A classic Christmas combination – and it counts as two of your 5-a-day.
If you want to prepare in advance – up to two days ahead, par-boil the sprouts, drain and cool, then chill in the fridge. You can also fry the bacon and chestnuts two days ahead, then chill. On the day, just finish cooking the sprouts and assemble the dish.
Ingredients:
- 1kg Brussels sprouts (outer leaves removed)
- 200g Helen Browning’s organic bacon lardons
- 200g vacuum-packed chestnuts
- 50g butter
Method:
- Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, then tip in trimmed Brussels sprouts. Once back to the boil, cook for 5 mins. Drain, run under the cold tap until cold, then drain again. Set aside.
- Heat a large frying pan, add lardons and gently fry for 10 mins until golden brown.
- Roughly chop the chestnuts and add them to the pan, cooking for 5 minutes until tinged with colour. Remove lardons and chestnuts from pan and set aside to keep warm.
- Add Brussels back to the pan with a splash of water, and finish cooking over a medium heat, until just tender – about 5 minutes. Turn heat to high, add butter and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Transfer to a warmed serving dish with lardons and chestnuts, seasoned generously with salt & pepper.
A delicious combination of stuffing and pigs in blankets to create these amazing stuffing balls. This recipe also includes cooked chestnuts and dried cranberries for that extra special festive feel.
Ingredients:
Method:
- Put the stuffing mix in a bowl and pour over 150ml boiling water. Leave the mix to absorb. When cool, add the sausage meat, chestnuts and cranberries and bring everything together with your hands. Cut each rasher of bacon in half lengthways so you get 24 long strips of bacon.
- Cross two bacon strips, then roll a walnut-sized ball of the stuffing mix and sit it on the cross. Wrap the stuffing in the bacon and sit on a lightly oiled baking tray, cross-side up. Repeat to make 12 stuffing balls. Can be made up to two days ahead and chilled. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and roast the stuffing balls for 25-30 mins until the bacon is crisp and the stuffing is cooked.
Try this recipe with our other sausagemeat flavours …
These sausage rolls create a simple way to make the best savoury snack for the Christmas period.
Ingredients:
- 320g sheet of ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
- 2-3 tsp cranberry sauce (plus extra for dipping)
- 4 organic streaky bacon rashers from Helen Browning’s
- I pack of Helen Browning’s cocktail sausages
- 1 egg (beaten)
Method:
- Unroll the puff pastry and, still on its paper lining, roll it out slightly wider and longer. Cut 3 lines length ways to make 4 even strips of pastry. Divide each strip into 3 even pieces. Put a dot of cranberry sauce in the centre of each piece of pastry, then cut each bacon rasher into 3 pieces and use them to top the cranberry dots.
- Put one cocktail sausage cross ways on each piece of bacon, then roll up the pastry so the ends just overlap. Trim off and reserve any off-cuts. Put the seams underneath, then brush all over with the beaten egg and put on a baking sheet lined with compostable baking paper. Shape the off-cuts into decorations, if you like, secure with more beaten egg, then chill for 20 minutes.
- Bake at 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6 for 30-35 minutes until golden and puffed, then serve with extra cranberry sauce for these perfect sausage rolls.
This recipe from Jamie Oliver is extra special as it has lots of delicious bacon lardons added in the mix.
Ingredients:
- 1 onion
- 1 red cabbage
- 2 eating apples
- 1 pack Helen Browning’s Organic lardons
- Small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley
- Splash of olive oil
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
- 150ml balsamic vinegar
- 1 small knob of unsalted butter
Method:
- Peel and slice the onion. Discard any tatty outer leaves from the cabbage, then remove the core and chop into irregular chunks.
- Peel the apples, then chop into 2.5cm pieces, and pick and finely chop the parsley leaves. Finely slice the bacon.
- Drizzle a good lug of oil into a pan over a medium heat, add the bacon, then bash and add the fennel seeds and cook until golden.
- Add the onion, cover, and continue to cook for 5 to 10 minutes, or until lightly golden and sticky.
- Scatter in the apple and cabbage, season with sea salt, black pepper and the vinegar, then stir well.
- Pop the lid back on, reduce the heat to low and cook gently for 1 hour, or until gorgeously sticky and sweet, stirring occasionally.
- Scoop into a serving dish, pop the butter on top and sprinkle over the parsley, then serve.
Delicious festive flavours of spicy ginger and sweet orange for your gammon glaze. How mouth-wateringly appetizing!
Ingredients:
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Place the gammon in a roasting tin and cover loosely with foil. Cook for 2 hours.
- Meanwhile, pare the zest from the clementine, taking care not to include too much white pith. Cut the zest into thin strips. Place in a small pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes until the zest is tender. Drain. Thinly slice the ginger, then cut the slices into thin strips. Mix the ginger strips with the clementine zest, ginger syrup and mustard seeds in a bowl.
- Remove the gammon from the oven. Using a sharp knife, remove the string, cut off and discard the skin, and score a crisscross pattern in the fat. Insert 2 long metal skewers into the joint to hold it tightly in place. Spread the clementine mixture over the gammon and pour 150ml boiling water into the roasting tin (this prevents the glaze burning onto the tin). Return the gammon to the oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes until the glaze is browned and sticky. Remove the skewers from the joint and serve it warm or cold.
