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.

Twelve days of Christmas eating

I reported on the first day of Christmas but how did we fare on the following 11? Well we made the most of our Christmas leftovers & barely had to visit the shops which is always a bonus. While I am on the subject, I was shocked this year, to discover that many people believe that the 12 days of Christmas are some sort of countdown leading up to Christmas day. They are not - they are the 12 days from Christmas day to Epiphany (6th January), which is when the 3 fellows from the East turned up in Bethlehem bearing gifts. I'm sure all of you knew that but if not then you do now.
Anyway back to our Christmas fare. We have had a Boxing Day favourite for many years now which is the Christmas coleslaw I told you about last year. I really recommend this and you could variations using chicken or green cabbage at any time. It is beautifully refreshing when you feel you have over-indulged. Note the salt dishes. I was given a packet of black salt for Christmas. Doesn't it look wonderful?
Phoebe's request for the turkey leftovers is always turkey, cranberry & Camembert pizza. When I lived in London, I used to eat a version of this on Vogel's toast for Boxing day breakfast. Just pop under the grill until the cheese is melted.
We finished up the turkey in a turkey pie, which is my usual left over roast chicken pie method. In a pan, saute a finely chopped onion and anything else you have in the fridge that you want to use - capsicum, carrot, celery, mushrooms. Add the shredded cooked turkey and any left over vegetables from your Christmas dinner with the left over gravy. If the mixture feels dry because you skimped on the gravy, add some of the stock you made from the giblets. Pile into a pie dish or casserole & top with pastry. Peter is the pastry maker in our house and he has recently taken to adding a small grating of Parmesan. Try it. Bake the pie at about 180 until the pastry is golden & crisp - about 30 mins. Serve with a crisp green salad.
In addition to the giblet stock we used in the gravy we made regular turkey stock on Christmas day and that is all in the freezer to be used in risottos etc.
Using the turkey was quite easy but the ham was a bit more of a challenge for 3 to consume. I'm always up for a challenge. In the early days you can't go past sliced ham with boiled potatoes and salad. I have a new favourite dressing for boiled potatoes. For about 1 1/2 kilos new season potatoes - I use Jersey Benne or Perla, whisk 1/4 cup white wine vinegar and 1/4 cup white wine with 2 tbsp whole grain mustard. Start with a large bowl because you add everything to this. Cook & drain your potatoes well then halve them - this helps to soak up the dressing. Add to the vinegar mix & leave about two mins. Finely chop 1/2 a red onion & leave to soak in cold water about 10 minutes. This is a great trick for red onion you are going to use raw because it softens a little & takes away the sharpness. Drain & use a tea towel to squeeze out the excess liquid. Drizzle a little olive oil over the potatoes & add the onions & about 2 tbsp each finely chopped parsley & basil. Season & toss gently to coat the potatoes. I think this may be similar to a French warm potato salad and is an excellent way to serve young potatoes. Also make a mayonnaise potato salad and add diced ham.
If you are feeling more adventurous try egg, ham & cheese souffle toasts. This is a recipe from the Chateau de Commarin in Burgundy, France. Lightly toast slices of slightly stale white bread and cut into elegant rounds using a biscuit cutter or small glass. One per person. Do the same with slices of ham. Separate an egg (one per person), and mix the yolks with a little grated Gruyere, then season. Whisk the whites until stiff. To assemble, top each slice of bread with a slice of ham & a dollop of eggy mix then top with a dome of whisked egg white. Put into a pan of hot sunflower oil & with a tablespoon, drizzle the oil gently over the whites until golden.
Continuing with the French theme I had to try the Jambon Persille I enjoyed in Dijon. This was really fun. I read through a recipe from a French cookbook I have - the one with the Boeuf Bourgigon mentioned in the same blog entry - and Julia Child's version & came up with something I was very happy with. First we clarified some stock with egg white. The idea was to render the stock very clear but I wouldn't bother again. Whatever method you choose just try to get your stock as clear as you can. To one cup stock add about 1/4 cup of very finely chopped or minced green tops from spring onions for flavour & colour & dissolve 4 leaves of gelatin or a scant tbsp of the powdered version. Leave to cool but not set.
In a bowl mix 1/2 cup chopped parsley, 1 clove of garlic mashed, 1/2 tbsp dried tarragon & 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar with salt & pepper to taste and 1/2 cup of the aspic. Chop the ham into 2cm chunks. In a chilled bowl spread a thin layer of the parsley mix then pack with layers of ham & parsley aspic. When the bowl is filled, cover with a weighted plate & chill until set. You are weighting it to press it together & make it easier to slice. When you take it out roughly scumble the top with a fork & pour over the remaining cup of parsley aspic (cool but not set). The scumbling (Julia's word) is to disguise the plate marks. I thought mine looked just like the pictures & it was delicious. Apparently traditionally served at Easter in Burgundy but will become a regular part of my Christmas repertoire.
Finish up the ham in a quiche or pie then all that's left to do is make the pea & ham soup. Throw the ham hock in a saucepan with 500g green split peas, a diced onion, a bay leaf & just cover with water. Simmer several hours, blend, season to taste & freeze for a rainy day.
Christmas eating is over for another year.

Christmas Feasts

Christmas is the highlight of my culinary year. There is the planning & preparation, the cooking and eating and then the delight of left overs. One of the best things is that it is the same every year - family rituals to be enjoyed year after year, creating lasting memories. Our children didn't always like the Christmas food but they came to rely on the familiarity. And it is really easy if you always know what you are going to do - with a few twists & variations. I am very much a traditionalist.

In the week before the Christmas gingerbread is made and iced. This is usually a young persons' activity and we get teenagers who come especially for this activity. Then the Christmas cake is iced & decorated. I have had these decorations for a few years now and am very fond of them.

On Christmas Eve I do as much preparation as possible so that I have very little to do on the day other than eat & drink & relax with our guests & family. Our Christmas menu is the turkey with a sage & onion stuffing, and a nut roast for the vegetarians. This has been much maligned in magazines but my nut roast is much admired by non-vegetarians as well. I do a Christmas gravy using the giblets stock with the addition of a slug of scotch & cream.

For veg we have settled for roasted potato & kumara with baby carrots, capsicum & shallots plus peas & feta and grilled asparagus. This provides something for everyone and is very little effort. This year we dug our own potatoes. Boil new potatoes in their skins and prepare the other vegetables. Toss in olive oil and roast in a pan with some rosemary for 40 minutes to an hour. Boil some peas & crumble over feta. Grill asparagus & drizzle over lemon-infused olive oil.

Peter always does a summer pudding for afters. Lighter than a traditional pudding but retaining the traditional shape and using seasonal fruit.

And this year Mandy made the best ever crackers with personalised hats.

The traditional Boxing Day dinner is a Nigella salad we have been having for about 5 years now. It's a kind of Christmas Cole Slaw - red, green & white. This year served in the perfect bowl which was a Christmas gift.

In a very large bowl, mix together 2 red chillies, seeded & finely chopped; 1 clove of garlic minced; 2 tbsp caster sugar; 3 tsp rice wine vinegar; juice of a lime & 3 tbsp fish sauce and 3 tbsp vegetable oil then add 1 finely sliced red onion & some black pepper & steep about 15 minutes. Add your shredded turkey - about 500g - and steep another 15 minutes. Add half a chopped red cabbage & some sliced radishes. Last, mix through some coriander or flat-leaf parsley.

Our boxing day pudding is often a small Christmas pudding topped with Ginger Wine ice cream. I found this recipe on one of may father's tea towels & made it for him one year. It has been a firm favourite ever since not least because the ice cream doesn't ice up - the alcohol keeps it ice free. It works beautifully with the hot spicy pudding.

Combine 3 egg yolks with 1/2 tbsp water, 1 1/2 oz sugar & 3 fl oz Green ginger wine in a bowl and beat over boiling water until thick and foamy. Remove from the heat and keep beating until cool. Chill. Whip 5 fl oz cream and fold in. Pack and freeze.

Serve with hot Christmas pudding that has been flamed for the enjoyment of your guests

Then it's time to think of interesting things to do with ham.