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).
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.
Thit heo kho tieu (five-spice caramel pork) was delicious, and made the house smell wonderful all morning while it was cooking.
On the side we had my old favourite pumpkin, spinach and pine nut salad.
And roast carrots, potatoes and beetroot.
Lightly steamed beans tossed in lemon olive oil.
Mum made a glazed ham.
Which was served with a simply brilliant raspberry and apple sauce.
My plate of lunch shows the duck:
For dessert I made a pavlova, which was topped with berries from my parent's garden.
Mum bought a Christmas pudding from the Trevallyn Gourmet Bakery in Launceston, which was wonderful with some brandy double cream.
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.
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
ReplyDeleteI 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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