Local chefs and restrauteurs share their favourite festive recipes
Marmalade Martini
Leighton Mattey from The Three Horseshoes in Madingley offers a recipe for an extra special Christmas tipple.
He says: “The idea behind the cocktail was to combine the exotic and warming aromatic flavours of the Sacred cardamom gin with the homely familiarity of orange marmalade. It’s a comfort cocktail, essentially. We also have a chocolate, coffee and cardamom truffle cake on our sweet menu at the moment and the cocktail ties in really nicely with this.”
Ingredients
• 25ml Sacred cardamom gin
• 25ml Cointreau
• 2tsp marmalade (fine cut)
• 20ml hot water
• Splash of lemon juice
• Ice
• Orange twist, cardamom cloves and star anise to garnish
Step-by-Step Guide
1. Place marmalade and hot water in a cocktail shaker and stir.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients.
3. Shake over ice (around six cubes).
4. Strain into a chilled copper Martini glass.
5. Garnish with orange twist, cardamom, cloves and star anise – and serve.
The Three Horseshoes, High Street, Madingley, Cambridge CB23 8AB
www.threehorseshoesmadingley.co.uk
Layered leftover pie
Carlos Riberio, of Co. at No. 15 in Cherry Hinton, shares a scrumptious, hearty recipe that’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser post-Christmas. It’s quick, easy and adaptable, plus it can be made vegan, vegetarian and coeliac friendly.
He says: “We call this recipe Layered Leftover Pie, but it’s also known as Winter Vegetable Pie or The Day After Christmas Pie or Post-Christmas Pie – whatever you think works better! It’s a great recipe for the festive season because it uses up all of the leftovers from Christmas and to create a warm and comforting, indulgent pie.”
Pie ingredients
• Leftover meats or mains: turkey, chicken and nut roast all work well for the filling
• Root vegetables such as sweet parsnips and squash work well for the topping
• Milk, butter and cheese are tasty optional extras – see right for non-dairy sauce ideas
Step-by-step guide
1. Preheat the oven.
2. Get started by laying out all of your leftover ingredients (nut roast/turkey/chicken/other meats/any sauces/trimmings etc.).
3. Mash all of the root veg, along with any other ‘mashable’ veg together to create a ‘Mixed Mash’ (things like sweet potato, parsnips, roast potato, pumpkin, butternut squash) and put to one side (milk, butter and cheese are optional extras, or you can substitute alternatives like nut butters and extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil).
4. Shred any meats/mains, such as turkey, chicken, nut roast, and leave to one side.
5. Chop up any non-potato veggies like Brussels sprouts, peas, fine beans, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots and leave to one side.
6. Select any sauces/trimmings/cheeses. For a non-dairy pie, see the recipes below and right.
7. Once you have prepared all of the ingredients, you can decide whether you’d like to prepare either individual portions in smaller ramekins or one large pie. Having selected your pie dish you can then begin to create layers using your already prepared leftovers, starting with the mash first (ensure you leave a little behind to finish with a layer of mash at the end). Then, in no special order, continue to create layers until you are approximately one inch from the top of your pie dish, at which stage you can finish it off with a layer of mash and decorate with any leftover herbs.
8. Place your pies in the oven on a medium heat for approximately 20-25 minutes.
Non-dairy alternatives
For a non-dairy option you can make your own vegan ‘parmesan’ or ‘cheese sauce’. All you require is a mini food processor, then blitz together all the ingredients for either of the following sauce ideas.
Non-dairy ‘Parmesan’ ingredients
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup whole raw cashews
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2tsp kosher salt
• 1/4tsp garlic powder
Non-dairy ‘cheese sauce’ ingredients
• 1/2tsp mustard
• 1/4tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4tsp nutmeg
• 1/4tsp sea salt
• 1/4tsp fine black pepper
• 1tsp tahini
• 3tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup raw cashews (soak for 24 hours and then drain before using)
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/3 cup water (add slowly, as and when you need it to create a perfect smooth, sauce consistency – as you may not always require the full stated amount)
Co. at No. 15, 15 High Street, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, CB1 9HX
Pear & marzipan flapjacks
Local cake baker extraordinaire Jo Kruczynska, owner of Afternoon Tease on King Street, shares a recipe for a tempting sweet treat.
She says: “This is a really easy bake for the festive season. Shop-bought marzipan will work perfectly well in this recipe, but if you’re a real marzipan fan then I highly recommend making your own. I use a Delia recipe, which can be found online – and the good news is that it makes 375g marzipan so there’ll be plenty left to make marzipan sweets for gifts or just to eat yourself!”
Ingredients
• 175g unsalted butter
• 50g light muscovado sugar
• 140g golden syrup
• 250g porridge oats
• 2 pears, peeled, cored and chopped into small cubes
• 200g marzipan, chopped into small cubes (feel free to add more if you’re a marzipan fiend)
• Flaked almonds for the topping
Step-by-step guide
1. Preheat the oven to 160° (fan oven).
2. Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan. Do not let it boil! Stir in the oats and stir well until they are all coated in the melted mixture.
3. Stir in the pear and marzipan cubes and pour into an eight-inch (20cm) square tin lined with baking parchment.
4. Even the surface out and sprinkle with flaked almonds.
5. Bake for 30 minutes. Your flapjacks should be set (not runny) and golden on top. If not quite golden enough just pop them in for another five minutes until you’re happy with them.
6. Leave to cool before removing from the tin and slicing.
Afternoon Tease, 13 King Street, Cambridge CB1 1LH
Pint Shop #3 Christmas special
Rich Holmes, co-owner of the Pint Shop, shares a cocktail recipe which bursts with festive flavours
He says: “This is one of our classic House Serves. Each season we take a gin and steep it with seasonal fruit. At this time of year we use clementines as they remind us of Christmas, then we add some warmth with the ginger. Normally we mix the gin with ginger ale but at this time of the year we use bitter lemon because it makes us think of our gran sipping on a gin and bitter lemon in front of the fire on Christmas Day.”
For the gin infusion 
• 700ml Beefeater gin
• 1 clementine
• 5 kumquats
• 40g fresh root ginger
• 5g fresh rosemary
Step-by-step guide
1. Peel the root ginger, slice the kumquats and break apart the clementine to create the most flavour.
2. Add all the ingredients to a kilner jar
3. Macerate this for a minimum of seven days, but longer if you can wait.
4. Strain the infusion and reserve.
Cocktail ingredients
• 25ml of gin infusion
• 25ml Lillet red vermouth
• 125ml bitter lemon
• Kumquat, orange twist and rosemary to garnish
• Ice
Step-by-step guide
1. To serve build all the ingredients into a long glass full of ice and stir.
2. Garnish with a slice of kumquat, orange twist and a fresh bit of rosemary.
Pint Shop, 10 Peas Hill, Cambridge CB2 3PN
