More than a bit on the side: Three Christmas trimmings recipes

Christmas dinner is not all about the meat – or the nut roast. The 'little bits on the side' like pigs in blankets are what separates this main event from a Sunday roast

Roast sprouts, celeriac and prunes

Serves 3–4

1 medium celeriac (about 600g)
3 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
A few sprigs of thyme, roughly torn
500g brussels sprouts
150g pitted prunes, halved
6 garlic cloves, peeled and bashed
1 tbsp balsamic (or red wine) vinegar
Sea salt and black pepper

Sweet, sticky prunes partner brussels sprouts beautifully, and a little balsamic vinegar and garlic further enhance the flavours of the winter veg in this dish. Preheat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C/Gas 5.

Prepare the celeriac: slice off the rough skin, cut the flesh into roughly 2cm slices then cut each slice into bite-sized chunks. Put the celeriac chunks into a large roasting tray. Add 2 tbsp oil, the thyme and some salt and pepper and toss together. Roast in the oven for 20–25 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel away any dirty or damaged outer leaves from the sprouts, trim the stems if necessary, then cut each sprout in half. Put the sprouts into a bowl with the halved prunes and the bashed garlic cloves. Add 1 tbsp oil, the vinegar, some salt and pepper and toss together well.

Take the celeriac out of the oven and give it a good stir, then scatter over the sprouts and prunes, along with any vinegary juice from the bowl. Return to the oven for another 20–25 minutes, until both the celeriac and sprouts are tender and golden brown in places.

Serve straight away. For four people, add nutty, seedy, herby hummus.

Swaps: Use parsnip, potato or carrot – or any combination thereof – in place of the celeriac.

Recipe taken from River Cottage Much More Veg by Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall, published by Bloomsbury, Hardback £26

Chorizo roast potatoes

Serves 4–6

Does the world need another roast potato recipe? Probably not. Although some writers argue over the minutiae, the method is essentially: a floury potato varietal, parboiled and roughed up; into hot fat with a high smoke point; plenty of space in the tin; cook at the top of a hot oven; and don’t add salt at the start (which makes for soggy spuds). That said, it seemed remiss to write a book on side dishes without mention of this crowd-pleasing side. So here’s a recipe with a twist: the addition of crumbled soft cooking chorizo halfway through. The nuggets of paprika- and chilli-flavoured pork add colour, seasoning, texture and a secondary hit of oil to help the potatoes crisp up. A scattering of fennel seeds adds a further dimension.

They’re not for every meal but do make a pretty vigorous change, and work particularly well with chicken and pork.

1kg floury potatoes, ideally Maris Piper
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
​200g cooking chorizo
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
A handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped (optional)
Sea salt

Preheat the oven to 220˚C/Fan 200˚C/Gas 7. Peel the potatoes and cut them into halves or quarters roughly 4cm long. Put them in a large pan and fill it with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10–15 minutes, until you can tease a fork fairly easily through the first centimetre or so of potato, but still meet resistance towards the middle.

Drain them, allow to cool, then shake them well to rough up the edges. Pour the oil into a large sturdy roasting tin – plenty of space is essential to ensure crisp potatoes. Put the tray in the oven for 10 minutes to heat up the oil, then carefully add the potatoes to the tray. Turn them over in the hot oil so they are all glossy, then return to the top shelf of the oven and cook for 45 minutes, giving the tray a shake after 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the cooking chorizo in half with a sharp knife. Peel off the casing and discard it. Use your fingers to rip the sausage meat into balls that resemble large nuggets of minced meat. These will release their oil and crisp beautifully around the potatoes.

Remove the potatoes from the oven, add the chorizo bits and fennel seeds and mix and turn the potatoes. Roast for a further 15–20 minutes, when the chorizo will be crunchy but not dry, and the potatoes are crisp and a rusty shade of brown. Remove from the oven and season with salt (bear in mind that the chorizo will have added some salt already). Sprinkle with chopped parsley if it suits the occasion. They’ll remain very hot for 5–10 minutes; try to avoid reheating or covering them with foil, or the crunch will disappear.

Recipe taken from On the Side by Ed Smith, published by Bloomsbury, Hardback £20

Ultimate pigs in blankets

If you love pork, you’ll love these – black pudding, sausage meat and bacon all rolled into one. If there’s a better posh breakfast or brunch dish, I don’t know what it is. Serve the pigs in blankets with fried or poached eggs and lots of thick, buttered toast.

Serves 4

250g good-quality black pudding, any casing removed
1 egg
2 tablespoons double cream
2 tablespoons finely chopped sage leaves
16 rashers of smoked streak bacon, rind cut off
4 sausages, the best quality  you can find
Vegetable oil, for cooking

For the Cumberland sauce glaze

25g butter
2 banana shallots, finely diced
300ml ruby port
200g redcurrant jelly
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons English mustard powder
Juice and finely grated zest of 1 orange
Juice and finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons green peppercorns in brine, drained and rinsed

To serve

Fried or poached eggs and hot, buttered toast

Whizz the black pudding in a food processor until smooth then add the egg and cream, and blend to a rich paste. Scrape into a bowl, stir in the sage, cover and refrigerate for up to one day.

With a sharp knife, carefully stretch out the bacon rashers as if you’re going to wrap sausages for pigs in blankets at Christmas. Lay a sheet of cling film on your worktop and line up about four pieces of streaky bacon next to each other to form a rectangle. Spoon a quarter of the blended black pudding on to the bacon at a short end and, with a palette knife, spread it out to cover half the bacon.

Peel the sausage skin from the sausages but keep them in a sausage shape. Place one on top of the black pudding then carefully roll the black pudding and bacon over the top of the sausage, using the cling film as a guide – a bit like how you might use a sushi mat to wrap up pieces of sushi. Wrap the whole thing in the stretched bacon and roll it up tightly in the cling film. Secure the ends by twisting the cling film and tying it into a knot. Repeat with the 3 remaining sausages. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight.

To make the Cumberland sauce glaze, melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium–low heat, add the shallots and sweat gently for about 10 minutes until soft, stirring from time to time. Add the port and redcurrant jelly, raise the heat and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook for 10–15 minutes until the jelly has dissolved and the liquid has reduced a little. Add the ginger and mustard. Pour in the orange and lemon juices and add the zests. Stir, bring back to the boil and simmer until reduced by half. Stir in the green peppercorns and remove from the heat.

Preheat the oven to 170°C/Gas Mark 3. Warm a large, non-stick ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat and pour in a little oil. Take the cling film off the black pudding rolls and cook them gently until the bacon takes on an even colour all over. Put the pan in the oven and roast for 8–10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven, gently pour away any rendered fat and then put it back on the hob over a medium–high heat. Pour in the Cumberland sauce. Bring to the boil and reduce the sauce to a glaze, while basting the sausages to give them a lovely, rich, glossy shine.

Serve as a very hearty breakfast or brunch with some eggs and hot, buttered toast.

Recipe taken from Tom Kerridge's Best Ever Dishes, published by Absolute Press, Hardback £25