Thursday, January 6, 2011

Christmas eats, 2010

My parents spent Christmas with J and I, and a feast was had!

I cooked this Night before Christmas cake for my dad, leaving off the icing and adding some raisins to the mix. It was tasty, especially after a couple of days, but I had two problems: one was that all the fruit sank to the bottom (not enough flour in the recipe to hold the raisins that I added?), and the other was that all the nuts on top made it particularly hard to slice (despite looking pretty spectacular).

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The centrepiece of Christmas lunch was a roast duck (which I forgot to photograph!). It was served with the port and cherry sauce from a cookbook challenge entry.

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Thit heo kho tieu (five-spice caramel pork) was delicious, and made the house smell wonderful all morning while it was cooking.

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On the side we had my old favourite pumpkin, spinach and pine nut salad.

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And roast carrots, potatoes and beetroot.

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Lightly steamed beans tossed in lemon olive oil.

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Mum made a glazed ham.

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Which was served with a simply brilliant raspberry and apple sauce.

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My plate of lunch shows the duck:

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For dessert I made a pavlova, which was topped with berries from my parent's garden.

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Mum bought a Christmas pudding from the Trevallyn Gourmet Bakery in Launceston, which was wonderful with some brandy double cream.

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Later in the afternoon we got stuck into some simply amazing cheese that J bought. The two soft cheeses on the left were some of the best I have ever tasted.

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2 comments:

  1. hihihi thanks for delurking! zomg all that food looks to die for! and eee fromager des clarines!!! if you need help eating that you know who to call :P

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  2. I LOVE D'Affinois it's one of my FAVOURITES!!! Try St Agur you will love that if you love Daff it's a blue but V creamy. Calender really does supply the best cheeses :)

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