To be honest I haven't been the sole chef in residence for too many Christmas dinners -my Mum always does ours, although the role of comis chef does seem to get bigger as the years go on. The Christmas dinners I have cooked have usually been with friends, before we all go our separate ways for the festive season. One of my dinners this year was to be shared with a vegetarian. It can be difficult for carnivores to even conceive of a Christmas dinner without any meat. but I do like a culinary challenge. I pondered a variety of dishes and perused a selection of veggie cookbooks, in the end we decided to try a dish from Hugh Fearnleys new veggie cookbook. A warming gratin of sweet potato with a layer of peanut butter and lime -sounds odd? Yes, I think that's why I wanted to try it out.....

For the starter I made a simple, tasty salad with buffalo mozzarella and pomegranate -it's usually made with fresh figs but for the life of me I couldn't lay my hands on them. Buffalo mozzarella is more expensive than cows milk mozzarella, but hey it's Christmas & it's the real deal -plus you can eat the cheaper version the rest of the year, not to mention that the taste and texture are oh, so much more interesting!

Buffalo Mozzarella & Pomegranate Salad

Tear up your ball of buffalo mozzarella into bite sized pieces
Cut your pomegranate in half and using a wooden spoon bash the skin side of the fruit, whilst holding it over a large bowl -keep bashing until you have enough seeds OR if using fresh figs (dry figs will not be of any use!) quarter them
Make a dressing with 1 part lemon juice to 2 parts olive oil - season with fresh black pepper and sea salt
Place some salad leaves -just a few, and lots of fresh basil leaves in a bowl
Quarter a couple of cherry tomatoes, add to leaves
Scatter over the mozzarella and fruit and pour over your dressing -serve immediately

Second up were these super simple toasts you can top them with whatever takes your fancy, I just couldn't resist the wild mushrooms at the organic market and the artichokes at the deli....

Wild Mushroom & Artichoke Toasts

Clean any dirt from your mushrooms and roughly chop them
Cut a few slices from a nice loaf of bread -either grill them gently or pop them into the oven on a tray until dry and crisp
In a frying pan over a medium heat place a large nob of butter
Take a few sprigs of thyme and 'scratch'off the fragrant leaves, place in the pan
When the butter and thyme have had a little dance, place the mushrooms in and sauté
Take your toasted bread, rub with a clove of garlic and drizzle generously with olive oil
Top some of your toast with the mushrooms and some with chopped artichokes -serve immediately

Sweet Potato & Peanut Gratin-serves 4/5

Turn your oven on 180'C/Gas 5
Peel about 5 medium sized sweet potatos' and slice to about the same thickness as 1 euro coins
In a large bowl place 250mls single cream, 3 chopped cloves of garlic and 1-2 red chillies or 1/2 tsps of chili flakes (depending on how hot you like things), season with salt and pepper
Put the slices in the bowl with a tbsp of sunflower oil and coat them
In a greased gratin dish place half of the sweet potato -flat
In a separate bowl place 150g of crunchy peanut butter (no sugar peanut butter), the zest and juice of one lime and 1tbsp of sunflower oil -whip them up
Blob the peanut butter mixture onto the layer of sweet potato and then add the rest of the potato
Add any remaining cream into the dish
Alternatively you could mix up the cream, chili, garlic, lime, sunflower oil, salt, pepper and peanut butter to coat all of the slices in one go
Pop into the oven covered in foil for the first 20 mins -after this remove foil and continue to cook for 30 mins
Serve with a bitter leafed salad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM6xVQwIOYQ The Simpsons, Homer & Bart tease Lisa about not eating meat.....

Spring is here and the sun has been shining but it's still pretty chilly out there....so this gorgeous Chorizo Stew provides the perfect comforting evening meal.....It has the warmth of the Spanish sun and the soothing nourishment of that which is neither soup nor stew but something in between! If you can bake some olive bread (see bread recipe

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) all well and good, if not then try get your hands on some good quality crusty bread ...you'll need it to mop up the juicy goodness at the bottom of your bowl!

So to begin;

slice the chorizo sausage and begin frying on a medium heat in a heavy bottomed pot...no need for oil as there is plenty of fat in the meat
add some chopped onion& a few cloves of garlic continue to fry on a medium heat
meanwhile roughly chop some carrot, celery & peppers....think rustic!
add the veg, plus a tin of tomatos and top it up with some veg stock
add a drained tin of chickpeas/ butter beans or haricots
now just allow the stew to simmer away for minimum 30 mins... the longer you leave it the more the flavours will meld together
when you're happy that your stew has stewed...pop it into bowls and tear up chunks of the bread... enjoy the warming goodness of your creation ...best shared with friends...family...lovers...Yum!

On a wing & a prayer -my first Veggie Christmas Dinner

Warm your Spanish cockles...Very moreish Chorizo Stew