Christmas Cooking Ideas and Recipes for a Perfect Christmas

With Christmas just 2 weeks away, it's about time we all got a grip of what we're doing about the food!  Here are just a few ideas of nice things to serve before, with and after your Christmas dinner.

Starting with the Starter! 
How about Feta, Pistachios and Leaves Dressed in Honey and Balsamic?  
Now this is too easy to do and can be put together in next to no time.

If you’re having Turkey, what size do you need?

Based on about 500g per person:

 6-8 people: 4kg turkey
8-10 people: 5kg turkey
10-12 people: 6kg turkey
If you’re getting a big one – do you have room in your oven?  The tray you’re thinking of cooking it in may not fit your oven - yes that happened to me last year so it’s worth checking that now!  
I always aim to have too much turkey for sandwiches later on in the evening.  If you have way too much left, you can always make a curry on Boxing Day or even freeze some.  

The website ‘I Love British Turkey’ has defrosting times, cooking times and how to carve your turkey so that’s worth having a look at. 

I always like to have a nice bit of pork loin or gammon too.  Last year I baked cured pork loin with Madeira and Honey Glaze.

    The Vegetables: 

Flavoured butters can be made in advance as they will keep for a couple of months in the freezer.  I particularly like Jamie Oliver’s flavoured butter with Crispy Bacon, Chestnut and Sage.

    Or you might fancy Jamie’s Thyme, Cumin and Orange Butter to add to carrots.  Now that’s really nice! 

  Dessert:

Not everyone likes Christmas pudding, so if you fancy something different, what about a nice DarkChocolate and Orange Cheesecake with Grand Marnier?

What about these Tiny Toblerone Cheesecakes?

   Or Toblerone Snowballs 

 Served with a Liqueur Coffee perhaps?

I hope this post has given you a few ideas.

 

Wishing Everyone a Very Merry Christmas

And All the Best for 2012! 

 

Pan-fried Chicken with Indian Style Flavoured Butter

Oooh now this was yummy - Pan-fried chicken with Indian style flavoured butter. 

After making Banita's Indian Style Fish and Chips the other day, we loved her Tandoori butter!  So, I titivated it a bit and came up with Indian style flavoured butter.

Perfect for chicken, fish or whatever else takes your fancy!

Thyme Cumin and Orange Flavoured Butter

Here's another yummy butter from Jamie Oliver's 'Christmas with Jamie' DVD.  This one goes perfectly with carrots.  

 If you fancy a chestnut and bacon butter for your Brussels then you'll find it here.  

Chestnut Bacon and Sage Flavoured Butter - Jamie Oliver

Imagine this, butter that's ready sliced and flavoured, with crispy bacon, chestnuts and sage.  Ready to put a slice on whatever you fancy. 

Picture above: just give the sprouts a stir and the butter will melt.
Oooh what to do what to do?  Brussels sprouts at Christmas or of course anytime you fancy.  Or how about on a jacket potato?

I saw this on an oldish (2005) Jamie Oliver DVD - Christmas with Jamie.

Flavoured Butter

Flavoured butter is sooo easy to make! You can add almost anything you like to it. As I was doing steak, I fancied blue cheese and walnut butter.

While I was in a flavoured butter mood, I also made one to use tomorrow.
The one below has sun dried tomato, capers, gherkins and black pepper in it.
You can make as much or as little as you need. Make just one portion if you want to.

Some other nice things you could put in your butter (but not all at once of course) include; finely grated lemon rind, tarragon, sage and onion, garlic, just crushed red and black peppercorns, thyme........I could go on and on and on!

For the tomato butter, you will need:

• A piece of greaseproof paper - approx 8 x 6 inches should do
• 100g unsalted butter - at room temperature
• 2 sun dried tomatoes - soaked in water for about 15 minutes and dried
• 1 tablespoon of capers - mine were in sherry vinegar so I just dried them. If you have the ones that are preserved in brine or salt then you will need to rinse them well. Whatever, be sure to dry them on kitchen paper towel.
• 5 cocktail sized gherkins - I started with 6 but I ate one!
• freshly ground black pepper - to taste

How to do it:

Get yourself a small bowl and put all the ingredients (apart from the pepper) in and give it a stir. A wooden spoon is best for this. Now season with black pepper.

Lay your greaseproof paper out on your kitchen worktop and smooth it with a wet hand so it becomes pliable. Dollop the butter in the center.

Now, just roll it up like your making a Christmas cracker by twiddling the ends.

Now just put your little 'butter cracker' into the fridge until it has set.

Once set it can be used as and when you fancy. Depending on what you've put in your butter I should think it will keep for a good few days.

This is the blue cheese and walnut butter I made to go on my steak - yum!

Just make in the same way as above:

• 100g butter
• 1 and a half tablespoons of chopped walnuts
• 20g blue cheese - I used Roquefort cheese, so depending on the cheese you use you might want more. Roquefort is outrageously strong!
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

Oh dear, my steak seems to be hidden under a pile of chips!