SOLO FESTIVE FEASTS | 4 Cosy Christmas Dinner Ideas for One

Around the holiday season, recipes are all about sharing or feasting with others but I want to share some single-serve recipe ideas for when you’re cooking for yourself but still want those festive flavours without having to cook a whole turkey (or do loads of washing up!). The star of the show today is my SAGE & STILTON MAC & CHEESE WITH A CRISPY SAGE TOPPING.

👋 HELLO & WELCOME
I’m Eleanor Wilkinson, a Sunday Times bestselling cookbook author and recipe developer dedicated to making cooking for one a joy! If you love one-pot one-portion recipes, you’re in the right place.

✨ ON THE MENU TODAY ✨
0:00 Intro
1:17 Making the Mac & Cheese
15:39 Individual Beef Wellington
16:45 Brown Butter Chestnut Risotto
17:25 Ham & Leek Hash Brown Pie
18:26 Finishing the Mac & Cheese

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📸 INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/eleanorgwilkinson/
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🌿 SOLO FESTIVE FEASTS IN THIS VIDEO
✨Individual Beef Wellington https://www.eleanorgwilkinson.com/one-pot-one-portion
✨Chestnut & Brown Butter Risotto https://www.eleanorgwilkinson.com/recipes/brown-butter-chestnut-risotto
✨Ham & Leek Hash Brown Pie https://www.eleanorgwilkinson.com/recipes/ham-leek-hash-brown-pie
✨Stilton & Sage Mac & Cheese:
1 Shallot
1 Clove of Garlic
15g Butter
15g Flour
1/4 Tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/4 Tsp Mustard
175ml Beer
300ml Milk
150ml Water
90g Short Pasta
35g Cheddar
35g Mozzarella
35g Stilton
2 Sage Sprigs
3 Tbsp Panko Breadcrumbs
Salt
Pepper

📙 My Cookbook, ‘ONE POT ONE PORTION’: https://www.eleanorgwilkinson.com/one-pot-one-portion

💬 Get in touch: hello@eleanorgwilkinson.com
🎥 Filming, Editing & Thumbnails by Will Candelent: https://www.instagram.com/willcandelent/

Music from Epidemic Sounds.

Hello and welcome back to Table for One, the show for solo cooks who want to make delicious food just for themselves. This week is the Christmas edition and I’m going to be sharing a few of my favorite solo festive feasts because I know that when you’re cooking for one, the idea of making a full Christmas dinner is potentially unappealing. A lot of pots, a lot of pans. So, I’m going to be sharing three of my favorite festive dinners to have this holiday period. and I’m going to be showing you how to make one of them, which is maybe my favorite one. I’m going to be making a baked Stilton and sage mac and cheese. I say it’s a Stilton mac and cheese. It’s actually got three different types of cheese, and there is a reason for each one of them. It’s also got the festive flavors of sage, of nutmeg, and we’re going to be using a little secret ingredient to make the sauce extra creamy, extra smooth, extra decadent, because that is exactly what we should be eating at Christmas. And because we like a little bit of greenery in our food, we’re going to be using everybody’s favorite festive vegetable, the Brussels sprout. It’s all going to be baked until it’s crispy and caramelized. It’s got a sage breadcrumb topping. It’s going to have the perfect cheese pull, and I think you’re going to love it. So, let’s get started. [Music] I am a bit of a mac and cheese purist. Usually, I don’t love loads of extra things in my mac and cheese. I just want a really good, really cheesy, really creamy cheese sauce. However, I’m going to make an exception for this mac and cheese. Because, as I said, the idea with these recipes is that you’re not making a full Christmas dinner, but you want to make something that feels a little bit extra special, not just your standard dinner. You want it to feel festive. I think adding a few extra things here and there in these recipes is a really great way to do that. So, usually I would just start my mac and cheese with a basic r of flour and butter, but today I’m going to start by soautaying a shellot in that butter until it’s soft and sweet, which will add a bit of a depth of flavor. I’m going to add a tiny bit of garlic, which again, I don’t actually normally love to do, but I’m going to do it today. Then I’m going to be finally shredding the Brussels sprouts, cooking those down until they’re also soft, slightly sweet, and they go a little bit almost nutty as well, which is really nice. Then we’re going to be adding the rest of our ingredients to make a classic mac and cheese sauce. A lot of people might judge me because I don’t normally add things like smoked paprika or cayenne pepper, which can be popular in a lot of American mac and cheese recipes, but as I say, I like the flavor of the cheese to really come through. But there are a couple of things that we’re adding here to enhance the flavor. One of the things that we’re going to be adding is ground nutmeg, which I actually always put in a cheese sauce because the flavor is incredible. And the thing with nutmeg is you want to be able to add it in a way where you almost don’t know that it’s there. If you can really taste the nutmeg, you’ve added too much nutmeg. I think I’ve said this before. So you just want to add enough to kind of give this subtle earthy whole flavor as like a background note to the mac and cheese. And then to go alongside that, I’m also adding Dijon mustard for a kind of hot peppery kick. This balances really well with the Stilton to just add an incredible depth of flavor. And then the final ingredient that I’m going to add, which I wouldn’t typically add to a mac and cheese, is beer. So, usually I would just make the cheese sauce with the rue and then slowly whisking in milk. But today I’m going to be adding both milk and beer. And the reason for this, well, there’s actually two reasons. The first one is for a depth of flavor. So, beer has that kind of malty again almost not earthy, but a slightly deeper flavor. It will add a richness that you wouldn’t get just from the milk. But then also, beer helps emulsify the cheese in the sauce. Kind of like when you do a spicy vodka sauce, the vodka helps emulsify the tomatoes and the cheese that you would add. If you have seen my spicy vodka noodle recipe, you will know this. And if you haven’t, then I will link it right here. And the beer does exactly the same in this recipe. So, it emulsifies the cheese, making the sauce extra creamy, extra kind of glossy and silky, which is exactly what you want, especially from a baked mac and cheese. You don’t want anything to curdle or get clumpy. So, the beer is a bit of a secret ingredient. if you want to make the best mac and cheese ever, which we do. I’ve just finally minced that shellot. I’m going to add my butter to a pan and I’m going to gently soften that shellot. And then I’m going to tell you why I’m using three types of cheese. [Music] Just while the shelots are starting to soften, I’m going to finally mince a clove of garlic as well. I’m not going to add this in at the same time because it doesn’t take quite as long to cook as the shellot and I definitely don’t want to burn it because burnt garlic is not nice. I’m only adding one clove of garlic here because I don’t want it to be a super duper garlicky mac and cheese. If you do want it to be a super duper garicky mac and cheese, then please feel free to add more. But I’m thinking about this more in terms of layers of flavor, building a kind of deep background as opposed to wanting the mac and cheese to taste of those flavors individually, if that makes sense. Building up layers using the shallots, the garlic, the nutmeg, the mustard, the beer. The mac and cheese won’t directly taste like any of those things, but they will all add this base layer of flavor that will amplify the result of the dish, if that makes sense. The schlots have started to go slightly translucent. So, I’m going to add in the garlic. And then I’m going to finally shred my Brussels sprouts. And then I will finally tell you about all the different cheeses. Okay. So, I’ve got 75 g of Brussels sprouts. So, it’s not it’s not loads. It’s not going to take over from the pasta because I do want my mac and cheese to be majority mac and cheese. The sprouts just add a little festive nod, a little bit of freshness. If you don’t like sprouts, you could use another green vegetable. You could use finely chopped broccoli. Obviously, like broccoli and Stilton are a classic flavor combination. You could also use kale. I personally don’t like kale that much, but it doesn’t soften down quite as much as a sprout. And I do want these to soften and be quite tender, not too crispy and crunchy in the mac and cheese. The crisp and the crunch will come from the sage breadcrumb topping. So, I’m just going to put these in with the shelots and the garlic. It looks like quite a lot right now, but with any vegetable like this, it cooks down so much as it softens. So, the volume will reduce. Okay, finally, I’m going to get to talking about the cheeses and why I use three different types and why I think you should, too. First up, I think every mac and cheese should have a strong, mature cheddar. The main reason for this one is flavor. So, I don’t want my mac and cheese to just taste like a creamy sauce. I want it to taste like cheese. And I think you need a mature, sharp cheddar as that kind of base cheese flavor. Next up, mozzarella. A fresh mozzarella, not a pre-grated mozzarella because they are coated in like a potato starch or something, which means that they don’t melt down properly. So, I would recommend getting more like a pizza mozzarella because the moisture content is lower than one of the bowls of mozzarella that you get in a juicy little bag. So, get one that’s a bit drier. The reason I add mozzarella is mainly for texture. So, mozzarella is how you get a really stringy mac and cheese, which is just nice to eat. To be perfectly honest, it doesn’t do a lot on the flavor front. It adds a slight creaminess, but the main thing it adds is that stringy cheesy texture. And then finally, I think you want a cheese with another slightly different flavor. So, because it’s Christmas in this mac and cheese, I am using a delicious stinky Stilton, which is a fairly mild blue cheese. It’s not too strong. So, if you don’t love a blue cheese traditionally, then still give this a go because you’re not adding loads and it’s not the main flavor. It’s just a different flavor in the mac and cheese. And that combined with the other two cheeses works really well. And I often think that at Christmas, if you’re having a cheese board, you might have a bit of blue cheese left over and this is the perfect way to use it up. If it’s not Christmas or if I don’t want to use a blue cheese, then two of my other favorite cheeses to use are either a compe or a gria. The reason for this is because they have a really gorgeous nutty flavor to them. I love the flavor of grier and compe. And they both work really, really well in a mac and cheese with a combination of cheddar and mozzarella. If you want to be absolutely crazy, then the only other cheese I would suggest adding is a red leester. And the reason for that is mainly for color. If you think you’ve got cheddar and either Stilton grier or compe for flavor, you’ve got mozzarella for texture and stringiness. And then you can add red leester for a slightly orangier color. Together, you’ve got the perfect mac and cheese. I’m not adding red leester this time because I actually don’t particularly want this to be an orange mac and cheese. I think it will look really nice as quite a white mac and cheese with the green from the sprouts and then the crispy sage breadcrumb topping. But if you prefer yours orange, crack on. Okay, so as you can see, everything is starting to soften down a little bit. I added a splash of water and I kept the lid on while I was doing this because the increased water content in here and the moisture helps soften and slightly steam the vegetables. and it’s a good way to make sure you don’t burn the vegetables or get too much color and kind of controls the temperature and the cooking process a little bit better. Next up, I’m going to add my plain flour. So, normally in a mac and cheese, if you weren’t adding onions, shallots, garlic, sprouts, you would add the butter and then you would add the flour straight away. But, we soaked the vegetables in the butter. So, the fat is already in there, so we can just add the flour directly to the vegetables. And you want equal parts fat and flour. So, I’m just going to add 15 g of each. And then again, you want to cook this off for a few minutes because you really want to get rid of the raw flour taste. So, you need to cook this off for probably 3 to 4 minutes, stirring it well, combining it to make sure you don’t have any lumps of flour because lumps of flour will equal lumps in your sauce. Right, that is back on the heat. I’m going to start grating some of the cheese so that that bit’s done. the Stilton and the mozzarella. You can just kind of pull apart the Stilton crumbles, the mozzarella, tear into small shreds or chop it finely as well if you want. I’m using about 35 g of each cheese, so like it’s a lot of cheese for one person, but it’s Christmas and also it’s a mac and cheese. The flour is almost cooked off in the sprouts, so I am going to add a little bit of nutmeg, my mustard, and then I’m going to slowly start adding in the beer and then the milk. I’m going to be adding about half of this beer. So, about 125 ml. The reason I’m using this brand is because I had it in the house. There is no other reason. Use whatever you’ve got in. Doesn’t really matter. With each addition of beer, you want to wait until the sauce has thickened up again before you add any more liquid. And you’ll also see that we’ve got this delicious fond on the bottom of the pan where the flour and the sprouts and the shellots have sort of started to caramelize. That’s so much flavor and the beer is basically going to lift that all off the bottom of the pan to make sure that it’s all included in the sauce. Once it’s thick, then you can start to add the next bit of beer. This is to make sure that you don’t get a lumpy sauce and everything stays smooth and creamy. So, I’ve added all of the beer in and that’s started to reduce and obviously the alcohol has started to cook off, which is what we want. Then, I’m going to start adding in the milk. So, there’s quite a lot of liquid that goes into this, but that’s because this is a one pot mac and cheese, which means we are cooking the pasta in the sauce, so you need a bit more liquid because a the cooking time is going to be longer and b obviously the pasta will absorb some of that liquid. As with most one pot dishes, the actual amount of liquid will vary slightly depending on the shape of pasta that you’re using, the size and shape of your pan, the hob ring that you’re using, and the size of that. So, I’m going to give you the kind of basic measurements, but I’m also going to tell you how to know when to add more liquid if needed. But for now, we’re just going to go in with the milk. Okay, so I’ve added in the milk and that’s bubbling away. It’s come up to a sort of gentle boil. I’m then going to add in my dry pasta. I am using concilier. I think that’s how you say it. It’s just the perfect shape and size for a mac and cheese because all the sauce gets in the little concave crevice. So, you’re never getting a piece of dry pasta. I’m going to add this in. I’m not adding the cheese until the very end because if you add the cheese and then boil it, the high heat risks kind of separating the cheese and breaking the sauce, meaning it will be slightly split, slightly less creamy. So, I’m adding the pasta. I’m going to let that boil away for probably close to 15 minutes because it takes slightly longer for pasta to cook in a sauce than it does in water. And then just towards the end, I’m going to turn off the heat. I’m going to add in the cheese. And then the final step is to grill or to broil the mac and cheese with the crispy breadcrumb topping. [Music] While the pasta is cooking, I’m just going to prepare the topping by picking off some sage leaves. I want about two stalks of sage worth. So maybe like 10 10 sage leaves around about. I’m going to finally chop them. I’m going to mix them with breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and a little bit of oil to make sure it all gets crispy and gorgeous. And then that’s going to go over the top of mac and cheese just before we grill it. [Music] Okay, so the mac and cheese has been cooking for kind of 15 to 18 minutes. The pasta is a few minutes off al dente. So, if the end result is al dente, I’ve taken it off just before that because obviously it’s going to continue cooking whilst we grill it. So, it’s still got a bit more bite than you would want in it. I’ve taken off the heat and I’m going to add in all of the cheese. As I said, you want to do this off the heat. The residual heat in the pan will melt the cheese rather than having over the flame, which could cause the sauce to split. The other thing I was going to say is obviously this is a one pan mac and cheese, which actually means it does take slightly longer than if you were to use two pans and to cook the pasta separately. But cooking the pasta in the sauce releases the starches which adds to the kind of silky creamy sauce. But also, even if you were to boil the pasta separately and then add it to the sauce, you would still want to cook the sauce down for a good 10 12 minutes to kind of cook off the alcohol in the beer, but also to make sure that you’re not left with any flowery taste in the sauce. So, it adds a little bit of time, but it’s probably equivalent to the amount of time you would spend washing up the extra pans. You’ll also notice that I haven’t seasoned this with any salt yet because I wanted to add all the cheese in first, then taste it. Obviously, we’ve got a bit of salt in the breadcrumb topping. I want to taste the sauce once the cheese is all melted, and then season accordingly. I’m just going to smooth this out slightly and then sprinkle on my crispy sage breadcrumbs. While the mac and cheese is getting golden and bubbly, I’m going to tell you about some of my other favorite fested dinners to have around the holiday season when you’re cooking for one and want something that feels a little bit Christmy, a little bit special without going the whole hog. These are some really great alternatives to either have on the big day itself or just in the run-up to Christmas when you want to feel the festive shia. First up is actually a recipe from my cookbook, one pot, one portion, and it is for an individual beef Wellington. I love this recipe because making a beef Wellington for multiple people is slightly scary. I can’t lie. This is so much easier cuz you’re just using one small steak as opposed to a whole beef tenderloin. It’s also served with roast potatoes and some roasted canized onions which are all cooked on the same tray. Obviously, it’s one pot one portion. The recipe is in my cookbook, but I will also leave a link in the bio to where you can find it. This would make the perfect Christmas day meal if you were cooking for yourself because it really does feel like something that you wouldn’t eat on a regular day or a regular weekend. It’s cozy. It’s comforting. It’s really, really delicious. Recipe number two is my brown butter chestnut ratoto. And this is similar to the mac and cheese in that it takes some of those quintessentially Christmy flavors, panchetta, chestnuts, brown butter, and uses them in ways that aren’t just a traditional roast in it. So, this is a creamy ratoto with chestnuts and panchetta folded through. It’s got a depth of flavor from the brown butter and obviously the fat from the pork and then the chestnuts add a lovely nuttiness. I love using chestnuts around Christmas time. I absolutely adore the flavor and it’s something that I wouldn’t use at any other point in the year. So, it really feels very festive. And then finally, you guys should know by now how much I love a hash brown. So, my Boxing Day ham and leak hash brown pie is my final option for a festive feast. The idea behind this was to use up any ham that you might have left over on Boxing Day. If you don’t have leftover ham, then it’s definitely still worth making this with regular ham. It’s got sweet caramelized leaks, ham in a creamy sauce, and then rather than using a pastry top, we’re using hash browns because they’re easy to store in the freezer. They’re perfect for cooking for one when you’re not quite sure what to do with a whole sheet of pastry. They are baked on top until crispy and the whole thing is just completely delicious. There you have it. Four different festive dinners for you to cook this season. This is the season of joy. And I am such an advocate for the joy that could be found in cooking for one. And I really think that even though this is a time of year where people talk about feasting with family and friends, even if you’re just giving for yourself, it’s worth feeling that little bit extra special making something that you might not make at any other time of year because there is so much joy to be found in that as well. Now, back to the mac and cheese. Okay, it’s time to dig in. I’m hoping there’s a good cheese pool for you here. [Music] It’s good. The sauce is the perfect consistency. No, it’s so good. It won’t stop. If your mac and cheese doesn’t do that, it’s not a mac and cheese I want to eat. Oh my god, that is so so good. It also tastes so Christmy. Oh my god, we’re so excited by this whole situation. It tastes so Christmy, which is almost surprising because we’ve only added a couple of those festive flavors. But with the shellot and the sage and the breadcrumbs, he almost had this kind of stuffing flavor, which is incredible. Stuffing is my favorite part of a Christmas dinner. So, if I can get that flavor in every other meal, oh my god, then I absolutely will. The sauce is rich and has depth. The cheeses are perfectly balanced. Obviously, the mozzarella is doing its job very well. The pasta is perfectly cooked. It’s not too soft, which is often what you get with a baked mac and cheese. Honestly, I think I’ve just made the perfect mac and cheese here. M. Well, this is so good. I’m going to go and enjoy this and I will see you in my next recipe video where I’m going to be sharing my favorite festive desserts for one. Make sure you are subscribed for all the festive fun that is to come. Ow. Oh my god, I did a wicked spin class yesterday. Everyone was singing. We were like swinging our sweat towels around our heads. I cried. No, the flower is No, I’m not ready. Loosey goosey. Oh my god, the trick. Get your nuts out. Welcome back to table four.