In Scotland, a turnip is a swede, and a swede is a turnip. Or (just for diplomacy’s sake) in England, a swede is a turnip, and a turnip is a swede. Something funny happened, somewhere around Hadrian’s Wall, and left many a violent vegetable dispute in its wake.

A turnip by any other name would taste as swede

Most of the time, this doesn’t have hugely dramatic consequences. It is not as though they have swapped ‘chocolate’ and ‘sprouts’; most people would be equally happy (or unhappy) to be served either turnips or swede. But on Burns Night – in the name of Scottish authenticity – it becomes incredibly important.

The traditional Burns Supper on 25th January, at which Scots celebrate the life of Scottish poet Robert ‘Rabbie’ Burns, is Haggis served with Neeps and Tatties. ‘Neeps’, as I hope you’ve already guessed, is short for Turnips (if this foray into Scottish language confuses you, it’s not looking good for the rest of this blog). And if you’re English, by ‘turnips’ they mean ‘swede’.

Phew. All this, and we haven’t even got onto the troubling question of what is actually in a Haggis.

As well as a bit of confusion, the traditional Burns Supper (like all good meals) also comes with its own poem, the ‘Address to a Haggis’. Thankfully, Burns doesn’t dwell too much on its contents (‘Painch, tripe, or thairm’ roughly translates as ‘gut, stomach lining or intestine’ – YUM!) but spends most of the time explaining its appeal.

As a child, and truthfully as an adult, the words of this poem were totally foreign, and only brought alive for me by the spirited performances of my father. My favourite bit (probably everyone’s favourite bit) is the third verse, where the Haggis-addresser must clean his knife,

An’ cut you up wi’ ready slicht,
Trenching your gushing entrails bricht,
Like ony ditch;*

At this moment, the Haggis is sliced open. Growing up, this was about as exciting as meal-times got. One year, the juices even sprayed some of our guests. I’m not sure if this is obligatory, but I would definitely recommend it.

Who wouldn't want to eat this?

But as a grown up, this ‘Address’ is not just exciting because of grease-spattered guests. It is also very funny, and sums up Scotland’s understanding of how the rest of the world views its food (and its place in the world) while being peppered (excuse the pun) with heavy Scottish sarcasm.

The foreignness of the words makes the poem a bit more exciting than the usual – almost like watching a play, but with dinner thrown in. Spoken in a Scottish accent, they’re also easier to understand than they look on the page. But perhaps most importantly, the Scottish words make it possible to ignore what you’re putting in your mouth. As the Scots would say, dinna fash yersel. Just eat.

*And cut it up with great skill, making a trench in the bright, gushing entrails, to form a ditch.

Have you ever eaten haggis? Would you ever?

If you can’t face it, but want to help celebrate Scottishness, try something more gentle from our Burns Night Menu.

By Holly Graham

Today may be America’s National Pie Day and even though they might know how to whip up a delicious pie or five, here at Food Network UK we think the upper crust of British pastries are fabulous enough to triumph over quintessential American creations.

With the UK’s repertoire of gorgeously retro bakes, we think we have what it takes to challenge our friends across the pond at Cooking Channel to a battle of the pies.

Not ones to crumble under pressure, we’ve left no pie tin unturned in our search for the ultimate recipe to enter into combat with. Join us as we step up to the plate with cheeky chap Danny Boome’s classic Banoffee Pie and challenge a stateside classic.

5 Reasons to Love Banoffee

• Measured against its potential to satisfy, banoffee pie is a relatively quick dessert to make.
• Using up sad-looking bananas never tasted so good.
• Technically, banoffee pie could count as one of your five a day.
• Bananas are a great source of potassium.
• You can never get enough whipped cream.

Have Your Say

Whatever way you slice it, there can only be one pie that wins this epic trans-Atlantic battle – the proof of the pudding will be in the voting.

Our friends at Cooking Channel have stepped up to the plate to bring us this Salted Caramel Apple Pie.

*UPDATE – THE RESULTS ARE IN*

Food Network UK:
The brilliant Banoffee Pie received 22 votes
Cooking Channel’s Salted Caramel Apple Pie received 5 votes

So in the UK the Banoffee reigns champion.

Cooking Channel:
Salted Caramel Apple Pie – 52 votes
Banoffee Pie: 8 votes

Apple Pie is the pick of the Americans!

Tell us about your pie of choice.

By Sanjana Modha

In honour of Chinese New Year and The Year of the Dragon, we’ve teamed up with one of our favourite food bloggers, Xiaolu of 6 Bittersweets to indulge in these delicious flame-hued tartlets.

Although these tartlets are not traditional Chinese fare, oranges and tangerines symbolise good health and longevity in Chinese culture, so it was only right that citrus fruits were chosen to be baked into a light and refreshing pud.

The recipe in Xiaolu’s words

A fun meeting of tangy and sweet fruits, creamy curd, and crunchy poppy seeds, these are tarts fancy enough for guests or as a special treat for yourself.

You can use any combination of citrus fruits that you want for the topping, really. I chose orange, blood orange, and cara cara oranges.

Practically all components of this recipe can be prepared in advance, leaving only minor assembly to be done the day you want to serve the tartlets.

Orange Passion Fruit Curd Mini Tarts Recipe
Makes six 4-inch mini tarts

For the Poppy seed Mini Tart Shells:

8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold
187g plain flour
1 Tbsp poppy seeds
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
2 ½ to 3 ½ Tbsp iced water
1 ½ tsp apple cider vinegar
large egg white, lightly beaten

Method:

1. Divide cold butter into 5 tablespoons and 3 tablespoons. Cut all butter into 3/4-inch cubes, and wrap each portion with plastic wrap. Place the flour, poppy seeds, salt, and baking powder in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Freeze all of the above for at least 30 minutes.

2. Transfer the frozen flour mixture into medium bowl. Whisk to combine this mixture. Then using a pastry cutter or your fingers, work the larger portion (5 Tbsp) of butter cubes into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal.

3. Transfer this mixture and the smaller portion (3 Tbsp) of butter cubes into the freezer bag used earlier. Remove any air from the freezer bag and seal it. Now, use a rolling pin to flatten the butter in the bag into flakes. Freeze the bag until the butter is very firm, another 10 minutes.

4. Transfer the contents of the bag back to the bowl. Sprinkle 2 1/2 tablespoons ice water and all the vinegar onto the mixture, tossing it lightly with a rubber spatula. If the mixture still seems very dry, sprinkle 1 tablespoon more ice water and toss again with the spatula.

5. Move the mixture back into the freezer bag. Keeping the bag unzipped, knead the mixture by alternately pressing it, from the outside of the bag, with the knuckles and heels of your hands until the mixture holds together in one piece and feels slightly stretchy when pulled.

6. Wrap the dough with cling film, flatten it into a disc, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight.

7. Remove dough from the refrigerator and let come to room temperature, at least 45 minutes.

8. Roll dough out to 1/16-inch thickness. Cut out 5 1/2-inch circles of dough and press each of these into a mini tart pan. Prick the bottoms of the dough all over with a fork. Cover and freeze for at least 30 minutes and up to a day before baking.

9. Preheat the oven to 220°C Cover tart pans with parchment paper and weigh down using dry beans or pie weights. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, and remove the beans and parchment. Press down lightly with a spoon on any areas of the crusts that have puffed up while baking. Return to the oven for 7 to 10 minutes more or until golden brown. Remove from oven, and brush with beaten egg white while crusts are still warm. Let cool.

For the Passion Fruit Curd:

3 assorted citrus fruits, ends and peel sliced off and segmented
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp cornflour, sifted
200g sugar
200g passion fruit puree OR juice from 9 to 10 fruits, divided
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest
1 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Method:

1. In a heavy non-reactive saucepan, beat the eggs, yolks, cornflour, and sugar until well blended. Stir in 3/4 of the passion fruit puree, butter, and salt. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the sides of the pan, until mixture is thick enough to coat a spoon but liquid enough to pour. Mixture will change from translucent to opaque.

2. Once curd is thick enough, press it through a strainer suspended over a medium bowl that contains the zests. Add remaining passion fruit puree to the bowl and stir thoroughly; allow to cool. Curd can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

To make the tarts:

1. Preheat oven to 150°C at least 15 minutes before baking. Smoothly fill the prebaked tart shells with passion fruit curd and bake for 7 to 10 minutes. The filling shouldn’t change colour and should barely jiggle when the pan is moved. Transfer tarts to a rack to cool.

2. Once the tarts have completely cooled, arrange several citrus segments atop the tarts. Then remove tarts from their pans and serve.

Finish your Chinese New Year dinner with a bang and offer up a platter of these jewelled treasures before you step outside to gaze up at the fireworks.

Love Asian cuisine? Celebrate Asian month with us and create some of our favourite recipes inspired by the East.

By Sanjana Modha
Recipe and images courtesy of 6 Bittersweets

Cheesecake... not just for Christmas

In many ways, this isn’t fair. The change between the indulgence of the last hours of December (and maybe the first few hours of January) and the diets and deprivation of the New Year is too radical. Your body doesn’t know what’s hit it – but, more importantly, neither does your mind. For the last few weeks, you’ve allowed yourself every treat within reaching distance (it would be far too much effort to get up) and suddenly you’re expecting levels of willpower that a Benedictine monk would be proud of.

The stitches, the lactic acid build-up and the aching muscles at your first ambitious trip to the gym are nothing when compared to the shock you are giving your self-control. So you end up giving in. In this, you are not alone. Resolve falters in the face of adversity. It is the stuff great literature is made of. And great blog posts.

As I walked out of a coffee shop on the 3^rd January, latte in one hand and un-used gym clothes in the other, I decided that this year I wouldn’t punish myself. Instead, I would make positive resolutions. Rather than telling myself I should give up things, I decided I would focus on the positive; I would resolve to take more exercise, eat more greens, do more washing-up before I run out of forks.  This focus on the positive means that every little slip-up doesn’t feel like failure, and the feeling of failure doesn’t lead you to abandoning it all entirely. It also means that nothing is outrightly denied, which – as our friends at Stylist Magazine reported last week – only leads to you wanting it all the more.

I am taking inspiration from the amazing things you can do with healthy food, rewarding rather than punishing myself for eating well. Dishes from Cod with Pistachio and Lime Crust to Seven Vegetable Couscous, and even light Lemon Ricotta Cookies with a tangy lemon glaze, mean that my healthy January feels virtuous rather than vile. As Ellie Krieger shows with her delicious Lemon Icebox Bars, with a few changes even cheesecake can be part of my New Year’s regime. I have replaced the short-lived smugness you get from joining all the other schmucks during the early January gym rush with a change in attitude which might actually last.

In this, I suggest you join me. Don’t deny yourself entirely because, as I discovered about my duvet in the early hours of the morning, if something is forbidden it only serves to make it all the more alluring.

What are some suggestions for the best positive resolutions? What do you want to do more of?

By Holly Graham

The Meat Liquor burger - huge fuss over nothing special?

The best hamburger I’ve had since moving to London in 2001 was during a visit to the States. It cost one dollar and came handed to me in a paper bag via a drive-through window from the first convenient car park I pulled my hired car into, as I drove from Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport en route to a Christmas back home with my family. The burger was juicy, compactly constructed to eat while driving and ample enough to keep my hunger abated until I arrived at my mom’s house a few hours away. It hit the right spot at the right time … and for the right price.

The best burger I’ve ever eaten in my life came from my grandmother’s skillet. Living on a farm in the rural south with twelve children during the Great Depression meant my practical-by-necessity, Mimi Osburn, learned how to stretch her money far and make her groceries last as long as possible. I realise that description probably sounds as hokey as the lyrics of a very bad country music song, but I reckon it’s true. By the time I came into her grandmotherly life in the 1970s, Mimi had her burger-making procedure down pat.

Often the main course at a table filled with her children and grandchildren, and whomever else wisely popped in around lunchtime (which was often served as early as 10.30 in the morning, keeping with local farming traditions), those burgers had almost as much stale old bread mixed into the patties as they did beef. And if there weren’t any actual hamburger buns in the house, two pieces of white bread could hold that patty in place just as well. Some regulars to Mimi’s table actually preferred the burgers served on white bread.

Just a little bit greasy and ever so slightly charred on the outside with nothing more than generous salt and pepper lashings for seasoning with thick slices of home grown tomatoes and onions along with the usual selection of condiments, Mimi’s burgers were gorgeous … and almost as delicious as her fried chicken (but that’s another story all together). Maybe I’m guilty of romanticising something from my youth that was really rather ordinary, but ask any of my cousins or siblings … or anybody who had the pleasure of eating those burgers … and they’ll probably share with you a similar recollection.

Both the drive-through quickie and my grandmother’s fry ups were simple things and, as I’ve come accustomed to saying since my hop across the pond, cheap as chips. Perfunctory creations made with a plentiful ingredient, they summed up the best of American culture on the road and in the home. I could tell ya all sorts of tales about other delectable moments with burgers in my pre and post London life: the cookouts with friends and family, my California road trips etc. But, none of these would include any burgers actually consumed here in the UK.

My British burger experiences have been completely different. Exalted, rarified and quite expensive, a decent burger made in the London is more the stuff for foodie fetishists to wax poetic about than a cheap-n-cheerful gourmand treat for the masses. Byron’s ‘proper’ burgers, Goodman’s, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, MEATliquor … yadda yadda yadda. Yeah yeah yeah. They’re all good. A few of those are actually really good. But they all seem to want to replicate the US experience (well Kiwi experience in the case of GBK) without acknowledging what makes grabbing ye olde Burger Americana such a treat: it’s quick, it’s easy, it’s resourceful … and it’s great value for money.

If you find yourself queuing around the block for a hamburger, perhaps you’re missing the point. Same goes if you’re seated at a restaurant with table service and the main things on the menu are burgers. With access to excellent British beef, cheeses and bread, somebody with an entrepreneurial streak here in London should be rocking my ex pat socks off with awesome burgers at cheap prices. Alas no one has yet. Or, at least, I ain’t come across ‘em yet. And I surely have been looking.

I realise I’m probably in the minority about the state of burgers in the London – at least among the pro-am food writers circuit. I’ve heard and read the raves about this place and that. But I just can’t help feeling like there’s an emperor bandying about London, and I really think he should put some clothes on.

By Chris Osburn

Although it may not seem immediately obvious, I believe that a hangover is a complicated condition. It is not just the physical elements – the pounding head, the aching limbs – but it is the emotional side too; the remorse, the sense that maybe you shouldn’t have had that extra Cosmo, or danced on that particular table, or chatted quite so enthusiastically with your new-found ‘friends’.  It is also complex in that it affects everyone differently; some people feel fabulous after a short shower, others have days and days of aches and pains.

A Culinary Cuddle: Spicy Spinach Lasagne

Such a varied ailment requires sensitive handling, and like most moments of weakness, the cure can often be found in the kitchen.  While drink may have been your downfall, many believe it is food that can come to your rescue. Whether it’s cold takeaway pizza, or a bowl of nourishing vegetable soup, everyone has different ideas about the perfect culinary hangover cure. One of my friends can only find solace in a bowl of white rice with butter and black pepper; it is what she used to be given when she was ill as a child, and – like all the perfect cures for over-indulgence – it provides comfort as well as carbohydrates.

Carbs are a common theme in this culinary category. Some people like them sweet, wanting waffles drizzled with syrup, or pancakes with banana and chocolate sauce. They want a plate of sweet, oozing deliciousness – the kind of food that cannot fail to convince you that everything is going to be alright. Others crave the salty crunch of a bacon sandwich, while many – myself included – need spice, hoping to shake away any fuzziness with large amounts of green chilli. Spicy lasagne – full of zing but still gentle enough to reassure and calm – has to be the ultimate example of this.

Chicken soup - good for body and soul?

Some people need nourishment. They need to eat food that will restore all the goodness and balance that over-indulgence strips away; a warming chicken soup with vegetables or a banana and blueberry smoothie. For me, this attempt to detoxify is too early and too ambitious. I am a firm believer in the power of healthy food, and the importance of eating right. But when it comes to the-morning-after-the-night-before, low-fat and no-carb food has no place. If you want a foolproof (or perhaps, foolish) solution to a hangover, there is only one place to go: to the hair of the dog that bit you. A spicy, citrusy Bloody Mary with the tang of lemon, horseradish, good-quality vodka and as much Tabasco as your tastebuds can handle. Even if the first sip is a struggle, you’ll thank me in the end.

Our Comfort Food Hit List

Pumpkin Waffles with Maple Walnut Apples

Elvis Pancakes

Sesame Chilli Vermicelli

Spicy Spinach Lasagne

Chinese-style Rice Soup with Chicken and Ginger

Big Berry Smoothie

Bloody Mary

What’s your go-to comfort food?

By Holly Graham

Bursting with festive cheer, these Cranberry Margaritas by Rebecca Crump of the food blog, Ezra Pound Cake, are definitely a crowd pleaser. Although she’s a professional pastry chef and writer, it’s worth noting Rebecca makes a mean cocktail.
Meet Rebecca

Which smells remind you of Christmas?
Kitchen smells, like that first whiff of mulling spices at my mom’s house, when she puts a pot full of cinnamon, allspice and orange rinds on the stove, country ham frying in a cast-iron pan and freshly-baked sugar cookies coming out of the oven.

Tell us your cheesiest Christmas joke…
What would you get if you deep-fried Santa Claus? A crisp Kringle.

If your blog were a Food Network chef, who would it be?
Nigella Lawson, of course.

The recipe in her words

To make your own coloured sugar for decorating the rims of the glasses: Measure 200g sugar into a bowl. Add one or two drops of liquid food colouring, and mix with a fork or your fingers until the sugar is saturated with colour. Add more food colouring to darken or more sugar to lighten. Use immediately, keep in an airtight container.

Cranberry Margaritas
Makes 4

Ingredients

125ml cranberry juice
125ml silver or other 100% agave tequila
62ml orange liqueur (such as Grand Marnier or Triple Sec)
62ml fresh lime juice
Wedge of lime
Sugar
Ice cubes for shaking and serving
Thinly sliced limes or fresh cranberries, to garnish

Method

1. Run a lime wedge around the rim of the glass, and dip the edge in sugar to coat. Fill glasses with rocks, instead of crushed ice. Set aside.

2. In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine the cranberry juice, tequila, orange liqueur, and fresh lime juice. Shake.

3. Strain into ice-filled glasses and serve.

If you enjoy cookies, cocktails and canapés as much as we do, take a look at our home of all things festive with Our Best Christmas Recipes.

What’s your signature Christmas recipe?

By Sanjana Modha
Recipe and images courtesy of Ezra Pound Cake

Food blogger Alayna from The Pink Apron Baker has satisfied our cravings for sweet and crunchy biscuit-like treats with these traditional American sugar cookies. Prepared during popular holidays, these simple cookies jazzed up to suit the occasion, are perfect for Christmas.

Whether you want to make elaborate Santas, festive trees or simple patterned cookies, Alayna has provided a recipe to meet your every wish. Having only taken one class in pie making, this baker is mostly self taught and when her kitchen produces such beautifully decorated recipes like this, it’s difficult to tell.

Meet Alayna

What is your signature Christmas dish?
Eggnog cookies with rum frosting.  They are a Christmas tradition. People start asking me for them in November.  My sister wanted them for her birthday in May. I can’t make enough.  I’ve learned to make a ton of dough and freeze it so I don’t have to start from scratch every time I want to make them.

What’s in your fridge at home right now?
Lots of butter for all the cookies, frosting and cakes that will be made over the festive period.

If your blog were a Food Network chef, who would it be?
Giada De Laurentiis because she’s cute and filled with ideas!

The recipe in her words

The royal icing used in this recipe dries hard, making it great for decorating sugar cookies at Christmas. It must be stored in an airtight container when not in use as it will dry immediately once exposed to air.

For the Sugar Cookies

720g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
215g unsalted butter
400g sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Cream sugar and butter until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl and slowly add to butter mixture. Mix well. Put a handful of the freshly-made dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll to desired thickness. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

2. Put the rolled dough, including the parchment paper, on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes or longer. Remove chilled dough from refrigerator and cut out desired shapes using cookie cutter. Repeat using remainder of dough. Bake at 175°C for 8-10 minutes. Let cool.

While cookies are cooling, start making the royal icing.

For the royal Icing

2 eggs whites
300g icing sugar sifted
3 teaspoons lemon juice

Method

Using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat egg whites and lemon juice on low until combined.  Add sugar and continue beating until icing forms a peak about 7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer.  Store in an airtight container when not in use as the icing will dry once exposed to air. Add any desired food colouring and start decorating.

Do you make and decorate cookies around the festive period? Why not explore our gallery of Christmas cookie recipes to discover some more family favourites.

By Sanjana Modha
Recipe and images courtesy of The Pink Apron Baker

Using classic American peanut butter cookies (make your own using just five ingredients with Keegan Gerhard’s recipe), the duo set to work layering up chocolate pudding, peanut butter cookie crumbs and peanut butter whipped cream for this lip-smacking trifle.

Meet Donna

What is your signature Christmas dish?
The dish (if cookies are a dish) that I am most known for are my decorated sugar cookies with icing.  They are amazing and everyone asks for them.

If your blog, The Slow Roasted Italian were a Food Network chef, who would it be?
I am most inspired by Giada de Laurentiis and Ina Garten. I enjoy reinventing classic Italian and Greek dishes, and love entertaining.

Which smells remind you of Christmas?
Vanilla and peppermint.

The recipe in their words

“This recipe has become a family favourite. It uses peanut butter cookies to make a tasty trifle. It’s simple, delicious and looks and tastes incredibly impressive.”

Peanut Butter Cookie and Chocolate Trifle
(Serves 4)

480ml prepared chocolate pudding (recipe to follow)
Whipped cream (recipe to follow)
6-8 of your favourite peanut butter cookies
120g peanut butter
55g chocolate, melted

Method

1. Crumble cookies by hand or in a food processor, into fine crumbs.  Set aside.

2. In a medium size bowl add whipped cream and peanut butter, gentling fold peanut butter into whipped cream until combined.  Set aside.

3. In four individual trifle dishes or bowl of your choice, add two to four tablespoons of crumbled cookie to the bottom, shake to disperse evenly.  Add some of the pudding to the dishes.  Smooth out for an even line.  Add 2-4 more tablespoons of crumbled cookie.  Add some of the peanut butter whipped cream.  Smooth out top for a nice presentation.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

4. Drizzle with chocolate and sprinkle with cookie crumbs.

Chocolate Pudding
(Serves 6)

Ingredients:

150g sugar
40g unsweetened cocoa powder
30g cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
720ml milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Method:

1. In a medium pot over medium heat combine sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt, add milk slowly.  Bring to a boil.  Allow to boil for 2-3 minutes, stirring continually.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Pour into a heat proof bowl and cover with plastic wrap (place the cling film directly on top of the pudding to prevent the ‘skin’ from forming).  Allow to chill until served.

Simple Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

240ml double cream
3 tablespoons icing sugar

Method:

1. In a tall mixing bowl whip cold whipping cream until peaks form.  To prevent splattering start on low and increase mixer speed until peaks form.  Add sugar continue to whip until medium peaks form.  Chill until served.

For more cookie inspiration, take a look at our delicious Christmas cookie gallery jam-packed with recipes.

Do you have a dessert recipe using your favourite cookies? Share it with us below.

By Sanjana Modha
Recipe and images courtesy of The Slow Roasted Italian

Keeping much about the author under wraps by letting the food do the talking, blogger Tammy composes easy-to-follow tutorials accompanied by stunning photography.

Meet Tammy

What is your signature Christmas dish?
Christmas morning quiche; a crust-less quiche with ham and gruyere. Oh! And handmade caramels, I make several batches for gifts every year without fail!

Which smells remind you of Christmas?
Clove-studded oranges. I remember making them with my mom and putting them in our drawers as pomanders to add fragrance to every room.

If your blog were a Food Network chef, who would it be?
Giada De Laurentiis. A great variety of food and so pretty to look at!

Cranberry & Camembert Canapes

Ingredients

340g fresh cranberries
150g granulated sugar
1 medium-sized jalapeno pepper, seeds and membranes removed from half
1 bunch of spring onions (about 6 or 7) use the bottom 2/3 of the onions, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh coriander
1/4 teaspoon cumin
24 crackers (whatever type your family/guests might like, big enough to fit a slice of Camembert cheese
1 small (6 inch) wheel Camembert cheese, room temperature
Chive tips to garnish
1 peeled and segmented orange, to garnish

Method

1. Place the first six ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until mixed.

2. You can let this mixture sit a few hours in the refrigerator to let the flavours blend and mellow.

3. Slice the Camembert and place on crackers. Top with cranberry mixture and garnish with chive tips and serve.

Are you partial to a cheesy canapé or three? Take a look at our tasty selection for more canapé recipes.

What’s your favourite festive canapé?

By Sanjana Modha
Recipe courtesy of The Secret Life of a Chef’s Wife