We eat a lot of chicken and turkey throughout the year so when it comes to Christmas we’re inclined to celebrate with lamb, or beef, slow roasted until you don’t need to carve it, it falls off the bone all of its own accord. This leads to leftovers, of course, but not as many as your average turkey would cause in a household of two! With this year’s lamb leftovers I was prompted by HI to try making rissoles – something I realised I’ve never eaten before – so I went in search of recipes and found this one, and many similar, online. You will need:

250g cooked lamb or beef
1 small onion
40g fresh breadcrumbs
2tbsp chopped parsley
1 clove garlic
1 egg
Flour for coating
Oil for shallow frying

• Chop the meat and onion very finely
• Crush the garlic
• Beat the egg
• Put all of these into a bowl. Add the breadcrumbs and parsley and mix everything together thoroughly
• Divide the mixture into 6 portions and shape into patties
• Coat the patties in the flour
• Heat a little oil in a pan and shallow fry the patties for 4 to 5 minutes on each side until they are warmed through

I found these surprisingly rich and filling, so I would advise serving them with some simple vegetables like cauliflower or carrots and peas rather than what seem to be the traditional accompaniments, chips or mash.