Boxing Day Clever

On Boxing Day it's a tradition in our house to have my grandparents over for a meal. As they're both in their eighties and my granddad is now diabetic it has become a little more difficult to prepare a healthy meal for him that he can still enjoy.

However this Boxing Day I was able to achieve this objective. The albums that provided the soundtrack to the preparation were Scott Walker's early seventies country rock excursions "Stretch" and "We had it all" which I had recently bought on a CD reissue which grouped them both together. Although some of it was cheesy MOR music the presence of Walker's un-matchless and rich voice lifted both albums above the ordinary.

The first part of the meal involved making a Yorkshire Pudding mixture using four ounces of flour, half a pint of milk and three ounces of dried sage all of which I stirred together and left in a mixing bowl to set.

I then took my Le Cresceut dish and soaked the bottom with olive oil. I next topped and tailed five carrots, peeled them and diced them. I did the same with three large parsnips and lightly fried them in the Le Cresceut dish with some fresh thyme leaves for around twenty minutes until the carrots and parsnips began to soften and could be cut into fairly easily with the edge of a tablespoon.

While the vegetables fried I topped, tailed and peeled ten shallots before slicing them thinly and adding them to the Le Cresceut dish. I proceeded to fry them until they became transparent and made sure I stirred regularly the contents of the dish to prevent it from sticking to the bottom.

I then added five frozen vegetarian sausages which were fried for twenty minutes, which was about the same length of time it took for the shallots and the other vegetables to be properly cooked.

While the root vegetables and sausages cooked in the Le Cresceut I boiled ten ounces of red lentils in a pan for around fifteen minutes until they were soft and had turned a pale yellow, which indicated they were cooked properly. I drained the lentils and added them to the Le Cresceut dish together with a pint of vegetable stock, as by now the root vegetables had softened enough to have liquid added to them. I then slowly stewed on the hob the dish for thirty minutes adding some frozen peas as I did so.

At the same time as adding the lentils and vegetable stock to the Le Cresceut I put the Yorkshire Pudding mixture into an oiled baking dish and cooked it in the oven at 210 degrees (220 for non-fan ovens) for 30 minutes which meant that that casserole I had created in the Le Cresceut and the Yorkshire Pudding were ready at the same time.

The resulting dish provided a rich and filling meal that contained enough ingredients to allow my grandad to enjoy it with the rest of the family and importantly have a meal that was of the traditional type that he enjoys but which is also very good for his health.

Casserole and Yorkshire Pudding: all for a Boxing Day Tea.