JW Recipes

Archive for the ‘EASTER’ Category

What you need:

1 x 150g packet garlic and herb Boursin cheese
1 clove garlic, crushed
25g unsalted and shelled pistachio nuts, chopped
grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp fresh chopped sage
1 x 4kg Packington Free Range Cockerel
8 rashers smoked streaky bacon
olive oil
4 tbsp sherry
400 ml good chicken stock or vegetable juices

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F /Gas Mark 4.

Mix together the cheese, garlic, pistachios, lemon rind and juice, sage and seasoning until well mixed.

Place the cockerel on a board and carefully ease your fingers then your hand under the skin of the cockerel
at the neck end freeing it from the breast meat.

Smear the cheese mixture over the breast meat under the skin. Then tuck the flap of skin underneath.

Arrange the bacon over the breast and drizzle over oil and season.

Place in a large roasting tin and cover with foil.

Calculate cooking time allowing 16 minutes per 450g / 1lb plus 16 minutes or until juices run clear from
the thigh when pierced with a knife or skewer. Remove the foil for the last 45 minutes to allow the cockerel
to brown.

Remove the cockerel from the oven and transfer to a warm serving plate. Cover with foil and allow to rest for
20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile skim most of the fat from the roasting pan and discard.

Scrape the meat juices in the pan together. Place over a low heat and blend in sherry and stock. Bring to the boil, stirring and season to taste.

Serve the gravy with the Cockerel.

What you need:

3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Granny Smith or similar)
4 strips of lemon peel  (use a vegetable peeler to strip 4 lengths)
Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
3 inches of cinnamon stick
1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
up to 1/4 cup of white sugar
1 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt

What you do:

Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks and lemon peels. Mash with potato masher.
Ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated.

What you need:

25g butter
1 onion, sliced
½ tsp salt
150ml double cream
1 bay leaf
6 cloves , whole
75g white breadcrumbs
300ml milk
1 pinch black pepper , freshly ground
1 pinch nutmeg , grated

What you do:

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the onion. Cook over a low heat for 4–5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the salt, cream, bay leaf, and cloves, and cook for a further 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, and allow to stand for 20 minutes, so the flavours have time to infuse. (This can be prepared ahead and left to infuse, or the complete sauce can be made in advance. Cover the surface of the sauce with cling film to prevent a skin forming. Refrigerate for up to 2 days. When ready to use, remove cling film and gently reheat).

Discard the bay leaf and cloves, then pour the onion mixture into a food processor, and blend to a smooth purée. If you do not have a food processor, very finely chop the onion instead of slicing.

Place the breadcrumbs and milk in a pan, and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer for 5–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, to make a smooth, thickened sauce. (If you feel the sauce is too thick, then add a little more milk.)

Stir in the onion purée, season to taste with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with nutmeg.

What you need:

1 bag of fresh cranberries
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of fresh orange juice
1 tsp of orange zest

What you do:

Put all ingredients into a sauce an and mix well.
Cook over medium heat and bring to a boil.
Boil for about 10 minutes until the cranberries pop. There may be a few light colored ones that don’t pop, but don’t worry. They soften as the sauce cools.

Serve the sauce at room temp or slightly warm.

The sauce can also be made up to 2 days before and kept in the fridge.

What you need:

sunflower oil, or other neutral-tasting oil, for greasing
25g powdered gelatine
255 ml water
4 tsp rose water
450g caster sugar
3-4 drops red food colouring
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp cornflour

What you do:

Lightly oil a 20x25cm baking tin.

Mix the gelatine, water and rose water in a large heavy-based pan and add the sugar.

Heat gently until the sugar and gelatine have dissolved, stirring continuously.

Bring to the boil without stirring.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from the heat, stir in the food colouring and leave to cool for 2-3 minutes.

Pour the mixture into the oiled tin and leave to set for 24 hours.

Cut into squares.

Mix the cornflour and icing sugar together and toss the Turkish Delight in the mixture.

Store in an airtight container, between layers of greaseproof paper.

What you need:

400g frozen raspberries , defrosted
50g icing sugar
300g honey & almond  nougat bar
450ml double cream
25g whole almonds , skin on
25g pistachios , plus a few extra to decorate

What you do:

Whizz the raspberries and icing sugar together in a food processor, then sieve, pressing through as much raspberry as you can with a wooden spoon.

Quickly dip the nougat bars in water – this should allow you to peel away the rice paper. (Don’t worry if you don’t get it all as it will disappear when melted). Put the bars into a pan with 200ml cream. Melt over a low heat, stirring constantly and using a wooden spoon to break up the nougat into smaller bits as it softens. After a while you should end up with a smooth, sticky, creamy mixture. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool a little. Whip the remaining cream in a large mixing bowl to stiff peaks.

When the nougat is cooler, but still soft and sauce-like, fold it one-third at a time into the whipped cream. Scatter over the whole nuts and fold once to mix. Scrape into the loaf tin, cover with cling film and freeze overnight, or for up to a month.

Transfer the loaf to the fridge 15 mins before you want to serve it. Unwrap and turn out onto a serving plate. Peel off the cling film, roughly chop a few extra pistachios and scatter over before slicing.

What you need:

Chocolate cake
115g slightly salted butter, softened
115g  Caster Sugar
1 tbsp Golden Syrup
2 medium Eggs
115g self- raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
Frosting
75g full-fat cream cheese
2 tbsp Golden Syrup
125g  Icing Sugar
Cake pop sticks
Decoration
200g plain chocolate, melted
200g white chocolate, melted
Sprinkles of your choice

What you do:

For the cake pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F /gas 4.

Grease and base line a 20cm round cake tin.
Put all of the ingredients for the cake in to a large bowl and beat until smooth. Transfer to the cake tin and level, then bake for 20-25 minutes until springy to touch and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.

Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then turn our and cool completely. Best left for a day before making the cake pops.

Mix the frosting ingredients together until smooth. Crumble the cake into fine crumbs into a bowl, add the frosting and mix together to make a moist textured mixture that sticks together. Cover with cling film and refrigerate until firm about 1 hour. (you can leave this mixture in the fridge for up to 3 days at this stage).

Take rounded tsps of mixture, and roll into a firm balls with your hands. Place on a sheet of greaseproof paper on a flat plate or tray. Makes about 20 balls. Put into the freezer for about half an hour to firm.

Have ready a polystyrene block or a florist block (oasis). Take a pop stick and dip into one of the cooled melted chocolates, about 2cm deep. Insert immediately into a cake ball, about halfway through. Now dip into the chocolate, making sure the cake ball is coated all over then gently tap the cake pop over the bowl to remove excess chocolate. Place in the block and scatter sprinkles before the chocolate sets, which will be quite quick as the cake is cold from the freezer.

Repeat with the rest of the cake balls using both of the melted chocolates. The pops will keep for a week in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

What you need:

9 small red apples
wooden skewers
1lb /450g sugar
1/4 pt /150ml water
1 oz /30g  butter
1 tbsp glucose
3 drops red food colouring

What you do:

Wash and dry the apples thoroughly. Impale them on the skewers.

Place sugar and water into a saucepan, stir over heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add butter and glucose, cook rapidly, without stirring until it reaches 150 C or is at hard crack stage.

When mixture stops bubbling, add the red food colouring.

Stand the saucepan in a large bowl of hot water to prevent the toffee from setting. Dip apples into the toffee to coat thoroughly. Stand upright (apple down) on a greased tray to set.

When cold wrap in cellophane or greaseproof paper.

What you need:

7 lbs 15 oz /3.6kg  1 in /2½ cm bread cubes, white or whole wheat
2 oz /56g unsalted butter
15¾ oz /450g onion (medium-diced)
15¾ oz /450g celery ( medium-diced)
2 granny smith apples unpeeled & cored
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
1½ tsp minced fresh rosemary leaves
2 tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
0.4 pt /225 ml  chicken stock
4 oz /110g  sliced blanched almonds, toasted (optional)

What you do:

 Preheat oven to 150C /300F / gas mark 2

Put the bread cubes on a 32.5x45x2.5cm baking sheet and bake them in the oven for 7 minutes.

In a large saute pan, melt the butter and add the onion, celery, apples, parsley, rosemary, salt, and pepper. saute for 10 minutes, until the mixture is soft.

Combine the bread cubes and cooked vegetables in a large bowl and add the chicken stock, and almonds, (if desired).

Place the stuffing into the main cavity of the turkey and into the neck of the bird. I cook a 5.5kg turkey for 2 1/2 hours at 180° in a pre-heated oven.

Make sure the stuffing in the cavity is secured by wrapping the legs tightly with string.

what you need:

4 large onions
10 sage leaves
125g/¼lb of breadcrumbs
40g/1½oz butter
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg

What you do:

Peel the onions, put them into boiling water, let them simmer for 5 minutes or rather longer, and just before they are taken out, put in the sage-leaves for a minute or two to take off their rawness.

Chop both these very fine, add the bread, seasoning and butter, and work the whole lot together with the yolk of an egg, when the stuffing will be ready for use.

It should be rather highly seasoned, and the sage-leaves should be very finely chopped.
Place into and oven proof dish & cook for around 20 to 25 mins.
Serve hot.