Caitriona Redmond: How to make my St Stephen’s Day pie from Christmas Day leftovers 

Keep an eye out for bargains to stock a freezer

It’s all about the leftovers from the main event but you could use fresh ingredients if you really wanted to.

I found a half-price ham in the supermarket on St Stephen’s Day a few years ago. Actually, it was an entire cabinet with several shelves of full-sized bone-in smoked hams. They were bigger than a small child, and heavier, although slightly less awkward to carry than a wriggly child in the supermarket.

 If you ever spot that much expensive food on special offer it’s the kind of thing that will make you stop in your tracks. Then in a post-Christmas miracle, a worker glided past. They were surrounded in a glow of goodness because in their hand there was a roll of yellow stickers. I had been about to pick up a ham at half price but to pick up one of these hams at less than half price would be the stuff of legend.

I lingered at the cereal boxes, waiting for the worker to finish her essential work. Essential to me and the other family members I’d been furtively texting to see if they had capacity to cook, break down, and store this much meat. I couldn’t make a fuss because if anybody saw and nabbed the prize before I got there the game would be off.

The worker disappeared in a puff of fairy dust and glitter shortly after they had waved their magic yellow sticker wand and reduced each Christmas ham to €10, from €85. I pounced and grasped a ham under each oxter and made my way to the checkout, channelling my inner Brian O’Driscoll, with my elbows out and trying my best not to let the slippery cold hams slide to the floor on my way to the touchline.

I cooked both hams that day, then sliced and stored the cooked meat immediately. We had enough ham for 20 family meals and the freezer was packed.

With a little bit of planning and ingenuity, you too can store your Christmas leftovers and reap the rewards well into the spring. By storing the cooked meats now, you will have plenty of meals that take less time to cook in your kitchen stores. Your future self will be thanking you, trust me!

My Christmas wish is that everybody will get a little fairy dust and a yellow sticker bargain this year. I hope you have a peaceful and happy time with plenty of tasty food.

Legendary St Stephen’s Day pie

Do you have one recipe that a family member adores and repeatedly requests? That’s the legendary pie that our 23-year-old begs me to make every year

Servings

8

Preparation Time

 25 mins

Cooking Time

 40 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 5 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 40g butter

• 80g flour

• 400ml warm cooking stock (I use the ham water from the day before)

• 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

• Ham, cooked and chopped

• Turkey, cooked and chopped

• 200g frozen peas

• 200g frozen sweetcorn

• 2 packets defrosted filo pastry

• 200g butter melted (for the filo)

Method

1. 40g of butter in a saucepan on a medium heat. Sprinkle the flour on top and cook in the melted butter. You are essentially making a type of roux sauce.

2. Ladle in spoons of the hot cooking stock to the saucepan and stir constantly until you get a runny sauce-like texture. Stir in 1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard (or more if you like mustard). There is no need to season this sauce because the seasoning comes from the salty stock made when the ham was boiled the day before.

3. Spoon the meat and frozen vegetables into a very large baking dish. Pour the sauce on top.

4. The next step is messy but gives very satisfying crispy bits on the top of the pie!

5. Melt 200g of butter in the microwave on a large plate.

6. Take each sheet of filo into your hand and crumple it lightly into a ball dip the crumpled piece of pastry into the melted butter and then place on top of the ingredients in the baking dish. Continue until the baking dish is completely covered.

7. Cook in a fan oven heated to 180°C for 35-40 minutes. Serve with plenty of buttered mash.

Braised Brussels Sprouts with garlic and chilli

Prepare your sprouts by trimming the ends and peeling off the outer leaves until you're left with pale green, firm brussels sprouts. Then cut a small "x" or cross into the bottom of each one

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 60 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 5 mins

Course

 Side

Ingredients

• 1 net bag of trimmed sprouts

• 100g butter

• 100ml water

• 4 cloves of garlic, sliced

• 1 chilli sliced

Method

1. Place all the ingredients into a shallow ovenproof dish. Pop your dish into a warm fan oven of about 125°C for at least 1 hour. Check the edges of the dish often in case you need to top up with a dribble of water to prevent them from drying out.

2. For extra flavour use ham water for the braising liquid.

3. On Christmas Day, once the oven is turned off and your bird is resting you could pop a dish of prepared sprouts into the base of the oven to braise in the residual heat. This is a great idea if you have an Aga or similar.

4. Serve by tipping the dish upside down so that the sprouts nestle in the paper that covered them during cooking and season generously with fresh black pepper and maybe some more chilli slices.