Turkey parcels

I invented this recipe as a Christmas dinner for two, but I've also served it as a light roast lunch for six people at Easter, so it's very versatile. You can make as many or few parcels as you need (one per person is plenty) and vary the ingredients. This recipe makes four of them. You can make the parcels the day before and keep them in the fridge, then stick them in the oven when you're ready.

Ingredients

• Four turkey breast steaks
• Four herby British-style sausages (for example Cumberland or Lincolnshire)
• 16 slices of pancetta
• 8 fresh sage leaves (or use baby spinach if you can't get them)
• Dijon or sharp German mustard
• Sweet chutney (for example date or pear)
• Black pepper
• Vegetable oil

Method

• Heat the oven to 200°C.
• Lay out a sheet of greaseproof paper. Take a turkey steak, pat it dry with a paper towel, and place it on the paper, then lay another sheet of greaseproof on top. Bash it with a rolling pin or meat mallet until it's about half a centimetre thick. Repeat for each steak.
• Squeeze the sausage meat from their skins into a bowl.
• Lay out the first steak, and grind black pepper over it. Then spread a thin layer of mustard over it.
• Lay two of the sage or spinach leaves over it, to cover as much of the surface as possible.
• Spread the meat from one sausage over the leaves.
• Dollop a small amount (a teaspoon or less) of chutney on the widest part of the steak.
• Now roll: most turkey steaks are roughly triangular, so start rolling from the wide end, and finish by tucking the thin end around as a little flap.
• Use four slices of pancetta to wrap the parcel. Use two slices to cover each of the open ends of the roll first, then use the other two slices to cover the width of the roll. I found that I didn't need cocktail sticks to keep the rolls together - the pancetta held everything in place and stuck to itself.
• Finally place the parcels in a ceramic dish (I used a lasagne dish) and brush or spray the tops of the parcels with a little oil. At this point you can cover them and put them in the fridge if you're working in advance.
• When you're ready to bake, put them in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the number and thickness of the parcels. Check they're done by taking a large roll from the middle and cutting it in half.
• You can serve each one as a parcel or sliced to reveal the swirl of green in the roll. Use the juices from the dish to add to some turkey or chicken gravy.

Braised lamb steaks

I had never cooked lamb before, but when I took part in a Six Nations Rugby themed dinner, where each person contributed a dish, and I was allocated Wales, I felt that Welsh lamb was the way to go. I cobbled this together from several recipes, but the sauce is mostly from a Neil Rankin recipe. I served this as a light starter, but it would do just as well with some salad or vegetables as a light main course.

Ingredients

• 1 bulb of garlic
• 1 red chilli
• 50g of anchovy fillets in oil
• 25g of flat leaf parsley
• 1 lemon
• 100ml of vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper
• Several sprigs of rosemary
• 4 or 8 lamb leg steaks
• 250ml of dry white wine
• Cos lettuce

Method

1. First I made the sauce, which can be in advance if needs be. Take half the garlic cloves, peel them and put them in a saucepan. Cover with cold water, bring to the boil, then drain. Cover with cold water again, bring to the boil and so on another two times.
2. De-seed the chilli and chop it into rough chunks.
3. Peel the lemon, squeeze the seeds out and put the juice and pulp into a food processor.
4. Add the chilli, boiled garlic, parsley, anchovies, oil, and one sprig's worth of rosemary leaves into the food processor. Season with salt and pepper, and blitz to a smooth sauce. Put the sauce in the fridge.
5. Now for the lamb. Heat the oven to 190°C.
6. Peel and slice the remaining garlic.
7. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and sauté the sliced garlic and remaining rosemary sprigs for a minute or two. Then remove from the pan.
8. Season the lamb steaks and add them to the pan for a minute or two on each side to brown them. Then place the steaks in an oven-proof dish.
9. Pour the wine into the frying pan to deglaze it, scraping up the brown goodness. Add back the garlic and rosemary, then pour this liquid over the lamb.
10. Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Keep that frying pan handy though.
11. Once the lamb is baked, remove the steaks from the liquid and discard the rosemary.
12. Pour the cooking liquid back into the frying pan and reduce it over a high heat until syrupy.
13. Meanwhile, slice the lamb into thin slices. Then toss them in the syrupy reduction.
14. Separate and clean the lettuce leaves to act as dishes for the lamb. Place slices of lamb into each lettuce boat, drizzle over the sauce you made earlier, and serve, with extra sauce on the side for those who want it.
15. Recite with feeling: "Every day, when I wake up, I thank the Lord I'm Welsh."