Great British Food Christmas 2024

½ tsp smoked paprika 200g (7oz) roasted red (bell) peppers froma jar, drainedwell and roughly chopped 1 ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp sherry vinegar 1. Bring a saucepan of water to a rolling boil, then carefully lay in the eggs and boil them for 7 minutes. This should get you some nice, fudgy, but on the side of a harder boil, eggs – perfect for slicing. 2. When the eggs are cooked, immediately transfer them to cold water to chill down. Peel and set aside in the fridge until needed. To make the romesco sauce, preheat the oven to 160°C fan (180°C/350°F/Gas 4). 3. Tear the stale bread into small pieces and place on an oven tray with the almonds. Pop into the preheated oven for 8 minutes until the bread is crunchy and the almonds are browned. Keep an eye on them and if the almonds are colouring too quickly, remove them earlier. Let the bread and almonds cool before blitzing them up in a food processor with the remaining ingredients, adding salt to taste. Set aside. 4. When you’re ready to make the toasts, preheat the oven to 180°C fan (200°C/400°F/Gas 6). 5. Drizzle the fresh bread slices generously with olive oil, then toast them in the preheated oven until just golden, around 10 minutes. 6. When you are ready to serve, slice each egg into 5–6 slices down the middle. Dollop a tablespoon of romesco onto each piece of toast, then top with a slice of egg. Take a half slice of jamón and drape it over the egg – try and arrange your toppings so you can see a bit of everything, the egg and jamón can be at slightly jaunty angles. Drizzle with a touch more olive oil, then season with salt and pepper and serve. Gildas Amainstay on barmenus across the country, so why not in our homes?A gilda is a traditional pintxo from the Basque Country, which entails three of the world’smost delicious things – anchovies, olives and pickled chillies. They look so elegant and delightfully retro intertwined on their cocktail sticks, are the work of minutes and taste sensational. Plus, they are the perfect drinking food to get the evening started. Serves: 6 Prepare: 10minutes 18 good-quality pitted green olives 18 good-quality canned or jarred anchovy fillets, drained 12–18 pickled jarred guindilla chillies, depending on their size, tops left on 18 cocktail sticks (toothpicks) You can honestly assemble these any which way, but this is how I prefer to arrange them. Take each olive and thread it onto a cocktail stick widthways. Next, thread the tip of one anchovy, followed by the tip of a chilli underneath the anchovy. Wrap the anchovy over the other end of the olive, followed by the chilli to envelop it completely. Serve with extremely cold beverages. Recipes extracted from Good Time Cooking: Show- stopping menus for easy entertaining by Rosie MacKean, published by Pavilion Books. Photography by Sam Harris “Toast is a simple thing, but so, so good and an absolute workhorse of a dinner party dish” RECI PES | ROS I E MACKEAN 89 greatbr i t i shfoodawards.com