Christmas Lunch

I spent Christmas day with three other families in air-conditioned comfort and relief... it was 40+ degrees outside, so the choice of venue or space was vital.  It was decided that no-one should cook for Christmas lunch and we should focus on cold foods.  Seafood salad and cold chicken tandoori had already been decided on.  I had hoped to cook this fab meat and mushroom sour-cream pie, but I'm not a big fan of any fusion cooking, and abhor Christmas feasts without a theme.  I decided to re-interpret the cold issue, and decided that it was more that one shouldn't spend too much time cooking on Christmas day.  With a bit of to-ing and fro-ing of the various cooks, this was our final menu:

Christmas Cooking and preparations...

Jorge's gingerbread men and trees...

It was with surprised relief that I took down our Christmas tree the day after Boxing Day.  I don't ever recall feeling so much relief that Christmas was finally over.  It seemed to have gone on for weeks, and my mood ebbed and flowed according to the rhythms of the various gatherings I attended, the food I cooked (or didn't get around to) and the planning around the actual day. There is so much pressure on each individual to get that day right.. to spend it with the 'right people' - friends or family, and to get that feast 'right'!  This feast day and festival is imbued with so much relevance about one's legitimacy as a person.  Next year, I want to take off to Vietnam or Cambodia a week before, and let the day drift by with barely a whimper.  I doubt my son will let me do this.  He is hanging on to every last thread of the Santa myth that he can...  including the food.  Here is the before and after shot of Santa's feast for this year. Santa's food consisted of: gingerbread men and stars, turkish delight, soft chocolate torrone, cherries and ginger beer, of course! And he and the reindeers left behind a big mess on the floor by way of paw prints.  I'm wondering if this will be our last visit from Santa, but I suspect not.

Santa food, before and after

This year's interpretation on
the
Christmas Nativity.

Christmas Treats: Sourdough Stollen

Last year I made  Dresden Stollen for friends for Christmas.  Not that I'm German (I'm not), but I do find the German Christmas traditions endearing, and yes, one day I may even  experience them.  This year I adapted my stollen recipe and made sourdough stollen, sadly it didn't make it to friends.  My family ate all three loaves (apart from a half loaf that could still be sitting in Jamie's bag?)  It was a great success, and stayed moist for much longer than my previous stollen.  But after eating so much  stollen , I couldn't face making any for  friends.  Instead they got or are still to get torrone, loukamis and/or paneforte.

Stollen is a German yeast bread, made traditionally for Christmas.  My (skippy) Mum made great stollen and some of my sisters try to emulate it, but they never succeed in my opinion.  My mother followed the wonderful recipe in the Foods of the World German Cookbook for Dresden Stollen.. I have also followed this recipe in previous years, but have adapted it this year for use with sourdough and  according to what is available in my pantry in terms of dried fruits ((I have added some beautiful dried sour cherries. )

So, you will need an active 'mother' or starter, and it needs to be ready to go.  I had been feeding mine for 24 hours before I started this recipe.. Also, this recipe is meant for a warm humid Australian summer day... perfect for bread-baking, and the amounts are a bit of guess work, in particular the ratio of starter to white flour.

Ingredients:

150 gm sultanas

150 gm glazed citrus (I have used orange and citron)

75gm glazed cherries

75 gm dried cherries

Almonds,

6 tbsp brandy

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon or lime rind

pinch salt

Vanilla bean

100gm unsalted butter

2 eggs

50gm melted unsalted butter

200gm White sourdough starter

600gm White flour

100ml Milk

200gm white sugar

Icing Sugar

Method

1. Place sultanas, glazed citrus and cherries in bowl with brandy and soak for at least one hour.  
2. Drain the fruit (keeping the liquid) and pat dry. Toss the fruit with about one datblespoon of flour and set aside.
3. Heat 125 gm sugar with milk and allow to cool.
4. Put flour, sourdough starter, milk, eggs and brandy into the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough attachment and 'knead' until a rough dough is formed.
5. Add pinch salt and grated lemon or lime rind, vanilla and continue to knead for another 5 minutes.  The dough should be quite moist.
6. Place a tea-towel on top and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
7. Return the dough to the mixer, and with the speed on low, gradually add the dried fruit and almonds.  Allow to rest for another 20 minutes.
8. Return the dough to the mixer, and with the speed on low gradually add the butter piece by piece until is is fully absorbed.  Allow the dough to rest for between 1 and 2 hours.
9. Divide the dough into three.  
10. Place one of the pieces onto a floured board and roll out or press out until the dough is about 30cm long and 20cm wide.
11. Divide melted butter and sugar into three lots and spread the butter and sugar down the centre of the dough (leaving aside a tablespoon of extra butter for each loaf.).
12. Fold one long end of the dough over then the over end.  The dough should resemble the baby Jesus in swaddling clothes.  Place on baking tray and coat the loaf with some remaining butter.
13. Put plastic over top and repeat with the other two loaves, and allow to rest for at least two hours or up to three hours depending on the temperature.
14. Half an hour before you are ready to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
15. Bake the bread for around 45 minutes until golden and crusty.
16. When ready, allow to cool completely on rack.  Repeat with other loaves.
17. Just before serving, dust with icing sugar.

Christmas Treats: Glazed Oranges

I got down to my last glazed orange slices 2 weeks ago,  making a birthday cake for the lovely Silva, and I decided I just couldn't stand doing an online order for glazed oranges when there were perfectly good, even beautiful oranges in the shops (and often on the trees) in Alice Springs.  And I use glazed oranges a lot: ricotta cheesecake, orange cake, paneforte,  orange slices dipped in chocolate..etc... and Christmas is coming closer and closer....

 I had looked for several years for a good glazing recipe but had not located one.  I mentioned the problem to my lovely Mark and to my astonishment,  he found a document, and emailed it to me... As is often the case with electronic communication from those who are part of our daily lives, I had ignored it... or perhaps, overlooked is a better word.  Well, when I found and read this article, I was overwhelmed.  It made perfect sense.  The glazing process takes several days, and the glazing mixture includes corn syrup (or in my case glucose syrup) and sugar.

The recipe I first used was for Citron (cedro), and it didn't work for oranges.. for a start I overcooked them, and then I didn't need to cook them everyday.  So here's the recipe for what I did do, and succesfully (check out the photo).

Ingredients

Sliced oranges (I prefer Valencia, don't use navel), with seeds removed (or not, as can be seen by my photo)
Pinch salt
1.5 litres water

700 gm sugar

60 gm glucose syrup

Time

Method

1. Slice the oranges cross-wise into slices, about 7mm thick.  Discard the ends and remove any seeds.
2. Places the oranges in a large saucepan of water, add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil.
3. Simmer for between 20 and 30 minutes, taking care that the oranges do not overcook.
4. Carefully remove the oranges, or pour through a strainer.
5. In the same, or another saucepan add the water (1.5 litres), sugar and glucose syrup and bring to the boil.  
6. Add the orange slices and simmer for 20 minutes.  Put the lid on the saucepan and leave the oranges to soak.
7. The next day, repeat this process, ie. Bring the saucepan with the oranges to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid off.
8. Carefully remove the oranges and place on a cake rack.  Allow to sit and drain for around 12 hours.  You may want to put a sheet of baking paper over the top.  
9. Test the orange.  It should be sweet and not too tough and not too fragile.
10. Place in a sealed container and leave in the fridge.

More Cakes of Legend: Birthday Cake(s) No 3 for Birthday No 9

This is the final birthday cake(s) for this Jorge's 9th birthday... he requested macarons for the cake for this part.. three types: salted caramel, passionfruit and raspberry - and so he got his wish.

Up till 2am last night, and cursing my oven.. wishing I had a new one, only to remember that I do have one that's been sitting in our living room for two years now..  I have given myself till Christmas to have it installed.

Macarons  piled high on a plate were divine!  But I wasn't completely happy with the results. 
 I had some lopsided problems which I suspected was due to my oven, and confirmed via late night research..
 Recipes for macarons are as per my previous posting on salted caramel macarons.  Raspberry ganache was made with white chocolate, cream and fresh raspberrries in double boiler till melted, chilled, then whipped.  Passionfruit filling is another story: passionfruit curd with whipped cream.. need to work on this one. 
The party was a hit:  Halloween inspired and involved children dressing up and visiting five houses in neighbourhood... Glad I live in Alice Springs.  There were more activities: Piñata, nerf gun trials, brandy, soccer, etcc and of course pizza, cooked in pizza oven on sourdough bread.  All children were happy, and I am exhausted. Good night!

Arancini - Wonderful for leftover Risotto

Not sure how appealing this picture looks, but these are soooo  yummy!  In keeping with the birthday theme, my lovely son asked for Risotto for this birthday dinner. (And chocolate mousse for dessert... discussed earlier today.) Not going to give the recipe for risotto tonight, but rather these beautiful deep fried risotto balls.  For a long time, I used only to put mozarella in the middle of my arancini (also called suppli sometimes), and then I tried one at Brunetti's in Melbourne, and it had bolognese in the centre as well.  It makes it more of a meal, and has a very Italo-Australian sensibility...

Ingredients:

2 eggs

Left over risotto (I have used Risi e Bisi risotto)

Quantity of bolognese (everyone should have this on hand in your freezer)

Mozarella, cut into small cubes

Breadcrumbs

Deep-frying oil

Method

1. Beat up one egg and mix it through the cold risotto.
2. Beat up the other egg and put in a shallow bowl.
3. Place breadcrumbs in second shallow bowl.
4. Take a heaped teaspoon size amount of risotto and place in cupped hand, creating a hollow in the middle.
5. Into this hollow, place a teaspoon of bolognese sauce and a cube of mozarella.  
6. Take another teaspoon of risotto mixture and place over the top.
7. Very gently make a round ball.
8. Roll the ball in the beaten egg mixture then breadcrumbs.  Leave aside and repeat with remaining risotto.
9. Heat up cooking oil, and when hot carefully place a ball in the oil.  There must be enough oil to cover the ball.  Cook and turn until brown and drain on paper.
10. Eat quickly while the cheese is still runny...

More Cakes of Legend: Birthday Cake No. 1 for Birthday No. 9

I love birthdays, and fortunately I send my son to a school that also appreciates birthdays.  Jorge's birthday celebration yesterday was very special and involved a song, a few stories by me and a chocolate mud cake (also by me and a simple recipe courtesy of Women's Weekly Cookbook.)

The cake was made special with candles raspberries, and of course silver leaf...

More Cakes of Legend: Birthday Cake No. 2 for Birthday No. 9

This was Jorge's Birthday Cake No. 2 for his 9th birthday... basically a Chocolate Mousse in a ring

mould with strawberries in the middle, and individual ones for three children.

Found a fabulous chocolate mousse recipe from a more fabulous blog than my own at this address: http://www.chefeddy.com/2010/02/dark-chocolate-mousse/