Getting ready for Christmas!

I’m soooooooo excited!  I absolutely love this time of year when you can start thinking about all the lovely food you want to have in December.  I like to be organised and not leave everything until the week before Christmas so this week I decided to make some mince pies to put in the freezer along with some red onion chutney.

Alice loves mince pies and she loves helping me in the kitchen so I thought I’d tie it in with a bit of mummy-daughter time.

Guess which ones Alice made……………….!

As for chutney I’ve never made it before in my life so now that I love cooking and I especially love Christmas now seemed like the right time to start.

I love cooking for all the family on Christmas day. Everyone’s stuffed after lunch but by 6 o’clock in our house the cheese and biscuits are usually out. Chutney, cheese, biscuits, celery – my idea of heaven! (Dad usually likes to wash his down with a glass of port or two). 

So I’m opting out of shop bought chutney this year, it’s going to be homemade and hopefully really tasty.

I’ve really getting into the Christmas spirit now. I’ll shortly be deciding on my Christmas day canapés and lunch menu which I’ll share with you all soon, watch this space ………

Mince Pies:

Makes 12

Ingredients:

200g plain flour

50g unsalted butter

1 tbsp caster sugar

Jar of mincemeat

1 egg beaten

Demerara sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190c/gas mark 5

Sift the flour into a bowl, add in the butter and rub between your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs. Mix in the caster sugar. Add 1 tbsp of cold water and mix into a dough.

Roll out onto a floured surface. Use the right size pastry cutter for your bun tray and press out 12 rounds. Put them into the bun try and fill each of them with a teaspoon of mincemeat. Use a slightly small pastry cutter and press out 12 smaller rounds. Put the tops on and then brush over with beaten egg. Sprinkle each of them with a small amount of demerara sugar and then bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden in colour.

Leave to cool and then put in your freezer ready for Christmas. One less job to do!

Chutney

Ingredients:

This recipe was enough to fill 2 medium sized kilner jars.

6 red onions

1 red chilli (de-seeded)

1 bay leaf

Olive oil

200g soft brown sugar

2 teaspoons of mustard seeds

150ml balsamic vinegar

150ml red wine vinegar

Method:

Chop the onions into thin slices and then half again. Finely chop the chilli.

Fry the onion, chilli and bay leaf in olive oil for about 20 minutes.

Add in the sugar and vinegars, mustard seeds and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Pour into the sterilised kilner jars and let them cool.

You can then put them away ready for Christmas.  Perfect idea for a Christmas hamper too!

Enjoy
Laura x