Christmas recipes

Serves 4

400g Cooked turkey, thinly sliced
20g Parmesan
1 Mozzarella ball, torn into small pieces and dried on kitchen paper
1 Packet Lasagne sheets
400ml Whole milk
40g Unsalted butter
40g Plain flour
½ onion, peeled
1 bay leaf
2 cloves
1 Bunch basil
50g Pine nuts
40g Parmesan, finely grated
1 Clove garlic
140ml Light olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Make a white sauce by heating the milk with the onion, bay leaf and cloves, and allow to infuse for 30 mins. Meanwhile melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, pull away from the heat and add the flour until smooth. Return to the heat and cook out for another minute, start adding the milk a ladle at a time bringing it to the boil after each one and constantly stirring so that no lumps form, once all the milk is incorporated, season with salt and cook out gently for 5 minutes. Cover with cling film and set aside.

For the pesto, toast the pine nuts in the oven until golden brown, and allow them to cool. Add all of the ingredients and a pinch of salt to a food processor and blend until fairly smooth. Remove and set aside.

To construct the lasagne, lightly oil an oven-proof dish then arrange 1/3 of the turkey followed by 1/4 of the white sauce and then a drizzle of pesto, and cover with a layer of pasta. Do two more layers like this then top with the remaining white sauce, the mozzarella and grated parmesan.

Place in the oven and cook for 40-45 minutes or until the pasta is tender, finish with a drizzle of the pesto.

Serves 6

1 Loaf of white bread
200g Goose fat
400g Cooked turkey breast, cut into 2cm pieces
300g Cooked Gammon joint, cut into 2cm pieces
500ml Ham stock or chicken stock
40g Unsalted butter
40g Plain flour
2 leeks, green part removed and washed
100ml Double cream
½ bunch chervil, chopped

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Melt the duck fat. Slice the bread into 7-10mm slices, remove the crests then brush liberally with the melted duck fat. Use to line individual pie or cocotte moulds. Cut discs to fit the bottom and tops and each slice into three strips to cover the sides. Make sure that all the bread pieces are overlapping and that there are no gaps.

Bring the stock to a simmer, slice the leeks into 1cm rounds and poach in the stock until tender. Mix the butter and flour together to make a paste, gradually add this to the stock whisking as you go. Simmer until the stock is thickened and the raw flour taste is cooked out. Add the cream and return to the boil. Turn off the heat and add the chervil, turkey and ham.

Divide the mixture between the moulds then top with the remaining bread discs. Cover the top with foil and bake for 20-15 minutes remove the foil for the last 5 minutes. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before turning out and serving.

I like to serve it with some savoy cabbage dressed with wholegrain mustard.

Serves 8-10

50g Butter
1 onion(180g), finely diced
1 tbsp chopped thyme
140g Diced dried Cranberries
100ml water
65g fresh breadcrumbs
500g Sausage meat
1 egg
80g Cooked chestnuts, roughly chopped
5 egg yolks or 2 whole eggs (Using just yolks will give a richer colour)
1tsp milk
500G Puff pastry (Preferably all butter)

Preheat oven to 180°C with a heavy baking tray or a cast iron flat skillet inside.

Sweat the onion and thyme in the butter until soft.

Add the Cranberries and water and bring to a simmer, cook until all water has been absorbed. Allow it to cool.

Mix the apricot mix with the sausage meat, breadcrumbs, chestnuts and egg. At this stage, the stuffing could be used traditionally.

Roll the stuffing up in cling film to form two cylinders around 5cm in diameter and 20cm long Chill in the fridge to firm up.

Mix together the egg and milk. Roll out the puff pastry to around 3mm thick and cut it into two rectangles the length of your stuffing and wide enough to wrap around them. Place the pastry on greaseproof or silicon paper, unwrap the stuffing and place it on top of the puff pastry. Fold the pastry over to encase the stuffing creating a 1cm seam along one edge stuck together with a little of the egg and milk, crimp the edges. Brush all over with some more of the egg mixture, make a few slashes into the pastry across the top on an angle then sprinkle with a little sea salt. Cut any excess greaseproof paper away leaving no more than a 1cm border (Too much excess paper can be blown by a fan-assisted oven onto the sausage roll causing it to colour unevenly)

Place the sausage roll, still on the paper, directly onto the preheated tray and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through and deep brown.

Allow it to cool slightly before slicing and serving.