Great British Food - Christmas 2025

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper To serve: Lemonwedges Toasts, oatcakes or crusty bread 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan (400°F/Gas 6) and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Toast the fennel seeds in a small pan over a medium heat for a minute or so until fragrant, then grind to a fine powder in a pestle and mortar and set aside. 2. Melt 30g of the butter with 1 tablespoon of the oil in a frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the shallots, celery and chilli and cook for 5–8 minutes until the shallots and celery are sweet but still have a little bit of texture. Set aside. 3. Place the trout fillets on to the baking sheet, drizzle with the remaining oil, season with salt and pepper and cook in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. 4. When cool, peel away the skin and break the trout into large pieces, then place in a bowl. Add the tarragon, chives, lemon juice, ground fennel seeds, shallot, celery and chilli and season with salt and pepper, then stir gently with a fork to combine. Try not to break up the trout too much – you want to keep those nice chunks. 5. Divide the mixture between four serving dishes, pressing down gently. The trout should come two thirds of the way up the dish. Set aside to cool. 6. Now make some clarified butter. Place the remaining butter in a small saucepan and melt over a medium- high heat. Continue to heat the melted butter until a layer of milk proteins rises to the top and becomes foamy. At this point, reduce the heat to a gentle boil and you’ll notice that the milk proteins start to split. As the process continues, the milk proteins will eventually sink to the bottom, and you can turn the heat down once you have a clear liquid on top. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to sit for a few minutes, then remove any scum from the top and pour the liquid into a bowl through a sieve lined with muslin. 7. Pour the clarified butter over the trout and sprinkle with a few leaves of tarragon and pink peppercorns. Place in the refrigerator to set. (If you make them in sterilised jars they will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.) 8. Serve with toasts, oatcakes or crusty bread and lemon wedges. MulledWinewith Whiskey&Port Christmas is such an emotive time of the year. The Christmas story is wonderful, and carol services have always brought me great joy. I adore candlelit churches, their smell, the poinsettias and the nighttime singing. And isn’t the first mulledwine of the season a real treat? What better way to welcome friends and family into your home thanwith a glass of mulledwine, scentedwith all the Christmas spices. I makemine a day in advance and allow the wine to cool with the spices in it. Once cool, I strain the wine, removing all the spices – otherwise their flavour becomes too overpowering – and then I reheat as I need it. I lay out glasses, place a slice of clementine studdedwith a clove in each and then I fill up each glass and serve. I love to take flasks of mulledwine on Christmas walks, too. I packmince pies and gingerbread snowflakes andwhenwe walk with friends or family, it’s such a lovely thing to stop, look around us and enjoy ourmulledwines and Christmas bakes. Serves: 8 Prepare: 5minutes Cook: 5minutes 2 x 750ml bottles of redwine 140ml Irishwhiskey 140ml port 110g light brown soft sugar, plus extra as needed 3 cinnamon sticks 2 star anise 2 oranges, sliced and each slice studdedwith 3 cloves 2 clementines, sliced and each slice studdedwith 1 clove, to serve 1. Pour the wine, whiskey and port into a large saucepan. Add the sugar, cinnamon sticks, star anise and orange slices studded with cloves. Place over a medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for a few minutes, but do not let it boil. Taste and see what you think – if you’d like to add more sugar, now is the time to do it. 2. Serve with a slice of clementine studded with a clove. RECI PES | THE IRI SH KI TCHEN greatbr i t ishfoodawards.com 22