Cranberry & goats cheese topped nut roast / caramelised shallots / spring cabbage / slow roast tomato salsa

image courtesy of allrecipes.co.uk

*Part of the sizzling staffordshire menu series*

This recipe makes use of one of our larder dishes in the form of our nut roast, whilst combining elements of a more luxurious nature in the form of our nut roast. As a dish, its very filling, very nutritious and extremely tasty giving a sweet element to the palate, and is pleasing year round.

You will need (per serving):

2 slices of our cashew & butternut squash roast
2 or 3 tbsp slow roast tomato salsa
1 tbsp cranberry sauce / cranberryjelly
100g goats cheese, rind still intact
5 small shallots, halved
tsp brown sugar
handful shredded spring cabbage (blanched)
100g butter
salt and pepper to taste

The doing bit:

take the 2 slices of nut roast, smear with the cranberry sauce. Slice the goats cheese and apply atop the nut roast slices. Place in hot oven (about 180C) on a greased baking tray and allow to cook.

Whilst your nut roast warms up nicely, in a pan add a small amount of oil. Heat up and add the shallots and cook until coloured then place on a very low heat and add the sugar and allow to melt and glaze the shallots. By this point the shallots should be soft. Place lid on the pan and take from the heat and allow to rest. These shoudl keep warm whilst you warm up the rest.

In another pan add the butter and melt. Add the cabbage and cook until soft, season with salt and pepper.

Remove the nut roast from the oven when the goats cheese has coloured and the nut roast is piping hot. Serve on a bed of the spring cabbage, decorate the plate with the shallots surrounding, and serve the tomato salsa on the side.

Enjoy.

Grilled Sand sole / crushed new potatoes / lemon butter

Image courtesy of mjseafood.co.uk

*Part of the sizzling staffordshire menu series*

Sand sole is one of the sole family of fishes that has a wonderful flavour, but isnt as pricey as the glorious dover sole. Sand sole comes under several names such as torbay sole, witch sole, and in this case sand sole.

As an accompaniment, crushed new potatoes arent set in stone. They do however provide a wonderful means of comfort food to accompany the fish. You can of course replase this with mashed potatoes, satuee'd new potatoes, or even just buttered new potatoes if you wish. Other suitable accompaniments include sea asparagus, spinach, watercress, asparagus, french trimmed beans, or even tenderstem broccoli.

You will need:

1 sand / witch / torbay sole
1 portion lemon butter
salt and pepper
tbsp olive oil.
1 portion new potatoes, cooked and hot, skin on.

The doing bit:

Brush the fish with the olive oil using a pastry brush and season with salt and pepper. Grill the fish for about 10 minutes until desired cooking, in the last minute add the lemon butter portion to the fish.

Pack the new potatoes into a presentation ring on the plate and crush them wholst doing so. Glaze the potatoes with a little bit of the liquor / butter from the fish. Serve the fish on the side.

Confit duck legs / orange braised fennel / plum sauce

image courtesy of arm8.staticflickr.com

*Part of the sizzling staffordshire menu series*

This wonderful fragrant dish provides an uplifting tone and clean flavours for the palate to enjoy. t combines the tartness and sweetness of both the plums and the fennel, whilst providing a hearty middle ground with the confit duck legs. Its ideal as a main course or as a light lunch, depending on your serving size.

You will need (per serving):

2 confit duck legs
1 serving orange braised fennel
1 serving plum sauce

I would also recommend you serve with a potato dish such as pommes boulangeres to complete the main course for full satisfaction.

The doing bit:

Reheat the confit duck legs by searing in a pan, Add the fennel to the pan, cover loosely with foil and place in hot oven (roughly 200C) for about 10 mins until heated through.

In a seperate saucepan heat up the plum sauce.

Assembly, arrange fennel in crisscross pattern overlapping, serve each confit duck leg alternating gaps. glaze with sauce and decorate around with remaining sauce. Serve any potato or accompanying dishes seperately in a "help yourself" fashion..

Devour.

Mushroom & Cashew Nut Stroganoff / Lemon seasoned brown rice / buttered baby carrots

image courtesy of bbc good food

Its been a while since i ate / made a mushroom stroganoff. I do however get the urge once in a while to make and eat one, even if it is to relive some halcyon days from my years in the industry. Theres a number of things i like about it, the tanginess and mellow spices, the earthy mushroom flavour and of course its hearty and homely feel. This recipe in particualrly aims to bring out all of those elements, whilst at the same time creating a delicate balance of them all.

You will need (makes a faily sized batch serves 4-5):


1 Kilo of close cupped mushrooms, sliced
2 Onions, finely diced
2 Cloves of garlic, crushed
75g of cashew nuts
50g of pickled gherkins, diced
2 Red peppers, skinned, seeded and cut into 1 cm strips
125ml of milk, 125ml of double cream mixed
1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard
Healthy splash of Worcestershire sauce
Seasoning
Paprika

The doing bit:


Sauté off the mushrooms, once soft set aside to drain in a colander

Fry off the onions and garlic till soft; add the peppers and cashew nuts. Cook for a couple of minutes.

Add cream / milk and reduce then season

Once thickened add mustard and the Worcestershire sauce, stir in the mushrooms and gurkins, check the seasoning and serve.

For the rice (4/5 person batch)

350g brown rice
2 lemons, zested and juiced. keep the peels though we will use these as well
Handful fresh coriander chopped.
tsbp butter or margarine

Cooke the rice as normal in water until the rice begins to soften. Strain the rice then add the rice to a large oven tray adding the lemon juice, lemon peel and zest and mix thoroughly. Ad the butter, then vover the tray with greaseproof paper and tinfoil and put into oven at about 200C. Check every five minutes until done. When done remove the lemon peel, and stir in the coriander. Serve.

For the carrots:

allow 5/6 baby carrots per person. Cook in a pan of hot water with 1 tsbp sugar added. When cooked to preference, strain and serve with 3/4 portions of herb butter (optional) or alternatively glaze with ordinary butter or margarine.

Pan seared pork cutlet / leeks in white wine & sage butter / bacon & cauliflower mash

Image courtesy of topnews.net

*part of the Sizzling Staffordshire menu series*

This dish (as the name suggests) is very appealing to the pork lover. That said the surrounding accompaniments to the dish also work phenomenally well too. A good year round dish, this will appeal to many kinds of palates, with an uplifting element of sage complemented by the hearty bacon and leek flavours which work well with all kinds of meat dishes. The cauliflower also helps the comfort food factor, giving a homely feel.

You will need (serves 2)

2 Pork steaks (either rib or loin. Pork chops are also ideal, and even bacon chops can be substituted)
3 large leeks, white sections chopped trimmed, and chopped into echelons.
2 portions sage butter
small glass dry white wine or vermouth
3 rashers smoked bacon (finely chopped)
1 good sized cauliflower, destalked and florets seperated into equal sizes
2 shallots, finely chopped

The doing bit:

For the caulifower mash:

In a saucepan half fill with water and bring to the boil. Add a pinch of salt and add the cauliflower. Bring to the boil once more then simmer until cauliflower has softened. Strain and mash whilst warm, then set to one side keeping warm if possible.. In a seperate pan sautee the bacon and shallots together until soft, then add the cauliflower. Use a whisk to help pound out the cauliflower mix further into a smooth puree. Add a little milk if required. Season with salt and pepper where necessary. If you wish add some finely chopped fresh parsley a few minutes before serving.

For the leeks:

In a large pan add half the sage butter, then add the leeks and saute with the lid on at a low - moderate heat until leeks are almost soft and bright green. Add the remaining butter, allow to melt, then add the white wine and reduce liquor by half. Keep warm on a low heat / serve.

For the pork:

Heat up a large frying pan add a little oil. Season the pork with salt and pepper each side, then sear at a very high temperature until both sides are coloured. Place in oven at 200C until cooked (preference permitting - some people enjoy a medium cooked pork). Remove from oven and serve ont he bed of leeks / butter and quenelle califlower mash to the side.Glaze the pork with any remaining pan juices.

Braised Oxtail With Baby Vegetables

Image courtesy of uktv.co.uk

Oxtail is one of those cuts of beef that is overlooked, but can be remarkably cheap if courced cleverly, and its perfect braising meat for winter. With the marbling effect that runs through the meat and the added ail bone marrow, the flavour of oxtail is rather hearty and fulfilling to say the least. This recipe uses that and has contributed elements to complement and harmonise the earthy flavours and overtones applicable.

This batch serves 10, so adjust accordingly. It is however freezeable if you wish to eat half and freeze half. It also cuts down the labour as youve then only to heat it up afterwards.

You will need (serves 10)

5 Kilo of fresh Oxtails
250g of smoked bacon
500g of carrots
6 Onions
500g of Celery
1 Head of Garlic
165g Tomato Puree
250g of Plain Flour
5 Liters of Veal or Beef Stock
2 Liters of Red Wine


FOR THE BOUQUET GARNI

3 Bay Leaf
6 Sprigs of Thyme
16 Sprigs of Parsley

FOR THE GARNISH OF BABY VEGETABLES

Baby Carrots
Baby Leeks
Baby Turnips
Baby Fennel

FOR THE GARNISH WINTER VEGETABLES

Carrots
Shallots
Parsnip
Sweet Potato
Swede

Cut the vegetables ( carrots, onions and celery ) into rough large pieces

Bone the oxtail and cut into large pieces and to the vegetables

Add stock, bouquet garni , tomato paste and the garlic

Place in a fridge and marinade for 48 hours

Drain off the marinade and reserve, remove the oxtail and dry them
Season and brown the oxtail in a sauté pan

In a deep braising pan brown vegetables from the marinade with the smoked bacon

Add the oxtail

Lightly toast the flour in a oven and carefully stir into the marinade then cover the oxtail

Cover the pan with a lid and braise in a slow oven for 3 hours

Prepare the baby vegetables cook separately in salt water until tender and refresh

After the braising remove the oxtail from the cooking stock

Reduce the burgundy by half and add to the stock

Strain off the vegetables

Reduce the cooking stock reduce by half

Correct the seasoning

Reheat the oxtail with the cooked vegetables with the jus lie

Serve with the baby vegetables and creamed potatoes

Pan roasted chicken with sea salt & thyme, with crushed "champ" potatoes and sage cream

This dish is inbeliveably simple but hearty and pleasant. During the cloder months from late autumn to early spring, this dish will bring a smile to the faces of its audience. It utilised the more pungent flavours that the colder months provide, from the fragrance of sage and the punchy flavour of the onions, the thyme sits amongst it all adding further fragrance and flavour which goes perfectly with the chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken breast, skinned and deboned

1 tbsp fresh thyme

1 sprig of fresh thyme (garnish)

4 whole spring onions, washed & chopped into 1/2 centimetre echelons

4 cooked salad new potatoes

50 ml dry white wine

50 ml double cream

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp fresh sage, torn into equal size pieces.

1 tsp butter

Pinch black pepper.

Method:

Season the chicken with the sea salt & thyme both sides.

In a large saute pan, add the butter, sear the chicken until golden brown on one side, then turn. Saute the spring onions until bright green. Crush the salad potatoes and stir into the spring onions. Put the whole pan into the oven to cook (approximately 10 minutes at 200C.)

For the sauce, in a sauce pan combine the wine and sage, and bring to the boil. Reduce liquid by half then add the cream. Add the pinch of black pepper, then reduce the volume by half once more (until sauce is thickened).

When chicken is cooked, cut in half lengthways and serve on top of the champ potatoes. Use the sprig of thyme to garnish, and decorate with sage cream. Serve.