Friday 26 December 2008

Christmas 2008

It's been a while since I added to this blog, and our festive Christmas meal of yesterday seems a good way to start it up again.

We did the 7 course meal that has become traditional since moving to The Netherlands. As there are only two of us, we need something extraordinary to feel festive.



Two amuses to begin: an avocado tartare and a carrot cream brulee. The tartare is very simple, and the secret is in the dressing. The full recipe calls for 1/2 cup of muscat vinegar, 3 tablespoons maple syrup, the zest of two limes and the juice of one lime. You reduce this until it becomes syrupy. I wasn't concerned about the maple syrup, as the amount you use per spoon is so small, it hardly matters. I didn't have any limes so I left out the zest and used juice from a tired lemon.

The carrot cream brulee called for juice from 4 oranges, reduced down, and a small amount of sugar. Once again, the amount per serving is so small I don't think it's worth fussing over.



The soup was a three onion soup, using red onion, white onions and a green onion. Meh, don't bother, it tastes just like normal onion soup. What was interesting was the parmesan crisp instead of the bread and cheese you would expect. They're easy to do, just make little circles of parmesan cheese on a nonstick baking sheet and bake at 180 centigrade until they just start to brown. I would say it takes about 10-12 minutes, I simply watch them like a hawk.



This was a salad of artichoke bottoms (fresh, but you could use canned, green beans and tomato petals. I was supposed to roast the tomato petals but these are fresh: I used centigrade instead fahrenheit when trying to roast them and ended up with tomato crisps. The dressing is the tomato flavoured oil from the tomato crisps and red wine vinegar.



My cop-out: giant garlic and parsley shrimp from the Albert Hein Festive Season selection. I did have to pan-fry them, though.



The main course was venison, a very Dutch choice. In this case, fillet of wild boar, which I just pan fried and serve with steamed broccoli and chocolate sauce. The chocolate sauce was from our Cooking Club Christmas dinner. The recipe (for 15 people) asks you to soften 500 grams of shallots and 4 cloves of garlic in 30 grams of butter, with 4 sprigs of thyme, 2 teaspoons of peppercorns and 2 bay leaves. Deglaze with 4 tablespoons of raspberry vinegar, then add a bottle of red wine and reduce down to 200 ml. Add 2 litres of veal stock and reduce down to 120 ml, then strain and season to taste. Just before serving, heat the sauce then add 80 grams of grated extra-dark chocolate. You can't reheat it after adding the chocolate, so either make it for a lot of people, or measure out small quantities of the reduced mixture and adjust the amount of chocolate you add.



These are goat cheese rounds wrapped in bacon that I bought from the organic market. I baked them for about 15 minutes then let them cool to lukewarm. They are served with a port wine reduction: reduce the port down to about a third of the original volume and chill. It's actually wonderful with all soft cheeses, and you need just a little.



This dessert looks spectacular and actually tastes pretty wonderful too. Per person you need a half apple, baked. You can remove the skin after baking. I used some pistachios and dried cranberries in the centre for a festive flair, but you can leave them out and obviously for everyday low-carb eating, the cranberries should certainly vanish! Cover the apple completely with Greek or Turkish yogurt, the 10% fat version. Then scatter grated coconut over it. I used fresh coconut, which I grated myself, but you can use store bought if you can find unsweetened.

Today, it's leftovers!