Christmas food

[Walsingham]

Three seasonal ideas:

 

1) Pickled carrots: [no cooking skill required besides chopping]

Take a large jar (1 litre plus), and place into it coarsely chopped red cabbage, red onion, and sticks of carrot. Also put in a generous sprinkle of dill, parsely, black peppercorns and one dried chili. Feel free to add some salt and sugar but this is not essential. Next pour over enough vinegar to cover all.

 

Leave to sit for one week.

 

This produces a rich red pickle with tremendous bite that sits very well with white meat and cheese.

 

 

2) Chutney [some skill, chopping and boiling]

 

Take more red onions, and an equal quantity of apples. Dried up apples are fine. Chop both coarsely and place in a pan with a large glugg of vinegar. I put in enough to half cover the fruit and onions, and used more pickling vinegar. Begin boiling the bejaysus out of it. While this is going on, root around in your spice rack for any flavours you enjoy. I added a little mustard seed, coriander seed, cinnamon and nutmeg. Then add salt. Keep boiling. Finally add a big punch of sugar. I used a third volume. The whole should be going mushy by now, so reduce the heat and let it boil for a while. Cook for about an hour all told, and food process to a nice smooth consistency.

 

Will work as chutney or a good lumpy ketchup.

 

3) Orange and Goji berry jam [moderate skill, knowledge of jam making]

 

Too many oranges and a bag of revolting dried goji berries. What to do?

Take the flesh of the oranges, and the goji berries. Place in a pan with some water, boil it like crazy. The oranges will break up of their own accord, and the berries will rehydrate. Add enough jam sugar (large granule sugar with pectin in it) to qualify this as jam, and boil some more. Food process to make it smooth. Transfer to jars and allow to cool.

 

It won't really work so well because it's too watery, but it's delicious, and spreads really easily.

 

I suppose you cuold keep the peel of the oranges in a bag and scent your house, but frankly why bother?

[Guard Dog]

Not food exactly but I really like this stuff: http://www.starbucks.com/ourcoffees/produc...roduct%5Fid=xma

[taks]

candied yams. my favorite, but like turkey, not something i eat much of except during holidays. my aunt gave me a killer recipe for a sort of casserole that probably packs a few thousand calories per square inch.

 

taks

[Joseph Bulock]

My house is all about the cookies. Everyone brings at least a dozen of their favorite recipe(s). I usually go with some sort of peanut butter cookie.

[taks]

we actually have some peanut butter/chocolate chip things going on at the house right now. oddly enough, they are little caesar's (you know, "pizza pizza!") pre made cookies. all ya gotta do is bake 'em. taste quite good, too.

 

taks

[Walsingham]

I need a good cookie recipe.

 

I watched Supersize Me for the first time tonight, and went out for a meal. I was reflecting on how many foods besides MacDs are fat, sugar, and salt saturated.

[Llyranor]

Why did you make this thread? Gabrielle doesn't celebrate Christian holidays.

[Enoch]

I need a good cookie recipe.

I made some coconut cookies a week or so ago. I don't have a recipe handy, but essentially I whipped 4 egg whites and some sugar (1/2 cup? 2/3rds? not sure) into medium peaks (a.k.a., a meringue), then folded that into a mixture of shredded coconut (two 7-oz. bags), a little condensed milk, and some vanilla extract. Scoop 'em onto a cookie sheet, and bake until the tips start turning brown. (Then let cool and dip in melted chocolate!) I liked how the meringue made them light and airy, which is the opposite of what you get with a traditional coconut macaroon.

[Theseus]

candied yams. my favorite, but like turkey, not something i eat much of except during holidays.

taks

Oh God. My aunt tries to get me to gain weight with this stuff Mmmmm....

 

Also Green Bean Cassarole. It basically has 2 cans of mushroom soup lots of green beans. and fried onions sprinkled on top. Baked. mmmmm It has a salty taste to it.

[theslug]

Wals you need to fly out to the states and go to a little place called Trader Joes. They got these australian ginger cookies that are amazingly delicious. Pure awesome. Not to mention they sell orange chicken that is super awesome and dried apricots.

[Enoch]

Also Green Bean Cassarole. It basically has 2 cans of mushroom soup lots of green beans. and fried onions sprinkled on top. Baked. mmmmm It has a salty taste to it.

A lovely summary of all that is hideous about most cooking in America. I.e., opening 6 cans of prepared stuff, mixing, and warming it over counts as "cooking," and, despite it having enough sodium in it to make the Mississippi taste like the Dead Sea, people still call it the "vegetable" course.

[I want teh kotor 3]

Kugel. Noodles, cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla. Exceptionally good.

[theslug]

Also Green Bean Cassarole. It basically has 2 cans of mushroom soup lots of green beans. and fried onions sprinkled on top. Baked. mmmmm It has a salty taste to it.

A lovely summary of all that is hideous about most cooking in America. I.e., opening 6 cans of prepared stuff, mixing, and warming it over counts as "cooking," and, despite it having enough sodium in it to make the Mississippi taste like the Dead Sea, people still call it the "vegetable" course.

Thank you enoch. This is something my mom just can't understand and the sole basis for why I utterly despise the crock pot as well. Worst cooking invention ever conceived, if I ever met the mfer who made that crap I would shove a lye biscut into their mouth and then crush his/her windpipe with my bare hands and stare into their eyes as I strangle them until their soul leaves their body. Only then can justice be served.

 

Edit: Also, American's who don' even think about maybe growing some veggies even though it's so easy and awesome. I'm going to eventually start my own garden but I mean seriously what a nation of gd a holes.

Edited December 16, 2008 by theslug

[Enoch]

Well, there's nothing wrong with crock pots, per se. It's just a method of providing the heat. If you use good, fresh ingredients, you can get good food out of a crock pot. I used one for the stuffing when I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner a few weeks ago-- it's a good way to provide gentle heat over a long period of time, or to keep stuff you've made ahead of time warm until everything else is ready.

 

 

@ I Want,

 

I try to fight my food hangups, and I admire those who have overcome such to become essentially omnivorous. (Food critics have to make a point of this.) But the dish you mention cuts to the core of the one category of food I simply dislike-- semi-solid dairy products. Specifically, anything that resembles the taste, smell, or texture of milk that has been sitting out on the counter for a week. Sour cream, yogurt, ricotta, cottage cheese, cream cheese...

Edited December 16, 2008 by Enoch

[theslug]

It's also a bastion of evil for most people who think you can just throw a bunch of random crap in it and expect it to come out delicious. :'(

[Walsingham]

I only draw the line at tripe. I've tried many times, and I've only ever been able to eat it twice.

 

Thinks

 

I suppose tripe MIGHT work if you turned it into some sort of meatball and heavily spiced it. But seriously, what's the point?

[Kaftan Barlast]

Truly delicious swedish christmas ham:

 

 

The secret to getting a ham cooked just right with the perfect saltiness and juicyness is to cook it at low temperature for a very long time. You take a salted ham, and put it in the oven at 100C with a steak thermometer. Then you just wait(usually 12+ hours) until the core of the ham reaches exaclty 72C at which its optimal, and then you take it out and put it in the fridge. Slices should be 6-7mm thick and served with gourmet mustard.

 

 

The proper way to eat english christmas pudding:

 

one box of readymade christmas pudding

0.5 litres of petrol

1-2 matches with box

 

Gently take the christmas pudding out of the box and place the pudding on the ground. Be careful not to inhale the fumes as they are toxic to normal humans. Then carefully pour petrol over the pudding allowing it to properly soak up the flammable liquid. When this is done, place yourself at a proper distance and light your match. Flick the match towards the pudding to light the petrol. Allow it to burn until all traces of pudding are thoroughly charred and you're done.

 

This same recipe can also be applied to those boxed christmas cakes that are sold in ethnic foodshops.

Edited December 16, 2008 by Kaftan Barlast

[Walsingham]

Most traditions insist on petrol, but a good substitute is overproof rum.

[Kaftan Barlast]

I would recommend petroleumbased incendiaries over alcohols, as the energy/weight ratio is much higher, thus giving a more spectacular flame. Another reason is that any alcoholic liquid should be consumed by humans and animals attending the party, and not be wasted on setting near-edible material on fire.

[Walsingham]

You don't mean you've been eating the damned things? They're like molotov ****tails, but festive. Throw them at policemen.

[Kaftan Barlast]

A fundamental rule of Swedish society says that is there is alcohol, you have to drink it. It doesnt matter how foul the smell or how damaging it may be to your internal organs, it shall be drunk.

[SteveThaiBinh]

We always make chocolate cake with mayonnaise, as per the old Blue Peter recipe. It's become a Christmas tradition in my family.

[Walsingham]

We always make chocolate cake with mayonnaise, as per the old Blue Peter recipe. It's become a Christmas tradition in my family.

 

W. T. F?

 

Yoghurt, surely?

[taks]

A fundamental rule of Swedish society says that is there is alcohol, you have to drink it. It doesnt matter how foul the smell or how damaging it may be to your internal organs, it shall be drunk.

so you guys try to stay away from sterno shops, eh?

 

i'm mulling an xmas dinner with friends saturday night. not sure what to do.

 

taks

[SteveThaiBinh]

We always make chocolate cake with mayonnaise, as per the old Blue Peter recipe. It's become a Christmas tradition in my family.

 

W. T. F?

 

Yoghurt, surely?

Nope, mayonnaise. I've even managed to find the recipe at the BBC website for you. It's there as an Easter cake, but we make it at Christmas.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/bluepete.../eastercake.pdf