The Vicar’s Wife’s Cook Book

The duck is fruity; this is creamy. Perfect partners.

500g floury maincrop potatoes, such as King Edwards or Maris Piper

400g celeriac

50g butter

4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

salt and pepper

287ml double cream

just over 300ml full-fat milk (you need enough to make the cream up to 600ml)

Peel the potatoes and the celeriac and put them in cold water until you are ready to slice them. Ideally, you should use a mandolin for this (a gadget you will always find being wielded with great showmanship and aplomb in department stores and at food shows), but if you use one, do take care with it. The Vicar is ‘Mandolin Man’ in my house, but once he cockily didn’t bother to use the safety guard. As well as carrots, the top of his finger ended up in the soup. And, yes, I did serve it. Anyway, slice the vegetables up into thin discs and keep them separate, putting them back into some fresh cold water to stop them turning brown.

Lightly butter a shallow ovenproof dish that measures approximately 26cm × 22cm and layer the potato and celeriac in alternate layers, sprinkling some garlic and salt and pepper over each layer. Finally, pour the cream into a measuring jug and make it up to 600ml with the milk. Pour the milk and cream over the vegetables, dot with the remaining butter, and bake for 2½ hours at 150°C/Gas Mark 2.

Celeriac and Potato Mash (#ulink_aa32db87-4ede-5873-bbf6-349cc3a098e7)

I chose to make a celeriac and potato gratin, as I have two ovens, but if you only have one, a celeriac and potato mash would do just as well.

1kg floury maincrop potatoes, such as King Edwards or Maris Piper

500g celeriac

70g butter

3 tablespoons double cream

6 tablespoons full-fat milk

salt and pepper

Peel the potatoes and the celeriac and cut them evenly into medium-sized chunks. Pop them into separate pans of boiling salted water and cook until soft. The celeriac should take around 15 minutes, the potatoes, 20–25 minutes. Meanwhile, heat up the butter, cream and milk in another pan.

When the vegetables are ready, drain them in a colander, add to the hot dairy-fest in the other pan and mash together, adding salt and pepper to taste. The mash can be whisked with an electric whisk to make it light and fluffy, if you wish.

Turnips and Leeks with Honey, Coriander and Soy (#ulink_7dd58753-4525-5368-a6f9-0d3e514f2cf7)

2 tablespoons olive oil

30g butter

12 large turnips, cut into 2cm cubes

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed

3 leeks, cleaned and chopped into 2cm lengths

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

1 tablespoon runny honey

salt and pepper

Heat the oil and butter in a large pan and toss in the turnips, stirring so that they are evenly coated in the hot fat. Cook the turnips for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the garlic and coriander seeds. When the turnips are virtually soft, add the leeks and put a lid on the pan.

Cook for around 8 minutes more – you want the leeks to be soft, not crispy. Finally, add the soy sauce and honey and stir to coat the vegetables. Season, but don’t go wild with the salt as the soy sauce is quite salty anyway.

Winter Fruit Pie (#ulink_8711efb7-4069-56fe-b988-268f1300e6bf)

Easy peasy, this. Always a lover of the shortcut, I used bought puff pastry and it tasted just fine, indeed, far better than any I could have attempted, I’m sure. Feel free to be flexible with the fruit; just use whatever is around.

5 apples, peeled, quartered and cored

2 large pears, peeled, quartered and cored

5 plums, halved and the stones removed

4 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

60g butter

150g golden syrup

375g bought puff pastry, chilled (mine was ready-rolled)

1 egg, beaten

custard or cream (single or double), to serve

Take the apples and slice each quarter into 3 and cut the pears into similar-sized chunks. Put the apples and pears in a pan with 2 tablespoons of water and cook for 10 minutes or until soft. Meanwhile, cut each of the plum halves into 4 and put them in a shallow, 2-litre baking dish with a rim. Add the apples and pears when they are done, including any remaining water.

Put both types of sugar, the butter and golden syrup in a pan and heat it until bubbling. Pour this foaming lava over the fruit and then brush the rim of the dish with water/beaten egg. If you haven’t bought ready-rolled pastry, roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Lay the pastry over the top of the dish, press it onto the rim well and trim away any excess pastry, if necessary. Pinch round the edges of the pie to give it an attractive finish, prick the pastry with a fork and brush with more of the egg. The pie will take around 45 minutes to cook in an oven set at 200°C/Gas Mark 6. Serve with custard or cream.

An alternative Christmas lunch

The Vicar says there is only one reason why we eat turkey only once a year. I don’t think I need to elaborate … On the Christmases that we have stayed at home, we have steered clear of turkey and opted for an alternative. One year, four days after my son’s arrival into the world, it was sea bass and crab-mashed potato. Two years later, with my daughter, Greta’s, splendidly timed delivery on Christmas Eve, it was duck. If we have another Christmas at home, I think I’d plump for partridge, and I’d serve it with a pear and onion confit to conjure up the 12 days of Christmas and partridges in pear trees. After I’d come up with this oh-so-original and witty idea, I spotted Nigel Slater had hit on the very same combination in that weekend’s Observer. The man’s a genius.

PARTRIDGE WITH PEAR AND ONION CONFIT (#ulink_df23391d-dfbb-526a-8249-8e93e9a4efb0)

PANCETTA COLCANNON (#litres_trial_promo)