Ingredients
Starter: Baked pear with cranberry, Cashel blue cheese, cranberry sauce and walnuts
Serves: 4
- 2 large ripe pears
- 4 dessert spoons cranberry sauce
- 150g Cashel blue
- 2 tablespoons of chopped walnuts
- 2 dessert spoons of maple syrup
- 100g Salad leaves
- French dressing
Main: Roast monkfish with mulled wine dressing
- 12 thin slices pancetta
- 4 x 200g monkfish tail steaks trimmed of skin, sinew and cartilage
For the vegetables:
- Olive oil for frying
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 2-3cm chunks
- 1 small celeriac, peeled and cut into 2-3cm chunks
- 2 large parsnips, peeled and cut into 2-3cm chunks
- 2 red onions, peeled and quartered
- 250g brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved lengthways
- 8 garlic cloves, left whole and skin on
For the dressing:
- 300ml red wine
- 50ml red-wine vinegar
- 50g caster sugar
- 1 star anise
- ½ cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- Zest of one small orange half for the dressing, the rest to serve
- 100ml extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt and black pepper
- 2 tsp chopped sage, to finish
Dessert: Black forest trifle
Serves: 6
For the sponge
- 100g caster sugar
- 100g butter at room temperature
- 2 eggs beaten
- 90g flour
- 10g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 1 tbsp milk
- 500ml tub readymade custard
- 100g chocolate drops
- 2 x 400g tins of cherries
- 3 tablespoons of Kirch (optional)
- 300ml cream
- 200ml crème fraiche
- 25g icing sugar
- Grated chocolate to decorate (or a crumbled flake)
Method
Starter: Baked pear with cranberry, Cashel blue cheese, cranberry sauce and walnuts
- Pre heat the oven to 180C
- Cut the pears in half lengthways.
- Using a dessert spoon scoop out the pips, then arrange the pear halves on a small baking tray, I use a some scrunched up foil to make them level then fill the cavity with cranberry sauce.
- Slice the Cashel blue in 2 mm slices and layer the surface of the pear, sprinkle with walnuts, drizzle with maple syrup and bake in a pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes.
- Serve with tossed green salad on the side.
Main: Roast monkfish with mulled wine dressing
- Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/Gas 7.
- Wrap three slices of pancetta tightly around each monkfish steak, arrange seam side down on a plate or tray to chill.
- For the dressing, put the wine, vinegar, sugar, spices, bay leaf and half the orange zest into a medium pan and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer, cook for 10-15 minutes, until the liquid reaches by half, then take off the heat.
- Put a good glug of oil in a large, ovenproof frying pan on a medium heat and, once it's hot, add all the vegetables bar the garlic and cook, stirring for three minutes, until they begin to soften, Add the garlic, cook for a minute, then transfer to the oven and cook for five minutes until the veg start to caramelise.
- Remove from the oven, arrange the fish parcels on top of the veg, then return to the oven for 12-14 minutes, until the fish is cooked through and the pancetta crisp.
- Take out of the oven, lift the fish onto a warmer to rest for 10 minutes, then return the vegetables to the oven. Meanwhile, pour the dressing through a fine sieve to remove the spices and bay leaf.
- To serve, put all the dressing and the extra-virgin olive oil in a small saucepan, heat gently, then season. Warm four large, shallow bowls. Season the vegetables, then share them and the dressing between the bowls. Put a portion of monkfish on top, sprinkle over the sage and reserved orange zest, and serve with roast potatoes or buttered new potatoes.
Dessert: Black forest trifle
For the sponge
- Heat the oven to 170c, line the base and the sides of a seven inch tin.
- In a large bowl, beat together all the ingredients until you have a smooth soft batter, pour into the prepared tin and bake in a preheated oven until the cake springs pack when pressed. Allow it to cool.
- Put the custard in a saucepan with the chocolate and stir gently over a medium beat until the chocolate has melted. Drain the cherry's, reserve the juice.
- Add the Kirch to 200ml reserved liquid.
- Split the sponge in two and use one half to line the base of the trifle bowl. 8. Scatter half the cherries over the base, followed by 100ml of the reserved liquid. Drizzle with half the chocolate custard, then place the second layer of sponge on top and repeat.
- Whip the cream with the crème fraiche and icing sugar until soft peaks, then pile on top of the trifle, decorate with chocolate flake and add sparklers of a sense of occasion.
