Recipes of the Year 2011!

So, much to the disappointment of our guests, we come to the end of the year of New Food. Has it been a success? Most definitely - we've learned a load of new recipes (at least some of which we have already reused), caught up with friends old and new, and found an excuse to drink lots of wine on a Monday night.  What's not to like?

Ingredient of the year
Cheese! From feta to paneer to Parmesan to Wensleydale, it's been our constant friend, especially during Veggie Lent. Just don't ask us to go vegan next year...
An honorary mention goes to coriander, for going with everything.
Unmitigated disaster of the year
Do you have to ask? A slight misreading of the recipe led to delicious gnocchi becoming inedible grout. Dislike.
Most popular post (People's Choice Award)
By a long shot, it's the Squash and Lentil Pasties - good choice The Public, it makes a great shepherd's pie too!
Pudding of the year
Jamie's frangipane tart. I've lost count of the number of times I've thrown this together from memory: with lemon curd, with fresh raspberries, for a deliciously chewy warm dessert or a lovely treat when cold with a cup of coffee. Endlessly adaptable and deceptively simple.
Veggie dish of the year
Stilton and leek quiche - for making our shaky photography look good and reassuring not to be scared of vegetarian recipes or pastry.
Best value recipe
Jamie's veggie curry,  for performing some kind of food alchemy and miraculously turning half a squash into enough curry to feed us both for a week.
Feelgood recipe of the year
Jamie's chicken skewers. Even after several weeks, I still drool a little at the mention of them.
No-sweat recipe of the year
Hugh's stuffed squash. Almost embarrassingly easy, I was standing around at a  loose end when our guest arrived.
Surprise of the year
Heart doesn't taste horrible.
Chef of the year
Jamie Oliver - we've literally fought over whose turn it was to use one of his books. No, they can't all be done in 30 minutes, but they're reliably fresh, impressive and fun.
Recipe of the year (top 5)
5) Delia's cheese and herb fritters
Hooray for cheese! Slightly scary to cook but a great veggie option at a barbecue.
4) Jamie's piri-piri chicken
Double hooray for my blender!
3) Hugh's DIY bacon
A dream come true.
2) Jamie's sea bass and pancetta
Only not number one because Chris hasn't actually tried it!
1) Delia's roast duck
Well worth a little preparation the day before. Delicious, crispy, beautiful to look at.

Jamie's Turkey Wellington with all the trimmings

By Chris,

Main Ingredients:

• 1kg turkey breast
• 1/2 jar cranberry sauce
• Smoked lardons
• Duck liver pate and puff pastry

I hadn't planned to do a festive post, but after watching Jamie's Christmas with Bells On, I was inspired to try something new on Christmas Day. The turkey Wellington recipe takes all the best parts of a roast and wraps them all inside a puff pastry crust. It was quite stressful to make, but in the end it was a total triumph.

First separate the turkey breast from the carcass and the skin. It's best to buy a crown (as I did) so you only get breast meat, but if you have a full bird then Jamie suggests making gravy out of one of the legs.

Next, split open the breast, season, oil, and smear it with the cranberry sauce. The breast I was using fell in half when I took the skin off, so I had to pin it back together with several cocktail sticks before seasoning with thyme, covering with tin foil and whacking it in the oven at gas mark 4 for an hour.

Next the meat was left to cool while the bacon and the pate were prepared. Jamie suggested making a mushroom pate out of dried porcini, but I HATE mushrooms, so I used a pack of duck liver pate instead - much easier and tastier.

The bacon was then fried in olive oil until crispy and a few sprigs of rosemary were added at the last minute. Thinly chopped streaky bacon was called for, but I used a pack of lardons instead and whacked them in the food processor, once fried, to make a nice crumbly topping.

To assemble the Wellington, simply lay out half the roll of puff pastry, spread over a layer of pate, then plonk the bird on top. Then top with more pate (this uses up about half a pack) and the bacon bits. The remainder of the pastry goes on top and is crimped to resemble a giant cornish pastie.

I then baked this mammoth concoction for another hour at gas mark 4 until crispy and golden on top. I was terrified that I might either undercook the meat and ruin everyone's Christmas by salmonella, or overcook it and ruin £20 worth of turkey meat.

But it turned out to be one of the best roast turkeys I've ever had - the meat was kept nice and moist by the cranberry and the pate, and the combinations of flavours was fantastic. The pastry was a bit soggy and could have done with more time, but I'd definitely try this again. 

I'm not even going to bother trying to calculate the price per head, but let's say it was more than a fiver each, when you add roasts, sprouts, parsnips and all the essential add-ons.

So thanks for reading us all through the year, have great time over the Christmas holidays and we hope you try some new food in 2012!

Best for... Christmas lunch with a luxurious twist that you won't regret

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - Christmas with Bells On

Helen says... Everything you want from your turkey - moist, sweet and smoky. Well done and Merry Christmas!

Jamie's King Prawn Linguini with Feta Filo Parcels

By Chris,

Main Ingredients:

• 500g King Prawns
• 500g Linguini
• 300g Cherry Tomatoes
• Feta, Filo Pastry and Honey

This week wasn't quite as obscure as I had planned, since my fish dealer down at Borough Market had run out of langoustine. Nonetheless, King Prawn did the job and at least this was my first time cooking with filo pastry. The main dish was pretty straightforward, standard Jamie Oliver fare, but the pudding was the read stand-out here.

First fry one chopped onion, three cloves of garlic and a deseeded red chili for five minutes until softened. Next add the raw king prawns, a glass of red wine and a punnet of halved cherry tomatoes. This then simmers for five minutes while the linguine boils. Next mix it all together with the zest and juice of one lemon, a handful of parsley and salt and pepper. That was the easy part, now for the clever bit.

Jamie described these Greek filo parcels as a perfect mix between a cheese course and a pudding, and it more than lived up to this billing. Mix 300g of feta with two teaspoons of dried oregano and two tablespoons of honey. I was meant to add thyme leaves, but I didn't have any. 

Next the mixture was split into four and individually wrapped in two oiled sheets of filo pastry each. This stuff is possibly the most fragile thing I've ever cooked with, but it made for a lovely crisp wrapping for the sweet, salty and curiously herby parcels.

After about 15 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees, they came out golden and oozing. Topped with honey, they were quite sweet but also slightly savoury. The recipe said to add toasted sesame seeds on top as well (which I forgot to buy) and this would surely have made it even more special.

All in all, a fairly easy, filling and fairly impressive duo. At £3.97 a head it was one of the pricer meals we've done this year, but if you go for normal prawns instead of king prawns you could probably save a few bob without compromising on taste.

Best for... A light, refreshing alternative to a greasy summer barbecue

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - Jamie Does... Greece

Helen says...  The cheese pastries were really good - like a refreshing bowl of sweet-sharp yoghurt after the rich pasta.

Hugh's Rabbit and Partridge Stew

By Helen

Main Ingredients:

• One rabbit (skinned)
• Two partridges (plucked)
• Tinned tomatoes
• Onions and carrots
• Thyme and bay

A trip to Borough Market on a December morning - especially without breakfast inside you - is always going to end in a shopping spree. 

But what to choose? Squid? Drunk cheese? Still-twitching lobster? In the end I decided on rabbit and, for any sentimental dinner guests, partridge. I didn't think I'd eaten, never mind cooked either of these before until my mum sheepishly admitted: 'We fed you rabbit. We just didn't tell you what it was.'

The first job was jointing the rabbit - removing the last few organs and chopping into manageable pieces, which wasn't too bad - thankfully the head had already been taken care of and I had some step by step instructions. I browned the pieces (as well as the halved partridges) and added to a casserole dish with stock, wine, peppercorns, garlic, tomatoes, thyme, bacon and bay leaves, then chucked in the oven for 90 minutes.

The smell was immediately distinctive - definitely not chicken! The final product divided opinion - I preferred the larger, milder chunks of rabbit but others preferred the gamier partridge. Having picked at the bird carcasses I'm not convinced it was the best use of them. Neither was especially tender and might have benefitted from longer cooking. But in terms of trying something new, a success on several fronts, and not as expensive as I'd thought at around £3.30 a head.

Best for... Facing up to where your dinner comes from
Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day
Chris says... The partridge was my favourite; very rich meat, but quite fiddly to get off the bones.

Hugh's Devilled Lamb Hearts with Lentils

By Chris

Main ingredients:

• 6x lambs' hearts
• 200g lentils
• 2x onions, 3x carrots
• Thyme, bay, black pepper, mint

You want obscure ingredients?! I'll show you obscure ingredients! I've not only never cooked heart before, I've never eaten heart before - in fact, I've never even eaten offal before, so this was a real plunge into the unknown. The process of slicing up these poor lambs' tickers made me feel a little bit queasy, but this recipe was well worth persevering with.

Hugh suggests serving the lambs' hearts as a lunch, which is frankly ridiculous, seeing as it takes around two hours to cook. First quarter the hearts and trim off the tubes (*shudder*) and then boil them in a stew of onion, carrot, bay and thyme for 90 minutes. 

While this is simmering away gently, prep the lentils by boiling them with a bay leaf for 15 minutes. Next up, fry a whole onion for five minutes and prepare a dressing of cider vinegar, olive oil, English mustard and salt and pepper. When all the ingredients are done, mix together with a few sprigs of mint and set aside. With the heart bubbling away ominously, I lost my nerve and roasted some potatoes as a backup, just in case this all went horribly wrong. 

It was with a great sense of relief that I removed the heart quarters from the broth and saw that they looked more or less like meat that you would actually want to eat. Then comes the tasty bit - fry the heart in salt, sherry, redcurrant jelly, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, black pepper, mustard and double cream. This made a very tasty and spicy sauce which really lifted the whole dish.

In case you're wondering, heart meat tastes half way between venison and liver. Distinctly rich and dense, but also quite dark and gamey. Served up with the potatoes, this was a hearty supper than went down surprisingly well and resulted in four very clean plates. At around £2 a head, this was fairly economical, but it was also very satisfying to know that I had successfully cooked something completely new.

Best for... Adventurous carnivores who want to broaden their horizons

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day

Helen says... Pretty good - not all that scary-looking and not something you'd have to be starving to enjoy. Excellent sauce!