Category: Christmas

Prepare the sprouts by removing any outer leaves that don’t look their best. Trim the bottoms off and make a cross in the bottom of each sprout.

Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Cook the sprouts for 5 – 6 minutes until just tender. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, add a drizzle of oil to a pan and cook the bacon over medium heat until bronzed. Crumble in the chestnuts stirring them in the bacon juices until warmed through. A couple of minutes will do. Switch off the heat and add the maple syrup and sprouts to the pan. Stir everything together in the pan. Transfer to a warm serving bowl.

Turn on oven and set to 180°C. Unroll the puff pastry, add the sausage meat and form into a long even cylinder that goes right to the edge lengthways. Spoon over the cranberry sauce and spread evenly on top of the sausage meat. Place the slices of brie on top of the cranberry sauce.

Brush all around the filling with the beaten egg, fold over and firmly and tightly press the pastry against the sausage meat to form a tight fit. Cut off excess pastry leaving approx 1 inch flap. You can press this with the tine of a fork for decoration.

Brush the pastry all over with the remaining beaten egg, transfer to a shallow roasting tin lined with parchment paper or reuasable silicone sheet, before placing in the oven for 40 – 45 minutes until if has puffed up and gone golden brown. Allow to cool for 5 – 10 minutes before cutting into it and serving.

Unroll the pastry and using a pastry cutter slightly large than the holes in a mini muffin tray cut out 24 discs of pastry. You can knead together left over pastry and roll out to get the last few discs. Fit the pastry into the holes of a mini cupcake tray.

cut 24 small squares of parchment paper out. Place these into the pastry lined muffin trays and weigh down with ceramic baking beans or dry rice. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove ceramic beans or rice and the parchment paper, return to the oven and bake for 4 – 6 minutes until slightly browned and crisp. Then set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate filling by melting together chocolate sugar and cream over a low heat. Once melted turn off heat and stir in the olive oil. Then leave to cool.

Once the cases and filling have cooled add 1/4 tsp of chopped ginger into the base of each tart(reserve some for the tops as well). Add a teaspoon of chocolate to each. Then give the whole tray a bit of a shake to even out the chocolate. Use the remaining ginger, add a little to the top of each tart.

I find using tweezers the easiest way to work with the gold leaf as it is very fragile. (don’t even breathe in its vicinity). Pick up a sheet and dab the ginger on top to make it stick. Remove to a serving platter

Preheat oven to 200°C.Line a baking sheet with grease proof paper or a silicone sheet. Unroll puff pastry and score a line down the middle of the sheet to mark the halfway point.

to one half add teaspoon sized mounds of mincemeat leaving approx 1cm between each. You should be able to get 25 small parcels or 15 medium (2 bite parcels)

Brush all around the mincemeat coating all the pastry before folding over the other half. Press the edge together to seal. Then press round the mounds of mincemeat to seal tightly.

Cut off excess pastry and cut into small squares. Press again all around the edges to tightly seal the parcels. Place on prepared baking sheet, brush with remaining beaten egg. Place in the oven for 20 minutes or until puffed up and golden brown. Remove from baking sheet and transfer to a serving platter. Use a tea strainer or small sieve and icing sugar to dust the mincemeat parcels before serving.

Place the eggs in a large pan and bring to a roaring boil, when it has, allow to boil for 1 minute then turn off the heat, place a lid on the pan and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 15 minutes. Then run the eggs under cold water until cold to prevent the cooking. To peel the eggs give them a wrap on the counter then gently roll them on the counter with the palm of your hand to crack the shell. The shell will easily peel away. Run under cold water to remove any small fragments of shell that remain then place on a plate lined with a paper towel to remove moisture.

When all eggs have been shelled, split in half legthways, place the whites on a serving platter and the yolks into a mixing bowl.

To the yolks add mayonnaise,mustard, paprika, butter and season to taste with salt. Using an electric hand mixer, mix until combined add 1 teaspoon of recently boiled water, then beat again until a smooth velvety mixture is achieved. Add the 2/3 of the chopped bacon and fold into the mixture. Taste to check for seasoning.

Fill a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle with the mixture and pipe a rosette of filling into the hollow of the awaiting egg whites on the platter. Sprinkle with remaining bacon and chopped chives and dust with a little extra paprika.

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the onions, pepper and garlic. Cook over a low heat until softened. Then add in the chilli flakes and pour in the tomatoes. Fill the can with 200ml of water swirl to collect the remaining tomato in the can then pour into the pan.

Meanwhile, slice the chicken finely. Add the chicken to the pan with softened vegetables and tomato sauce. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and sauce thickened. Season to taste. You can chill and refrigerate for future use at this stage.

Whilst the filling is cooking get on with preparing the cups. Stack the tortillas on top of one another, using a large pastry cutter wider than the rim of your cup cake tray, press down firmly on the stacked tortilla wraps (this speeds things up as you can cut 5 disks at a time). Repeat until all 24 disks of tortilla are cut out. Fit the disks into the holes of 2 x 12 hole cupcake trays. Place in a 200°C for 4 – 6 minutes until they begin to brown and toast.

Remove the tortilla cups from the oven and fill each 2/3 full with the filling and sprinkle a little of the spicy cheese on top of each and return to the oven until cheese has melted. Remove from the oven and transfer to serving platters.

Before serving sprinkle the chopped jalepeno and chopped coriander on top of the enchiladas and set some wedges of lime on the side for guests to squeeze over as they eat. Fill some small bowls or espresso cups with sour cream and leave a few teaspoons nearby for guests to add a little to their cup as they eat.