The last few weeks have been A Lot. Alongside all the news around the pandemic there's been so much else going on with friends and family. A real mixture of good and bad news which means that I barely know whether I should be celebrating or worrying.
On the plus side I should be out of isolation in time for Christmas with the parents - as long as no more curveballs come along....
I usually spend Christmas with my parents and while I'm mainly pescatarian I'm also keen not to inconvenience others, so have a traditional meat based Christmas dinner with them. This year it's occurred to me that a) it's always useful to have a back up Christmas plan in case things change (as if that ever happens!), and b) I could experiment with a vegetarian Christmas dinner on a different day this month. Hence my first experiment with that cliched vegetarian Christmas dinner - the nut roast.
The recipe was one from a free magazine given away in a health food shop. Unfortunately the recipe didn't actually state how many people it was for. Given it was my first attempt I decided to make the full quantity (knowing that would result in plentiful leftovers) and then try to tweak the quantities for any future attempt.
Begin by frying onion and garlic. Next process chestnuts and chickpeas - I also added the walnuts to the processor as I only had halves rather than chopped. Mix the chestnuts, chickpeas, walnuts, onion and garlic in a bowl with cranberry sauce, breadcrumbs, oregano, and mixed spice. Add hot stock to the mixture and mix well. Press into a loaf tin and cook for 20-25 minutes.
The result was a little wet and didn't come out of the tin in nice slices so it looked more like stuffing piled on the plate. The silicon loaf tin may have been an issue here as it doesn't provide nice solid surfaces for cutting against. In future I may also consider either reducing the amount of stock or cooking for a little longer.
I served it with roast baby potatoes, parsnips, and brussel sprouts with extra cranberry sauce.
As expected I have plentiful leftovers which seems very much in the Christmas tradition. It might also come in handy given I'm now isolating for the next week. Life is definitely a roller coaster!
I think you're being very restrained in calling recent days A Lot, especially as there has been family stuff too! Glad you've managed an alternative option, and do let us know what can help the isolation to pass.
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