Sarah Venning’s recipes

175g shallots, peeled and finely chopped
75g butter
75g smoken streaky bacon, chopped
2 eggs
1×435g tin unsweetened chestnut purée
1×200g or vacuum pack whole chestnuts, roughly chopped
200g breadcrumbs

Cook shallots with bacon until soft (10 minutes). Beat eggs and add to chestnut purée. Add chopped chestnuts, breadcrumbs, parsley, shallots and bacon. Add salt, pepper and a grating of fresh nutmeg.

4tbsp heaped white breadcrumbs
1 large onion grated or v finely chopped
1 heaped dsp dried sage
900g pork sausagemeat
1 egg beaten
salt and pepper

Combine breadcrumbs, onion and sage in a large bowl and add a little boiling water. Mix thoroughly. Add sausagemeat to mixture and season. Add egg.

2 egg yolks
1 level tsp Dijon mustard
300ml light oil (eg sunflower)
1 tbsp lemon juice
0.5 tbsp Pernod
salt and pepper

Beat egg yolks with mustard. Add oil one drop at a time. After adding a third of the oil, beat in half the lemon juice. Carry on adding oil, beating mayonnaise continuously. When all the oil is added, beat in the Pernod, salt and pepper to taste.

If having langoustines, roast them at 240°C, having greased them first, for five minutes.

Chips: Record, Golden Wonder, King Edward, Maris Piper, Wilja

Sauté: Charlotte, Belle de Fontenay; Nicola; Wilja, Desirée

Boil: Irish Queens, Kerr’s Pink, Golden Wonder, Marfona, Maris Piper

Salad: La Ratte du Touquet, Belle de Fontenay, Charlotte, Pink Fir Apple, Anya

Bake: Golden Wonder, Record, Wilja, Desirée, Maris Piper

Roast: King Edward, Desirée, Wilja, Nadine, Santé

New (in season): Duke of York, Concorde, Pentland Javelin, Jersey Royal, Maris Peer

Crumble: before cake goes into the oven, sprinkle over crumble topping made by rubbing together 55g each of sugar, flour, butter and 0.5tsp cinnamon

Honey and demerara: mix 2tbsp honey with 2 tbsp demerara. Spread over cake while still warm

Lemon or orange drizzle: mix juice of 2 lemons or 4 Seville oranges (use zest in cake mixture) with 110g caster sugar. Pierce top of cake while still warm and drizzle over.

175g shallots, peeled and chopped finely
75g butter
75g smoked streaky bacon, chopped
2 eggs
1×435g tin unsweetened chestnut purée
1×200g vacuum pack whole chestnuts
200g fresh breadcrumbs
Bunch parsley
Nutmeg

Cook shallots in butter with bacon for 10 minutes on lowish heat until soft and beginning to colour. Beat eggs and add to chestnut purée to help slacken it. Roughly chop chestnuts and add to eggy purée, along with breadcrumbs, parsley, buttery shallots and bacon. Season and add grating of nutmeg. Stuff in neck end of bird and cook.

1 red cabbage, roughly chopped
1 large onion or 2 small, peeled and sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
8 cloves
4 bay leaves
1tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
2tbsp light brown sugar
4 sprigs fresh thyme
550ml/1pt ale
25g butter
Preheat oven to 190°C/Gas 5. Mix garlic, cloves, fennel seeds, caraway seeds, sugar and thyme in a bowl. Layer cabbage and onions in an ovenproof dish with a lid. Add some of the herb mixture and a bay leaf to each layer. Pour over the ale and dot with butter. Braise in oven for an hour. Serve with meat or with thick slices of rye bread.

Ideally use Seville oranges, but 800g eating oranges with 200g lemons if not.

1kg oranges
1.5kg white granulated or preserving sugar
30ml whisky

Scrub fruit well and dry. Cut in half and squeeze out juice. Strain juice into a large, wide heavy-bottomed pan and gather the pips in a little muslin bag tied with string.

Slice the juiced oranges either coarsely or finely, including the pith and add to the pan with the bag of pips and enough water to cover generously – about 1.5 litres. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1.5hours or until the fruit is soft (it won’t soften further once is in cooked with the sugar). Squeeze the bag of pips and discard it. Add the sugar to the fruit over a gentle heat, stirring until it has dissolved. Bring the mixture back to the boil and boil quite rapidly for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until a setting point is reached. Spoon off any scum. Add whisky and stir well. Leave to settle for 15 minutes, then ladle into sterilized jars.

3×410g cans butterbeans, rinsed
25g butter
5tbsp crème fraiche
1 garlic clove, crushed
100g bag of rocketHeat all ingredients except rocket at moderate heat, then coarsely mash until bubbling. Add rocket, heat until wilted.
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450g celeriac, peeled and diced
450g potatoes, peeled and diced
150ml milk, warmed with 50g butter
Salt and pepper

Boil celeriac and potatoes in separate pans until tender. Drain. Whizz the cooked celeriac in a food processor with milk and butter until smooth. Mash potato and mix in. Season.