Christmas fare

I like to do the same thing for Christmas every year and I told you about it last year so there's not much to say. This year we were only four around the table for Christmas dinner which brought its own challenges. Somehow a turkey dinner and a glazed ham are easier to manage for a crowd. Provides a greater challenge for the issue of leftovers.

We did the usual - turkey with sage & onion stuffing, roasted potatoes with capsicum, shallots & baby carrots in two colours, peas with feta and asparagus dressed with lemon olive oil, nut roast. Followed, of course, by summer pudding and cream.

Later, if anyone is hungry, there is sliced ham with boiled potatoes & salad greens. Don't underestimate the value of doing a ham for Christmas. It might seem like an effort if you haven't done it before but it's worth it. You will have something to serve at any meal for the next few days and you will be amazed at what you can do and unexpected visitors will be impressed.

This year Peter was inspired to bake the ham in an old-fashioned huff paste. This is an inedible pastry case wrapped around the ham. It keeps the ham beautifully moist & helps retain the flavour. I have no idea why it was called a huff paste - can anyone enlighten us?

Soak your ham in cold water overnight. The next day drain & dry. Heat oven to 180 and make a flour & water paste using about 1.5 kg flour & 750ml water for a 5kg ham. Roll out the paste on a floured board & wrap around the ham. Put it in a large roasting tin and bake roughly 20 mins per 500g. Err on the side of under rather than over because you are still going to glaze it.

When it is done, break off the pastry case & give the juice-soaked pieces of paste to the servants for their Christmas feast. Remove the skin & any excess fat from the ham and score the remaining fat into diamond shapes with a knife. Insert a clove into each diamond & spread your glaze over the surface of the ham. Then return to the oven & bake at 190 for 20-30 mins until the glaze is golden. This year we glazed ours with marmalade made earlier.

Now we have left overs to look forward to!

Pork & Fennel Sausages

If you are fortunate enough to live near the Island Bay Butchery you will know you have access to some of the most delicious sausages. If you haven't tried the pork & fennel I urge you to do so. If you live further afield search out a quality version near you. These ones are long & thin & that is definitely part of their charm.

Try them grilled with a salad of spring greens & roasted mustard haloumi. Separately blanch about 200g fresh peas, 300g broad beans, 150g sugar snap peas, 6-8 asparagus spears cut into three. Pop the broad beans out of their outer coats if you need to & toss all the vegetables in a dressing of juice of 1 lemon and 3 tbsp olive oil. Zest the lemon first because you want this later. Set aside.
Combine 1 tsp Dijon & 1/2 tsp grainy mustard (I always use Maille French mustard), with 2 tsp olive oil and the lemon zest. Break 200g or so haloumi into small pieces & put in a small roasting pan. Pour over the mustard mix & a good grind of black pepper. Toss well & roast 8-10 minutes at 200 until haloumi is golden. Turn once or twice. Toss with the greens and some basil or chervil leaves. Serve with a few radicchio leaves & those grilled sausages.

You might have bought too many vegetables at the market. I often do this and we have to eat them all at once. Most summer vegetables are delicious grilled either on the barbecue or on a grill plate on the stove top. Thinly slice aubergine & courgettes, keep asparagus whole. Brush them with olive oil & grill on a medium heat until golden. Aubergines take a bit longer so put them on first. Serve them on a platter drizzled with olive oil & topped with paper thin slices of Parmesan. I use the vegetable peeler. Pod & blanch peas and/or broad beans and toss with some crumbled feta. Serve with grilled pork & fennel sausages.

Some of you who are not white wine drinkers have asked me about risotto with red wine. Try this. Make a basic risotto using red onion instead of leeks & add 1 tsp fennel seeds. Before adding the rice add the chopped meat from 3-4 skinned pork & fennel sausages with a squirt of tomato paste. Stir around until the sausages are browned. Add red wine instead of white at the wine stage and cook as usual. Top with shaved Parmesan and some rocket leaves.

If you have any more ideas for using these delicious sausages let me know.

Along with birthdays we have recently had exams and we repeated the exam cupcakes. This is the third and final year of this event. Each year for Phoebe's end of year exams I have made cup cakes for her morning tea. This started because she does baking for her school lunches every Sunday & when she's studying she doesn't have time so I stepped in. I decided to make cup cakes & ice them with the theme of each exam. This year we decorated nine cupcakes. I hope you can tell which exam this one is for!

A birthday party

We recently had an 18th birthday at our house & I had great fun preparing the food. We started off with those old favourites, cheesy feet & hands. These are the ones using the cheese straw recipe & cutting into various shapes. Stars are nice if you don't fancy the feet. Or any shape you happen to have in your cupboard.

We had a selection of vegetables & crisps with the classic reduced cream dips and crostini with an avocado & pea spread. To make this, mix a ripe avocado, a cup or so of frozen peas - at least partially thawed - 1 clove garlic, a pinch of salt and 2 tbsp lime juice in your blender until smooth. Spread on crostini. It sounds odd but is delicious & is beautifully green. It won't discolour over the evening as traditional guacamole will.

For supper, I served a glazed ham with bread rolls. This was a great success & I recommend it for a party. You can glaze the ham the night before & if this was for more discerning guests you could include trimmings to go in the rolls. I also did mini meatballs on skewers with cherry tomatoes. I usually use lamb mince but on this occasion I used beef. Mix the mince with oregano, cumin, finely chopped fresh chilli & rosemary and bind with an egg yolk. Roll into small meatballs & fan grill 0n 180 about 15 minutes. Test one to see that they are cooked. I prepare these the night before & refrigerate on a large plate with cling film underneath & between the layers.

For sweets, we had vegan Margarita cupcakes & chocolate gluten-free cupcakes courtesy of Harriet. I made the best lamingtons I've ever made. I think the trick was the consistency of the chocolate dip. It was thin enough to hold to the sponge without being gluggy. I use shredded rather than dessicated coconut. The birthday girl prepared a very symmetrical platter of fruit.

The piece de resistance was the cake. The idea behind this was a bit convoluted & related to the TV series Chuck. You may get this if you have teenagers. Otherwise you only need to know that the cake was in the shape of a foot long chicken teriyaki subway sandwich. I made a triple recipe Madeira cake. It needed a very large cake tin! I cut the cake into three foot-long slabs resembling rolls. I then cut each roll in half - like a bread roll. I divided a block of royal icing into four. One section was coloured green then rolled out & cut into lettuce shapes & laid along the base of the rolls. Next was the tomatoes, coloured a reddy orange & cut into rounds. I then scored them to resemble the skin & membranes & pressed a fer poppy seeds into the centre. Next came slabs of yellow icing for the cheese. The chicken I shaped as shredded chicken & coloured very lightly. Onto this I dollopped maple syrup that had been thickened with a little muscovado sugar & a drop of red colouring for the teriyaki sauce. Then on went the tops of the rolls which I brushed with a sugar syrup & ground some chocolate sugar sprinkles I had in the cupboard to resemble mixed grain. When we brought it out there were some in the room who thought the birthday girl was being presented with sandwiches. What do you think?