Apricot and chest nut stuffing.

This is not just for Christmas day but any day and you can make in advance, pop it into the freezer, take out, and reheat on the day. You will need the following.

600ml/1 pint water
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
225g/8oz dried apricots,
225g/9oz white breadcrumbs
75g/3oz butter
225g/8oz frozen chestnuts, bunch fresh parsley, or chives chopped
salt and pepper to flavour

First, take your chestnuts out of the freezer and allow them to defrost. Once defrosted chop them finely. It is up to you how fine all depending on how you want the texture of the stuffing to be; personally, I like it a little chunky.

Take the water and put it in a pan and bring to a boil then take off the heat and put the apricots into it. This will allow them to rehydrate. Once they have rehydrated take them out of the water. And chop them to the same size pieces as the chestnuts.

Then take your onions and a half of the butter and slowly fry in a frying pan
So that the onions soften. Do not let them take on too much colour; in fact, if you have a lit place it over the pan and let them steam a little in their own juices. This will impart a good flavour over all. Add the breadcrumbs to a large bowl and then add the softened onions and mix it all together.

Now take the other half of the butter and fry off the chestnuts until they do start to go a little golden brown. Then add them to the bowl with the breadcrumbs and the onions. Mix all this very well together so that it starts to stick and then add the apricots, parsley or chives and a good load of salt and pepper for flavour.

Now put the mixture in to a buttered, ovenproof dish and bake in an oven for about half and hour till crisp on the top and warm all the way through. The oven needs to be at Gas mark 6 or 200c.

Now you can use this straight out of the oven or cool and pop it in the fridge or freeze, defrost and reheat. It is a tasty simple thing to make and you can take a little of the pressure off on cooking on the day.