Festive Fare 2011

Earlier in the month I had made Nigella's Chocolate Christmas cake, which has all the qualities of a proper Christmas cake, but somehow the addition of cocoa makes it palatable to non-Christmas cake eaters. I used cointreau rather than coffee liqueur and just used the fruit I had on hand including cranberries. I also got a little carried away & broke some Whittaker's Dark Ghana into chunks & stirred it through. This meant that some times you came across a gooey chocolate bit when eating it. I had no complaints. Sofie was in charge of decorations.
In the past I have started the Christmas festivities with a Danish.  This year I thought I would try something different.  I made a large batch of my regular breakfast juice which went down very well.  Getting the quantities right for 9 was a bit tricky & it came out redder than usual which was appropriate for the occasion.  It was very popular with all.  We followed this with a batch of strawberry brioches.
To make the brioches, make a sweet dough using 1 1/2 cups plain flour, 1/4 cup caster sugar, 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast, 1/2 tsp salt, 60g soft butter, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup warm milk.  Whisk the egg with the milk & vanilla then add to everything else in a bowl & knead to a soft dough.  Add up to 1 cup additional flour to end up with a soft but not sticky dough then wrap in cling film & refrigerate overnight.  I also prepared the strawberry filling the night before to save time in the morning.  Combine 100g soft butter with 1 tbsp strawberry jam, 1/2 cup caster sugar, finely grated zest of a lemon.
Take the dough out of the fridge at least 1 hour before you want to start.  Preheat the oven to 180.  Roll out the dough to a rectangle approx 45cm x 25cm.  Spread with the jam mix then sprinkle over 400g finely chopped strawberries.  Roll up the dough from the long side to form a log and cut into 9 rounds.   Butter a 30cm round cake tin & sprinkle with caster sugar.  The tin should be 4-5 cm deep .  Put them around the tin cut side up, with one in the middle.  Brush with a little butter & sprinkle with caster sugar.  Bake about 30 minutes.  You will need to cover with foil half way through to prevent burning.  When you take them out, leave for a minute or so then tip onto a plate & invert them onto another so they are crusty side up. Tip over the remaining juice.  Cool for at least 30 minutes & dust with icing sugar.  My tin was too big & they collapsed a little.  You could do them individually in Texas muffin pans.  Also very messy to eat but again I didn't have any complaints.  It sounds like a lot of effort but isn't really.
Christmas lunch was the usual suspects.  Mandy outdid herself with the production of a personalised menu for each guest.  We served gilded roast turkey with sage & onion stuffing or Christmas nut roast, with cranberry sauce & whisky gravy, accompanied by roasted potatoes freshly dug from our garden, shallots, baby carrots & capsicums, Fresh garden peas with feta, mint & olive oil and grilled asparagus with lemon infused olive oil.  We finished with summer pudding.
Later in the evening when we were feeling a little peckish we dished up the glazed ham with a salad.
On Boxing Day we dished up the now familiar Boxing Day turkey coleslaw followed by Christmas pudding & ginger wine ice cream.
Festive dining concluded with a magnicent rib of beef on New Year's Day.  I wanted a celebratory meal but without the heaviness of a full roast.  This was just perfect & the beef was beautiful cold with salad for the next few days.  In fact my visitors were sent packing the next day with some of it in their travelling sandwiches.  The rib is not a common cut of beef these days but our butcher recommend it for the tenderness of the beef & I concur.  I ordered the beef a week in advance so there was time for it to hang and age.  The whole piece had 7 ribs but we just bought 4 and that was more than enough for all the above - dinner for 7 and leftovers.
For pudding we had soft fruit macerated in Kawakawa Vinegar.  I bought this vinegar at the City Market & I stongly recommend you look out for it.  This fruit sald is another way to use up the palm sugar you bought for the tamarind chicken.  I think this would also be really nice with the Tamarillo Vinegar.

Holiday meals

I didn't have seafood paella for my birthday this year. Of the five of us for dinner, two were vegans & one doesn't fancy shellfish so it didn't seem appropriate. But for a summer evening dining al fresco with friends it was the perfect meal. Follow this basic recipe, including chicken & chorizo, then add white fish and whole prawns to gently cook through at the end finishing up with prepared shellfish - we used mussels & cockles. You can actually cook the mussels in the paella but we have more success steaming them open in a little wine first.

The guests brought a fantastic mixed salad and an amazing pudding of cherries gently simmered in something deliciously alcoholic served with vanilla ice cream.

Ratatouille is always a summer favourite. It is forgiving if your aubergines & courgettes have been in the fridge a day or so longer than you had intended because your teenager was rebelling against "cucumber's evil cousin". We dined at friends' last week & I was reminded of Elizabeth David's wonderful ratatouille - it was even better than I had remembered. The beauty of this dish is that you can make it your own depending on what you find in your fridge. Elizabeth David says she has even known potatoes being added. I prefer to serve mine with crushed or sauted potatoes. Many years ago I always served with hasslebacks.

For 4-6 people use 1-2 onions, 1 -2 aubergines, 2 large red capsicum (or 1 red & 1 yellow or orange), 2 courgettes (try 1 green & 1 yellow), 2-3 large tomatoes, 1 lge clove garlic, some coriander seeds, basil & parsley.

In advance, slice the unpeeled aubergines & courgettes into thickish (1/2 cm) rounds & then into cubes. Put into a colander, sprinkle with salt & weight with a plate & something heavy on top such as a bag of sugar. This will press out the excess moisture. I sometimes don't bother but it is always better of you do. Leave them about an hour & then rinse off the salt.

When you are ready to start, saute the thinly sliced onions in some olive oil until soft but not brown. This is one of those instances, like risotto, when you should use more oil than seems necessary. It really enhances the final flavour. When the onions are soft and this may take 15- 2o mins, add the rinsed aubergines & courgettes, the capsicums - sliced into thin strips - and the chopped garlic. Cover the pan & cook gently about 40 minutes. Now add the skinned chopped tomatoes with a tsp or so of coriander you have pounded in your mortar & pestle, & lightly season. Add a pinch of sugar if you think your tomatoes need it. Cook another 30 minutes until the veg have all softened but are not mushy. Stir in the basil & parsley just before serving. Serve on its own or as an accompaniment to lamb or chicken or anything pretty much. This is delicious and works well reheated or even cold.

Try a variant of pork schnitzel with a variant of coleslaw. I used red cabbage because I had some in the fridge but I think I would use green if I was buying fresh.

Combine 3-4 cups finely shredded cabbage with 1/2 small red onion very thinly sliced & a crisp red (or green if cabbage is red) apple julienned. Whisk 1/3 cup sour cream, 2 tbsp pesto, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 1 clove garlic crushed. Add the cabbage mixture & gently mix through with a handful of roughly chopped parsley.

Slice pork fillet into 3cm thick pieces then gently bash out between 2 pieces of cling film using a rolling pin or other blunt instrument. They should end up about 1 cm thick - not paper thin, which I think often makes schnitzel dry. Mix panko crumbs with a little flour in one bowl & beat 2 eggs with a clove or garlic, crushed in another. Dip the pork pieces in egg then panko, pressing it on firmly, then cook in olive oil with a knob of butter about 2-3 minutes each side until the crumbs are golden. Drain on paper towel. Sprinkle the pork with a little grated Parmesan & serve with lime wedges - lemon would do.

And if you are missing those Christmas indulgences treat yourself to a caramel & chocolate cracker treat. I persuaded Phoebe to make these while I was gardening. She reports they are so simple that even I could make them. She promises to make them again.