Christmas Day meal with The Rutherford’s – #2

Posted on Dec 26th, 2014

by Brian Kennett

Categories:

Main Course Recipes

25th December is here again, can you believe it?

Truly it seems like only yesterday that Jude was only one month old – well now he is 13 months old, and was running around and saying hi to everyone and dancing to the choice music the resident DJ, Steve Rutherford was cranking out.

We decided we would double up for the party and have people come over for a late luncheon/dinner. In the end we had about 18 or so people to eat, and boy we do hope they ate well. The food did look amazing – but there was so much of it though ha ha.

Some firsts for me as I have never ever cooked a turkey – quite a worrying one that, as you do hear of disasters. For Steve he had never cooked a ham. I think both turned out very delicious.

Pia did amazing Nordic canapés on homemade blinis – Swedish prawns with fish roe. She also knocked out amazing little pork sandwiches, of delicious pork fillet between slices of apple – how clever is that. Breads, salads, red cabbages etc. The list continues.

Everyone else was then encouraged to bring a mystery dish – now this was fun as the attendees were made up of; English, Finnish, Australian, Indian, Singaporean, Japanese, Filipino, American, and Chinese – you can kind of imagine the variety. I will be trying to home cure some salmon, having been explained how to do that – watch the blog for that dish soon hopefully. I didn’t eat any of course, but the kids and Mary all said how absolutely gorgeous it was. 3 long tables full of food that I am pretty certain will be lasting us all the next 2 days or so.

What a lovely day!

What did yours truly cook? Here we go – no recipes per-se. More descriptive.

OK a quick salad. Simply throw in a bowl - mixed salad greens, some thinly sliced European radish, some thinly sliced Australian purple carrot, a packet of button mushrooms cut in to quarters. Dressing; - 2 tablespoons of Yuzu; - 2 tablespoons of lime juice; - 3 tablespoons of olive oil; - A good pinch of salt. — OK a quick salad. Simply throw in a bowl – mixed salad greens, some thinly sliced European radish, some thinly sliced Australian purple carrot, a packet of button mushrooms cut in to quarters, two finely chopped red onions and one pomegranate’s worth of the little red seeds. Mix it all up and add the dressing.
Dressing;
– 2 tablespoons of Yuzu;
– 2 tablespoons of lime juice;
– 3 tablespoons of olive oil;
– A good pinch of salt.

You've seen this recipe before, but this time I did 5 avocados, delivering 10 little personal salsa salads. These all went very quickly - good feed back again on these puppies. De-constructed and Re-constructed Avocado Salsa Salad — You’ve seen this recipe before so no recipe needed (just check back-dated blogs in ‘Small Stuff’), but this time I did 5 avocados, delivering 10 little personal salsa salads. These all went very quickly – good feed back again on these puppies.
De-constructed and Re-constructed Avocado Salsa Salad

Again I think you will have all seen this before - my Asian Brussel Sprouts. Just a couple of differences though as I had no lard or goose fat so used the juices from the lamb I had roasting, which was a genius move as they tasted amazing with that. So sprouty, lamby, bacony, chili - oh yes, yum yum! — Again I think you will have all seen this before – my Asian Brussel Sprouts. Just a couple of differences though as I had no lard or goose fat so used the juices from the lamb I had roasting, which was a genius move as they tasted amazing with that. So sprouty, lamby, bacony, chili – oh yes, yum yum!

Self-explanatory really - baby vegetables; swedes, marrow, gourds, carrots etc. with 3 halved garlic bulbs - drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and bake in oven. Hey presto. Would have been better if still warm though. — Self-explanatory really – baby vegetables; swedes, marrow, gourds, carrots, onions, egg plants etc. with 3 halved garlic bulbs – drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and bake in oven. Hey presto. Would have been better if still warm though.

More roasted veggies. Prepared in exactly the same way as above but this time we're roasting potatoes (par-boiled until just softening), parsnips and Japanese pumpkin. Very yummy this lot together. — More roasted veggies. Prepared in exactly the same way as above but this time we’re roasting potatoes (par-boiled until just softening), parsnips and Japanese pumpkin. Very yummy this lot together.

Call this borrowed not stolen - I am sure Edward won't mind, but I saw a post on his FB that showed a lamb dish that I thought I simply must try to recreate. So I bought some lovely deboned lamb rolls. On the ski side stab with a sharp knife and insert in to the whole a piece of peeled garlic and a sprig of rosemary. Then take about 3-4 sticks of cinnamon and do the same. Roasting tray, drizzle with oil, and a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. In to an hot oven for an hour or so until warmed all the way through and skin is nice and crispy. BOOM!!! — Call this borrowed not stolen – I am sure Edward won’t mind, but I saw a post on his FB that showed a lamb dish that I thought I simply must try to recreate. So I bought some lovely deboned lamb rolls. On the ski side stab with a sharp knife and insert in to the whole a piece of peeled garlic and a sprig of rosemary. Then take about 3-4 sticks of cinnamon and do the same. Roasting tray, drizzle with oil, and a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. In to an hot oven for an hour or so until warmed all the way through and skin is nice and crispy. BOOM!!!

Well here she is, my very first attempt at cooking turkey. I think it looks ok, and it was actually pretty tasty and still moist (phew). I did have comments of best stuffing ever, so that's a positive! 5kg turkey so that is about 3 to 3 and a half hours cooking time. Two and a half to three of those are cooking whilst under silver foil, and basting every 20 minutes with the juices from the baking tray. When you hit the remaining 30 minutes mark pull off the foil, baste once more and then let the skin brown up. Oh yeah baby! I did lift the skin up from the breast and wedged in about half a packet of salted butter as that then all melts in to the breast meat - the bit that usually dries. It adds moisture and of course flavour. Stuffing; - two packets of garlic sausages, simply skin them and place the sausage meat in a bowl; add to that - 2 packets of finely chopped sage; - 2 roughly chopped onions; and - 1 packet of shelled and roughly chopped pistachio nuts Mix all that together and stuff the turkey's bum (ooer missus!) and then I used some little bamboo sticks to seal the entrance. This came out really really well! — Well here she is, my very first attempt at cooking turkey. I think it looks ok, and it was actually pretty tasty and still moist (phew). I did have comments of best stuffing ever, so that’s a positive! 5kg turkey so that is about 3 to 3 and a half hours cooking time. Two and a half to three of those are cooking whilst under silver foil, and basting every 20 minutes with the juices from the baking tray. When you hit the remaining 30 minutes mark pull off the foil, baste once more and then let the skin brown up. Oh yeah baby! I did lift the skin up from the breast and wedged in about half a packet of salted butter as that then all melts in to the breast meat – the bit that usually dries. It adds moisture and of course flavour.
Stuffing;
– two packets of garlic sausages, simply skin them and place the sausage meat in a bowl; add to that
– 2 packets of finely chopped sage;
– 2 roughly chopped onions; and
– 1 packet of shelled and roughly chopped pistachio nuts
Mix all that together and stuff the turkey’s bum (ooer missus!) and then I used some little bamboo sticks to seal the entrance. This came out really really well!

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Brian Kennett

Father of 3. All my kids are mixed, with English-Japanese, and English-Filipino - a recipe in the making there. I have been cooking since a small lad, as guided by my Nan and my Mum - gradually that morphed through exposure to Thai cooking from a lovely lady called Da in Margate. I used to hang out in her restaurant and watch the techniques. So the 1+1= greater than 2 occurred - Mum/Nan/Da - off I went in to the world of Asian cuisine. Moving to Asia in early 2000's clearly has brought that on somewhat - we travel continually, and eat locally and therefore have exposure to more and more new things. I have lived my dream and written a cook book whilst here, an amazing experience and all for a good cause too as I raised a lot of money for charity. My blog is now hopefully turning in to book number 2. Watch this space. I hope you enjoy my passion.