Festive foods file
Here’s a list of tips, tricks and classic recipes, and a few unusual ideas, to set you up for the festive period.
Ilaria and I hope that by having all the information and recipes bundled together (just a click away), it will help you decide what to cook and how to prepare it. Hopefully, you get to enjoy it all, too. Merry Christmas to you all, and here’s to a safer, kinder, more settled world in 2022.
Includes cooking time for roast turkeys and checking internal temperature of turkey to ascertain whether cooked through.
Roast Turkey with Herbed Veal Stuffing and Celery, Apricot and Walnut Stuffing includes our favourite family stuffing which can be turned into meatballs and fried off to serve with drinks (YUM! It’s what we do!)
TOUCH TEST FOR COOKED BEEF a few tips will see you cooking beef just how you like it.
GRAVY – ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
HAM – it’s a beast and best glazed before you start on the Christmas cheer!
Pavarotti’s Ham – the very one (well, the recipe, I mean!) I served to the late great Maestro Luciano Pavarotti.
Slicing a ham – try my method. I reckon it’s the easiest.
Roasted Chicken Stuffed with Ricotta, Ham & Hazelnuts – for those of you not wanting a BIG BIRD, but still wanting something special, this recipes is a good one.
How to get good crackling – something we all want to get right. Check out all the tips, such as leaving the crackling uncovered in the fridge for 24 hours before roasting it.
Roast Pork with Extra Crackling
Pork Cutlets for 2 or 4 – perhaps you are serving a small group, maybe even just yourself! Here’s a lovely way with a pork cutlet that will feel very special.
Roast Duck with Lychee, Watermelon & Watercress Salad – exotic flavours turn this duck into a dish to be remembered.
VEGETABLE ACCOMPANIMENTS – some classics, some nice combos … and there are plenty more on the website.
Baby Potatoes with Horseradish Cream
Buttery New Potatoes & Asparagus
Vegetarian Main – also suited to vegans! Yes! This is a superb way to serve small kumara.
Baked Kumara with Coconut Cream
DESSERT – just in case you want to finish with something sweet!
Pavlova Perfection – all the tips you could ever need to make a perfect pavlova, and also perfect meringues.
Quick Mince Pies with Apricots – this is a cheat, using ready-made mince as a base, but adding the welcome tartness of tangy apricots (hate the cloying texture of fruit mince, so this breaks it up).
Chocolate Cherry Mince Pies – decadent, rich, moreish. Bring on the couch!!
