Special Edition Christmas Dinner!!!

First of all, Merry Christmas!

And what Christmas would be complete without eating so much that you can't move?

Here, to help you achieve that goal is the food that I prepared for Christmas dinner this year, and how I went about preparing it... Apologies if some of the pictures seem to be of half eaten foods... I got excited when I finished cooking and started eating before I remembered to take pictures!

Chocolate Covered Cherries

Chocolate cherry...

These weren't a part of christmas dinner as such, but more of a sweet snack to have during the day.

They are very easy to make, you will need:-
Cherries
200 g Cooking chocolate (dark is best)
Half a glass of red wine (possibly rum or brandy could also work)
Equipment needed:-
1 large saucepan
1 bowl that fits into the saucepan
Tin foil
1 plate

To melt the chocolate you half fill the saucepan with water. Place the chocolate into the bowl (break it up first) and then place the bowl of chocolate into the saucepan so it is floating. No water should go into the bowl. Place the saucepan over a high heat and allow the water to boil. Stir the chocolate occasionally until it is melted. Add the wine (or rum or brandy) at this stage and mix it well.

After this you just dip the cherries into the chocolate. Hold them by the stems as you dip them in, and make sure the cherries are well covered. Place the chocolate covered cherries on the tin foil on the plate. When you have filled the plate (try not to let them touch each other) place it into a freezer (or fridge if a freezer is unavailable). Remove them from the freezer after half an hour and they should be ready to eat. If you want at this stage you can place them in the fridge to keep...

Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut squash soup.

I won't give you the full recipe for this here. It is very similar to the recipe that I used for the Spooky Halloween Pumpkin Soup.

For pumpkin I replaced with butternut squash, which has a beautiful flavour and texture. Apart from the squash I added 2 large red peppers (capsicums), one fresh red chilli, and one onion.

The steps to make this, and the seasonings are otherwise the same as in the pumpkin soup recipe which can be found here.

Christmas Dinner

Christmas dinner is something that strikes fear into the hearts of many right thinking people. I am here to tell you that you don't have to be afraid. I will take you through my methods step by step.

Ingredients

I will try to give you all of the ingredients, but there are many, and I may forget some. If I do I apologise in advance. This is the ingredients for 2 people. To feed more people scale up the numbers:-
1 Chicken (mine was small, but for you it depends on how many people you feed.)
150g blue cheese
Stuffing mix
Butter (lots)
Bacon (around 200 g)
1 onion
5 potatoes
Half of a sweet potato
1 large carrot
150 g long beans
4 brussel sprouts
an egg
2 tablespoons sour creme
Salt
Pepper


Chicken and stuffing

Carved chicken and stuffing.

The stuffing first. I used a normal stuffing mix, which may seem to be cheating, but I don't mind. I mixed it as normal and added about 100g of cubed blue cheese and mixed this in well.

I'm sure that if you make your stuffing from scratch, then the addition of blue cheese will have a similar effect. Don't worry if you don't like blue cheese, it just makes the taste of the stuffing much deeper. I also chopped a couple of cloves of garlic and added that to the stuffing mix.

Once the stuffing was made I stuffed it into the cavity of the chicken. The reason that I used chicken was that I was only cooking for two. If you are cooking for more then you can use a traditional turkey, and just use more stuffing and blue cheese.

I placed some butter under the skin of the chicken, and also placed some garlic cloves under the skin. I then added salt and pepper (freshly cracked) to the outside skin of the chicken.

I sliced an onion and a potato into 1cm slices and lined the oven dish with these. I placed the chicken on top of the onions and potato slices. Then I covered the chicken with long slices of middle bacon.

Carrots and beans. Also roast potatoes.

Before I placed the chicken into the oven I added some potatoes for roasting. I diced some potatoes into roughly 2cm squares, boiled them for five minutes, and then coated them in oil and placed them in the spaces around the chicken.

With everything ready I covered the oven dish with tin foil and placed the whole thing into a pre-heated oven.

Timing is Critical

This is a critical stage. Once the chicken (turkey) is in the oven the countdown to serving has begun. Calculate how long you want to roast your meat for, then set yourself an alarm for about 45 minutes before that time. I slow roasted my chicken, so I put it on a heat of 170 for about 2 and a half hours. So my alarm was set for 1 hour 45 minutes after the roast went in to the oven.

In this time you don't have to do anything. You can take it easy, have a few drinks and join the family in doing whatever christmassy things you are doing. Or alternatively you can prepare some of the vegetables for the next phase.

This involves chopping potatoes, and peeling and chopping sweet potato for the mash (I like keeping the skin on normal potatoes for mashed potato). Peeling and slicing carrots. Chopping long beans. And peeling and cutting a cross into the stem of brussel sprouts (thats right... I said brussel sprouts!).

Brussel sprout! It can taste good!

When my alarm went off I first of all took the chicken out of the oven, removed the tin foil from the tray, and the bacon from the chicken. I basted the chicken in the juices and then placed the oven dish back into the oven. I kept the bacon aside and sliced it into 1cm strips.

I then brought a pan of water to the boil and added the brussel sprouts. I boiled them for around 5 minutes, and then removed them from the water (keeping the water for later). I then sliced them in half and kept them aside with the bacon.

Into the boiling water that I still had from the sprouts I placed the diced potatoes and sweet potatoes. I placed this onto a high heat. On top of this pan I placed a steamer with the carrots and long beans. If you don't have a steamer then you can use a collander, and place a lid on top of that. These should take about half an hour to cook.

While I am waiting for the potatoes to cook I took a frying pan and fried the brussel sprouts with the bacon and some butter. This should take no more then 10 minutes. When these are done you can put them all into an oven proof dish and place them in the oven.

Around this time you will want to take out the chicken (or turkey). It will want to sit for about 15 minutes so just place it on a large plate and set it aside while you finish off everything else. Turn off the oven at this point (but keep it closed because you will be using it to keep everything else warm.

The remains of mashed sweet and normal potato.

Take the roast potatoes from the oven tray and place in a heatproof dish. We want to keep some of the potato and onion that was lining the oven tray, but place half of them with the roast potatoes. The roasties can then be returned to the oven to keep warm.

Place the oven dish over a low heat, as this is the base for the gravy. The steamed vegetables and the boiled potatoes should be done by now. Turn off the heat for them. Take the steamed veg and place in a heatproof container and add to the oven.

The water from the potatoes should be added to the oven dish for the gravy. To the potatoes add an egg, some sour creme, a lump of butter and some salt to taste. Then mash all of this up with a masher. Texture is a personal preference, I prefer a coarser texture for my mash. Once this is done then again, add to an oven proof dish and put in the oven.

Thats just gravy.

The last thing to be completed is the gravy. If you like you may add some gravy mix, or cornflour, but this shouldn't be necessary, the potatoe should add all of the thickness necessary. If you have chopped frozen spinach then you can add this at this point, and it will improve any gravy.

If you have a blender then add all of the contents of the oven dish to the blender and give it a short blast. If you don't have a blender then the masher should be good enough.

Place the gravy into something that pours well (a gravy boat for example).

At this stage christmas dinner is ready to be served. My personal preference for christmas dinner is to place all of the food in the middle of the table and allow everyone to help themselves. Either way, you will have to carve the chicken, and take out the stuffing and add it to plates. And tuck in!

This is what your plate should look like at the end!

Cheese Cake

You can't forget dessert, though you may need to leave a couple of hours before you try to eat it!

I made cheese cake for dessert on this occasion. This is kind of traditional in my family for christmas. Once you try it you will understand why.

The recipe for this can be found here. As you can see I have used the kiwi-fruit topping option.

And that is my christmas meal! Not over complicated, but utterly delicious! Maybe you could try it for a sunday roast one day...

Halloween spooky roasted pumpkin soup

In an effort to be seasonal I thought I'd give you a recipe so you can use up all of those pumpkins that are being sold throughout the western world right now. In truth the pumpkin is a marvellous vegetable. It is very versatile and I would recommend using it in many recipes (like this chilli recipe). In addition for those vegetarians out there pumpkin makes a great substitute for meat in many recipes!

This recipe is a variation on my "red" soup. The basis of this is that most red (or orange) vegetables work well together, and can be combined to make an excellent "red" soup...

Ingredients (serves 4)
1 kg of Pumpkin
1 red onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 red pepper (capsicum)
4 large tomatoes
2 red chillies
500 ml chicken stock (vegetable works well also)
salt and pepper to season
sour crème
cooking oil

Equipment needed
an oven
a gas hob
a blender
a large oven tray
a large pan
a large knife
chopping board

The first step is to roast the vegetables. Pre heat the oven to 250 degrees C.

Cut the skin off the pumpkin and slice it into 2-3 cm squares.
Peel the onion and quarter it.
Peel the garlic
Slice the tomatoes into rough eighths (slice in half, then half again, then half again)
Cut the red pepper in half and dispose of the seeds in the middle
Slice the chilli in half and remove the seeds

Place all of these ingredients in a plastic bag and pour in half a cup of oil. Mix thoroughly.
Pour the (now thoroughly oiled) ingredients from the bag and place them onto the oven tray. Sprinkle salt over them.
Place the oven tray into the centre of the oven and immediately turn the oven down to about 170.

The next step is easy. Just leave the ingredients in the oven for about an hour and a half. You may stir them about around half way through the cooking process. If the vegetables seem to be cooking too fast (getting brown around the edges) then reduce the heat. At the end of an hour and a half test the pumpkin to make sure it is cooked. It should be soft to a fork.

Once you have ascertained that it is cooked remove the vegetables from the oven tray and transfer them to the large pan. Add the stock at this stage, and also add pepper to taste. Put the pan onto a medium heat and allow it to simmer. Stir it well.

Once the ingredients have lost some of their consistency, you can transfer the mixture to the blender and blend it until it is a purée. You may need to do this in a few batches depending on how large your blender is. Transfer the mix back to the pot once it is blended. If you feel that the soup is too thick just add water at this stage.

The soup is essentially done now. Serve it hot with a spoon-full of the sour crème on top. Crusty bread is also a good side serving for this soup (as with all soups). This soup is great when it comes to keeping you warm for those long autumn nights...

Variations

As I mentioned this is a variation on my "red" soup theme. Other reddish vegetables that can be added are carrots, sweet potatoes, yams or any squash. Treat these in exactly the same way as the pumpkin.

If you like more of a kick you can add more chillies, or if you don't like spicy food they can be removed. Chilli powder is an acceptable substitute for the chillies.

The sour creme can be replaced with crème fraich.

Try sprinkling mixed herbs over the vegetables before roasting them.

If you want to do this recipe healthier you could boil all of the vegetables instead of roasting them. The taste won't be as satisfying... but healthier food never is is it?

Easy Chicken Curry

I love curry... It is awesome. And when I say curry, I'm talking about Indian curry, and it has to be spicy! No kormas for me!

Actually... when I say Indian curry I actually mean English Indian curry, which is slightly different (probably... I've never been to India... I almost went but they wouldn't let me in... for the full story click here...). My father is a curry affectionado, and makes a mean chicken curry. He uses all the raw spices and creates his own curry paste, chappatis, flavoured rice... everything! I am not that good... As I mentioned somewhere here I like food that is easy to make and tasty. So no manufacture of curry paste for me! I use curry paste from a jar, and here is how I do it...

Ingredients (serves 4)

500g of chicken
around an eighth of a large cabbage
2 medium sized potatoes
one carrot, large
one large onion
10 large mushrooms (about 400g)
one red pepper
two chillies (red or green or both)
half a bulb of garlic
2 tomatoes
about half a jar of sherwoods curry paste (I like madras or rogan josh, but any is ok)
one teaspoon of chilli powder
half a litre of chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups of rice

Equipment
two large saucepans
one large frying pan or wok
something to stir with
a large knife
chopping board
bowl

The first step is to chop the chicken into large pieces, about an inch square should do it. Place the chicken into the bowl with about a tablespoon of the curry paste. Mix this well and put it aside to marinade. If you can do this the day in advance and cover and refrigerate it then all the better.

Next you want to chop the potato into about one centimetre pieces, the carrot into similar sized squares and the cabbage as small as you can get it. Place all of this into one of the large saucepans and add the stock. The stock should cover over the vegetables. If it doesn't then add some water until the vegetables are covered. Add the chilli powder, a tablespoon of curry paste, salt and pepper. Put this pan on a high heat. Keep an eye on this pan. When it starts to boil reduce the heat so it is simmering.

While the large saucepan is heating up chop the mushrooms into large pieces. Fry the mushrooms on a high heat with a bit of vegetable oil. Chop the garlic and the chillies and add them at this stage. Once the mushrooms are browned add the marinaded chicken to the frying pan and turn the heat down to medium. Remember to stir the frying pan from time to time.

While the chicken is browning chop the onion into medium sized pieces and add it to the mix in the frying pan. Keep on moving all of this occasionally. Chop the red pepper and add this as well. Once all of this seems cooked (the onions should be soft, and make sure the chicken is cooked through) take the entire contents of the frying pan and add it to the saucepan with the vegetables in it. Turn the heat down low if you haven't already done so.

The curry will taste better the longer you leave it to cook, but the essential thing to check is that the potatoes are cooked. If it looks a bit dry then add some water. About ten minutes before you serve you should add the tomatoes. They should be chopped into large pieces.

While the curry is simmering you can cook the rice. This is the method that I prefer to cook rice. It gets pretty good results, but you really need a gas hob. If you don't have a gas hob then you need a very sensitive and responsive hob. I add two cups of rice into the other large saucepan. Rinse this rice by pouring cold water into the rice, stirring it off, and then pouring the water out. Rice sinks so this is fairly easy. Repeat the rinsing process if needed. Add three cups of water and place the pan on a high heat. Put a lid on the pan. Wait until the water is boiling and then turn the heat down as low as you can get it. The lower you can get it the better in this situation. Take the lid off the pan. You need to keep an eye on the rice and let it stay on the heat until ALL of the free water has gone. There should be no dampness left at the bottom of the rice. You never want to stir rice or it will break up. If you leave the rice on too long, or have the heat too high then you will burn the rice to the base of the pan... which is a real pain to clean off!

Once the rice is cooked, serve it onto four plates and portion out the curry to the four plates.

Enjoy!

Variations

There are many things you can add to this recipe. You can add pumpkin or sweet potato to the mix. Add these with the potato and cabbage at the start. You can add chopped spinach. I would add this at the end, along with the tomato.

An alternative meat would be lamb. This may need cooking for longer to make it tenderer.

For vegetarians just take out the chicken and add some pumpkin or just more potato.

Have more or less chilli powder to make the curry spicier or milder.

If you accidentally make the curry too hot then natural yoghurt works well to cool it down.

A great side to this dish is nan bread or chappatis (I generally buy them pre made, but if you feel adventurous you can make your own. I might post a recipe one of these days...)

Microwave Cake

Microwave Cake

I'm living in Gayndah at the moment. One of the benefits (or not... ) of this is that I meet lots of French people!

Now, someone told me that the best chefs in the world are French... You would never know it from the French people in Gayndah! In fact it is a stretch for most of them to make a fish finger sandwich!

One thing that I have learned from the French of Gayndah is the secret of a cake that you can make in the microwave! This seems miraculous to me, and I thought it would be of interest for all of you that don't have access to an oven! The ingredients are as follows...

1 Yoghurt (any flavour)
1 yoghurt pot of sugar
3 yoghurt pots of flour
3 eggs
1 yoghurt pot of oil
1 tea-spoon of bicarbonate of soda
200g of dark chocolate

you will also need
one large oven proof bowl
one small oven proof bowl
a spoon for mixing
a microwave

The instructions couldn't be simpler...

Just add the ingredients to the large bowl one at a time, mixing thoroughly after every ingredient. When you get to the chocolate, you want to break it up, place it in the small bowl, and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes or until it is melted. Once it is melted, just add it to the rest of the ingredients and mix.

The resultant mixture should look something like this...

Once everything is mixed together you place the large bowl into the microwave and put it on high heat for 12 minutes. Be aware that the mixture will rise considerably, so make sure that the mix has plenty of space to rise into. The first time I did this the bowl was too small and the mixture spilled all over the microwave...

You will know that the cake is done when it is firm but spongy. Depending on your microwave you may need to give it more or less time.

Cut the cake into slices and serve...

Variations

Use different types of chocolate to give different tastes.

Add some dried fruit like raisins. I think one yoghurt pot would be about right...

Add choc chips to the recipe.

Top the cake with icing sugar, or coco powder...

Chilli con Carné

My mother taught me this dish before I went away to university. I have improved it since then, but the base of the recipe is still the same... This meal is very easy to experiment with. See the variations at the bottom for some of the possible changes you can make.

You will need
Ingredients
500 grams minced beef (Vegetarians see the variations list at the bottom)
one large onion
a handful of mushrooms (200-400 grams)
half a clove of garlic
one green capsicum (pepper)
one or two fresh red or green chillies (how many depends on how hot you like it)
one medium sized potato
around 250 grams pumpkin
3 tablespoons of tomato paste (or a jar of passata)
one tin baked beans
one tin kidney beans
one tin chopped tomatoes
2 stock cubes (vegetable chicken or beef work well)
one teaspoon of chilli powder
salt and pepper
vegetable oil
crème fraiche
Equipment
A large frying pan
A large saucepan
Chopping board
Knife
Tin opener
Two gas (or electric) hobs

The first thing that you want to do is to wash the potato and cut it up into roughly 1cm squares. Chop the skin from the pumpkin and dispose of the seeds. Chop the pumpkin into similarly sized lumps.

Put the potato, pumpkin, the tins of baked beans, kidney beans and tomatoes, the stock cubes, the tomato paste and the chilli powder into the large sauce pan. Add more water (about a cup will probably be enough) to keep everything moist and place on a high heat. Add pepper and a little salt at this stage too. When you are preparing the rest of the ingredients keep an eye on this pan. If it starts to boil then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer. If it is drying out (it will start to burn to the pot if it gets too dry) add a bit more water.

Next chop the mushrooms into large pieces. Slice about half of the garlic up and add the garlic and the mushrooms to the frying pan with a bit of oil (50-100 ml). Put this frying pan on a high heat. Keep the mushrooms moving, especially when the pan gets hot. When the mushrooms are browned all over add the beef mince. Stir in the beef mince, breaking it up as it cooks. When it is browned all over turn the heat down to medium-low.

Chop the onion and add it to the frying pan. Stir it in and then chop the chillis and add them. Chop the rest of the garlic and add it. Finally chop up the capsicum (green pepper) and add it to the frying pan. Stir the frying pan regularly as you are doing all of this.

When all of the ingredients are in the frying pan turn the heat back up and stir them all together as they get hotter. Once you think everything looks done (this is a matter of taste and experience, but as long as nothing is burnt too much then it will be ok) add the entire contents of the frying pan to the sauce pan.

Now you stir the sauce pan and then leave everything to simmer. The longer you leave it the better everything will taste. At a minimum make sure that the potatoes and pumpkin are cooked (stick a fork in them. They should be easy to pierce).

Serve the chilli in a bowl with a tablespoon of the crème fraiche on top. Toast or a French stick makes a good accompaniment to this dish.

Variations

For vegetarians, you can enjoy this meal but take out the minced beef and add more of the pumpkin and potato. Technically it won't be chilli con carne any more... just chilli! :p

Use steak meat instead of mince. Cut it into thin strips and then treat it exactly the same as the mince. This is more authentic.

Instead of using a green capsicum you can mix up your capsicum colours, maybe using half a green, and a quarter of a yellow and red.

Add more or less chilli powder to taste.

Add grated cheese to the top of the chilli as well as the crème fraiche.

If you can't find crème fraiche (it is rare in Australia for example) you can use sour crème or even Greek yoghurt.

Instead of the kidney beans you can use a 3 or 4 bean mix.

Almost all of the ingredients are removeable or replaceable. The only thing you need are the beans and the chilli powder! Other possible ingredients would be sweet potatoes, carrots, cabbage or spinach (add with the potatos at the start).

Cheese Cake

This recipe was passed to me by my mother, and to her from her mother, and to her from one of my aunts ex-boyfriends... I used to think it was an old family recipe... This is my variation to make individual sized portions...

For this you will need

Topping
0.22 liter 3/8th pint evaporated milk (works best if slightly frozen)
grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
0.3 litres 1/2 pint double cream
0.12 kilograms 4 oz soft cheese (Philadelphia works fine)
0.12 kilograms 4 oz caster sugar

Base
12 digestive biscuits
0.045 kilograms 1 1/2 oz sugar
0.09 kilograms 3 oz butter

Equipment
Three mixing bowls
Whisk (it is possible with a normal balloon whisk, but I recommend using an electric whisk)
10 empty yogurt pots
Small saucepan
Gas (or electric) hob
Fridge
Wooden spoon
Rolling pin (any hard object will do at a pinch)

The first thing that you need to make is the base. This is simple. Crush up the digestive biscuits in a bowl with the rolling pin. Melt the 3 oz of butter in the saucepan, remove from the heat and mix in the crushed digestive biscuits and the 1.5 oz of sugar.

Place an equal amount of the base mixture into each of the yogurt pots and press flat. The base should be just under 1cm thick. If you have some left over you may be able to make more... Leave the bases aside to cool.

For the topping, add the lemon rind to the evaporated milk and whisk it until it is thick and creamy.

Whip the cream to a light and fluffy consistency.

Mix the lemon juice, cheese and sugar together and fold them into the evaporated milk. Folding is a very gentle mixing action with a wooden spoon, using a figure of eight motion.

Fold the whipped cream into the resulting mixture.

You then pour the topping into the yogurt pots and place them into the fridge to set. The setting will take around twelve hours.

Variations

Add some fruit on top of the topping. Kiwi fruit work very well, or any kind of berries. (The picture shows some cheesecake with blueberries.

You can make this in a cake tin, but it has to be the type of cake tin that the side unclips from otherwise you won't be able to serve it effectively.

Bangers and Mash with gravy.

For this classic British recipe you will need

1 large potato per person
2-3 sausages per person (it is worth spending more to get better sausages for this. Pork are better.)
1/2 an onion per person
3 small mushrooms per person
some kind of stock powder (chicken or vegetable would be best)
around 50g butter
one egg
splash of milk
salt
pepper

one large frying pan
one medium sized pan
a masher
a bread board
a knife

two gas (electric will do if you have no alternative) hobs.

The first step is to wash the potatoes, cut them into roughly inch cubes and put them in the pan with enough water to cover them plus a bit. You can add salt to the water as well. Put the pan on a high heat.

While the water is heating up you can slice the mushrooms and onions into largish pieces.

Add some cooking oil to the pan (you don't need much) fry the sausages in the pan on a high heat until they are browned all over and then add the mushrooms and onions to the frying pan. You can reduce the heat a little at this stage.

While you are doing all of this keep an eye on the potatoes to see if they are boiling. If they are then reduce the heat on the potatoes until they are simmering steadily.

When the onions in the frying pan are a nice light golden brown colour add some of the water from the boiling potatoes to the frying pan. Add the stock powder to the frying pan at this point and add pepper to taste. Turn the heat under the frying pan right down so it is gently simmering.

Test the potatoes to see if they are done. Stab them with a knife or a fork. If they are easy to stab then they are done. Drain out the water. If the frying pan looks a little dry then add some more of the potato water to that.

Add the butter, egg and milk to the potatoes and also add salt to taste. The more salt the better it will taste... but salt is bad for you... so use caution. Be careful not to use too much milk, you only need a splash... and if you really want to you can get away without using any.

Mash the potatoes until they are at a good consistency for you. I like them smooth, but not too smooth. It is personal preference how you like them. Dish out the mashed potato onto plates.

Add the sausages next to the mash, and pour the mushroom and onion gravy over the whole lot.

I like to have mustard on the side as I think it goes well with the sausages.

And voilà... you have a delicious meal.


Optional extras.

If you feel adventurous you can add mustard to the potatoes before you mash them.

Chopped spinach (you can find it in the freezer section of the supermarket) enhances any gravy. Just add it to the frying pan after you have added the water.

If you are having lamb sausages you can try adding mint to the mashed potato.