Christmas Cookbook 2010

We invited a few friends over to celebrate Christmas and they brought the most excellent dishes with them, so we decided to record the recipes for posterity. Enjoy!

Uliana's Korean carrot salad

Ingredients:

• Carrots 1kg, grated
• Korean carrot seasoning 2-3 tablespoons
• Rapeseed oil (Rapsolje or any other vegetable oil) 200 mg
• Onions 2 medium sized, chopped
• Garlic 2-3 cloves, pressed
• White vinegar 2-2.5 tablespoons
• Sugar 1 tablespoon (or less depending on the natural carrot taste)
• Salt 1 tablespoon (more can be added at the final stage for your personal taste)
• (optional) hot red pepper, finely minced

NOTE: In Oslo, Korean salad spices mix can be found on Storgata in Brugata: middle eastern deli on the 2nd floor (lots of Russian goods). The carrot spices packet has a plate of carrots on it. If you want to make the mix yourself, here are the ingredients: salt, coriander, garlic, mustard, hot and sweet paprika, turmeric, basil, caraway, ginger, black pepper, laurel leaves, rosemary, sugar.

Method:

1. Peel and grate the carrots.
2. Add about 1 tablespoon of salt and mix properly with your hands, squeezing the carrot to get as much juice out of it as possible. Don't be scared to get your hands a bit orange.
3. Leave it for 20-30 min (for better results you can put something heavy on top to make carrot release more juice).
4. After resting, remove all the juice. Add pressed garlic, spices, black pepper, sugar, salt and mix well again with your hands.
5. Warm up a pan with oil and put in the chopped onions. Cook until they become dark gold color, then remove the onions out and throw them away; you only need the flavored oil.
6. Pour the hot oil into the bowl of carrot, add vinegar (and a bit of soy sauce if you like it) and use your hands again to squeeze and mix.
7. Once everything is mixed well, add salt/sugar/vinegar to taste. Tip: Of course, you can make it more spicy by adding more of hot red pepper, finely minced.
8. Put the salad into a glass container (plastic will stain and take on odors), cover thoroughly, and leave it in the fridge for at least 3 hours for the flavors to develop.
9. Serve and garnish with freshly chopped coriander to add color and freshness.

Pablo's eggplant bake

Ingredients:

• 4 big eggplants
• 3 1/2 cans diced Italian tomatoes
• Garlic
• Lots of Parmesan cheese

Method:

1. Slice the eggplants and cook them in the oven.
2. For the sauce, sauté the garlic and then add the diced tomatoes and cook for a while. Salt as needed (the cheese is already pretty salty, though).
3. When ready, put a layer of sauce in a large casserole dish, then a layer of eggplants, then grated Parmesan, then eggplants, then sauce, then cheese, eggplants, sauce, cheese, and on and on.
4. Finish it on a cheese layer and put it in the oven for a while so it all melds together.
5. It probably tastes better when re-heated the day after (yes it did).

Lachy's gingerbread house

This is a recipe for approx. 20 gingerbread men. Just make the shapes you require. I've converted the measurements to grams to make it easier for people who don't have the right size measuring cups. But note that the measurements given in cups/teaspoons/table spoons use the Australian metric conventions, not US conventions. (Norwegian names of some products are given in brackets.)

• 1 cup = 250mL
• 1 tsp (teaspoon) = 5mL
• 1 tbsp (tablespoon) = 20mL

Ingredients:

• 125g butter
• 100g brown sugar (1/2 cup firmly packed)
• 1 egg yolk (save the egg white for the icing later)
• 400g plain flour (2 1/2 cups)
• 7g bicarb soda (1 tsp)
• 7g ground ginger (3 tsp)
• 75g golden syrup (2 1/2 tbsp) (lys syrup)

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar with a beater until light and fluffy.
2. Add egg yolk, beat well.
3. Gradually add sifted dry ingredients.
4. Add syrup.
5. Mix well, and knead lightly.
6. Divide into required portions for each part of the house.
7. Roll portions between 2 sheets of baking paper to 3mm thickness.
8. Gently remove top sheet, cut into house shapes (walls, roof), removing the excess.
9. Lift by bottom sheet and turn onto lightly greased oven trays.
10. Peel greaseproof paper away.
11. Bake at 180˚C for 10 mins.
12. Cool on trays.

Icing ingredients:

• 200g pure icing sugar (1 1/2 cups) (melis)
• 1 egg white
• 4 drops of lemon juice (sitron)
• Food coloring

Method:

1. Sift icing sugar.
2. Beat egg white lightly in a small bowl, using a wooden spoon.
3. Add icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. When icing reaches piping consistency, beat in lemon juice and food coloring.
5. Spoon royal icing into a plastic bag, snip off one corner to make a piping bag. Pipe on icing and join the pieces.
6. Use extra icing to decorate the house, and add shiny things and lollies to taste.

Barbara and Marcos' excellent rice pudding

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup uncooked whit risotto rice
• 2 cups milk, divided
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2/3 cup golden raisins
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 vanilla bean

Method

1. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 and 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. In another saucepan, combine the 1 and 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 and 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt and vanilla bean. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg and raisins. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly.
4. Remove from heat, and stir in butter.
5. Serve warm with cinnamon dusted on top.

Lissy's baked ham

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, quartered
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped
• 3 bay leaves
• Handful of fresh parsley
• 10 black peppercorns
• 1.5 litres water mixed with apple juice
• 3.5 kg smoked ham on the bone, soaked overnight in cold water
• 5 tbsp runny honey
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• Good pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2-3 tbsp demerara sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 120°C/fan100°C.
2. Use a deep roasting tray (with a rack) that’s big enough to hold the ham. Put the onion, carrots, bay leaves, parsley and peppercorns in the tray. Pour the water and apple juice over, then put the rack on top.
3. Sit the ham on the rack and cover with a large tent of foil, sealing it well. Put on the stove over a high heat and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes, then transfer to the oven.
4. Cook for 12 hours or overnight. (You can now leave it for 1-2 days before finishing the recipe).
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C. Using a sharp knife, carefully peel the outer layer of skin away from the cooked ham, leaving as much of the fat behind as you can.
6. Score the fat in a criss-cross pattern if you can. Mix the honey with the ginger and cayenne pepper, then smear all over the ham. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar, then roast in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour until sticky and piping hot throughout. (careful with this bit; depending on the type of ham, it might dry out a bit)

Tommy and Lissy's stuffing for turkey

Ingredients

• 450g sausagemeat
• 300g pork mince
• 25g unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 150g walnuts, roughly chopped
• Handful of shredded smoked ham
• 100g fresh white breadcrumbs
• Large handful of fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp herbs de Provence
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 large free-range egg, beaten
• 4 bacon rashers

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4. Mix the sausagemeat and pork mince in a large bowl and set aside.
2. Heat the butter and oil in a frying pan, add the onion and garlic and fry gently until golden and soft. Cool a little, then add to the pork mix.
3. Add the breadcrumbs, herbs, walnuts, ham and egg to the bowl and season. Mix with your hands until fully combined.
4. Use a quarter of the stuffing to fill the bottom of the turkey cavity, then press the remainder into a loaf tin lined with baking paper, or shape by hand into a rectangle.
5. Cover the top with slices in bacon.
6. Bake for 30 minutes until cooked through (test with a skewer) and the bacon is crispy.

For instructions on cooking turkey, see http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/articles/christmas-cooks-guide-turkey. Important tip: put a cup of water in the bottom of the pan right from the start and baste often after about an hour.

To make the gravy, use 1/2 of the left over meat juices, reduce and add 1 tsp of brown sauce mix (cheating, I know), 3/4 cup of cream, a touch of apple juice and Dijon mustard, salt and pepper to taste.

Arnaud's Mum's spiced quince paste

Ingredients

• 2kg of quinces
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 1 clove
• sugar (same weight as mashed quinces)
• 2 lemons

Method

1. Clean and dry quinces. Cut them in 4 pieces, removing the inner part and the seeds.
2. Put the quince pieces in a stewpot. Add spices, cover with water and cook for 30 minutes.
3. Drain the water and keep it aside (to make jelly - mmmm!), and remove the clove
4. Mash the quince in a mill to make a puree.
5. Weigh the puree and pour it into a large pot.
6. Add the same weight in sugar.
7. Simmer for 40 min while stirring until the paste stops sticking to the pot
8. Pour the paste onto an oiled or foiled plate until you get a 2cm layer.
9. Leave to dry in a chilled place away from the dust for a couple of days.
10. Cut in small squares.

With the leftover water you can make quince jelly, which is delicious with roast poultry or game, or with creamy cheese, such as Camembert.