Breathe new life into discards from your festive food indulgence

 

Choc-Almond Friandises

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You bought marzipan for Christmas and didn’t use all of it, or forgot to use it? Here’s what to do with it. You’ll also need whole raw almonds and 70% chocolate, melted.

Ingredients

1 100g bar of 70% cocoa solids chocolate
A handful of raw almonds
Marzipan
A sheet of greaseproof paper

Quantities depend on how much marzipan you have left and how far a 100g bar of chocolate goes. It’s not really a thing that needs to be measured. Have a sheet of greaseproof paper to hand. Melt chocolate in a bowl over very lightly simmering water until it’s all melted. Keep it warm so that it doesn’t solidify. Lightly toast the almonds and keep aside. Break off a piece of marzipan big enough to wrap an almond in. Roll it into a ball, then press it with your thumb to make it a little concave. Pop an almond in the middle and wrap the marzipan around it. (If it doesn’t wrap around, you’re not using enough, so start again using a bigger piece of marzipan.) Roll the marzipan-wrapped almond into a ball in the palm of your hand. Use a teaspoon to dip it into the chocolate to coat well. Carefully roll it off the teaspoon on to the greaseproof paper. Repeat until you run out of either marzipan or almonds. The chocolate should last.

Serve after dinner, dusted with icing sugar.

Turkey Terrine with a Spiced Cranberry Relish



For our first festive newsletter last week I deboned a turkey crown to stuff and roast it. The rest of the bird was dissected into wing, thigh and leg joints and put into a large pot, carcass and all. To this I added carrots, leeks, celery, a head of garlic, a few peppercorns, a scattering of juniper berries, and star anise, filled the pot with cold water, brought it to a boil to let it simmer for 3 or 4 hours. The resultant meat was super fine and full of flavour. I picked off all the meat and set it aside, discarded all the bones and skin, and strained the cooking liquid into a second pot to reduce it by about two-thirds. This is the point at which we can start turning the picked-off turkey meat into a terrine to eat at New Year. The meat can be frozen in the meantime and thawed to make the terrine a day or two ahead of it being needed.

Ingredients

Meat of the legs, thighs and wings of 1 turkey, prepared as above
500ml turkey stock (use the cooking broth)
A handful of whole raw almonds
A handful of sultanas
20g powdered gelatine or 4 gelatine leaves

Toast the almonds lightly in a dry pan. Grease a terrine dish or suitable loaf tin. Dice the turkey meat and put it into a bowl. Add the sultanas and almonds. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir. Pack it loosely into the terrine, not tightly, so that the stock can flow through. Dissolve gelatine according to packet instructions and stir into the cooking stock. Pour into the terrine to fill. Refrigerate for 4 hours or more to set. Serve it with a cranberry relish:

Spiced Cranberry Relish

100g dried cranberries
100ml cold water
100ml sugar
2 Tbs vinegar

1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
1 star anise
1 bay leaf

Combine water and sugar in a pot and cook, stirring, until dissolved. Add all other ingredients. Bring to a simmer and cook on a gentle heat until the liquid has reduced to a sticky syrup and the cranberries are soft. Cool and serve with the turkey terrine. DM