A
Christmas
Luncheon
Christmas
is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall,
the genial flame of charity in the heart.
- Washington Irving
What better way to celebrate
Christmas than an afternoon full of good food, bonhomie, laughter and sharing
with friends and family? Here are four easy-to-make
recipies with an eye to presentation that will make your luncheon a feast
for all the senses.
Chicken
with
Mustard
Ingredients
6 fillets of chicken breast
3/4 cup whole egg mayonnaise
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
Method
1. Preheat oven to
180oC/350oF.
2. Line oven tray with aluminium foil brushed with butter or cooking oil.
3. Combine mayonnaise and mustard.
4. Arrange chicken fillets on baking tray
5. Spoon the mayonnaise – mustard mixture over chicken.
5. Cover with aluminium foil. Pinch sides of both foil sheets to seal and
bake for about 20 minutes.
Serve with fresh greens
or a salad.
Vegetarian
Fried
Rice
Ingredients
8 tablespoon cooking oil
1 large onion, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
800g cook rice, left overnight
1/2 cup mix vegetables (carrots, peas and corn)
500gm kailan (mustard)
10 button mushrooms, diced
3 shitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced thinly
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon vegetarian oyster sauce
For garnishing:
1 tablespoon raisins
12 seedless prunes, chopped
2 tablespeen shallot crisps
Method
1. Heat oil. When lightly smoking, sautté onions and garlic until
fragrant. Add in kailan, button mushrooms and shitake mushrooms, stir fry
until kailan is cooked
2. Add rice and mix vegetables, mix well with the other ingredients. Keep
frying.
3. Add the soy sauce and oyster sauce, and make sure that all rice grains
are covered evenly
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Sprinkle raisins, chopped prunes and shallot crisps on hot rice before
serving.
Christmas
Yule
Log
Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
3 eggs
130 gms sugar
85gms flour, sieved
Half teaspoon baking powder, sieved
One teaspoon vanilla essence
Chocolate cream:
Half dessertspoon cocoa
170gms butter
110gms icing sugar
Method
First you bake the cake
like so:
1. Beat eggs with sugar until creamy
2. Fold in the flour and baking powder
3. Add vanilla essence and mix thoroughly
4. Pour cake mixture into a log mould or rectangular baking tin
5. Preheat oven to 180oC/350oF and bake
Then you prepare the
chocolate cream:
1. Mix the cocoa powder with water into a smooth paste
2. Mix butter and sugar and knead by hand until creamy
3. Add the cocoa paste
4. Pour chocolate cream into a forcing bag fitted with a star nozzle
Making the Yule Log:
1. After cake has cooled, place on a tray
2. Holding the forcing bag, carefully pipe lines onto cake to resemble tree
bark
3. Decorate finished cake with marzipan fruits, tinsel tree and Santa
Fruit
Cocktail
Jelly
Ingredients
1 cup pineapple juice
4 1/2 tablespoons gelatin (or more for a firmer jelly)
1 cup lemon juice
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
medium tin fruit cocktail (drain and discard syrup)
1 medium sized ripe pineapple
Method
1. Half pineapple in the
middle from tip to toe and hollow out the inside to serve a decorative
bowl.
2. Drain mash pineapple pulp to get juice. You can also opt for canned pineapple
juice.
3. Sprinkle gelatin over lemon juice, dissolve over hot water.
4. Mix pineapple juice, water and sugar over slow heat until sugar is dissolved.
Remove from heat, stir gelatin into pineapple mixture and add fruit cocktail.
6. Pour mixture into pineapple hollow and refrigerate until the mixture is
set.
Note: If you opt to use
a bowl, choose one with straight or slightly outward-sloping sides, so that
the dessert is easy to unmould.
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