New York sweet cranberry mustard

A delicious relish to serve with the Thanksgiving leftovers or to bookmark for Christmas from Diana Henry's Salt, Sugar, Smoke. It keeps for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.

"This is inspired by a mustard served at New York’s Home restaurant, a fabulously comforting place. I have made it slightly sweeter. It’s perfect at Christmas when you’re making all those turkey and ham sarnies and want cranberries with a kick."

Fills 1 x 225g (8oz) jar

100g (3½oz) dried cranberries

150ml (5fl oz) apple or orange juice

200g (7oz) fresh cranberries

3 tbsp granulated sugar

4 tbsp runny honey

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp grain mustard

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 Put the dried cranberries in a pan and add enough apple or orange juice to cover. Bring to a boil then remove from the heat and leave to plump up for 30 minutes.

2 Put 200ml (7fl oz) of water and the fresh cranberries in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the cranberries have popped (about five minutes), then add the sugar and honey and stir until dissolved.

3 Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan and sauté the onion until soft and golden. Add the vinegar and mustard and cook gently for another five minutes. Mix this with both types of cranberries and any remaining soaking liquid from the dried cranberries, and season to taste.

4 Whizz in a food processor using the pulse button (if you want it really smooth you can then press the mixture through a nylon sieve, but I leave it chunky). Pot in a sterilized jar, cover with a waxed paper disc, then seal with a vinegar-proof lid. Cool, and keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

How to use

This is obviously a good thing to have around at Christmas, and it’s good with cold ham too. Russians eat cranberries with red meat, so don’t rule it out with cold rare roast beef. Its USP is that it is both hot and sweet.

Wine tip: You're obviously not going to match your wine specifically to a relish but its sweet-sharp character will affect any pairing you're contemplating. I'd suggest a good quality Beaujolais or other bright, fruity red. A medium dry cider would be good too.

Salt, Sugar, Smoke by Diana Henry is published by Mitchell Beazley at £20. I'm also a big fan of her new book Simple.

Thanksgiving turkey with a special Italian stuffing

If you haven't yet decided how to cook your Thanksgiving turkey try this fabulous Italian stuffing from ex-pat American food and wine writer Brian St Pierre.

"If you want to do Thanksgiving a little differently, why not look to Italy? Italians took to turkey as no other Europeans did, probably because they saw the bird the way that artists see blank spaces, as something to project their imaginations onto. You see it on menus of even the most exalted restaurants, sliced and stuffed with a spicy filling as involtini, or poached lightly in flavored olive oil, or roasted and stuffed with chestnuts in the autumn, or braised in wine to a juicy tenderness year-round.

To Italians, the idea that anyone would eat such a magnificent food only twice a year, and - even worse - to prepare it pretty much the same way each time, with the same side dishes, seems like absurd self-denial."

Roast turkey stuffed with pancetta and herbs
Serves 12

1 turkey, 10 to12 pounds
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for coating
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground pork
8 ounces sweet Italian sausage, removed from casing
2 cups loosely packed cubed sourdough bread without crusts, soaked in 1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons medium-sweet Marsala wine
3 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
3 ounces pancetta, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. Rinse and dry the turkey, rub the inside with salt.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a medium large skillet and sauté the onion and half the garlic for about 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the pork and sausage meat. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring well, until it loses its raw pink color. Remove from heat and let cool.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the bread cubes, herbs, pine nuts, Parmesan, and Marsala. Add the meat and mix well. Set this stuffing aside. In a small bowl, combine the rosemary, pancetta, and remaining garlic. Mix well. Loosen the skin of the turkey across the breast, beginning at the back of the bird, by inserting a finger under the skin and running it back and forth side to side, then forward. Insert the rosemary-pancetta mixture under the skin and massage it around forward fairly evenly across the breast meat (it will provide an aromatic, delicious self-baste). Stuff the turkey and skewer the cavity closed.

Place the bird on a rack in a roasting pan and brush or rub the skin liberally with olive oil, then rub with salt and pepper. Roast, basting occasionally with more olive oil and pan juices, for about 3 hours (figuring 18 minutes to the pound) until juices run clear when skin is pricked. Remove from the oven, let rest for 20 minutes loosely covered with foil, and carve.Serve with simple veg, such as caramelized mushrooms and a couple of shallots tossed with lightly steamed green beans and parsley

Brian’s wine suggestion: a lightish red such as Valpolicella, Nerello Mascalese (from Mt. Etna), Cerasuolo di Vittoria (Planeta's is nice); outside Italy, very good Beaujolais, New World Pinot Noir under 14% alcohol. (On a festive day, wine's the accompanist, not the star.)

Brian St Pierre is the restaurant critic of Decanter magazine and the author of The Winelover Cooks Italian. You can also read his writing at foodandwineinlondon.com and stpierre on wine

Image © msheldrake - Fotolia.com

Signe Johansen’s Oatmeal Waffles

If ever a bit of hygge was needed it’s this week so what better way to cheer yourself up than to bunker down with a few delicious Norwegian style waffles from my friend Signe Johansen’s lovely new book How to Hygge.

Sig writes: Who doesn’t love a waffle? In the Nordic countries they’re traditionally made in heart-shaped irons that not only look pretty but are also ideal for sharing.

An update on the classic sour cream and vanilla waffles you find in Norway these have a nutty flavour thanks to the light toasting of oats before you blend them into a finer oatmeal. They make an excellent mid-afternoon fika too.

Serves 4-6

150g porridge oats

350g refined spelt flour (or use a sprouted version if you want a nuttier, wholegrain flavour)

1 tsp baking powder

100g caster sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

150g butter, melted, plus extra for greasing

100ml water

250g crème fraîche or sour cream

200ml oat milk (or whole milk)

4 medium eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas 3. Spread the oats on a baking tray or in an ovenproof dish and put in the oven for 10 minutes or until the oats start to smell nutty and turn a slightly darker colour. Remove and allow to cool for a few minutes before placing half in a blender and blitzing to make a fine oat flour.

Next sift the dry ingredients including the oat flour into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the toasted oats. Make a well in the middle and add the liquid ingredients. Using a large whisk stir well until you have a thick batter - it should take a couple of seconds to drop from the whisk.

Set the batter aside for at least 30 minutes to allow the starch cells in the flour to swell. This will help thicken the batter and produce better waffles. Spread a little butter over both the top and bottom of your waffle iron and heat, following the manufacturer’s instructions.

Once it’s hot place a ladleful of batter in the iron before closing. The waffles will look golden brown and crisp when they’re ready. Flick them out of the iron with a palate knife and serve with a topping of your choice. (In the picture Sig is spooning over a red Fruits of the Forest compote, the recipe for which is also in the book but I’m not going to give it to you to encourage you to go out and buy it. Which you should anyway!)

Tip: If you’re not cooking the waffles at a table with your family and friends, preheat the oven to low so that you can keep them warm until you’re ready to serve everyone.

Extracted from How to Hygge: the Secrets of Nordic Living £14.99 Bluebird Books Photograph © Keiko Oikawa

Roast supreme of guinea fowl with sherry and grapes

A perfect autumnal dinner party recipe from James Ramsden's lovely book Do Ahead Dinners.

James says: "Guinea fowl remains an inexplicably underused bird – it’s got something of the pheasant about it (but without the propensity to dry out), it’s no more expensive than a decent chicken, and it’s lovely to cook with. So I say we should be cooking with it more.

Supremes are the breasts with the wing still attached. If you can’t find any, then buy two whole guinea fowl and cleave in half down the middle, cooking for 15 minutes longer."

Serves 6

2 tsp finely chopped thyme leaves

1 tsp finely chopped rosemary

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed to a paste

100g/3½oz/7 tbsp butter, softened

salt and pepper

6 supremes of guinea fowl

olive oil

200ml/7fl oz/generous ¾ cup medium-dry sherry

100ml/3½fl oz/7 tbsp chicken stock

200g/7oz grapes, halved

Up to a day ahead:

Beat the thyme, rosemary and garlic into the butter and season with salt and pepper. Ease the skin of the birds away from the flesh and carefully spread the herb butter underneath the skin. Put in a roasting pan, cover and chill.

2 hours ahead:

Take the guinea fowl out of the fridge.

1 hour ahead:

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

Drizzle the guinea fowl with olive oil and roast for 30 minutes, or until the juices run clear when the thickest part is pierced with a thin sharp knife. Remove to a warm place to rest. Put the roasting pan over a high heat and add the sherry, scraping up all the sticky bits in the pan. Simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the stock and the grapes. Simmer for another 5 minutes and taste for seasoning.

Dinnertime:

Serve the guinea fowl with the grapes and a good spoonful of gravy.

And James's tips for varying the recipe and using up leftovers:

Tart: Bit tarty already, this, though if you feel the urge to wrap the guinea fowl in Parma ham then follow that urge.

Tweak: Roast whole grouse for 12 minutes at 220°C/425°F/Gas mark 7 and then follow the same recipe for making the grape gravy.

Tomorrow: Thinly slice leftover guinea fowl and toss through a green salad with a handful of croutons.

What to drink: Although sherry is included in the dish - and would match with it - I don't think most people would expect sherry with their main course. Instead look for a heavyweight white like a grenache gris from the Roussillon or a pinot gris from Alsace. If you want to drink red I'd go for a dark, plummy pinot noir or a medium-bodied modern Spanish red like a young rioja or other tempranillo.

This recipe is from Do-Ahead Dinners by James Ramsden, published by Pavilion. Recipe photography by Yuki Sugiura