Christmas Challenge 2014.

[judydawn]

Plenty of gift basket items and nibble recipes on here so I decided to change tack and do a couple of vegie dishes which could be prepared in advance of your Christmas lunch to save some time on the day.  

Crispy Hedgehog Spuds with Sage from a 2011 edition of BBC Good Foods.

I only did 3 x 140g potatoes for this experiment, left them unpeeled, cut through halfway with 3 slashes longways and crossways. Microwave them for 6 minutes (1200W M/W).  Open one of the longways slits carefully with a knife and place 2 small or 1 large leaf of sage into the gap, sprinkle with sea salt. Place 1 tbspn sunflower oil (you can use duck fat too) into a small pan which fits into the air fryer, brush all sides of the potatoes with the oil and cook in a preheated a/f for 20 minutes, brushing again halfway through with the oil.

This recipe can be made a day in advance up to the baking stage and for larger quantities you would bake in the oven 200^oC fan forced for 30 minutes or until they are golden and crispy.

You can see from the photo what happens if you cut the potato too deeply, it fans out but that's fine if you prefer that look over the other two.

Marmalade Carrots from the same magazine as the potato recipe.

Peel and slice 500 g carrots and cut into 1 cm slices.  Place into TM bowl with 25g marmalade, 15 g butter, 12 g castor sugar, 150 g water.  Cook 15 mins/100^o/reverse/speed 1/MC in.
Remove MC and cook a further 9 mins/varoma/speed 1 or until cooked to your liking.  Place into a serving dish along with the small amount of liquid that will be left. When ready to serve or reheat, sprinkle with chopped parsley.  Reheats well.

[cookie1]

They both look lovely Judy. You have been so very busy.

[judydawn]

Thanks cookie, incorporated both dishes into my lunch so not a wasted exercise.

[achookwoman]

Looks pretty good to me.  Can do garlic bread the same as potatoes poking cheese and garlic butter done the cracks. Wrap in foil and bake.
Love carrots done this way.   Thanks for photos and links.

[fundj&e]

made my 1st fruit cake, thanks Kimmy for an easy recipe 

[judydawn]

Well done Uni, it looks so lovely and moist.

[Cuilidh]

Potatoes, carrots and cake all look very appetising ... and here I am on a fast day  - this is a new form of torture!

[achookwoman]

great cake Uni.  You Pour brandy over it

[fundj&e]

really Mrs B at what stage?. i used port

[Cornish Cream]

Perfect fruit cake Uni.It looks lovely and moist.

[judydawn]

Away from food completely, this is from the website Sistermixin's free eBook, thanks Katie for the heads up.

Vanilla Bath Milk

[Kimmyh]

Glad it worked out for you uni. It's a great little recipe. Sadly I can't see the photos. Have tried Tapatalk and Safari but can't see it.

[Katiej]

It sounds like a lovely cake.
Sadly I can't see any photos lately either 😪

[judydawn]

Just made another batch of Peppermint rounds using different biscuits and chopping the peppermints for less time.  A great improvement to the recipe, will alter the recipe.

[EmeraldSue]

I've spent the weekend cooking for my hampers, the last two days wrapping and labelling everything and today giving them away!
I made:
Rosemary salt
Saffron salt
Strawberry liqueur
Strawberry liqueur jam
Citrus scented shortbread
Lavender and almond shortbread
Gingerbread
Peppermint rounds
Salted cRamel fudge
Cranberry & Pistachio Christmas
Chookie's coffee walnuts
Now I'm pooped!