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.

Pan seared chicken with red wine & mushrooms

Image courtesy of blog.water2wine.com

A very simple dish that focuses primarily on flavour from our sauce which is made primarily from mushroom and red wine reduction. It does take a bit of time to make the sauce, but ideally no longer than the chicken takes to cook, so it can be preapred all in one go.

I've left accompaniments absent as its quite a generic dish you can serve pretty much what you like with it. I would however reccomend mash or champ potatoes, and some root vegetables such as carrots, celeriac etc.

This recipe concentrates on doing the chicken in one pan and cooking in the oven, and using a seperate pan for the sauce. There is however nothing stopping you from doing it all in the one pan and not using the oven at all. Its up to you really. If you have a big enough pan, then go for it.

Ingredients
(serves 2)

2 Chicken breasts (skin on with wing bone) or 4 chicken thighs (deboned and skin on)
3 rashers smoked bacon (2 intact one chopped to 1cm square)
150g chopped muchrooms. (Ill leave the choice up to you but a mix of wild and closed cup works for me.)
6 shallots or 2 small onions (chopped to a 1cm dice)
Tsp tomato puree (optional)
Red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar (3 tbsp)
Glass and a half of red wine or port
250ml chicken stock
3 cloves crushed garlic
Generous handful of rosemary & thyme
tsp demerera sugar
Salt & pepper
tbsp butter

250 ml chicken stock

Chicken

Place one rasher of bacon under the skin of each chicken breast or 1.2 of a rasher under the skin of each thigh. Add some of the herbs int he same fashion (when stripped from the stem).

Sear the chicken in a pan skin side down. When coloured flip over and repeat for underside, then put on tray or in pan in the oven at 170C until cooked. This should give you enough time to cook the sauce.

For the sauce

In a saucepan saute onions / shallots,  chopped bacon and mushrooms until coloured, then add garlic. When they all begin to soften, Add the herbs, then add the vinegar and sugar until a syrup forms, (you can add the optional tomato puree at this point) then add the wine and reduce by half. Add the stock and reduce by half once again. When the sauce has reduced enough that it tastes to yourliking, fold in a little bit of butterand keep it moving to finish the sauce.