Merry Christmas all (Page 3 of 3)

We didn't gorge on Christmas eve, but for Christmas lunch we had family over and prepared:

Turkey with lemon, parsley, and garlic.
Lemon, parsley, and garlic are mixed with butter and smoothed between the skin and breast meat of the bird. remaining mixture smoothed over the exposed skin, then drizzled with olive oil to prevent the butter from burning. Stuffed with onion, lemon, bay leaves, garlic cloves, then put into a high heat oven to sear and brown for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, the turkey is removed from the oven and covered with streaky bacon, then olive oil. This keeps the meat tender, and will be used later in the gravy. Put the bird back in the oven for about 35 minutes per kilo, basting every 30 minutes.
For the gravy, remove the bird from the pan and put aside to rest (rest for as long as the bird was cooked, ideally). Remove (but keep) the onion and lemon from the cavity, and the bacon from the skin. Cut any bits from the bird nobody will eat (such as the tail and wings), and put aside. Drain the excess fat from the roasting tray and put the roasting tray on the stove and turn on the heat. Cut up the bacon, onion, and lemon, and add to the roasting tray with some rosemary. Add some chopped tomatoes, and the trimmings and bits from the turkey which won't be eaten. Add about a litre of dry apple cider, and add the resting juices from the turkey. Reduce the liquid by about half, crush the bits in the tray, and add chicken stock. Reduce some more, then strain the contents of the tray into a pot - squashing the bits to extract the goodness.

Ham with marmalade and cinnamon glaze
We don't like a glaze which is too sweet, so there's no maple syrup in this. Score the fat of a ham cooked on the bone, and stud with cloves.
Add marmalade, honey, and apple cider vinegar to a pan and heat slowly. Add some bay leaves, ground allspice, pepper corns, and a cinnamon stick. Continue to warm so the glaze infuses, but don't burn.
Glaze the ham, and put into a moderate oven. Re-glaze every 20 minutes.

Grilled trout on potato mash
Cut up your potatoes into smaller bits and put into a pot with cold water, don't be tempted to cheat and use hot water from a kettle - the mash won't be as good. Separate into multiple pots if you're making a lot. Cook from cold until the potatoes are soft, drain, and mash with a good quantity of butter, full cream milk, pepper, and salt to taste.
Trout fillets. Cook 'em lightly. Put it on a dollop of velvety potato mash which you've spread with the back of a spoon. Serve with asparagus and olive oil.

Garden salads, Greek salads, prawn and cucumber salad, broccoli, garlic, and sliced chilli salad.

We served with a selection of local boutique apple, and apple and pear ciders, steam ale, red ale, and pilsner.

For desert we made fruit mince biscuits, and served fruit cake and cherry pie.

Then we went to Mum's for dinner.

Last edited by Dave (2013-12-25 19:58:22)

Best wishes to everyone. I scanned a bunch of old family photos and copied them to portable hard drives to give to my brothers and sisters. That went well.

I got some jeans and 2 Steve McQueen movies, raided from my Amazon wish list, which reminded me that he used to require boxes of blue jeans and whatnot in his movie contracts and take them his old reform school to spend time with the boys on the holidays. So I donated a few bucks to a couple of homeless shelters in his honor. Complicated man, but cool and properly Santa-minded.

Last edited by Zarban (2013-12-26 09:34:18)

I'm a bit late to the party but still, Merry Christmas everyone

A quiz....

One niece, recently out of college and needing to get her car fixed, got $500.

Her sister, a married part-time photographer, got $100 and a hard drive loaded with family photos (digital from the last few years as well as old photos that were scanned).

Which one cried that she was less loved?

One niece was disowned on Boxing Day.

A sock!!! You're free Tomahawk, you're free!