Sprouts, sprouts, good for the heart, the more you eat them the more you...

Love them or hate them sprouts are one of the traditional vegetables at the Christmas feast, and badly cooked ones are the stuff of bad childhood memories for some.

I posed the question on Facebook and twitter "Are sprouts going to be part of your Christmas meal or not?"

Considering the bad press the humble sprout endures the results were quite suprising!

Two thirds of you will be eating them, good news, although two people confessed to only planning on a single token sprout. Still, one is better than none.

One person suggested, cooking them, covering them in chocolate, letting them set and then wrapping them in a Ferrero Rocher wrapper to play tricks on people, a little harsh perhaps?

I also asked people how they cook them. Plain and simple or with other bits and pieces. The answers, unsurprisingly, involved bacon and chestnuts as well as butter, onions and Brie.

I think it's likely that mine will be naked except for a knob of butter, salt and freshly ground black pepper, although the brie does sound tempting, and I'm toying with a sprinkling of parmesan...

How will you be eating yours?

How do you cook sprouts? The most important answer is not too much. Over cooked sprouts really aren't great, although not as bad as bullet hard raw ones!

When you buy yours, try and pick similarly sized ones so that even cooking is easier. They then need trimming a little off the end and discard any tatty outer leaves. Don't bother with crossing the bottom of them. They can then be boiled or steamed for between 5-10 mins, keep checking whether they are cooked or not with a sharp knife. Drain and serve.

Ruth

My mash cakes

Dear Ruth,


Thank you for the recipes, I can only imagine the chaos around you as you tried to put them down on paper for me. It's hard enough making sure I get myself out of bed, wash, feed and drug myself up with coffee without having to think of anyone else.


I've taken you up on the potato cakes, but alas the pies have so far proved beyond me. You see, I went out to the shops and got in the butter and saw eggs on the list. It appears that half of Bristol did too and I couldn't find those chicken nuggets anywhere.


Not that it made any difference. I got home and realised I had nothing to make them in. Yup, gotta get meself some of that baking equipment. I've earmarked Thursday as 'pie-day'.


So it's all about the spud today, but it has not been easy. It would seem that celeriac isn't available to the common man in the supermarket. I know it's a brute of a veg but are we shoppers really that shallow? Thankfully, hidden away in the greengrocers were a handful of these disfigured creatures. But this was a greengrocer in the posh part of town, and the sprouts were on a stick. I didn't want a whole stick. That's just showing off.


However, i managed to find a few remaining loose ones, so here is my stash:

Now, something I didn't appreciate first time I read your recipe was the preparation. Peeling and boiling spuds? No problem. Sprouts in hot water, easy. Celeriac matchsticks... I don't know if you have ever tried to make such things with a 10-year old, only once sharpened set of knives? Well let me tell you, you need some beef behind you to manage anything that can loosely be described as 'chopped'.

You can see just here, the knife stuck in the damn thing. Not sharp enough to slice through, my arms not swift or powerful enough either.


And this cheffy matchstick concept... I saw it done once as part of knife skills on some day time cooking programme. I'm sure I've also seen graters with 200 attachments one of which must have been for sticks. Maybe I should look into that?


But I have to say, once those were done it was a breeze to get to the mash stage. and I ended up with a very tasty looking mountain of mashed potato, celeriac and sprouts (um, I cut up the sprouts to mash them in, is that what I was supposed to do?)


I must admit I had to refrain from adding mustard, grated chilli and above all fried bacon. It was calling out for one if not all of them. I can't explain why, but there was just an 'add heat, add meat' thing going on in my mouth.


I have to say the mash is a winner for me. Great way to get the sprouts on the table for all and I'll fully intend to serve some of that up to the family.

But earlier, I fried a few cakes instead...um, actually I confess, I fried some bacon first and then the cakes. Well, i just thought bacon and sprouts...look, all I'm saying is that it's good to experiment a bit, use your knowledge and all that. And bacon just goes. With everything. Yum

Before you score me out of 5, I'm going to get in there first


Difficulty (2 / 5 ) - where 5 is 'I give up'
Taste (4 / 5) - where 5 is so good the words are unprintable


As for the rest of you, right there is my gauntlet. Your turn...


Yours very contentedly


Tom