmeg
1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp water
1tbsp olive oil

Start by heating your oven to 220 degrees, gas mark 6, add red onion, garlic and sage in a pan and cook until the onions are soft, set to one side. In a bowl, add the mince and the powdered spices and the onions and mix well together until everything is combined.
On a lightly floured surface roll your dough out to a 80cmx40cm and you want the dough to be around the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut the edges off so you have straight lines then cut in the middle giving you to long slices of dough.
Add the pork mixture (or the veggie sausage mix) like a long sausage across the 2 pieces of dough, brush all the edges and roll over the long edges of the dough, making one long dough sausage with a little handle on the edge.

Push down the long edges with a fork and start cutting your rolls. I cut them up 10-12 cm each or you can make mini ones 5cm. Brush them with the beaten egg (now if you want to freeze some for a later date this is the time) bake the rolls in the middle of the oven for 30 min until golden.

Let them cool a bit as the middle will be very hot, then dunk in some ketchup and eat away!