For me, and most people I know, this time of year is mostly about food, food and food.  With that in mind I’ve been in touch with Claire, my friend and domestic goddess from Ambergate, to ask what she recommends and here they are…two fab recipes to breakaway from the usual type of food on the menu at this time of year!  For breakfast there are pancakes and risotto for dinner…enjoy!

Breakfast Pancakes

For a small batch of around 8 pancakes just mix:

125g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder (if you have not got baking powder you can use self raising flour instead and miss it out)
1 large egg
150mls of milk
1 tablespoon of melted butter.

Lightly mix or whisk together and use immediately.  Spoon tablespoons of the gloopy mixture into a medium hot, lightly oiled non stick pan and flip them over when the edges start to bubble.

Serve with maple or golden syrup and cream or fruit.  Double amounts is our usual order of the day and makes around 14 pancakes. For Christmas Day Brunch we tripled the amounts (3 eggs) and served them with sausages, bacon and maple syrup.

Risotto time

Here’s a great recipe for winter warming risotto.

Chop 1 onion, 2 carrots, 1-2 sticks of celery, 2 garlic cloves, 1 pack of thinly sliced pancetta. In a sauce pan heat a litre of good hot chicken stock…or turkey stock!

In a large, preferably non stick pan, fry off the pancetta until all the fat has run out. Then stir in the carrot, celery, onion and garlic. and cook down until most of the moisture is gone and the quantity has halved, adding a bit of olive oil if things start to brown too quickly. Stir in half a pack, 250g, of Carnaroli Risotto Rice and stir until it crackles.

Flamboyantly throw in a glass of Vermouth or white wine and stir well. Then start adding ladles full of hot stock, one at a time, as you keep stirring and stirring. Only add a new ladle full when the last one has been absorbed. When you have added most or all of the stock and the rice is just about done, take it off the heat. Add a handful of parmesan and an ounce of butter. Stir and leave it with the lid on for 10 minutes. This is when I add any interesting extras like skinned and deseeded tomatoes or fresh peas.

The great thing with risotto is that the additions can change with the seasons or whatever you fancy at the time…fish, mushrooms, pine nuts, prawns, asparagus etc.

Here’s one I made earlier:

A big thank you to Claire for kindly letting me include her recipes in the fabulousplaces.co.uk blog…I hope you decide to have a go!  Click here to visit Claire’s blog, ‘Things We Make’, where you can find lots of other fab recipes.

Also, if you’re looking for somewhere to go during the holidays click here to go to the fabulousplaces.co.uk search page for some fabulous inspiration for some trips out and about in Derbyshire.  Happy Holidays!

Deb