JANUARY: Seasonal foods and menu choice (From Worcester News)

JANUARY: Seasonal foods and menu choice

2:45pm Wednesday 6th January 2010 in

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Game is coming to an end, Turkey will be cheaper than it was in December and many vegetables will be at their best. Christmas fruits are plentiful and cheaper, scallops are at their most succulent and its last calls for goose this month.

Foods for the month:

Meat: Chicken, Turkey, hare, mallard, venison, duck, pork.

Fish: Coley, Mullet, lemon sole, mackerel, scallops, carp, brill.

Vegetables: Brussel sprouts, parsnips, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower.

Fruit: Almonds, dates, lychees, mangoes, melons, nectarines, oranges, pomegranates, rhubarb (forced), plums, passion fruit.

Menu (Serves 4/6)

Starter: Brussel Sprout Soup with Crispy Bacon Bits

Main: Tenderloin of Pork, Sautéed Potatoes, Broccoli Spears, Diced Carrots

Dessert: Treacle Tart with Vanilla Custard

Starter: Brussel Sprouts Soup with Crispy Bacon Bits

Ingredients:

2 pints Vegetable or Chicken stock
2lb Brussel sprouts
1/2lb potatoes
1 onion
2oz unsalted butter
½ pint milk
½ level teaspoon of ground nutmeg
black pepper
¼ pint single cream
8oz bacon bits to garnish

Method:

Peel Brussel sprouts and thinly slice potatoes and onion. Melt butter in large saucepan and let the onion and potatoes cook slowly for 10 minutes or until the have absorbed the butter but not coloured.
Toss the sprouts around with the potatoes and onion, pour in the stock and ½ pint of milk. Bring mixture to the boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add ground pepper and salt to taste. Allow soup to cool slightly before liquidising. Stir in nutmeg and cream to soup, reheat carefully without boiling.
Fry bacon bits on in a non stick frying pan until they go nice and crispy without burning and removing any excess fat.
Serve soup in individual dishes, sprinkle crispy bacon bits on top and serve.

Main:

Ingredients:

2lb Pork tenderloin
2oz unsalted butter
1 clove garlic

Stuffing:

4oz fine white breadcrumbs
2oz mixed dried fruit
1oz fresh pomegranate
1 tspn freshly chopped parsley
1 tblspn finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic
½ tspn chopped tarragon
2oz melted butter
1 orange
1 egg
salt and pepper

For the glaze: Apple, Orange and Pomegranate

1 tblsp unsalted butter
1 apple, peeled and sliced
4 tblspns brown sugar, divided
8 fluid oz Pomegranate juice
4 fluid oz orange juice
4 tblspns honey

Method

Prepare the stuffing first.
Mix breadcrumbs, fruit, parsley, onion, crushed garlic and tarragon in a bowl. Stir in melted butter.
Add grated rind of orange, remove pith and membrane from the flesh of orange, cut fruit and add to mixture.
Beat egg lightly and use to bind the stuffing mixture, season with salt and pepper accordingly.

Next make the glaze. In a small sauce pan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Add half of the brown sugar and the apple slices. Toss the apple slices to coat and sautée for about 2 minutes.
Add the pomegranate juice, orange juice, remaining brown sugar and honey. Stir to mix and dissolve ingredients. Bring to a boil.
Let boil for 10 minutes. Remove apples and set them aside. Continue simmering for another 10 minutes or until sauce has thickened and coats the back of a spoon.
Reduce heat to a low simmer, then remove and put to one side until meat cooked, then reheat and place in sauce boat.

Slit tenderloin lengthwise, about 2 inches deep.
Spoon fruit stuffing into pork, roll up tightly and tie with string.
Melt butter in a flameproof dish on cooker. Peel and slice garlic clove and fry until brown and remove.
Fry the pork for a few minutes in the butter until evenly browned. Cover pan with lid and roast for 1 hour, 20 minutes (40 minutes to the pound) on centre shelf of oven. 325f, 160c, (mark 3).
Remove the lid for the last 10 minutes for the meat to go brown. Spoon over a little of the sauce.
Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with sauté potatoes, broccoli spears and diced carrots.

Dessert: Treacle Tart and Vanilla Custard

Ingredients:

7oz plain flour
½ level tspn salt
1 egg yolk
5oz unsalted butter
5 rounded tblspns of golden syrup
3 heaped tblspns fresh white breadcrumbs
1 level tspn finely grated lemon rind
1 tblspn lemon juice

For Vanilla Custard:

2 tsp cornflour
500 ml milk
1 oz caster sugar
2 eggs
1 fresh vanilla pod

Method:

Sift flour and salt into mixing bowl. Cut butter into small cubes and rub into flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Mix in the egg yolk with a fork, adding sufficient cold water to make dough. Knead pastry on a lightly floured surface before rolling out to 1/8 in thick.
Line an 8in shallow pie dish or fluted flan case with the pastry, prick base lightly with a fork. Mix the other ingredients together and spread over the pastry.
Roll out the pastry trimmings, cut them into ½ in wide strips and lay them in a lattice pattern over the tart, trimming the edges. Bake on middle shelf of oven, 400f, 200c, gas mark 6 for 25 –30 minutes. Serve with custard.

For custard:

In a bowl, mix the cornflour to a smooth paste with a little of the cold milk.
Heat the rest of the milk in a saucepan and when hot pour it on to the blended cornflour, stirring.
Return the mixture to the saucepan, bring to the boil and boil for 1 - 2 minutes, stirring all the time, to cook the cornflour.
Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar. Leave to cool.
Beat the eggs together lightly in a small bowl. Add a little of the cooked cornflour mixture, stir well, and then pour into the saucepan.
Split and remove vanilla seeds from pod and add to custard mixture.
Heat gently for a few minutes until the custard has thickened, stirring all the time. Do not boil.
Serve hot or cold with treacle tart.