Stokes Sauces: Make ahead and freeze - get ahead of the taste game

http://www.stokessauces.co.uk/page/sauces/chutneys-and-relishes

Planning ahead

When thinking about the coming season of festive feasting, there's a lot you can do sooner rather than panic about it later.

For Christmas devotees, you can even extend the festive fun as you ding dong merrily in the kitchen over the coming weekends.

But, it's not just the Yorkshire puds, mince pies, red cabbage and stuffing you can make ahead and freeze. Even with acres of leftovers to eat, it's good to have a casserole or two under the proverbial belt, ready to defrost and enjoy.
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Lamb with Christmas Spices

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This has the essence of Christmas in a hearty stew. 'Christmas' works so well with this lamb neck fillet (1.5 kg) cut into chunks and browned with diced onion, grated garlic and fresh ginger.

Add the wonderful Persian fragrances of ground cinnamon (a pinch), coriander (1 tsp), cloves (pinch), ground almonds (3 tbsp) and cardamom pods.

Stir in a couple of spoons of flour and 750 ml of beef stock. bring it to the boil adding a good shake of Stokes Tomato Ketchup and 3 or 4 good spoonfuls of Stokes Spiced Apricot Chutney.

Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Add a pack of ready-to-eat dried apricots and simmer, lid off, for 15 minutes more. Cool it, freeze it and enjoy it mid-week between Christmas and the New Year.

Chestnut Stuffing Roll

Instead of actually stuffing the bird, this is a roulade of sausage, chestnuts, apple and cranberry to roast and be carved at the table.

http://www.stokessauces.co.uk/page/sauces/traditional-condiments

Here's how:

Squeeze the meat from 10 good butcher's pork sausages into a bowl with roughly chopped parsley, sage and thyme. Roughly chop 1 x 200g pack of chestnuts and add this to the meat with 1 tbsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard, 1 tbsp of Stokes Bramley Apple Sauce and 3 tbsp of Stokes Cranberry Sauce.

Finely slice a juicy Bramley apple and add this too, with about 75 g of frozen cranberries. With your hands, combine everything with 50 g of breadcrumbs and an egg.

Lay a sheet of foil on a worktop with the same amount of cling film on that. Now sit a dozen or so rashers of streaky bacon side by side on the film having stretched them first with the back of a knife. Spoon the sausage and chestnut mixture along one side of the bacon and carefully roll the foil forward taking the bacon and its contents with you until you have a bacon-wrapped stuffing roulade.

Freeze the roulade at this stage. De-frost and roast at a medium heat for 45 minutes until the sausage is cooked and the bacon is crisp. This should give you 8 generous slices.

Rich Red Cabbage

Here's how:

Finely slice 1 red cabbage, 2 red onions and 2 Bramley apples and fry them in butter, turning the contents regularly.

Add a pinch of ground cinnamon, coriander, cloves; 1 tbsp of Stokes Chilli Jam and 2 tbsp of Stokes Cranberry & Orange Sauce (we cook this in ruby port).

Stir in a splash of orange juice, 175 ml of port, 1 tsp of Balsamic vinegar and 125 ml of water.

Bring the contents up to a gentle boil, cover and simmer for an hour, stirring from time to time.

If it is too wet, drain it, cool it and freeze it in portions to make it easier to defrost and cook just what you need when you need it.

Yorkshire Pud Roulette

Adding a flavour such as mustard to a Yorkshire Pudding batter gives you a pud with a difference. Dividing the batter into three, each with a different flavour and baked randomly lets you play 'Russian Roulette' along with your crackers, jokes and tricks on Christmas Day.

Your basic batter mix:

140 g of plain flour
4 eggs
200 ml of milk

Plus:

Ho Ho How:

Get the oven as hot as you can. Put a drop of vegetable oil in each of the 12 cups of a non-stick muffin tin and put it in the oven to get the oil piping hot.

Put the flour into a bowl, beat in the eggs until you have a smooth paste and add the milk slowly, beating constantly.

When you have your batter, divide it into 4 bowls adding 2 tsp of each of our bullets (mustard, chilli or horseradish) to each of three bowls, leaving the fourth as a plain batter.

Carefully take the tin from the oven and randomly spoon the batters into the hot cups. Now back in the oven for 25 minutes until the puds have risen and browned.