The last lunch of the year celebrated with relatives and the day before my detox. I still had leftovers to use up so arranged my menu around that. I only had to buy Chicken Drumsticks for the Miso, Ginger & Lime Chicken recipe from Ottolenghi’s Simple cookbook and I had everything else I needed for a feast. YUM!!
I would also like to take this time to reflect on 2019 – what a year and what an amazing foodie adventure it was. I feel so very privileged to have eaten some amazing and interesting food with friends and family, both in home and at restaurants. I have met awesome Chefs and cooks along the way. I have cooked alongside friends at some wonderful cooking classes and workshops. Not to mention all the Thermomix cooking experiences and cooking classes spent with my customers and friends. Thank you to everyone for being such a wonderful support and part of this epic, delicious foodie adventure. I’m looking forward to lots more amazing food in 2020. Happy New year to you all!!
Chicken with Miso, Ginger and LimeMy famous Potato Salad recipeRoasted Eggplant with Anchovies and Oreganoiphone pic of the Pull Apart loaf I used up leftover ham, pesto, cheese and butter.
We were lucky to have an extended Christmas this year celebrating the week before Christmas with a Japanese feast and then on Christmas Eve I decided to do some more traditional food for the 4 of us!! And we proceeded to eat the leftovers from Christmas Day till New years Eve!!
I used my favourite Yolande Zarins tablecloth and napkins.
I was so excited to set my table for Christmas Eve dinner, I set it on Saturday night – 4 nights early!! I had just collected my early Christmas pressie 4 new dinner plates and a new serving platter form my favourite ceramics lady Sallee Warner. I got so excited setting the table I proceeded to put all my Sallee Warner Ceramics on the table that I have collected over the years and was very surprised at how many beautiful pieces I have. It turned out lucky that I set my table early because on the day of Christmas Eve I ended up delivering 3 Thermomix!!
I bought this gorgeous table runner and matching Christmas crackers in Newcastle, however it’s a Melbourne company called Milligram that make them.In keeping with the theme, I also got out a few of my other special Aussie designed tableware including my Dinosaur Design pieces.
On the day before Christmas Eve, I went to visit my Chef friend Eloise Emmett who had promised to help me with my Turduckenail – Thank goodness she did because I was very slow at deboning the birds. She had helped me make a Turducken on a couple of years ago and it was delicious. I had some quails in the freezer so thought I was being inventive by adding the quail in too. But it turns out Ellie had already done that a few years ago! Ellie took out the bones from the Turkey leaving the legs and wings in place, I deboned the duck and cut the legs and wings off the deboned jumbo quails (we ate those for dinner that night with a teriyaki sauce YUM!) So we placed the Turkey into the baking tray and then the duck inside that – the small chicken inside that and the quail meat followed by a thyme & bread stuffing. Then it was secured into place with a couple of skewers. See Ellie’s recipe here. I served mine with the leftover teriyaki sauce basted on towards the end of cooking. And used the bones to make a delicious stock for the gravy ( I forgot to take a photo of that gravy) I also had more stock left that I used to make an amazing mushroom broth.
You can see some of the layers of the different birds in the turduckenailMushroom Broth made with leftover turduckenail stock
So Christmas Eve dinner was the main event this Christmas I arrived home about 2.30 promptly placed the Turduckenail into the oven and steamed the potatoes in the varoma before roasting them in duck fat in the oven. I steamed the cauliflower in one thermomix while I made the bechamel sauce in the other thermomix for the cauliflower gratin and peeled and chopped the other veggies ready to roast. I used the thermomix to reduce the stock and make a delicious gravy. And I also made an amazing homemade butter and added my own homemade miso. This was to serve with the homemade sourdough bread I had baked the previous day, because we didn’t already have enough food!!
Watermelon & Strawberry Frose’ – recipe by Darren Purchese was perfect on some of our hot festive days
I had planned a few different desserts that didn’t happen so it was lucky my wonderful friend had made me a delicious Christmas pudding that we had for dessert with some thermomix made vanilla bean custard. We didn’t actually need any dessert but it’s just what you do isn’t it?
Homemade Sourdough with homemade Miso Butter (using homemade miso)Turduckenail – deboned quail inside, deboned chicken inside, deboned duck, inside mostly deboned turkey and then roasted.Turduckenail plate – it’s like lucky dipCauliflower GratinDuck Fat Roast Potatoes and Roasted baby CarrotsRoasted VeggiesGingerbread giftsChicken Liver Pate’ giftsSpice BiscuitsSaffron Peach BelliniEspresso MartiniHummus Dip
Each year our family chooses a different cuisine to make for our Christmas and this year I chose Japanese. We also had our Christmas early before my sister goes away with my nephews because let’s face it Christmas is all about the kids having fun right? And the big kids too LOL!!
We were fortunate enough to have Nico Moretti for his Sri Lankan Curry Cooking Class a couple of weeks ago. We all enjoyed the class so much and the food was delicious. One of our friends was unable to attend so we said we would make all the recipes for a shared lunch so she could try them. I wanted to make all the recipes so made the ones I hadn’t already made a few days later for a family dinner.
Sri Lankan Curry PowderPol Sambol (Coconut Sambol)Spicy Sri Lankan Onion Jam (Seeni Sambol)Beetroot CurrySri Lankan Red Lentil Dahl (Parippu)Godhamba Roti (Paratha)Sri Lankan Stuffed Vegetable Roti with Mint & Coriander Spiced YoghurtSri Lankan Chicken CurrySri Lankan Cashew CurrySri Lankan Yellow Rice (Kahabuth)Chicken Kottu RotiSri Lankan Eggplant Curry (Vambotu)Sri Lankan Love Cake
This was a very special class I was able to attend with only 10 places available. We were invited into the Maha kitchen to watch Shane make his signature dish – Chicken Kibbeh Tagine with White Fig, Eggplant and Almonds. Which was so delicious I just had to make it myself when I returned home.
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