STALE NUTS RECIPES

Steps:

• 1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Leaving it in the box, score around the top of a 250g Camembert about ½cm in and cut off the top layer of skin. Finely slice a peeled garlic clove and poke it into the top of the cheese with a few fresh rosemary tips. Drizzle with a little olive oil then bake in the hot oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until gorgeous and oozy in the middle.
  2. Thread bite-sized pieces of stale bread onto stripped woody rosemary sprigs, drizzle them with olive oil and a tiny pinch of sea salt to help them crisp up then lay them on a tray and pop in the oven to cook with the Camembert.
  3. Finely chop a small handful of dried cranberries and mixed nuts and put them in a little bowl. Once your bread skewers are golden and crisp and your cheese is oozy, put everything out on a board then dunk a bit of toasted bread in the gooey cheese and dip it in the cranberry and nuts – a little mouthful of 1980s heaven.

Steps:

• 1. Peel and finely chop the shallots and garlic, and roughly chop all the fresh mushrooms. Pick the thyme leaves and tear the stale bread into small chunks.
  2. Lightly toast the nuts in a dry frying pan, then roughly chop. Pick and roughly chop the parsley.
  3. Cover the porcini with 300ml of boiling water and leave aside to rehydrate.
  4. Heat the oil in a large, wide pan and add the shallot and garlic. Cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 8 minutes or until the shallot is softened but not coloured.
  5. Drain the soaked porcini over a bowl, reserving the liquid. Add these and the rest of the mushrooms to the pan along with the bay and thyme leaves and cook until all the mushrooms are well softened. If they release a lot of liquid, pour it onto the diced bread and carry on cooking.
  6. When the mushrooms are tender and browned, tip the mixture into a large bowl and leave to cool completely.
  7. Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5.
  8. Once the cooked mushroom mixture has cooled, add the chunks of bread, a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper, the pecans or hazelnuts and about half of the porcini’s reserved soaking liquid (make sure you pour it through a sieve first to stop any grit getting through). Combine well.
  9. If the stuffing seems too dry, just add a little more of the reserved porcini liquid.
  10. Add most of the parsley and stir it through then tip the stuffing into a lightly greased baking dish of approximately 20cm x 25cm and cover with foil.
  11. Place in the oven and bake for 35 minutes, then remove the foil and cook for a further 10 minutes. Scatter over the rest of the chopped parsley before serving.