Christmas turkey and ham pie

We managed to get a bit of the turkey used up in this pie. You could use leftover veg if you were making it on Boxing Day, but its also a good way to use up what's in the fridge.

Soften an onion in butter for about 7 minutes then add sliced leeks and carrots. Cook for a few minutes. Add 200ml stock and 200ml cream (use less cream/more stock if you need a few less calories). Let the sauce thicken.

Add diced turkey and ham, then place mixture in dish. Top with puff pastry. Glaze the pastry with beaten egg then bake at 200C for 20 minutes or so until golden.

Enjoy!

Rum and whiskey truffles

Another warning - these are delicious. They are seriously easy to make and I am planning to give them as Christmas presents. Well, some of them anyway.

Bring 150mls of double cream to the boil. Pour the cream over 200g of broken up chocolate. I used milk chocolate (about 35% cocoa) for the rum truffles and slightly darker chocolate for the whiskey truffles. You could use really dark chocolate - whatever you like!

Stir the cream and chocolate until the chocolate has melted then add 5tsps of your favourite tipple. I added Morgan's rum to the first batch and Glenfiddich to the second.

Leave to set at room temperature. Then, shape into bite size pieces using a teaspoon or melon baller. I found the whiskey truffle mixture to be quite soft and couldn't shape it by hand.

Dip or roll the truffles in e.g cocoa powder, icing sugar, chopped nuts or similar, then place in the fridge to set. The truffles should keep for a week in the fridge but I don't think that will be an issue.

Enjoy!

Cranberry and clementine chutney

Much as I try to avoid anything Christmassy until at least the 1st December, this needed to be made so it has time to mature.

While most chutney turns a shade of brown, this is a lovely red colour. I'm looking forward to my turkey sandwiches already!

The recipe is based on one from November 2012's Good Housekeeping magazine. I only ad libbed a little....

To a large pan add:
650g chopped apples (I didn't bother to peel them)
6 clementine oranges (peeled and roughly chopped)
2 large onions (peeled and chopped)
200g sultanas
700g cranberries
15 peppercorns (approximately!)
500mls red wine vinegar
500g light brown soft sugar
1tsp chilli flakes

Bring to the boil, stirring, and then simmer for about 45 minutes until fairly thick.

Stir in 300g cranberries and cook for another 5 minutes until they have softened.

Put into sterilised jars and open at Christmas.

Give extra jars as Christmas pressies.

Enjoy!