After a long walk, you need large helpings of good, simple food tom keep the hordes happy, writes DOMINI KEMP

WHEN THE WEATHER is cold and you’ve been strolling outside, it’s quite frightening how ravenous everyone becomes. It’s also a time when you relax into being lazy and greedy. Rich and delicious food that’s easy and perfect for crowds is what works really well once the big day is over. We found this sausage casserole to be that ideal balance of facilitating some prep beforehand as well as very forgiving if it was left in the oven for half an hour too long. Good sausages are widely available, although my favourites are Ed Hick’s, which always have superb flavour and are available in Sheridan’s cheesemongers, and Morton’s in Ranelagh as well as various markets. The venison ones went particularly well with the celeriac mash, which would also be delicious tomorrow if you don’t fancy plain potato mash.

Celeriac can also be blended to a smooth purée unlike potatoes, which just need mashing unless you have a potato press that will gently mash very finely without making the starch go crazy. By adding a rich smooth celeriac purée to some mashed potatoes, you end up with a deliciously rich mash, that isn’t quite as bad for you as plain old mashed potatoes, which just seem to gobble up butter.

The leek and cheese toasties were inspired by a recipe from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s new book, Veg. But we added some egg yolks to help give a delicious golden and rich crust and we also added some mustard to the proceedings, so they ended up as more of a leek rare-bit than leek toastie. You could also happily slip a slice of cooked ham on top of the bread, thus turning them into an Irish croque monsieur. Either way, they were devilishly good and I reckon ours tasted much better than the original recipe, but then I would say that, wouldn’t I?

Venison sausage casserole

Serves 6

Use whatever sausages you like for this, just allow two decent-sized ones per person

50g butter

Splash olive oil

2 onions, peeled and diced

3 apples, peeled, cored and diced

Few sprigs thyme

2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

1 tbsp honey and tsp sugar

1 tbsp flour

250ml cider or white wine

250ml vegetable or chicken stock

Good few splashes Worcestershire sauce

12 good sausages

Heat the butter and olive oil and sweat the diced onions and apples until golden brown. Add in the thyme, garlic and honey or pinch of sugar. Get a bit more caramelisation going and then sprinkle the flour and let it cook out. It’s okay for this to become a brown roux as opposed to a blonde roux. Once you’re happy the flour has lost its rawness, add in the stock and cider or wine. Do this gradually so any lumps can get sorted. Add in the Worcestershire sauce and check the seasoning. You should have a tasty, slightly sweet and appley rich sauce. You can cook the sausages by grilling, frying or, what I do when there are lots to cook, chucking in the oven in a deep roasting tin with some oil. After about 30 minutes at 180 degrees/gas mark 4 they should be nicely coloured, although you may have to shake them about half-way through cooking.

If you want to do this beforehand, then cool them down and refrigerate until later. If not, just layer up the cooked sausages into a large gratin dish and cover with the apple and onion sauce. Put it in the oven with a loose covering of foil and bake for 40 minutes at 180 degrees/gas mark 4. It will also be fine if you turn down the oven and keep it warm at 140 degrees/gas mark 1 for another 30 minutes. Just wrap the foil a little tighter. Serve with the celeriac mash or any kind of mash.

Celeriac mash

Serves 6

1kg potatoes

700ml milk

1 celeriac

80g butter

Pinch nutmeg (optional)

50g Parmesan

Salt

Peel and cut the potatoes into chunks and cook in boiling salted water until tender. Then drain and put back in the saucepan with a tea towel over them, to dry out. Meanwhile, peel and chop the celeriac into chunks and cook in the milk until tender (about 20 minutes). Keep a lid on it, as you want to keep the milk. When the chunks are nice and tender, put them in a blender with about 150ml of the milk it was cooking in and add in the butter. Blend till you make a smooth purée. Mash the potatoes and then mix with the celeriac purée and add in the Parmesan and season to taste.

Leek and cheddar toasties

Serves 4

50g butter

4 leeks, very finely sliced

Few thyme leaves

Good splash cream or crème fraiche

1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

200g cheddar cheese, grated

2 egg yolks

4 thick slices of rustic bread, sourdough is ideal

Splash of Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

Heat the butter and sweat the leeks until nice and soft. Season well and add in the cream and turn up the heat until the cream is reduced down and the mixture becomes reasonably dry. Remove from the heat and cool down. When it’s sufficiently cool, mix in the egg yolks, mustard and three quarters of the cheese. You can leave this in the fridge, ready to go until you’re ready to bake them as they only need a 10-15 minutes blast at 200 degrees/gas mark 6 and then a final blast under the grill or else a few minutes longer in the oven to brown nicely on top. Butter the bread slices and top with generous amounts of the leek mix, top with a final bit of grated cheese, and bake until piping hot.