Our Family essentials for the perfect Xmas Dinner:-

Sausage meat balls, our family recipe for sausage meat balls and an essential part of the Xmas Lunch, warning you need to make at least double as they will get gobbled as people pass through the kitchen and are also great cold with Boxing Day lunch.  Full sausage meat ball recipe here http://paganum.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/sausage-meat-balls/

Sausage meat balls

Brussel Sprouts and Chorizo, to add a bit of flavour to your sprouts, blanch the sprouts then stir fry with some roughly chopped Chorizo and butter for a luxury touch.  You can prepare the Brussels, blanch off and freeze or leave in the fridge ready just to finish off before you serve.

Sausagemeat & Pastry what could be simpler!

Homemade Free Range Scotch Eggs, The real thing, not those plastic supermarket wonders, I thought I would see how easy these are to make and was pleasantly surprised at the ease and the results!

Homemade Free Range Scotch Eggs

Should make 5 or 6 fantastic scotch eggs

Ingredients:-

• 500g Pork Sausagemeat
• 7 free range eggs (not too big) 6 for scotch eggs one for binding
• rasher of back bacon
• 1 medium onion, chopped finely
• breadcrumbs, homemade or the bought variety do work very well for this recipe
• 2 teaspoons plain flour
• salt & white pepper
• 2 teaspoons parsley
• grated nutmeg about a quarter of a whole nutmeg
• other ingredients to taste can be crumbled and added to the sausagemeat e.g. black pudding, sliced chilli, smoked bacon, Stilton cheese, chopped Chorizo, whatever takes your fancy

Method:-

• hard boil 6 eggs, cover eggs with cold water and bring to boil, 8 mins from boiling, then cool under running cold water
• chop onion finely and saute in butter for a couple of minutes until soft and starting to turn golden brown add to large dish with sauagemeat & finely chopped bacon
• peel eggs
• add seasoning to taste and any herbs e.g. parsley, mixed herbs, basil or fresh coriander is good for a different flavour
• put raw egg whisked up a bit on a plate ready for coating the scotch eggs
• put breadcrumbs on a plate ready for rolling on your scotch eggs
• combine all ingredients and make a hand sized pattie then carefully wrap each egg in the sausgemeat using both hands to mold the sausagemeat completly surrounding the egg, try not to make it too thick or too thin approx 5mm is good
• coat sauagemeat ball in the raw egg and then dip and roll around in the breadcrumbs until completly coated, put on one side
• should make 5 scotch eggs and possibly 6 if you havent gone overboard with the thickness of the sausagemeat on the first few
• once you have coated all your balls, deep fry at approx 180 degrees C for 6 to 8 mins or until golden brown, make sure you turn them over if the fat is not deep enough to cover them
• let them rest on a cooling rack with paper roll to absorb any excess fat and let cool
• you can serve hot but I prefer to let them cool and serve cold then you can cut into them and admire your perfect handywork before tasting a real scotch egg
• repeat with other ingredients, experiment with whatever takes your fancy, blackpudding, tomato & basil, goats cheese & red onion, fresh red chilli peppers, anything goes…

This is my Mum’s recipe and is simply the best Sausagemeat ball recipe, great hot and I suggest you make extra and hide them so you can have some leftover cold on boxing day!  These are so good they should not be restricted to Xmas.

Ingredients:-

• 1lb/500g pork sausagemeat (or just remove skin from some sausages)
• 1 grated carrot
• 1 grated onion
• 1 grated apple
• 2 sticks grated celery
• 1 fresh egg
• small packet Paxo sage & onion stuffing
• salt & pepper
• plain flour if required

Method:-

• make up the paxo stuffing mix with water as directions on packet
• combine all other prepared ingredients with the stuffing and add a little flour if too wet
• make into small balls with an ice cream scoop or just use your hands
• space out on a tray (leave a gap as they will spread out)
• cook in oven for 20 mins or until cooked through, I like to slightly over cook them until a deep brown colour
• keep warm and serve with your Xmas Dinner/Lunch

I would double or treble the recipe at least and reserve some for boxing day, in our house half get eaten as soon as they come out of the oven by various members of the family pinching one as they pass through the kitchen! be warned….

Sausagemeat Balls for Christmas Dinner

I was visiting friends at the weekend in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire and couldn’t resist a trip to one of the best farmers markets in England at Stroud.

It was very good to see a vibrant farmers market full of fantastic produce and plenty of customers, some stalls were nearly sold out by 11am, nearly all the strawberries and green beans were gone.

We bought red and yellow cherry tomatoes, green beans, Single and Double Gloucester cheese from Godsells, Church Farm, Stonehouse and organic Cotswold Brie from Simon Weaver of Kirkham Farm, Upper Slaughter,  Sun dried tomatoes, scotch eggs, Gloucester old spot pork sausages (for the kids), apple juice, steawberries and a bottle of English wine.

The excellent scotch eggs were from The Handmade Scotch Egg Company which come in a fantastic array of flavours, we tried BlackWatch with rich black pudding and free range pork a Mac which is an original scotch egg (free range pork and seasoning), a Passion which is a bit different with free range pork, beetroot and red onion and lastly a Baz which is free range welsh white/landrace cross pork with fresh basil, sun dried tomatoes and black olives, they were mmm scrumptious…