Christmas

We have already had a few get togethers for Christmas so far this year - with a few more to come -  before we head overseas for another northern hemisphere festive season 


Saturday was the first family one and I have spend many hours thinking of, rejecting and finally deciding on various recipes for the menu. I finally came up with what I thought could be a workable menu - a mix of recipes I knew and recipes I wanted to make. Of course family members contributed their specialities and all in all it worked out a treat.


For the meat, we roasted a whole turkey - This was my second time - the first one being when we had visitors for a Thanksgiving dinner in America. 
It always seems a little daunting to roast a turkey, I think it's because it's just so big and the amount of time it needs to cook is also quite intimidating. There is also a tendency for turkey to get very dry and tough very quickly, as it's such a lean meat, which also adds a layer of pressure when cooking it that no-one really needs ;-)


However regardless of all that there is something quite satisfying when one takes the cooked turkey out of the oven to rest. It's so big and browned and smells really good! 


Here are some strategies I have adopted to counter the intimidation factor of a roast turkey:

• place the turkey in a roasting rack and pour water in the base of the tray. This helps with the moisture and also creates some juices for the gravy! 
• baste, baste, baste. Every 30-40 minutes I basted with the water in the base of the pan and also with some melted butter to keep as much moisture in the bird as possible...I'd like to thank my 8 year old niece here for her invaluable help as wielder of the basting brush! 
• stuffing - don't use it! Bake the stuffing in a separate bowl
• place cut up lemon, and onion in the cavity of the turkey to aid in moisture retention and to add a little flavour
• watch the time carefully and don't over cook or you'll suffer the dryness factor! 

Everyone was seeemingly happy with the results and there was very little left over.  


I also made some 'individual pancetta stuffings'. Very cute little numbers that I made last week and froze. They thawed beautifully and were very tasty. Unfortunately we forgot about them, so the crew ate them for supper that night. 


I baked some individual Christmas cakes too. Little muffin sized cakes.

The recipe called for the cakes to be baked in a Bain-marie once they were mixed and placed in the  muffin tins. Problem here ... our beach house doesn't have a baking tin big enough to fit the muffin tray! Almost a disaster til I remembered I had some of those individual silicon muffin cups. They could be placed in the Bain-marie easily. 
Phew - disaster averted again! 

I would defnitely make these cakes again as they were fun to make but as I don't actually like Christmas cake, I can't tell you with any first hand knowledge how successful they were. H'o'M says they were tasty but quite dense - supposedly not a bad thing in a Christmas cake. 
They did look pretty on the plate as my 8 yr old helper and I dusted them with icing sugar to create a star and then she arranged them on the tray as a flower ;-)




A dukkah was made for the nibbling part of the day too. Once again I thank the kitchen gods for the food processer here at the beach house as it makes such short work of pulsing up nuts. 


Dukkah:

150g sesame seeds

55g whole blanched almonds

50g shelled pistachio nuts

1/3 cup ground coriander

¼ cup ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 220C

Roast sesame, almonds and pistachios separately for 10 minutes or until browned lightly. Cool

Process almonds and pistachios until fine.

Transfer to a bowl and add sesame, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper. Mix well


I do love dipping Turkish bread into dukkah. 




With the amazing decorations, the salads, potato skewers and desserts provided by the rest of the family, we had quite the meal! 

Now, what will I cook for the next one ;-)