Marks and Spencer Pork, Sage and Onion garnish selection - gluten free

I noticed this box of stuffing balls, bacon rolls and cocktail sausages in the freezer section in M and S.  Missing out on the stuffing and just being given plain turkey and vegetables (often without gravy) is a standard complaint at this time of year - too many work Christmas lunches just leave us feeling annoyed and left out.  One person wrote that their piece of turkey had the hole in the middle where the stuffing had been removed, despite the catering team having been given ample notice.  This would mean that the turkey wasn't safe to eat.

I cooked these according to the instructions but think that left them overcooked.  When 35 of the specified 45 minutes are finished check to see if they are done.  I would also recommend placing baking paper on the baking pan as I found they stuck to the tin.

The stuffing balls were tasty, good consistency, and not cloying or overpoweringly flavoured.  They are made with rice flour, chickpea flour and cornflour. The sausages had a good balance of flavours and were neither bouncy or bready. The bacon was crisp and well flavoured.

This little pack of 'garnishes' makes giving people a full plate of goodies to go with their turkey very easy.  Highly recommended.

Sage and onion stuffing - best ever and gluten free

I made a whole loaf of my Lazy Bread and diced it, bagged it and froze it for my sister to make stuffing for her family meal on Christmas Day.  Having done that I thought I might as well see what it was like as a stuffing ingredient as well.  We are having our family gathering on New Year's day, but the mother-in-law came to lunch today (Boxing Day) so I did the turkey and full works.


I have Lazy Bread in the freezer, sliced and with freezer paper between each slice so I can get it out easily.  I read several recipes and then produced this stuffing, which Tolerant Taster says is the best he has ever had.  This recipe served three with left overs.  Simply scale up as needed.


Ingredients:


four slices of bread, diced
one red onion, chopped finely
half a Bramley apple, chopped finely
sage leaves 
rosemary, chopped finely
water
1 tbsp oil

bread, onion, apple and herbs

My sage bush is leaves without much flavour so I took a handful, but I know that some sage leaves are very strong.  The technique I used allows you to adjust the strength of this flavouring easily.  Put your sage leaves into a cup of water, bring to the boil (I used the microwave) and then leave to steep while you get on with the rest of the preparation.

sauteed onion

Saute the onion until it is soft.  Add the apple and cook briefly.  If you want the apple pieces to be noticeable cut larger and don't precook.


Add the bread to the onion and apple mixture and stir until well mixed.  Now stir in the chopped rosemary if using.  Add the hot sage water, testing the flavour until you have the amount of sage you want.  Use plain water if needed to bring the whole mixture to a moist consistency.


Place in an oiled baking dish and bake in a hot oven for half an hour.  I put it in the oven at the same time as the roast potatoes and parsnips, and they were all golden brown at the same time.

golden stuffing

The stuffing was moist and delicious with a crisp crunchy top.  




Tolerant Taster's view "Warm, roasted, slow-cooked stew sort of flavour.  The bread has done two things, quite a bit softened to a rich paste holding the whole thing together, but also crunchy bits where the bread has toasted and caramelised on top.  A bit like gravy, caramelised onions and bread sauce with all the best bits merged together".

Gluten-free cheese, potato and onion pasties

cheese, onion and potato pasties - gluten free

Ate the last one of these a week after baking.  It was still good and held together well.  

I had kept it in the fridge.

Savory picnic type food can be hard to find if you can't eat gluten.  I made these pasties to test the new standard flour mix...how strange to ladle a single type of flour out of a jar rather than grinding, assembling, mixing a bespoke flour for each project.

Pastry
250g butter
500g flour (40%urid, 40%tapioca, 20% polenta)
2 eggs
c100-150ml cold water to mix

Filling
1 onion, cooked until soft and golden in olive oil
1 large potato, peeled, diced and boiled until nearly soft
100-150g cheese - I used mature cheddar, and added more until I thought the flavour balance was right
pepper

Cook the onion and potato ahead of time so that they have a chance to cool before you need them.

grated cheese, sauteed onion and diced cooked potato

Make the pastry by cutting the butter into cubes and blitzing in the food processor until the butter is finely dispersed.  Add the lightly beaten egg and blitz until evenly dispersed.

You can do the next bit in the machine but I like to mix the water in by hand so I can feel how wet the dough is getting.  Tip the mix into a large bowl, add cold water a little at a time.  I use a whisking action with my finger tips, and keep adding until the dough will just hold a lump when squeezed lightly.

Form into two balls, wrap in clingfilm, and put in the fridge to rest while you assemble the filling the filling.

Roll the pastry out to a medium thickness.  Don't aim for a very thin pastry as it needs to be able to hold the filling in place when cooking.  I made my dough too thin for this and some of the cheese escaped. Aim more for the thickness of a £1 coin rather than a ten penny piece.

Cut out a circle.  I used 25cm 8 1/2 inch side plate, which produced a good meal sized pasty.

Egg wash around the edge of the pastry and place a large handful of the filling in the middle.  The potato, cheese and onion mix holds its shape well so that you can put a big lump in the middle and it stays in place while you shape the pastry around it.

It is easier to make a flat pasty, where you bring one half of the pastry over the top of the filling and press it down onto the other half.   As I was testing the performance characteristics of this pastry I did the version where you bring both sides up and seal them down the middle.  It was a little difficult to do this neatly as the pastry did tear a bit, but a little patching fixed that.  Egg wash for a shiny golden finish.

Cook for 20 minutes in a hot oven, 180C, until golden brown.

These are good hot or cold.  They survived carrying around in a box without any sign of falling apart.

a slice through a mini test-pasty - had to be sure it tasted good!