Sophie Morris - Sophie Kooks Month by Month: December

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my mum Shelagh and my dad Tim.

You are both the best.

With tonnes of love,

Soph

Hello! Im Sophie, owner of Irish food company Kooky Dough. Before starting Kooky Dough with my business partner Graham in 2009, I had no experience of working in the food industry at all, but it had been my dream for a long time to have a food business.

My interest in food began as a young girl, watching my mum buzz about frantically in the kitchen. It amazed me every time, after all her fretting, she would produce incredibly beautiful food. I guess she just didnt know how good a cook she was. I wanted to be like her minus the frantic part, of course. So I started to cook a lot during college when I moved out of home. I became obsessed with trying new things and I loved cooking for friends. My eagerness to learn more led me to the Ballymaloe Cookery School in 2008. I adored the experience and it was then that I started to really think about having my own food business one day.

Of course, I have to admit that I chickened out completely when I moved back to Dublin! I took a financial services job based on my college qualifications. I knew Id done the wrong thing as soon as I started, but it was 2008 a scary time to be looking for a job in Ireland. Despite this (and despite numerous people telling me I was crazy), I quit the job quite quickly to pursue a career in food. Before long, Graham and I were standing behind a fold-up table in the farmers market in Stillorgan selling rolls of cookie dough that wed made in my tiny mixer at home. And the rest, as they say, is history...

Were incredibly fortunate that Kooky Dough has gone so well for us so far and although its extremely hard work running a young business, its still very exciting and full of surprises! One thing Ive always been adamant about throughout all the crazy, long working days weve had, is to eat well every night and to keep cooking from scratch. I really do believe its the key to staying on top of a hectic life! Not only does cooking help me unwind in the evening time, it keeps me healthy and Im also positive it keeps my concentration and energy levels up.

I have a lot of friends who work crazy hours and have lives just as hectic as mine, but theyre at a loss in the evenings as to what to cook. They want something that wont take too long or too much effort, so they end up having things like beans on toast not very inspiring five days a week This is how I got the idea for the book. I wanted to write down all the things that I manage to cook during my manic week; things that arent too tiring or complicated. With some very basic store cupboard essentials and a weekly fresh food shop, youll be laughing!

I hope you all enjoy the recipes as much as I do.

Love,

Sophie x

PS

Of course, I wouldnt be me if I didnt throw in a load of recipes for yummy baked goodies and desserts. Life would be no fun if we didnt treat ourselves!

Christmas is my absolute favourite time of year. Friends and family all flock homefor a few weeks and there are endless parties and gatherings to go to, where you cancatch up and laugh away together into the early hours. What could be better? Theother fantastic thing about Christmas is that its the one time of year that we all allowourselves to indulge in an enormous amount of gorgeously rich and delicious food.There are some lovely festive recipes in this chapter and I hope you enjoy them withyour nearest and dearest.

This is a hearty rustic stew that turns a packet of sausages into a comforting one-pot wonder! I adore lentils and always have them in my store cupboard: theyre brilliant for bulking up meals and are really inexpensive, too. Sausages and lentils go amazingly well together the lentils absorb the richness of the sausages and allow their fantastic flavour to shine.

Im a big fan of one-pot meals: effortless cooking and minimal washing up is just perfect, if you ask me. The simple salad is all you need on the side and you can even leave that out, if you wish. Serves 4

For the dressing

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard

1 teaspoon honey

olive oil

8 thick, good-quality pork sausages, whole

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

4 slices pancetta or smoky bacon, diced

2 x 400 g cans chopped tomatoes

2 sprigs of rosemary

1 bay leaf

125 ml red wine

teaspoon dried chilli flakes (optional)

180 g puy lentils, rinsed and drained (green or brown lentils also work well)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 handfuls of mixed baby salad leaves

Use a balloon whisk to mix all the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl. Season and set aside.

Heat a lug of olive oil in a large pan over a high heat. Add the sausages and fry for 67 minutes, turning occasionally until beginning to brown all over. Remove the sausages to a plate and set aside.

Turn the heat to low. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and fry for about 3 minutes, until softened. Add the pancetta, increase the heat and cook for 34 minutes, until it has coloured and the onions are slightly singed around the edges. Add the tomatoes, rosemary, bay leaf, wine, 400 ml water and chilli, if using. Bring to the boil, then add the lentils and cooked sausages. Stir well, cover and simmer gently for 3040 minutes, until the lentils are tender. You may need to add some boiling water throughout cooking if all the liquid is absorbed before the lentils are cooked. Be careful not to overcook the lentils or theyll lose their shape.

Just before serving, tip the salad leaves into a bowl and drizzle over enough of the dressing to lightly coat the leaves. Taste the stew, season if needs be and serve it straight from the pot.

Florentines are really elegant Italian biscuits made by setting nuts and dried fruits in caramel and coating the bases with dark chocolate. These slim, beautiful biscuits are a bit more time-consuming than other biscuits, but they look so impressive and make great gifts at Christmas time people will think youre a genius baker!

Traditional recipes use candied peel and glac cherries but Ive gone for dried cranberry and coconut, which is a lovely combination and so Christmassy. Double the recipe if you want to make more for gifts. Makes about 12 Florentines

30 g butter, plus extra for greasing

70 g brown sugar

1 tablespoon flour, plus extra for dusting

60 ml double cream

40 g flaked almonds

20 g blanched almonds

40 g desiccated coconut

70 g dried cranberries

150 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Grease a few baking sheets with butter and dust them lightly with flour.

Melt the butter, together with the sugar and flour, in a medium pan over a low heat and keep stirring until the mixture has melted. Add the cream, stirring continuously until you have a nice, smooth caramel. Add the almonds, coconut and cranberries. Mix well to combine, then remove from the heat.