One of the things I love about this time of year is that you get to go round and see so many people, and as soon as you walk in the door you are offered some food and a nice drink (if this doesn't happen then you've probably walked into my Nan's house, in which case my only advice is to get on with it and make your own refreshments - only joking Nan!). Finger food, or party food can be brilliant and I love being offered home made sausage rolls or little tasty combo's spiked on forks - things like fresh figs wrapped in a little prosciutto with a sprig of mint and a small drizzle of balsamic vinegar , or some smoked salmon (responsibly sourced) with a little bit of watercress, some creme fraiche and a squeeze of lemon are heavenly. The downside of party food is that alot of the stuff that is ready made from the supermarket is horrible. Sometimes it gets served to you in the same packet it was bought and cooked in, which makes it even worse!
As I promised at the end of the last post, here is a little Christmas recipe for you to try. Sage, cranberries and stilton are all classic Christmas flavours and I've brought them together in a pastry parcel - it is Christmas, so a little pastry treat is allowed! Use the all butter puff pastry you can get from the supermarket and roll it yourself. I've made my own sticky cranberry jam, but you could buy a jar, just make sure it's chunky. You can also use any cheese you want, but just make sure it's one with lots of flavour which is why I've used stilton, but a lovely mature cheddar works really well too.
Sticky Cranberry Jam
300g fresh cranberries
2 tbsp light brown sugar
Juice of 2 clementines or 1/2 an orange
flat teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp red wine
Add all the ingredients to a frying pan and simmer over a medium heat for about 7 minutes until dark and sticky, but the cranberries still retain their shape.
Allow to cool.
This makes about 25 calzones:
plain flour for dusting
500g all butter puff pastry
heaped teaspoon dried sage
1/2 my Sticky Cranberry Jam recipe - use the rest alongside your Christmas Turkey!
wedge of stilton (or your favourite strong cheese - or even a mixture!)
1 egg, beaten
Preheat the oven to 220℃ / gas mark 7
Roll your pastry out until it is the same thickness as a pound coin, as you do so dust both sides with the dried sage. This will give you a lovely subtle flavour to your pastry.
Use the rim of a pint glass (or something similar approx 8-9 cm diameter) to cut the pastry into little circles.
Place a little cluster of cranberry jam in the middle of each of the circles. 4-5 cranberries is the ideal amount. You are going to fold the circles in half, so place the cranberries towards one side, but leave a 1 centimetre gap between the filling and the edge.
Crumble the same amount of cheese over the cranberries and then brush the egg in the 1 centimetre gap you left.
Carefully fold the pastry over the filling and press down to seal.
Now you can be as fancy as you like with this next part, you need to crimp the pastry to keep the filling from coming out. I like to fold and pinch all the way along to create a little calzone shape. What this means is that I start at 1 end, fold over a little triangle of the pastry and pinch it down, I then take the next piece and fold it over into another triangle, and then pinch that down. This follows on until I get to the end where I finish it with a big pinch, making the finished calzone look a little bit like an ear! (the big pinch at the end looks like an earlobe to me!) You could always just press down the edge with a fork, like you would a sausage roll, if you prefer. Try to make it as tight as possible without getting any holes in them. You will probably find that the cheese will still manage to find a way to bubble and ooze out a little as it cooks, but that doesn't matter too much, you want them to look rustic and homemade!
Brush the top with some more egg and place on some greaseproof parer on a baking tray.
Do the same with the rest and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until golden.
You can adapt this recipe any way you like. It's really nice to do a batch using different cheeses, just keep them separated on the tray as you bake them and remember which is which!
You could also try using some leftover turkey instead of cheese, or using a different herb, like thyme in the pastry.
I hope you enjoy the recipe, do let me know what you think, as it all helps with future recipes that I'll be posting in the new year.
Have a brilliant Christmas, and thank you so much for reading my blog over the past couple of months.
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