Honeyed Wheaten Bread with Jumbled Nuts, Seeds and Fruit

Part of my January #givingupstockingup challenge is not to buy food if I've got the ingredients to make it myself. That applies to bread so I was keen to try Sue Quinn's Honeyed Wheaten Bread from her excellent new book on using up leftovers, Second Helpings. It also, as she points out, uses up half-used packets of nuts, seeds and dried fruit, which you may have in stock after Christmas.

"This loaf doesn’t care if nuts are soft and past their prime, or whether you add particular seeds or dried fruit" Sue writes. "Tumble in what’s lurking in your store cupboard and you’ll be rewarded with a highly moreish loaf that’s heavenly spread thickly with good salty butter and/or golden syrup or served with cheese."

Leftovers: nuts, seeds, dried fruit

Serves 8–10

Preparation: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 45–50 minutes

60g (1⁄4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, plus extra for greasing

180g (scant 11⁄2 cups) wholemeal (whole wheat) flour

180g (scant 11⁄2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour

30g (scant 1⁄4 cup) porridge oats (rolled oats), plus extra for scattering on top

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

1⁄4 tsp fine sea salt

40g (11⁄2oz) mixed nuts, lightly toasted and roughly chopped

40g (11⁄2oz) mixed seeds

80g (23⁄4oz) mixed dried fruit, roughly chopped

60g (about 1⁄4 cup) runny honey

250g (11⁄4 cups) Greek yoghurt, crème fraîche or soured cream (or a mixture)

5 Tbsp milk, or as much as needed

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas mark 4. Grease a loaf tin (loaf pan) roughly 23 x 13 x 7cm (8 cups) and line the long sides and base with one large sheet of baking paper that overhangs the sides.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, oats, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and salt by stirring with a fork. Rub the cubed butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the nuts, seeds and dried fruit and mix to evenly distribute – hands work best for this.

Mix the honey into the yoghurt, then stir into the dry mixture. Gradually add the milk, mixing with your hands between each addition, to make a sticky dough. Scrape the dough into the prepared tin and smooth the top with the back of a wet spoon, pushing it into the corners.

Scatter over a small handful of oats. Bake for 45–50 minutes, or until risen and golden, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then lift out onto a wire rack to cool, using the baking paper as handles.

Try ...

Using leftover porridge (oatmeal) instead of uncooked oats. Omit the 30g (scant 1⁄4 cup) oats, reduce the yoghurt to 200g (1 cup) and stir in 60g (about 1⁄2 cup) cold porridge.

Extracted from Second Helpings by Sue Quinn published by Quadrille at £18.99. Photo by Facundo Bustamante

Stichelton, pear and walnut salad

A perfect seasonal salad from Jeremy Lee’s gorgeous book Cooking to use the Christmas Stilton or as Jeremy suggests, Stichelton. I love the touch of using membrillo in it and, if you can get hold of it, quince vinegar.

Jeremy writes: "This pleasing salad is best in the winter months when walnuts, pears and Stilton are at their peak. It is worth keeping an eye out for interesting varieties of pears such as Passe-Crassane, so distinctive with their stalks topped with a drip of red wax.Colston Bassett is a pasteurised Stilton, the only Stilton permitted, and Stichelton is unpasteurised, and made from the last culture taken from the last unpasteurised Colston Bassett Stilton that was stored and preserved by Randolph Hodgson at Neal’s Yard Dairy.

Stichelton, pear and walnut salad

Feeds 6

2–3 ripe pears

1 soup spoon very good vinegar (you can get quince vinegar from the Vinegar Shed)

250g Stichelton or Colston Bassett Stilton or any good blue cheese

75g membrillo or quince cheese

100g walnuts, coarsely chopped

3 big handfuls of mixed leaves such as escarole, soft green lettuce, rocket, spinach, chicory or even watercress

3 soup spoons walnut oil

2 soup spoons extra virgin olive oil

Halve and core the pears, then slice thinly. In a big bowl, toss the pears in the vinegar to prevent discoloration. Crumble the Stichelton over the pears.

Cut the membrillo into small pieces and scatter over the Stichelton, then strew with the chopped walnuts. Add the leaves,a little salt and black pepper and the walnut and olive oils. Mix together, taste for seasoning and serve.

What to drink: So not port, for a start, even though it's Stilton! I'd be tempted by a rich white like a grenache gris or a white Côtes du Rhône. An amontillado sherry would also be rather delicious.

Extracted from Cooking Simply and Well, for One or Many by Jeremy Lee, published by Fourth Estate at £30.

Celeriac, potato and anchovy gratin

I love the idea of cooking everything in one dish (quick, easy, no washing up!) so Sue Quinn's book Roasting Tray Magic is right up my street.

I picked out this recipe which is like a cross between a gratin dauphinoise and the Swedish dish Jansson's Temptation with celeriac replacing half the potato. It's not vegetarian given the anchovies but you could obviously leave those out.

There is also you will notice a fair amount of cream! I think I'd be inclined to reduce the double cream to 300ml - the size of a mid-sized carton - which should be enough for the amount of celeriac and potato involved. (In fact I used slightly more of both I made it last night and it was fine) Sue is also right in saying a mandolin makes the task of cutting them a LOT easier!

Oh and the cheesy, crispy topping is absolutely irresistible!

Celeriac, potato and anchovy gratin

Serves: 4 | Takes: about 1 hour, plus 5 minutes cooling

Knobbly old celeriac is a sadly undervalued root vegetable. It might not be photogenic, but it’s absolutely delicious, with a sweet, nutty flavour reminiscent of the celery family of which it is a member. The anchovies add a gorgeous depth of flavour – no fishiness at all.

400ml milk, plus extra if needed

400ml double cream (see note above)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

3 anchovy fillets, very finely chopped

2–3 thyme sprigs

freshly ground black pepper

300g celeriac

300g waxy potatoes

100g grated Comté cheese

green salad, to serve (optional)

For the topping:

100g sourdough or country-style bread, torn into small pieces

2 tbsp olive oil

30g grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Combine the milk, cream, garlic, anchovies and thyme in a 30 x 20 x 5-cm roasting tray and season with pepper.

Peel and very finely slice the celeriac and potatoes, ideally on a mandolin, adding the vegetables to the creamy tray liquid as you go to prevent them browning. Bake for 20 minutes, shaking the tray halfway through. Add a little more milk if necessary so the vegetables are just submerged. Meanwhile, mix all the topping ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside.

When the vegetables have had their 20 minutes, sprinkle over the Comté, then the topping mix. Bake for a further 30 minutes – the vegetables should be beautifully tender when the time is up. Leave to cool in the tray for 5 minutes before serving – a green salad is the perfect accompaniment.

What to drink: We drank a bottle of Chablis which is what we happened to have open but other white burgundy and, in particular, Jura chardonnay would work well too.

From Roasting Tray Magic by Sue Quinn (Quadrille, £14.99) Photography © Faith Mason

Brown rice and potato pilaf

Brown food is a bit of a running joke on instagram but the fact is that monotone brown or beige dishes are often the most delicious. That's certainly the case with Sam and Sam Clark's brown rice and potato pilaf from their most recent book Moro Easy.

"The double carbs are the key to the magic of this pilaf. The two basic ingredients combine to create an opulent and luxurious texture. Perfect with labneh, mushrooms, sweet herbs and chilli butter (page 67), spinach, pine nuts and sultanas (page 133), lamb chops (page 240), duck breasts with walnut and pomegranate sauce (page 226) and roast chicken with fenugreek and coriander marinade (page 222). (You now see why you need the book!)

Serves 4

75g butter

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 ½ teaspoons ground allspice or baharat

2 leeks (white parts only) thinly sliced

500g potatoes, peeled, cut into 1.5cm cubes and tossed with 1 teaspoon salt

250g brown rice

700ml hot vegetable stock (2 tablespoons Marigold vegetable powder mixed with boiling water)

4 tablespoons crispy fried onions

150g Greek yoghurt, mixed with 1 garlic clove, crushed with a little salt

In a medium heavy-based saucepan, heat the butter over a medium heat. When it foams, add the cinnamon and allspice, fry for 30 seconds, then add the leeks and a pinch of salt and black pepper. Fry for 12–15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the leeks are soft and sweet.

Add the potatoes and rice, stir well, then pour over the hot stock. Cover with a circle of baking paper and a lid and simmer gently for 30–40 minutes, or until the potatoes and rice are cooked. Remove from the heat, check for seasoning and let it rest for 5 minutes, then serve with the crispy onions on top and the yoghurt on the side.

What to drink: It's not a question of matching the pilaf as the dish it accompanies though I think we're probably talking about a red. I'd be inclined to go for a rioja reserva if it was lamb chops and a new world pinot noir with the labneh and mushrooms.

Extracted from Moro Easy by Sam & Sam Clark, published by Ebury Press at £30. Photograph © Susan Bell

Footnote: Roopa Gulati has a brilliant recipe for crispy onions in her book India in the World Vegetarian series. Basically you slice a couple of large onions, sprinkle them with salt, leave them for at least an hour, drain them and pat them dry then deep fry them in batches. But you should get the book which is brilliant. FB