Sam and Eddie Hart: Suckling pig
There is nothing quite like a whole suckling pig for a special occasion. If after the initial 2½ hours' cooking the pig is not perfectly crisp, return it to the oven until it is. If you allow 3 hours to cook the pig and it actually cooks in 2½, it will happily rest in a warm place until you are ready to eat.
Serves 10-12
5-6kg suckling pig
2 heads of garlic
2 shallots
2 dried red peppers
5 sprigs of thyme
5 bay leaves
2 sliced lemons
olive oil
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas 4.
On a large board, splay the pig flat so that its legs stick out the side. Push down on the backbone to open up the ribcage and flatten it down onto the board. If the pig is too big to fit on one roasting tray, cut it in half horizontally with a sharp, heavy knife. The pig should now fit into two domestic oven dishes, the head and shoulders in one, legs and tail in the other.
Pat the pig dry with kitchen roll, then scatter the garlic, shallots, peppers, thyme, bay leaves and lemons underneath it. Rub with olive oil, then season well with salt and pepper on all sides. Place the two trays in the oven and roast for 1 hour. Swap the trays around, moving the top to the bottom and vice versa. Cook for another hour, then swap them over again. Cook for another half an hour. Check the pig – if all the skin is wonderfully crisp and deep brown, it is ready. If not, don't worry, just return the pig to the oven for another half an hour.
To carve the pig, firstly remove the legs and shoulders and carve the meat from them, taking care that each slice of meat has a portion of crisp skin attached. Then carve the meat from the saddle and the ribs, again taking care to keep the skin attached to the meat. If you don't like wobbly bits or are squeamish about what you eat, sprinkle what you have with plenty of salt and serve at once. If you are an offal fan, read on!
Now there is the great treat of the head. Remove the head from the body, then slice it in half lengthways. Inside you will find delicious brain and tongue. On the other side of the head the snout, ears and cheeks all make excellent eating. Oh, and don't forget the crispy tail!
Richard Corrigan: Slow-roast collar of bacon
Serves 4
1 collar of bacon, approx 2kg
75ml vegetable oil
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1kg leeks, washed and chopped
3 sticks celery, washed and chopped
1kg onions, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic
½ tsp five spice
½ stick cinnamon
1 tsp white peppercorn
3½ bunches parsley
1 bottle white wine
200ml water
1 jar English mustard
½ jar honey
Soak the collar of bacon in cold water overnight in the fridge. To remove any excess salt, rinse under cold water and set aside.
In a large deep heavy pot add the oil and vegetables. Cook on a slow heat without browning the vegetables. Add the garlic, five spice, cinnamon, peppercorn and parsley.
Add the white wine and water and place the collar of bacon on top. Cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and cook slowly in the oven for approximately 2 hours at 120-130ºC/Gas ½.
Check occasionally and do not let the moisture evaporate. Add a little water if it gets too dry. Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Take the collar of bacon out from the pot and rub with mustard. Score the fat on top with a knife and rub in the honey. Place back in the oven to caramelise at 180-200ºC/Gas 4-6 for about 20 minutes.
Cass Titcombe: Venison stew
Venison is a healthy lean meat. It becomes fabulously tender in this stew, which is aromatic with spices and ale. A good winter dish, it needs mash or boiled potatoes with it so you can enjoy every bit of the gravy.
Serves 4
2 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, cut into 1cm dice
100g carrots, cut into 1cm dice
200g celeriac, cut into 1cm dice
salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g boned haunch of venison, cut into 2–3cm dice
20g plain white flour
200ml pale ale
1 tsp ground allspice
a big pinch of ground mace
a big pinch of ground ginger
2 tsp tomato purée
1 garlic clove, chopped
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
grated zest of 1 orange
500ml meat stock
Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan until hot. Add the onion, carrots and celeriac and sauté for 5-8 minutes to brown. Remove from the pan and keep to one side.
Season the meat, then place in the hot pan and brown off for 5 minutes, turning the dice so all sides are well coloured. To brown the meat without stewing, lay the dice in a single layer in the pan (if necessary, brown in two batches).
Sprinkle the meat with the flour and stir through. Add the pale ale, allspice, mace, ginger and tomato purée, then stir to mix. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.
Add the garlic, herbs, orange zest and stock together with the browned vegetables. Bring back to the boil, then cover the pan. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2-3 hours, until the meat is tender. Check the seasoning before serving.
Mourad Mazouz: Roast venison with celeriac
Serves 4
500g trimmed venison loin
1 tsp ras el hanout
120g chanterelle mushrooms
1 packet baby-leaf char
For the celeriac confit:
1 small head of celeriac
250ml vegetable stock
150ml olive oil
1 sprig of rosemary
1 sprig of thyme
2 confit lemons
For the venison jus:
1 carrot
1 onion
1 celery stick
1 leek
2 tbs olive oil
1 bulb of garlic
sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
10 white peppercorns, crushed
500ml port
1½ litres red wine
1½ litres chicken stock
1½ litres veal stock
salt and pepper
To make the celeriac confit, peel the celeriac and cut into 1.5cm batons. Heat all the other ingredients together in a pan and bring to the boil. Add the celeriac, cover with clingfilm and take off the heat. This will cool down slowly and make a confit. If your batons are more than 1.5cm they will need boiling in the stock for a few minutes.
To make the jus, cut the vegetables into small cubes. Heat a heavy-bottomed pan, add the olive oil, vegetables, garlic and dried herbs, then caramelise. Next add the port and reduce to a glaze, followed by the red wine. Reduce to a glaze again. Add the chicken and veal stocks and cook on a low simmer for 35-40 minutes. Then pass through a fine sieve and reduce until it coats the back of the spoon (this will make twice as much as you need, so you could freeze half). Season.
Roast the venison loin in butter at 200ºC/gas 6 for 12 minutes (the meat will be rare). Then take out the venison and rest for 10 minutes. In the same pan cook off the ras el hanout, then add the mushrooms and cook in the pan juices and a little oil.
To plate up, slice the venison into 8, place 4 celeriac batons on each plate, then the 2 thick slices of venison on top with mushrooms around. Heat the sauce and glaze the venison, then sprinkle with baby char.
Chestnuts
Michael Roux Jr: Wild boar with chestnuts
Serves 10-12
shoulder of boar, approx 4 kg
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic
bay leaf
1 quince, peeled and chopped
wine (rosé is good)
1 tbs quince paste
20 chestnuts, cooked and peeled
vegetable stock, optional
Preheat the oven to 200ºC/Gas 6. Using a boning knife, cut into the two joints of the shoulder. Go in far enough to loosen but not separate them. Place the meat in a large cast-iron dish with a splash of olive oil. Season well with salt and pepper and cook for 20 minutes.
Add the sliced onions, garlic, bay leaf and quince, and enough wine to wet the base of the dish. Add the same amount of water, cover with foil and turn the oven down to 150ºC/Gas 2 for 1 hour. The meat should be soft and coming off the bone.
Using a slotted spoon, gently take out the meat and place it in a deep serving dish. Cover and keep warm. Put the cooking dish over a high heat and add a glass of water (or vegetable stock), quince paste and the chestnuts. Simmer for 5 minutes to melt the paste, pour over the meat and serve.
Sam and Sam Clark: Chestnut and chorizo soup
Serves 4
4 tbs olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
1 celery stick, thinly sliced
120g mild cooking chorizo, cut into 1cm-thick cubes
sea salt and black pepper
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp ground cumin
1½ tsp finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 small dried chillies, crushed
2 tomatoes, fresh or tinned, roughly chopped
500g cooked, peeled chestnuts (fresh or vacuum-packed), roughly chopped
20 saffron threads, infused in 3–4 tbs boiling water
1 litre water
In a large saucepan heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, chorizo and a pinch of salt and fry for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until everything caramelises and turns quite brown. This gives the soup a rich colour and taste.
Now add the garlic, cumin, thyme and chilli and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomato and, after about 2 minutes, the chestnuts. Give everything a good stir then add the saffron-infused liquid and the water, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and mash by hand (with a potato masher) until almost smooth but still with a little bit of texture. Season.
Raymond Blanc: Chestnut, walnut and fig stuffing
This stuffing can be mixed the day before and then rolled in tin foil and reserved in your fridge, ready to cook on the day.
Serves 10
600g sausagemeat, coarse textured
150g turkey liver, roughly chopped
100g turkey fat, roughly chopped
300g chestnuts, cooked, roughly chopped
150g figs, dried, roughly chopped
100g walnuts, shelled, roughly chopped
50g breadcrumbs soaked in 50ml whole milk
1 medium organic free-range egg
30g parsley, finely chopped
½ shallot, finely diced
1 clove garlic, puréed
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 pinches allspice, ground
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. To make the stuffing, simply mix all of the ingredients together and season well with salt, pepper and allspice. (To check the seasoning, make a small patty with some of the stuffing. Pan-fry it and taste.)
Roll the stuffing tightly in foil, twisting the ends to seal into a large sausage shape.
Cook in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove and reserve in a warm place until needed.
Sprouts
Jason Atherton: Brussels sprout and chestnut risotto
Serves 4
500g carnaroli risotto rice
enough water to cover the rice, seasoned with garlic cloves, sprigs of thyme and bay leaves
500g brussels sprouts (plus about 40 nice leaves, blanched, for garnish)
butter, for cooking
chicken stock or vegetable stock
chestnut purée, to taste
mascarpone cheese, 4 tbs or to taste
grated parmesan, 6tbs or to taste
250g wild mushrooms, cleaned
2 shallots, diced
1 clove garlic, chopped
250g roasted chestnuts, removed from their shells and chopped
Blanch the rice for 7 minutes in the seasoned water. Chill on a tray in the fridge until needed.
Chiffonade (cut into strips) the sprouts finely and sweat them down in butter until soft.
Put the rice in a pan and add a little stock and cook, adding more stock as needed, plus a little chestnut purée to thicken.
After about 20 minutes, when the rice is almost cooked, add the mascarpone, grated parmesan and a little butter to taste, then finish with the sautéed brussels sprouts, and the chestnuts. In another pan, sauté the wild mushrooms with the shallots and garlic, adding the leaves – this sits on top of the risotto.
April Bloomfield: Caramelised sprouts with bacon
Serves 4
For the sprouts: 7 garlic cloves (unpeeled)
salt and freshly ground pepper
500g sprouts (peeled and washed)
To finish:
5 rashers of bacon or pancetta (each rasher chopped into 3)
100g unsalted butter
1 small bundle of thyme
juice of ¼ lemon
Fill a good-sized pot with water (you want enough water to allow the sprouts to bob around happily). Add garlic cloves and season to taste. Bring the water to a rapid boil then gently add the sprouts and cook until slightly tender. This will take around 5 minutes. Drain and let them sit until the steam blows off. (You can boil the sprouts and garlic a day or two in advance then do the next step before serving.)
Grab a flat pan and pop it on a medium heat. Place in the chopped bacon rashers and allow to cook until the fat pulls out from the bacon. Add the butter and allow the butter to melt into the bacon and bacon fat. Once it starts to bubble, add the sprouts and garlic – get one side of the sprouts and garlic brown, then add thyme and start gently turning the sprouts to the other side and continue browning (you might want to turn the heat down, depending on how brown you want them).
Once you reach your desired consistency (I like mine soft and creamy when going for pure comfort), turn off the heat and squeeze in a little lemon.
Tom Parker Bowles: Sprouts with streaky bacon
Brussels sprouts are more sinned against than sinning – blameless brassicas that suffer from a wretched reputation. As long as they are not boiled into a soggy, sulphurous mess, they're wonderful winter vegetables, drenched in butter with a good whack of fresh ground black pepper. This recipe is inspired by one in Alice Waters's Chez Panisse Vegetables cookbook, and will force even the most ardent sprout despiser to change their tune.
Serves 4
500g brussels sprouts
walnut of unsalted butter
250ml fresh chicken stock (or stock cube, if need be)
pinch of sea salt
a few twists of fresh pepper
1 drop Tabasco
big pinch chopped thyme
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
5 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, fried until crisp and crumbled
Slice the brussels sprouts into £1 coin size. Then heat a frying pan, add a knob of unsalted butter and, when foaming, add the sprouts for 3 or 4 minutes. Then add enough chicken stock to the pan that it comes halfway up, and cook until tender. You want the stock to disappear and coat the sprouts so they gleam. Then add the seasoning, Tabasco, thyme and lemon, and taste. Sprinkle the crumbled bacon over and serve at once.
Jocelyn Herland: Seared sea scallops, cream of lettuce
Now is the best season for scallops.
Serves 4
2 lettuces
150g butter
8 large scallops
100ml chicken jus (reduced chicken stock)
20ml balsamic vinegar
salt and black pepper
Clean the lettuces. Remove the leaves and keep some yellow leaves from the heart for the end. Boil the lettuce in salted water. When the leaves are cooked put them in cold water with ice to keep the nice bright colour. Just before serving, dry and mash them.
In a pan, make a nutty butter with 100g of butter – cook until it has a nice hazelnut colour.
Roast the scallops with the remaining butter in a pan. Season. Warm the mashed lettuce and the chicken jus in two different pans, adding some of the some nutty butter to both pans. Add the vinegar in the jus.
Divide the mash on 4 plates, followed by 2 scallops and 2 yellow leaves in each. On the side, put a little jug of jus. Pour the jus over the dish as desired.
Chris and Jeff Galvin: Fennel marmalade
Makes 4 jars
50g unsalted butter
1 white onion, peeled and sliced
2 heads fennel, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 tbs caster sugar
juice of 1 lemon
50ml dry white wine
50ml Pernod
1 star anise
pinch of salt
Soften butter in heavy-bottomed pan, add the onion and fennel and gently soften without colour. Add the rest of the ingredients, allow to come to the boil, place a buttered paper on top, and cook slowly to soften and absorb the liquid. When cooked, remove the star anise and season to taste.
This marmalade can be served hot or cold with meat or fish.
Ed Wilson: Chutney for cheese and cold cuts
Delicious with your Boxing Day leftovers. This recipe makes quite a bit but will store well in the fridge and see you well into January.
Makes about a litre
2 white onions, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 tbs ground cinnamon
5 cloves
200g muscovado sugar
100ml white-wine vinegar
100ml sherry vinegar
8 Braeburn apples, peeled, cored and diced
4 Williams pears, peeled, cored and diced
6 plums, diced
juice of 1 lemon and zest
honey to taste
In a large pan add a little vegetable oil and sweat the onions and celery slowly until soft with the garlic, cinnamon and cloves.
Add the muscovado sugar and vinegars and bring to the boil. Reduce the liquid until it starts to become like a syrup.
Add the diced apples, pears, plums, lemon juice and zest and cook until the fruit becomes tender but not mushy.
Remove from the heat and leave to cool. The chutney will now be quite firm. Taste when cold and add a little honey to adjust the sweetness.
Store the chutney in an airtight container and serve when required.
Tom Olroyd: Pigs' trotter jelly
This recipe is dedicated to my future mother-in-law Anka. It is a traditional Croatian dish eaten on New Year's Day. Croatian tradition says you should eat pork on this day because a pig pushes forward with its nose in the dirt and symbolises moving forward into the new year.
Serves 6
4 medium pigs' trotters (preferably slightly smoked – if not, add a piece of pancetta)
4 litres water
4 or 5 garlic cloves
a few peppercorns and a little salt
1 tsp sweet paprika
hard-boiled eggs (optional)
Cut the trotters lengthways and then into small pieces. Add to the water with the garlic cloves, peppercorns and a little salt (adjust the seasoning at the end). Bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 hours – you will see the broth take on a gluey consistency. Remove the garlic and peppercorns.
In the last 5 minutes of cooking add 1 tsp of paprika, for colour more than anything else. Check the seasoning.
Either pour the jelly into individual serving bowls or into one large communal one. At this point you can add hard-boiled eggs sliced in half.
Place the jelly in the fridge and eat when set.
Anna Hansen: Braised red cabbage
My mum's side of the family is Danish, which meant lots of pickled herrings, frikadeller (Danish meatballs) and remoulade – a mixture of mayonnaise and piccalilli, which we slathered over innumerable open sandwiches (Smørrebrød) – every Christmas. This is my mother's recipe for braised red cabbage. It makes a delicious open sandwich on rye bread with sliced leftover boiled new potatoes and a decent grinding of black pepper.
Serves 4-6
1 medium red cabbage, sliced
1 white onion, sliced
zest and juice of 1 small orange
2 Bramley apples, grated with skin on
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbs ground allspice
250ml Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar or good red-wine vinegar
200g soft brown sugar
300ml apple juice
Put all ingredients into a large heavy-bottomed saucepan and mix thoroughly. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes, then reduce to the lowest setting. Leave to simmer, stirring every 10 minutes or so, for about 30 minutes or until the cabbage is tender. Check the balance of acid to sweet and adjust to your taste.
Bryn Williams: Bread sauce
This is my take on bread sauce. Even though my mother still cooks the Christmas meal, the bread sauce is my job.
Serves 6
500ml milk
½ onion, left whole
1 bay leaf
1 clove
½ onion, finely chopped
50g butter
6 slices of white bread, crusts removed and cut into 2cm squares
pinch of salt
pepper
nutmeg
Bring the milk to the boil with the whole onion, bay leaf and clove, and simmer for 2 minutes.
In a heavy-bottomed pan melt the butter and chopped onion and cook until soft with no colour. Strain the cooled milk and pour onto the onion and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and stir in the diced bread. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, cover with a lid, and keep warm until needed.
Tom Aikens: Mulled wine
Makes 30 glasses
4.8 litres red wine
1.2 litres water
2 litres fresh orange juice
peeled zest from 12 oranges
40g cloves
45g juniper berries
45g star anise
80g cinnamon sticks
250g sliced fresh ginger
1.3kg brown sugar
Place all these ingredients in a pan onto a medium heat then bring to a slow simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Turn off, cover and infuse for 15 minutes, then strain.
Jeremy Lee: Duck and beetroot salad
This salad is best served to a big bunch of people for a simple but gorgeous lunch – plonk it on the table on a gigantic plate and let everyone dig in.
Serves 6-8
1 whole duck
a couple of big handfuls of cooked beetroot of varying colours and shapes
watercress
2-3 tbs vinaigrette
6-7 gratings of fresh horseradish
sea salt
black pepper
Roast the duck whole until nicely pink and then slice thinly. Slice the beetroot. In a large bowl toss the watercress, the sliced beetroot, sliced duck, 2-3 tbs of vinaigrette, 2-3 tbs of the duck juice from the pan, horseradish, 1 tsp of sea salt and a few good grinds of black pepper. Carefully mix the ingredients together and heap on to a gigantic plate. Place in the middle of the table for people to help themselves.
Katie Caldesi: Walnut and cream pasta sauce
This recipe is from a mountain village outside Parma where my friend Stefano Borella's grandparents lived. Every year they would spend hours making the traditional cappelletti pasta to serve on Christmas Eve. This sauce was made quickly to enjoy with the trimmings of leftover pasta. Always taste the walnuts first; rancid ones will ruin the sauce.
Serves 2-4
250g dried pasta
50g salted butter
1 garlic glove, peeled and lightly crushed
100g walnuts, roughly chopped
200ml double cream
25g parmesan, finely grated
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta according to packet instructions. Meanwhile melt the butter in a frying pan and add the garlic and nuts. Fry over a medium heat for a few minutes, until the garlic is softened and the nuts have taken on the flavour of the garlic and butter. Keep stirring so the nuts and butter don't burn. Add the cream and stir well. Turn the heat down and let the sauce reduce and thicken. Remove the garlic.
When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add to the sauce in the frying pan. Toss the mixture together and serve in warm bowls with grated parmesan.
Panettone
Giorgio Locatelli: Panettone bread and butter pudding
Serves 6
1 vanilla pod
500ml milk
300ml cream (35% fat)
4 eggs
120g caster sugar
1kg panettone
250g unsalted butter
6 ramekins
icing sugar (optional)
Preheat the oven to 160-180ºC/ Gas 3-4. Carefully open the vanilla pod in the middle and scrape the seeds off. Mix the milk and cream and add the pod and the seeds to the mixture. Bring it to boil.
Whisk the eggs and sugar together and pour in the boiling mixture, whisking it non-stop. Leave it to cool.
Slice the panettone into 1cm thick slices. Spread the butter onto the panettone, then cut it in 1cm cubes (they will look like little squares of butter). Soak them in the liquid mixture before placing the squares of panettone in 6 ramekins. Pile up the squares in the ramekins (remember that the whole thing shrinks once cooked) and top it up with the liquid mixture to fill in the gaps.
Cook the ramekins in a bain-marie in a medium oven, until they set (around 8 minutes or more). Leave them to cool. You can also dust some icing sugar on the ramekins and put them under a grill or use a blowtorch to caramelise the sugar.
Stuart Gillies: Grilled panettone
My favourite Christmas recipe is grilled panettone bread with vanilla ice cream. At home we slice the panettone thickly, dust it with icing sugar then char-grill the slices in a very hot grill or griddle pan to caramelise the sugar. Serve it immediately with a big scoop of good-quality vanilla ice cream and fresh whole clementines in a bowl.
I first had this dish in Italy many years ago when I lived there, and it reminded me of toasted tea cakes with butter – but better! I serve it as a special at Boxwood at Christmas time alongside bowls of clementines in the middle of the table.
Francesco Mazzei: Panettone Ripieno
Serves 6
1kg panettone
For the mascarpone cream:
100g egg yolks
100g sugar
50g cocoa powder
1 vanilla pods
350g mascarpone cheese
For the zabaglione and mascarpone cream:
200ml marsala wine, plus a litte extra to wet the panettone
100g egg yolks
100g sugar
30g cornflour
300g mascarpone
For the chocolate glaze:
50ml double cream
150ml milk
225g dark chocolate, chopped
125g milk chocolate, chopped
40g soft butter
For the mascarpone cream: mix the yolks with sugar, cocoa and vanilla before adding the mascarpone. Mix until smooth.
For the zabaglione cream: boil the marsala wine. In the meantime mix the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together, then add to the marsala and bring to the boil. Let the mixture cool down before adding the mascarpone. Beat the mixture until smooth and creamy.
Carefully slice off the rounded top of the panettone without breaking it and set aside. Cut the remaining panettone into 4 equal round slices and wet each slice with marsala wine. Take the bottom slice and put a layer of the zabaglione cream across the cut side of the cake, before adding the second slice and layering it with the light mascarpone cream. Repeat the procedure with the other 2 slices before putting the top slice on top. Leave the cake to cool down in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
In the meantime make the chocolate glaze: boil the cream and milk together. Then add the chopped chocolate and at the end add the soft butter and mix well. Take the chilled panettone out of the fridge and pour the glaze over the top.
Thomasina Miers: Apple, honey and polenta cake
This is a really easy cake that is the perfect antidote for those who don't love Christmas cake. It always gets demolished in about three seconds.
Makes one cake
450g butter, preferably unsalted, softened
200g caster sugar
6 eggs
6 Cox's Orange Pippin, Blenheim Orange or other sweet dessert apple
4 unwaxed lemons, zested and juiced
220g honey
450g ground almonds
1 tsp vanilla essence
225g fine polenta
1½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
Preheat oven to 160°C/Gas 3. Butter a 24cm cake tin and dust it with flour. Beat butter and sugar with an electric beater for 5-10 minutes until soft, white and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure they are fully incorporated each time. Core the apples and cut into thin slices (2-3mm). Turn them into the lemon juice and zest and then into the honey. Fold them and the rest of the ingredients into the cake mixture and pour into a buttered cake tin.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 45-50 minutes.
Turn out onto a wire rack when the cake has cooled a bit.
Antonin Bonnet: Chocolate mousse and nut praline
Serves 4
For the chocolate mousse:
2g gelatine
150g dark chocolate 65%
125g whole milk
250g whipped cream
For the praline: 50g whole hazelnuts
25g muscovado sugar
a pinch of Maldon salt
Soak the gelatin in a large quantity of water. Chop the chocolate. Bring the milk to the boil and add the gelatin, well drained. Pour around one-third of the hot liquid over the chocolate and whip until the texture is smooth, supple and glossy, showing that an emulsion is beginning to form. Add the rest of the milk, making sure to keep the same texture. When still warm, add the whipped single cream until frothy. Decorate and use immediately. Or freeze.
To make the praline, toast the hazelnut until dark, crush with a mortar until you get a crumbly, sticky texture, then add the sugar and salt. It is ready.
Ed Wilson: Rum sauce
A recipe served without fail in my family for as long as I can remember – the northerners' accompaniment for Christmas pudding, far superior to the southerners' brandy butter!
Serves 6
40g unsalted butter
40g sifted plain flour
250ml milk
50ml double cream
50g caster sugar
50ml strong dark rum
Melt the butter on a low heat and add the flour to make a roux. Cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly to cook out the flour.
In a separate pan bring the milk, cream and sugar to a gentle simmer and then slowly add to the roux, using a whisk to keep it smooth. The sauce should start to thicken after a few minutes on a gentle heat. It is important to keep stirring with the whisk so it doesn't catch. When it reaches the consistency of double cream, remove from the heat and add the rum. You can always add more rum if you like it stronger (like my dad!).
This sauce can be prepared in advance, but it is important to keep it covered so that it doesn't form a skin.
Fabien Ecuvillion: Christmas cake
We bake around 100 cakes in January and then every month we soak them with more brandy until November. However, they can be made a month in advance: soak them every week with additional brandy.
Makes one cake
280g currants
280g raisins
280g sultanas
60g dried cranberries
60g candied peel
20ml brandy + 10ml per month or week for soaking
zest and juice of 2 lemons
zest and juice of 2 oranges
300g flour
pinch of salt
½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
280g unsalted butter
230g dark brown sugar
40g black treacle
5 eggs
60g ground almonds
60g toasted flaked almonds
To decorate the cake:
200g marzipan
30g apricot jam
75g egg whites
340g sifted icing sugar
juice of ½ lemon
Place all the dry fruits and peel in a bowl with the brandy, lemon and orange juices. Leave overnight to steep.
Preheat the oven to 150°C/ Gas 2. Grease and line a 23cm cake tin with greaseproof paper.
Sieve the flour, salt, mixed spice and cinnamon into a bowl. Cream the butter, sugar and black treacle in a bowl, or in an electric food mixer, until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at time, beating continuously, then add in the sieved dry ingredients, ground and flaked almonds and zest and fold the mixture until it comes together. Add the fruits and fold together until well incorporated.
Spoon the mixture into the cake tin, smoothing the top. Place on the lower oven shelf and bake for about 1½ hours, until the cake is firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out cleanly.
Leave to cool in the tin for 2 hours before carefully turning out onto a wire rack. Soak the cake with 10ml of brandy. Wrap the cake first in clingfilm, followed by foil paper. Store in cool place or wine cellar.
To decorate the cake, place it on round plate. Dust the worksurface with a little icing sugar and knead the marzipan until soft. Roll out the marzipan to fit the cake. Brush the cake with warmed jam and cover it with the rolled marzipan.
For the icing: beat the egg whites and icing sugar in a bowl or electric mixer for 5 minutes, then add the lemon juice. Spread the icing all over the cake with a palette knife. Decorate with a small bunch of holly.
