Mamta's Kitchen - A Family Cookbook
Christmas Meals
So what is everyone planning for Christmas day? Ours is being planned by Kavey. It involves a turkey and a lamb roast. I don't know what else she has planned yet.
All I know is everyone is going to put together to pay for it... but we have to deal with it... lol
Steve
apart from the usual turkey and ALL* the trimmings, we're going to have a smoked boiled ham for Boxing day, with a sauce I invented made from chicken/turkey/guinea fowl gravy, thickened with potato starch, and with freshly grated root ginger added just before serving. Very subtle, but good with smoked ham. The ham is boiled with ground cloves in the water.
At the local Christmas fair, they were selling 'strange meat', so we may also have crocodile, kangaroo and impala. I've tried the first two, croc is mild, but rubbery, 'roo is strong and red but tough, but I have never had impala.
One of the extended family members doesn't like the (strong?) taste of turkey, so we make her a roast chicken, prepared the previous day, then sliced and warmed over, with a fresh gravy. This year I may make it with a slight coconut korma flavour!
*Includes sprouts with cumin seed butter, carrots with mandarin juice and coriander leaf, mashed potatoes and mashed parsnips with fresh mint and double cream, bread sauce with cloves, and mulled wine/cranberry juice with cassia, cloves and mace, and big lamb and mint sausages wrapped in a large slice of smoked bacon.
oh, it does seem a long way off, doesn't it?
yes, Mamta, it should be good, too, as we have just bought our first NEW cooker, and everything works on it! No more juggling pots, or things in the oven.
I am sure I posted a reply here this morning!
Anyway, enjoy your new cooker and have a lovely Christmas meal with your family :-)
I ate crocodile once, and didn't find it rubbery. I guess it depends how it's done. Kangaroo is great meat: really lean.
I'm not going anywhere near turkey: too many memories of bland, tasteless, over-cooked turkey during Scottish Christmas lunches.
We have our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve here in the South of France. It'll probably be guineau fowl, perhaps with a butter and black olive sauce.
We used to roast a goose, which is fab, but my wife thinks it's too strong a taste, alas.
If anyone wants to have a go at real coq au vin, the recipe by Ian Hoare on this site is fantastic. Again, my wife says the taste is too strong. Do it with a real old cockerel, not a chicken.
We'll definitely do a chicken Parsee dish with tomato pur?e, dried apricots and potato straws, accompanied by Gujerati green beans: the green, red and orange colours are very festive. We'll have this in front of a huge, open, blazing, vinestock fire.
More and more people are telling me that they hate Christmas. Despite being a Grumpy Old Man, I love it!
Phil
I have had crocodile, Kangaroo meat cooked as fish and meat respectively and cold slices of smoked camel meat in Australia. This was in my meat eating days. They were all pretty okay.
Kavita is getting some special turkey, she says it is very good;
http://www.kaveyeats.com/?s=turkey+%2Bfarm&searchsubmit=
Funnily enough, we don't have anything Indian around Christmas!
Phil, Ian lives in France too, runs a holiday accommodation business. Kavita has stayed with him, says it was great. He is a superb cook, I think it was his profession once. His wife is the baker in the family.
Smoked camel meat? Wow! That's exotic! Me, I'll try just about anything once. Had springbok in South Africa: lovely! I tried duck's feet once, in a Chinese reataurant in Soho: never again! Too gelatinous!
Yes; I recall Ian Hoare being based in France, and having once been a chef (he put me right on the meaning of 'saut?')but we never hear from him here anymore. He was most helpful when I was working away at the coq au vin, over a period of three days! You can tell from his recipe that he's a real professional.
Phil
You can chat to Ian and many other of the former BBC Food Chat crew at http://www.wildfood.info/ if you like?
x
I would rather my camel had not smoked, but maybe OK if they used a hookha.
Wow all these exotic foods
I'm have a dozen oysters
A fillet of turbot
Confit de Canard with roast potatoes and roast parsnips cooked in duck fat.
And a twist on mince pies "mince swirls" like a Chelsea bun but using mincemeat and sliced almonds with Homemade Coffee & Chocolate ice cream (Caf? Mocha)
washed down with a chilled bottle of Champagne
A Merry and Peaceful Christmas to you All
curry-man86
Mum, you know we were doing tandoori marinade for lamb and having turkey plain? Mitun suggested we swap, marinade the turkey and do lamb plainish.
What do you think?
Also, I bought trout yesterday (looked nicer than their farmed salmon) and it's now curing, will cure for 3 days, then freeze for 1 day before bringing.
Tatties and parsnips roasted in duck fat: wonderful!
We've ended up with TWO guineaufowl ('pintade', in French), since we split up for the shopping: I went to LIDL and my wife went to Intermarch?. Never mind: we'll do pintade in a griotte cherry sauce on Crhistmas Eve, and then pintade in a butter and black olive sauce a few days later.
Which reminds me: must crack on with the olive harvest!
Phil
Kav, re swapping lamb and turkey cooking methods, I don't mind at all, since I won't be eating either. You decide amongst yourselves and then let me know.
Thanks, Kavey, for putting me on to that foodie site where Ian Hoare can be found.
I hesitated over frozen leg of lamb today, but decided against: really expensive, even in LIDL, and you really need to do this for a bunch of guests, since there's SO much meat in there.
Perhaps in April, when my grown-up daughter is here (but then, her husband is a veggie!).
Phil
Thank you Mamta and Kavey.
I have my leg of lamb for us - I am rather turkeyphobic - too many memories of badly cooked turkey at office christmas meals.
A very merry christmas to all and every best wish for the New Year.
Winton
as we had family all day and night, they got hungry again. As others arrived some of them wanted to buy a takeaway ! (don't blame me lol) but the adults wanted curry, but most of the children wanted pizza. Well it was hard enough finding a takeaway open doing curries on Christmas day. Pizzas were impossible to find, but never fear, I opted to make them with the grandchildren/niece
and they enjoyed them, in fact as we beat the takeaway the adults were eating them aswell (good job we made four)
and finally the curries arrived
This was the Chicken Bhuna that I was to share with my wife... My share was left in the fridge until teatime today.
Steve
Mincemeat Swirls
Made these in place of Mince pies
Sausage Rolls
I made the sausage meat for these, minced pork, fresh sage onion etc.
Your lemon drizzle cake looks nice, Steve: more moist than the one my son does. Have you got a recipe?
Phil
All our cooking went well.
I had home cured a large fillet of trout (it looked nicer than the salmon on the day I went to buy the fish) which I cured with salt, beetroot, sugar and lemon zest. Worked well and looked beautiful.
Roast leg of lamb and the roast turkey were lovely, the turkey received many compliments about being best/ most moist turkey people had tasted, being a Kelly bronze. Expensive but worthwhile, though mine was comped, which was very generous.
We had the normal trimmings...
And dessert was ice cream made on the spot in ice cream machines.
And cheeseboard from Pong cheese, all cheeses very good and sent in perfect condition for Xmas day.
Courses spread throughout whole day...
Phil its my other halfs "recipe" which she is following from I think Nigella ?
Steve
Sounds fab, Kavey!
And now, we have to think of New Year. We've had the sea snails for lunch today, so perhaps oysters done under the grill , but definitely guinea fowl in butter and black olive sauce.
Phil