You say potato and I say...mmm soup.

In my opinion leek and potato soup is one of the simplest, tastiest seasonal dishes imaginable.

Over the years I've had a good few attempts of following leek and potato recipes: some have worked, some haven't... but usually whenever I throw the potatoes and leeks in a pan of stock and the result is fairly consistent, regardless of the method.

So I was interest to find that Cathy had a recipe for this winter staple which suggested roasting the vegetables first. I was a bit sceptical about the added flavour this extra step in the process would add. In truth, not a lot. It did make the dish slightly 'fuller' than usual and actually it was a pretty quick method of cooking the vegetables. So if you don't mind an extra roasting tin to wash up, it's probably worth the effort.

I should not that Cathy suggests using Kale: I couldn't find any so just used more of the top part of the leek in the dish. This has the same slightly bitter taste of kale anyway. I also roasted the leeks on the grounds that this would add more to the flavour.

Roasted Leek and Potato Soup (serves 4)

Ingredients

1 leek, halved and chopped into smallish chunks

4 potatoes, cut into smallish chunks

1 onion, cut into smallish chunks

150 ml milk

500 ml vegetable stock

Olive Oil

seasoning

Method

• Roast the chopped vegetables in olive oil for about 20 minutes (until soft but not smooshy). Watch the leeks so they don't stick to the bottom of the roasting dish.
• Meanwhile bring your stock to the boil.
• Add the vegetables to the stock and cook for a further 10 minutes.
• Blitz the soup until nice and creamy.
• Season well (lots of pepper is very yummy)
• Add the milk

Serve with 'no knead' bread.

It's not right but its ok...I'm gonna make it anyway!

Earlier this week our lovely friend Anja celebrated her birthday. Anja is part of Lund's Sustainable City Walk a great initiative which provides information on sustainable shopping in Lund. I decided I was going to attempt some seasonal baking for a birthday treat and came across this very tasty looking recipe for pear and ginger muffins.

Then disaster struck (well minor blip anyway) I discovered you cannot get Swedish pears in January. I was quite surprised at this as I always thought of pears as a winter fruit; but no, the pears in this recipe are from The Netherlands :(

That said, it was still rather tasty and I think would work equally well with apples: especially those apples that are a bit grainy and reaching the end of their winter lives.

I changed the recipe slightly (because my sugar coated baked goods have a tendency to burn) but the original can be found here.

Pear and Ginger Muffins

Makes: 18! (although the original recipe said 12, but then it is a Nigella effort and her portions are always a bit suspect).

Ingredients:

2 large pears (1 peeled and finely chopped, the other thinly sliced)

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup of brown sugar

3/4 cup of caster sugar

1 tsp of ginger

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup of flavourless oil

2/3 cup of sour cream

1 tblsp of honey

2 eggs

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius
• Line muffin tins with paper cases
• Mix the brown and caster sugar with the oil, until light and incorporated.
• Whisk in the eggs, honey and then stir in the sour cream.
• In a separate bowl sieve the flour, baking powder and ginger.
• Fold the 'wet' mix into the dry (careful not to over stir)
• Fold in the chopped pears.
• Fill each muffin case about 2/3 full of muffin mix and top with 3 small slice of pear.
• Bake for 20 minutes
• Cool for 5 minutes in the tin.

Enjoy eating with coffee, friends and only a smidgen of guilt that the pears came from The Netherlands.

I don't know much butter know I love you

Winter is a difficult time of year to get excited about, not least in the cooking department. After months of cooking root veg, who can blame you if your greatest culinary desire is the quick fix of a salad. Root vegetables (the humble carrot aside) are not really known for their speed of delivery. Its a strange man who enjoys chomping on some raw turnip.

They are also sometimes pretty time consuming to prepare. Whilst The Seasonal Beets thoroughly recommend keeping skins on where possible (for we all know that's where the best nutrition is stored) there are times when that is just not possible. My dog loves turnip skin: I am less enamoured by its woody texture.

On top of that whilst root vegetables are filled with nutrition and can be sweet as sugar, the stereotypical varieties we can easily access do lack a certain variation in flavour (yes bothersome friend turnip I'm referring to you again).

And yet root vegetables are cheap, nutritious and very seasonal so we should definitely be eating them in plentiful supply. How can we fix this tricky conundrum? The answer my friends is butter.

"Is there anything better than butter? Think it over, any time you taste something that's delicious beyond imagining and you say 'what's in this?' the answer is always going to be butter. The day there is a meteorite rushing toward Earth and we have thirty days to live, I am going to spend it eating butter. Here is my final word on the subject, you can never have too much butter." Julie Powell, Julie and Julia.

Whilst butter alone is wonderful, its magical taste enhancing capabilities can be heightened by the addition of a few key ingredients. Flavoured butter should be a staple in any tasty kitchen. It can be added to baked potatoes; mashed vegetables, boiled vegetables, oven roasted vegetables, fry your vegetables in it or just spread on a piece of crusty toast. The possibilities are for flavoured butter are endless and its so easy to make.

• Take 1 packet of unsalted butter and leave it out of the fridge to soften.
• Then get out the biceps and your spatula and start beating the butter until it becomes soft and pliable (or use a foodmixer...).
• Add your ingredients and whip into a frenzy until all incorporated.
• Leave to stand for 30 minutes and then place it in the fridge to harden.
• Once hard roll into a sausage shape and wrap in baking parchment (like a christmas cracker)
• This can then be stored in the freezer. Just cut away what you need when you need it.

Recipes for flavoured butter

Roasted Garlic Butter (excellent in mash)

1 packet of butter

1 large head of garlic

1/4 tsp salt

Cut the garlic in half and roast the garlic in the oven until soft. Squidge out the garlic, let it cool and add to your butter.

Herby Butter

(the world is your oyster here, I like rosemary and thyme together but tarragon is also very nice, especially on mushrooms! Check out our recipe booklets for other good herb/veg combos)

1 packet of butter

1 handful of freshly chopped herbs

1/2 tsp salt

Chilli Butter

(melt and use to make Kale Chips!)

1 packet of butter

A zest of half a lemon

1 tbsp of dried chilli flakes

1/4 tsp salt

Loads more recipes can be found on the BBC Good Food website and at The Nibble but look out for more flavoured butters on this blog too!

I'm stroganoff to live without you...

but thankfully I don't have to.

Seasonal, tasty and with multiple uses, this mushroom and beef stroganoff recipe ticks all the boxes.

The dish originated in Russia and was probably named after a member of the Strogonov family (how do you know when you've made it? well, having a worldwide culinary sensation bear your name is probably a small sign) Much like that other staple, Spaghetti Bolognese, everyone has their own version of Stroganoff: today I learnt that Sweden also has its very own variation: korvstroganoff.

This is my version of the famous dish. Its very quick (30 mins tops) and goes with just about anything you've got in the cupboard.

Mushroom and Beef Stroganoff (serves 4)

Ingredients :

1 onion (sliced)

250 g mushrooms (sliced) (I like using chestnut mushrooms but anything thats out at this time of year is fine)

4 frying steaks (cut into thin strips)

oil

marsala

4 tblps dried porcini mushrooms

250ml warm water

150ml creme fraiche

juice of half a lemon

dried thyme

seasoning

Method:

• Soak the porcini in the water.
• Season the beef within an inch of its life.
• In a large frying pan, briefly brown the steak. It should take no more than 4 minutes. Using a slated spoon remove the steak from the pan (Don't worry if it looks a bit pink in the middle, it's going back in later)
• Add the onions to the pan to cook in the beefy juices. (you might need to add some extra cooking oil at this stage). When the onions are translucent, remove them from the pan (it might sound like you are removing a lot of things from the pan but don't worry too much about the washing up, the beef and onions can be plonked in the same bowl at this stage)
• Add the mushrooms to the pan and fry until soft but retaining bite. You might need to add the mushrooms in batches. (Tip for cooking good mushrooms: 'don't crowd the mushrooms"!)
• Drain the porcini (keeping half the liquid) finely chop and add to the now cooked mushrooms. Add a good glug of marsala (this is optional but the alcohol burns off and makes it taste so much better!) and the mushroomy water.
• Return the beef and onions to the pan.
• Bring to the boil and immediately turn down the heat.
• Reduce the liquid by about half and squeeze in 1/2 the lemon juice. Stir!
• Add the creme fraiche and stir until warmed through.
• Sprinkle with thyme (a good teaspoon ought to do it, but don't let me hold you back) and season the whole dish again and add the remaining lemon juice.
• Serve with thick noodley pasta, white fluffy rice, on top of toasted french bread, in a baked potato: the list of accompaniments is quite possibly endless...

Tutti Rooti

Winter gets a bad rep for vegetables and unnecessarily so. This is the time when we can indulge in that hidden delight of the plant: the root!
Hearty, healthy and full of flavour this next recipe makes the most of winter's best produce.

(this recipe can be found in its original form on the BBC Good Food Website... but trust me its better this way)

Turnip and Bacon Pie

Ingredients
1 turnip (peeled and chopped into 2 cm cubes)
1 onion (chopped)
1 carrot (sliced)
12 rashers of bacon ( devoid of fat and chopped into slithers)
3 potatoes (peeled and chopped into chunks)
1 parsnip (peeled and chopped into chunks)
300ml chicken stock
lots of parsley (chopped)
1 tbls butter
1 tbls milk
salt and pepper

Method

• Boil your potatoes and parsnip until soft and then mash with the butter and milk.
• Fry the bacon in a little olive oil (or you can use some of the discarded fat)
  
• Remove the bacon from the pan and sauté the onions in the same oil (adding more if necessary) until soft
• Then add the turnip and carrot and cook for 2 minutes.
• Pour in the chicken stock and cook until the vegetables are soft but not smooshy.
• At this point you might want to add a little cornflour (about 2 tsp mixed in 2 tbls of water) to thicken the gravy
• Season the mix and stir in the parsley.
• Transfer the filling into a medium sized pie dish and cover with the mashed potato/parsnip.
  
• Fluff up the potato topping with a fork (this gives nice crusty bits later on)
• Grill the pie until the topping starts to turn crispy and light brown.
• Serve piping hot from the oven for a great winter supper.
  

I'm "fishing" for the one I love.

We hope that any readers of this blog are aware that vegetables are not available locally all year round, however, less appreciated is that fish and meat products also have a season. Unfortunately our supermarkets don't seem to realise this and they are constantly stocked with our regular fishy favourites: which in Northern Europe tend to be cod, salmon and tuna.


Now farmed fish is available pretty much all year round (which is partly why supermarkets love it so) but wild fish - like any natural product - has spawning periods when the fish are best avoided, not only for taste purposes but also because eating baby fish is just plain mean (and unsustainable).

This week saw the start of the Fish Fight campaign in the UK: fronted by sustainable foodie (and a Seasonal Beets fave) Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. The campaign is focused on the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (the Common Agricultural Policy's less famous, but no less uglier, cousin) and the problem of discards (check out the video for more info).


Whilst Hugh and a host of other celebrity chefs are encouraging us to sign the petition to have the issue of discards discussed within the European Parliament, they also maintain that us average cooks can do our bit by diversifying our fish choices(yes of course Jamie Oliver is in on it too).

One of the easiest ways we can diversify what we eat without thinking too hard is to eat seasonally!

Unfortunately it doesn't even matter if you are equipped with the knowledge of seasonal fish, your supermarket will rarely stock much beyond the big 3 (although asking always shows demand!). So rather than equip you with a list of sustainable and seasonal fish, I suggest you hot foot it to your nearest fishmongers and ask the experts.

However, that said there is one fish of which I am aware of the season. Actually it's a shellfish... MUSSELS!

Mussels should only be eaten in a month with an R in it (which handily works in both Swedish and English!) and so as we are currently in JanuaRy we can feel safe in the knowledge that its perfectly alright to chow down on these little guys.

Super cheap, super tasty, super seasonal. Mussels are win win win in my eyes!

Mussels in Cider (serves 4)


Ingredients
1 onion
Mussels (enough for 4 people for a starter, I confess Ihave no idea how much this is but let me refer you back to that handy fishmonger chap, who will definitely have the knowledge and weigh you the correct amount accordingly)
butter
1 bottle cider
Parsley

Method

• Clean the mussels by removing the "beard"
• Give them a good scrub and run under the cold tap (you don't want to be eating sandy mussels)
• At this stage if any of the mussels are still open, give them a sharp tap on the worktop. If they close then they are still alive and can be used. If they fail to close they should be discarded. Somewhat gruesomely mussels should always be cooked alive.
  
• Chop the onion and sauté it with the butter in a large flat bottomed pan with a liduntil nice and soft.
• Add the mussels and the cider, place a lid on the pot and cook for 5 minutes until the shells are open (at this point you want to get rid of those mussels that haven't opened).
  
• Worrying tales of food poisoning mean it is sometimes tempting to overcook fish. Don't, it tastes ghastly: especially mussels which when overcooked taste like small rubber pellets (and is why I think they are disgusting on pizza)
• Remove the mussels from the pot, keeping the liquid.
• Boil the liquid for 1 minute or 2 more (to remove any alcohol and to reduce it slightly)
• Add a handful of freshly chopped parsley to the broth and then pour back over your big bowlful of mussels
• Serve with crusty bread to dip in the broth or make like a Belgian and serve with chunky potato chips (and by that I mean pomme frites)

beetroot sandwiches with seaweed salad and wasabi

This is super good and very simple. I am actually not sure about the origin of the seaweed, but the beets are seasonal!

Ingredients:
Two round beets (around 250 g)
100 g fresh seaweed salad (you can buy it at the fish store)
around 2 tsp wasabi
2 tbsp roasted sesame seeds

Method:
Cut 24 very thin slices of the beets. For this it is good to use a mandolin iron if you have one of those.
Put the slices together two and two with some seaweed salad in the middle. Put a dab of wasabi on top and sprinkle with the roasted sesame seeds.
Three sandwiches per person for a little starter or a snack


(this recipe was found on the website of Politiken.dk)

Strange deer but true deer...

Some people are a bit anti-venison, I've never understood this. Local, seasonal and blooming tasty, I fail to see what there is to dislike. Perhaps, they just don't know how to prepare it. I tried this recipe the other day for the first time and it was scrumptious.

This next recipe is not really for every day dinner (although it can easily be made for under 50 sek per person). However I think it offers a super dinner party, sittning or special supper meal. Of course the port can be replaced with red wine or perhaps extra stock and a good few dashes Worcester sauce. It comes for the fabulous Abel and Cole
cookbook.


Venison with Kale, Port, Stilton and Olive Sauce

Ingredients

Butter
1/2 mug of shallots (about 6)
1/2 mug of port (or the substitutes)
1 mug beef stock
Venison Fillet (enough for 4 people which really depends on how big or hungry your people are!)
A bunch of kale
1/2 mug crumbled stilton (about 40g)
1/3 mug of chopped black olives
1 tbsp thyme

Method

• Heat the butter in a heavy based sauce pan and saute the shallots for a few minutes
• Add the port and stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by half.
• Meanwhile sear the venison fillets in a very hot pan with a little oil before cooking in the oven for about 5-10 minutes (depending on the thickness of the meat, you are aiming for medium rare)
• Rest for the meat for 10 minutes and carry on with making the sauce and kale.
• Steam the kale for 5 minutes, and then mix with lots of salt, pepper and butter whilst still warm.
• Drain any juice from the venison into the sauce, add the stilton, olives and thyme and stir until mixed.
• To assemble, cut the venison into 1 cm slices and place on top a pile of kale. Then pour the sauce over the top.

This recipe serves 4 and I served it with some tasty oven-roasted root vegetables.

You can't curry love...

... but if you could it would probably come in the form of this cosy winter warmer. An ideal way to banish those sub-zero temperatures. This recipe has been used by my family for years and comes from the wonderful "Good Housekeeping Cookery Book", a tome of biblical significance in the world of home cooking (Alisa refers to it constantly in Plenty).


Curried Parsnip Soup

Ingredients
40 g butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
700 g parsnips (about 5 medium sized veg) finely diced
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock
150 ml of milk (or cream if you are that way inclined)

• Melt the butter in a large sauce pan and gently fry the onions and parsnips for about 5 minutes (watch those parsnips because they do have a tendency to stick to the pot... tricky little devils).
• Stir in the spices and let them "infuse" for about 2 minutes (again watching those parsnips)
• Add the stock, some salt and pepper and bring to the boil.
• Reduce the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes or until the veg is soft (it is at this point you will realise why it is important to finely dice the parsnips)
  
• Allow to cool and then blitz to within an inch of its life (personally I dislike lumpy soup).
• Stir in the milk and enjoy warming your cockles.

This recipe gives enough for 6 people.

Moroccan Spiced Carrot Salad

Are you dreaming of warmer weather, sunshine and long sunny days?

How about a bit of Moroccan spiced salad to cheer you up?

This is an unusual recipe that is quite a favourite of mine because it is easy, tastes great and uses just the right veggies for this time of year...

This recipe uses orange flower water which is very similar to rose water (used in Turkish delights) but tastes like orange! You can find it in Middle Eastern supermarkets and shops (it is sold here in Lund and is not very expensive for a huge bottle). The flavour is pretty strong so go easy when using it with the yoghurt. If you don't like the flavour just skip it!

Here's what you need:

4 large carrots

2 cardamom pods

Black mustard seeds

Ground cumin, ginger and coriander (1/2 teaspoon of each)

Ground ginger (1/2 teaspoon)

Paprika (1 teaspoon)

80mL olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons orange juice

1/4 cup currants (use raisins if you can't find currants)

1/2 cup chopped coriander

2 tablespoons pistachio nuts

1 teaspoon of orange flower water

1 cup of thick plain yoghurt

Method (to the madness):

Grate carrots in bowl

Crush cardamom pods and fry dry spices, stir in oil, juices and currants.

Pour over carrot and leave for 30 minutes

Add coriander and pistachios

Add flower water to the yoghurt and serve separately with salad - just put a dollop on the top of your serving and enjoy the new taste sensation!

Be vewy quiet I'm hunting... Cawwots!

“The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution!” – Paul Cezanne

The ubiquitous carrot is surely one of our most recognisable vegetables. This remarkably orange and sweet root is at home in both sweet and savory dishes, its image has become synonymous with characters like Bugs Bunny and its ability to help us see in the dark are legendary. There is even a national carrot day (3rd February in case you are wondering).

The carrot is avaliable in Sweden from Autumn until Spring and so it be an almost permenant feature of any seasonal kitchen, however, we shouldn't take this "common" veg for granted, its healthy benefits and variety of consumption options are often forgotten! Find out just how wonderful it is in our "interesting facts" below.

Nourishing Nibbles

• Carrots contain the most carotene of any fruit or vegetable, which the body uses to convert into Vitamin A
• Carrots also are a good source of Vitamins B & C
• The greens (ideal in vegetable stock) are a good source of Vitamin K.
• They are thought to lower cholesterol
  

Cream of the Crop.

• Carrots should be firm, smooth and bright orange.
• Don’t buy them if they are green at the topic or cracked.
• Remove the greens before storing in the fridge, as the chemicals in the leaves can turn the root dry and limp.
• Carrots can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 month

Cooking

• 10% of a carrots nutrition is found within the skin, so we recommend keeping it on!
• Unusually cooked carrots are more nutritious than the raw vegetables as the cooking breaks down the tough cellulose walls which the body finds hard to digest.
• Carrots are one of nature’s sweetest vegetables which makes them ideal in cakes!

Fabulous Carrot Facts!

• Carrots originate in Afghanistan where they were white, red, purple and yellow
• The orange carrot was invented in the Netherlands to celebrate the House of Orange
• Carrot greens where a sought after fashion accessory in Tudor times, with stylish women fastening them to their headgear.
• The largest carrot ever grown weighed 8.5kg!
• Bugs Bunny’s nonchalant carrot-eating stance was modelled on the Clark Gable character in “It happened one night”.

And a Parsnip in a Peartree

“A soundbite never buttered any parsnips”
- John Major

We are all painfully aware that parsnips are the slightly uglier, slightly woodier, definitely less popular cousin of the carrot and potato. Relegated to the "roasted root veg mix" parsnips rarely make an appearance on the modern dinner table. What a great opportunity lost we say! These veggies are spicer, softer but just as verstile as their famous relatives.

Find out just how great they are in our "parsnip facts".

Nourishing Nibbles

• Parsnips are high in Vitamin C and folate
• They also contain Niacin (Vitamin B3 - this is essential for the digestive system, skin and nerves)
• Parsnips are thought to be good for the respiratory system (more specifically bronchial function) so if you have asthma – eat up!
• Parsnips are also high in potassium and dietary fibre

Cream of the Crop

• Choose parsnips that are crisp, firm and of an average size – bigger does not mean better when it comes to flavour!
• Store parsnips in a plastic bag in the fridge – they like cool temperatures!
• Parsnips keep well for 4-5 days in the refrigerator.
• After cooking, use within two days. Parsnips freeze well – up to ten months – when blanched

Cooking

• Parsnips are versatile – they are tasty steamed, baked, roasted or boiled and you can eat parsnips raw too!
• Peel parsnips just before cooking or chop them in cubes and store in water with a little lemon juice to prevent them from going brown
• Boil parsnips and then mash them. When combined with a bit of milk, butter salt and pepper – they are delicious!!

Parsnip Trivia

• Don’t go picking wild parsnips! They can be easily mistaken for water hemlock; these are poisonous!
• The Romans thought the parsnip was an aphrodisiac.
• The parsnip is a root vegetable and is related to the carrot and parsley.
• Parsnips were once used in abundance – both as a vegetable and as a sweetener - before the potato surpassed it in popularity.

Kale-icious

Feeling peckish but a little guilty about reaching for the bag of potato crisps?

Leafy green Kale (grönkål pa Svenska) is the delightful and much underrated member of the cabbage family that, surprisingly, makes chips tasty enough to rival even the most MSG-addled bits of potato.



They are ridiculously easy to make and take only ten minutes or so, which means it is quite feasible to whack some in the oven in the commercial break between 'House' episodes.. or while you wait for that movie to download/buffer/stream/purchase off amazon/itunes/etc. They are also perfect to bring to parties, although on first impressions the other guests may think you are either wonderfully quirky or a little bit crazy depending on who you are socialising with.

Here's how you do it step by step:
1. Turn on the oven to around 200 C
2. Remove the kale leaves from their thick stems and tear into bite size pieces.
3. Arrange the pieces on a baking tray and coat with olive oil, salt (I like to use chunky sea salt) and chilli flakes to taste. An alternative is to sprinkle them with a little parmesan cheese.
4. Stick them in the oven for ten minutes or so, when the edges start to brown but not burn!

Tip: I have a tendency to burn kale chips on the first try as there tends to be about thirty second gap between 'perfection' and 'overdone'. Keep an eye on the oven!

When the weather outside is frightful... warm up with a hearty tartiflette.

Northern Europe has been hit by one of the worst Decembers in living memory; we are all knee deep in snow, shivering to the bone and even the prospect of a White Christmas isn't enough to compensate for the recent spate wintery weather. However, all is not lost, for with snow and ice comes the excuses to snuggle up warm inside cosy houses and eat some proper hearty food.

Tartiflette is not for the faint-hearted; cream, cheese and potatoes, its a dieter's nightmare. That said it provides lots of calories and comfort against chilly snowy conditions. Presumably this is why it is so popular in its native Savoie region of France where skiers guzzle it up by the bowlfull. Luckily for us its main ingredients are the highly seasonal potatoes and onion and so there really are no valid reasons not to invite over some friends for a cosy night in to share some tartiflette! (This is another recipe out the "epicurean experimenters notebook", I can't really remember where it comes from but it might be the

excellent Tamasin Day Lewis)

Tartiflette

Ingredients:
700g of potatoes (peeled, boiled until "al dente")
150g of pancetta lardons
1 onion (sliced in thin strips)
60g butter
150 ml dry white wine
350g Reblouchon Cheese (this is a strong creamy cheese from Savoie, you can replace it with Port Salut or, at a push, Camembert but it wont be quite as tasty)

• Preheat the oven to 200°C and grease a casserole dish with a little butter
• Boil the potatoes, drain but keep the liquid.
• Blanch the lardons for 1 minute in the boiling liquid
• Cut the potatoes into thin strips (you'll have to wait for them to cool unless you have asbestos hands!)
  
• Melt about 1/2 of the butter in a large frying pan and cook the lardons and onions for about 10 minutes (or until the onions go soft but not mushy).
• Add the potatoes and wine and cook for a further 5 minutes (until the alcohol burns off)
• Place 1/3 of the mixture in the casserole dish, add some salt and pepper and then 1/3 of the cheese (cut into strips, it is impossible to grate). Repeat 3 times ending with a layer of cheese.
• Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.

Best enjoyed with a super crusty loaf, a towering mound of green beans (ideally fairtrade and cooked from frozen; sometimes its hard to be seasonal) surrounded by friends and a ready supply of good wine.

We-eh-ell, you know you make me wanna sprout!

"A sprout is for life, not just for christmas." The Sprout Growers Association

Brussel Sprouts get a bad name; these wee green vegetables have, for generations of children, become synonymous with overcooked, unflavoured school dinners, not to mention their unfortunate anti-social consequences. However, despite this terrible reputation sprouts are incredibly nutricious, can be very delicious and - most importantly - are very much currently in season. Consequently this post aims to challenge your sprout prejudices and encourage you to embrace these little lumps of nutritional wonder.

Nourishing nibbles

• Brussels are an excellent source of Vitamins K and C (just 100g gives you your recommended daily dose and they contain 3 times as much Vit C gram/gram when compared to oranges)
• Sprouts are particularly high in glucosinolates which many believe offer protection from cancer
• They are high in a unusually wide variety of anti-oxidants which is particularly helpful in lowering risk for cardiovascular diseases
• Sprouts have excellent cholesterol lowering qualities, especially when steamed (the fibre in the sprout must be cooked slightly to work at its optimal level)
• Like all leafy green vegetables, sprouts are also a good source of folic acid

Cream of the crop

• Sprouts should be firm and bright green and if you can buy them attached to the stalk they will stay fresh for longer
• Avoid sprouts with loose or yellowing leaves.
• Store untrimmed sprouts in the fridge for up to a fortnight.
• Sprouts can also be frozen but its a sensible idea to blanche them in some boiling water first for 3 minutes.

Cooking

• The bitter taste associated with cafeteria sprouts comes from the sulphurous flavour that emerges when the vegetable is cooked for too long. A tasty sprout should therefore be "al dente"
• When choosing sprouts in the supermarket try to ensure heads of a similar size to allow equal cooking time. Marking an x in the bottom of a sprout (at the root) will also help even cooking.
• To retain the best flavour and nutrition it is best to steam sprouts (and they cook in less than 5 minutes!)

5 things you didn't know about Brussel sprouts

1. Brussel sprouts get their name (unsurprisingly) from the fact that they were first grown in Belgium
2. The Netherlands produces over 82,000 tonnes of sprouts a year!
3. Scientists have suggested that a dislike for Brussel Sprouts may be down to a genetics.
4. They were voted the UK's most hated vegetable in 2002 (clearly they hadn't tried them stir fried with ginger and onions -mmmm)
5. Roman's used sprouts as a modern day alka seltzer and some claim sprout smoothies are ultimate hangover cure (we'll take their word for it)