Cooking for Xmas? What's your menu?

[JR8]

Only three of us to cater for, but I'm thinking the scale is not that important, it will involve almost as much work as cooking for 10+


1.6kg Cornfed chicken. Stuff under the skin with butter roast garlic and chopped fresh thyme
Roast parsnips with fresh rosemary. Considering a light honey glaze.
Mashed potato
Petis Pois and baton carrots
Sage and onion stuffing balls.
Gravy and cranberry sauce

Wild mushroom (porcini) soup for starters. And the missus is to sort out the dessert.




What are others planning?

[x9200]

I would like to try to make a poppy seed cake without the poppy seeds. So far I was thinking about using the black sesame seeds with some almonds as a replacement. Any better ideas?

[poodlek]

Well...Mr K is working on Christmas Eve and Day and won't be home until after 10pm. Same as last year, so what I did was a Christmas breakfast with poached pears with a pomegranate wine glaze, clotted cream and orange scones. I made him some mulled wine for when he got home from work, and we went to the buffet at the Fullerton on the following Monday.

This year he's been asking for ham, so I'm not sure what day I'll cook it, but probably the 27th I guess. The usual fixings would be scalloped potatoes, turnip/carrot/parsnip casserole (family recipe made at every holiday ) and mincemeat pie with brandy butter.

I think for Christmas day I'll do the pears again this time with pancakes perhaps

[Asian_Geekette]

<snip> Same as last year, so what I did was a Christmas breakfast with poached pears with a pomegranate wine glaze, clotted cream and orange scones. <snip>

Did I hear clotted cream??? Where do you buy your clotted cream???

[poodlek]

<snip> Same as last year, so what I did was a Christmas breakfast with poached pears with a pomegranate wine glaze, clotted cream and orange scones. <snip>

Did I hear clotted cream??? Where do you buy your clotted cream???

Pretty sure I just got it at Cold Storage last year. I haven't looked yet this year, but I should probably get on that...
If not there, I'm sure you could get it at the Paragon Market. My local M&S has very limited stocks of things like this, so depending on your timing you might find it there also, although I don't think I've seen it there myself.

[Asian_Geekette]

<snip> Same as last year, so what I did was a Christmas breakfast with poached pears with a pomegranate wine glaze, clotted cream and orange scones. <snip>

Did I hear clotted cream??? Where do you buy your clotted cream???

Pretty sure I just got it at Cold Storage last year. I haven't looked yet this year, but I should probably get on that...
If not there, I'm sure you could get it at the Paragon Market. My local M&S has very limited stocks of things like this, so depending on your timing you might find it there also, although I don't think I've seen it there myself.

Thanks for this info!

[JR8]

I would like to try to make a poppy seed cake without the poppy seeds. So far I was thinking about using the black sesame seeds with some almonds as a replacement. Any better ideas?

Maybe use mock-poppy seeds?

I'd say it depends on how much poppy you usually add. Looking at some pix, some cakes just have the attractive black flecks, some cakes are literally gray with poppy.

I'd have thought sesame would work, but be wary of using it in such quantities that the cake starts tasting of it. How about taking some sesame seeds on a chopping board and mincing them down as small as you can get them.

Have a look at this recipe:
http://www.food.com/recipe/poppy-seed-cake-162541
It gets by with just 1.5tsps of poppy. Hence you'd have thought that that kind of ratio would have no risk of tasting of sesame. The writer is also adding almond flavour, so your thought of using ground almond as a substitute also sounds sound.

Poodlek, mmmm roast ham! Haven't had that in a long time The pancake recipe, are they US or euro style pancakes?

[BnJoe]

How does Christmas in Singapore feel like, at 35° and without the sight of snow? I wonder how the heavy food is taken by the body . Here, it just started snowing today, but apparently no white christmas this year predicted.

Is it typical to go out for christmas for the foreign population, since some of them live far away from home? Which places would they go to?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Average temperature year around is around 32 with the highest being around 34. But this time of year it's around 31-32 or like today when it's been raining all day longs, around 30. Nothing is typical. Some fly home for the holidays, some to neighbouring countries. Australians & Kiwis here have Christmas as usually, another shrimp on the barbie and and a couple of slabs of beer. (it 35-40 degrees in Aussie during Christmas. Other stay here and cook their own turnkeys (I'll be deepfrying my as normal - had one for thanksgiving last month as well).

Or you can cop out and go to a restaurant.

[poodlek]

I would like to try to make a poppy seed cake without the poppy seeds. So far I was thinking about using the black sesame seeds with some almonds as a replacement. Any better ideas?

Maybe use mock-poppy seeds?

I'd say it depends on how much poppy you usually add. Looking at some pix, some cakes just have the attractive black flecks, some cakes are literally gray with poppy.

I'd have thought sesame would work, but be wary of using it in such quantities that the cake starts tasting of it. How about taking some sesame seeds on a chopping board and mincing them down as small as you can get them.

Have a look at this recipe:
http://www.food.com/recipe/poppy-seed-cake-162541
It gets by with just 1.5tsps of poppy. Hence you'd have thought that that kind of ratio would have no risk of tasting of sesame. The writer is also adding almond flavour, so your thought of using ground almond as a substitute also sounds sound.

Poodlek, mmmm roast ham! Haven't had that in a long time The pancake recipe, are they US or euro style pancakes?

My 2c: I don't think sesame seeds would taste good in a poppy seed type cakes. I'd go with slivered blanched almonds, but of course it won't look spotty

JR8: My pancakes are undoubtedly American style, I'm not sure what Euro pancakes are, unless you mean crepes, which I consider to be something different entirely. Mine are thick and fluffy and sweet, and stand up on their own with just a little butter and maple syrup.

[JR8]

JR8: My pancakes are undoubtedly American style, I'm not sure what Euro pancakes are, unless you mean crepes,

'euro' because crepes is a French word. The same product in England is called a pancake.

Which I consider to be something different entirely. Mine are thick and fluffy and sweet, and stand up on their own with just a little butter and maple syrup.

Yep I know the sort very well. Enjoyed way too many of them during lazy NYC Sunday brunches...

Interestingly the US pancake is much closer to a Scottish pancake than an English one. Though the disc-size of the Scottish one might only be 4" (we used to reheat them in the toaster as children!).

The baseline topping for an English pancake is a sprinkle of sugar and lemon juice. Historically it would have been something simple I think. The whole thing of having a crepe stand with a menu of 20 things including Nutella and chopped banana etc is really pretty recent.

I was thinking an English pancake/crepe, stuffed with your pureed poached pear, the pomegranate glaze over, and a scoop of really good vanilla ice-cream would probably be damn shiok

p.s. pancakes are such an embedded institution in England that we even have Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent! Wonder if the French have a crepe-day?

[nutnut]

We're having a BBQ!

[BigSis]

We're having the usual turkey with all the trimmings - pigs in blankets, roast spuds, parsnips, stuffing, bread sauce and Yorkshire pud (not traditionally served with turkey I know but we like it).

No dessert - after all that lot we won't want any. I've still got a Christmas pud in the cupboard left over from last year.....maybe we'll get around to eating it this year

[x9200]

I would like to try to make a poppy seed cake without the poppy seeds. So far I was thinking about using the black sesame seeds with some almonds as a replacement. Any better ideas?

Maybe use mock-poppy seeds?

I'd say it depends on how much poppy you usually add. Looking at some pix, some cakes just have the attractive black flecks, some cakes are literally gray with poppy.

I'd have thought sesame would work, but be wary of using it in such quantities that the cake starts tasting of it. How about taking some sesame seeds on a chopping board and mincing them down as small as you can get them.

Have a look at this recipe:
http://www.food.com/recipe/poppy-seed-cake-162541
It gets by with just 1.5tsps of poppy. Hence you'd have thought that that kind of ratio would have no risk of tasting of sesame. The writer is also adding almond flavour, so your thought of using ground almond as a substitute also sounds sound.

Poodlek, mmmm roast ham! Haven't had that in a long time The pancake recipe, are they US or euro style pancakes?

My 2c: I don't think sesame seeds would taste good in a poppy seed type cakes. I'd go with slivered blanched almonds, but of course it won't look spotty

I will probably try 50-50 of the almonds and the sesame seeds.
JR8 - typically what we do is to soak the poppy seeds first and later grind it so I will try out a similar approach.

Ok, this is our list (as for the moment):
- the fake poppy seed cake
- stuffed eggs (button mushrooms, wild mushrooms)
- yellow peas with sauerkraut (stewed for few hours with wild mushrooms)
- croquettes (sauerkraut, wild mushrooms based filling)
- fish (TBD) with stewed vegetables (carrot, beetroot)
- duck pâté
- potato salad (potatoes, eggs, pickled cucumbers, carrots, mayonnaise, ++)

[BigSis]

I would like to try to make a poppy seed cake without the poppy seeds. So far I was thinking about using the black sesame seeds with some almonds as a replacement. Any better ideas?

how about using cardamon seeds - you can get black cardamon pods. I usually use the green ones but would imagine that the seeds in the black pods are also black.

My friend makes a lovely shortbread using cardamon - a cake using it may have quite a nice flavour.