Christmas Eve I made a delicious peach and fig salad with raspberry balsamic dressing - sorry no photos of this one I was too busy eating the lobster tails in lemongrass butter, scallops three ways, chilli coriander prawns, peanut brittle salad, and the trio of desserts to take photos. And that doesn't even mention the amazing starters my sister made - baked brie with cherry salsa and homemade biscotti - which I do have a photo of care-of my sister and Facebook.
Christmas Day we shared brunch with my husbands family and we took buttermilk pancakes, strawberry mimosa's and the star - Strawberry Bruschetta. Yum! They turned out delicious and a perfect combination of sweet and savoury for brunch. Even better, it was red and green for Christmas.
The Strawberry Bruschetta Recipe:
Combine 1 cup of sliced strawberries and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a small bowl; toss to combine. Let the berries macerate for about 30 minutes so that they begin to release their juices. Spread a thin layer of goat cheese (I used South Cape) on top of each slice of the french baguette. Top each slice with spoonfuls of the strawberry mixture. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Top each slice with the minced basil leaves and cracked pepper, to taste (I forgot about the pepper - it was still amazing).
This was the first combination of stawberries and basil for Christmas Day, but not the last. And all were delicious.
For Christmas Day Dinner we had family over at our place for a casual dinner after a day full of eating. My In-Laws cooked the turkey, I re-made the peach and fig salad, and my sister-in-law made shortbreads. For starters I made Sugared Cranberries with Brie and Mint. Once again this was a super easy recipe and tasted delicious.
The Sugared Cranberries with Brie & Mint Recipe:
For the sugared cranberries:
2 cups fresh cranberries
1 cup good maple syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
Rinse cranberries and place in a medium bowl. Heat syrup in a small sauce pan just until warm. Pour over cranberries when syrup is warm, not hot, or cranberries may pop. Cool, cover, and let soak in the refrigerator overnight.
Drain cranberries in a colander. Place sugar in a large bowl or baking dish. Add cranberries in 2 batches and roll around until lightly coated in sugar. Place on a baking sheet until dry, about 1 hour. Store in an airtight container.
To assemble:
16 crackers
225g Brie cheese
Cranberry chutney or cranberry sauce
Fresh mint for garnish
Assemble crackers with one slice of brie, a light layer of cranberry chutney, and 2 or 3 sugared cranberries. Garnish with fresh mint sprigs.
Once again the result was delicious -sweet and savory, with a burst of cranberry when you bit into the sugared little gems on top. And Christmas colours abounded once more.
A couple of notes about this recipe - here in Australia it is not possible to get fresh cranberries (apparently we don't have the right "swamplands" to cultivate them. It is also very difficult to find frozen cranberries. But I was super excited to find a single container left in the freezer section of our Green Grocer the Saturday before Christmas. I literally pushed people out of the way lunging for those little red gems in the freezer. It was Combat-Christmas-Shopping at its best. Also I had a heap of cranberries left over from this recipe - maybe my brie slices were too small and so I could only fit 2 cranberries per cracker. I will be scouring Pinterest for some other recipes for sugared cranberries in the next day or so before they have to be thrown away.
Finally, on Christmas night I made Pavlovas with Strawberries, Vanilla Cream and Basil Coulis. I had spotted this pin a couple of months ago and when it was time to drastically prune my basil plant, and I still had over 1 cup of basil leaves after making pesto, I remembered this recipe and decided it would look great for Christmas dessert.
I decided I would make the basil coulis first, for 2 reasons - 1. I had a huge container of basil in the fridge, and 2. I was most sceptical about this component of the recipe tasting good.
Blanch 1/3 cup of basil leaves in a small saucepan of boiling water for 30 seconds.
Drain and transfer basil to bowl over ice to stop cooking. Squeeze out excess water from basil.
Purée basil with 1/2 cup of corn or agave syrup in blender. Cover and chill at least 2 hours or overnight to allow flavours to develop.
Bring basil coulis to room temperature and strain through a fine mesh strainer before serving.
I was impressed with how easy this component of the dish was to make and also how rich the basil taste was in the coulis. I didn't strain the coulis before serving - I ran out of time and I really don't think it would have changed the dish all that much.
My wonderful hubby made the strawberry coulis component a couple of days before Christmas when I was exhausted. This component was also very easy and super delicious.
The Strawberry Coulis Recipe:
Purée 1/2 pint of strawberries and 1 tablespoon of sugar in processor until smooth. Heat the purée over medium-low heat until syrup forms, about 3 minutes.
We stored this in the fridge in a sterilised jar for 4 days.
For the mini pavlovas I hit a problem. Using the recipe from the pin I found I ended up with very burnt mini pavlovas. Pinterest Fail! So I called on my sister, who is known as the pavlova and meringue queen in my family, and used her recipe - a much better result!
The Mini Pavlovas Ingredients:
3 large egg whites
220g castor sugar
1.5 tsp cornflour
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla (or extract)
The Mini Pavlovas Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees
Grease 2 large baking trays & line them with baking paper.
Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form
Gradually beat in the castor sugar & continue to beat until the meringue is stiff
Fold in the cornflour, then the vinegar and vanilla (don't "over fold" or the meringue will collapse)
Mould the meringe into 4-6 (I usually make them smaller so more like 8-10) small 'nests' making the edges slightly higher than the centre
Bake 30 mins then turn over off and leave in for a further 30 mins. Cool on rack.
3 large egg whites
220g castor sugar
1.5 tsp cornflour
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla (or extract)
The Mini Pavlovas Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees
Grease 2 large baking trays & line them with baking paper.
Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form
Gradually beat in the castor sugar & continue to beat until the meringue is stiff
Fold in the cornflour, then the vinegar and vanilla (don't "over fold" or the meringue will collapse)
Mould the meringe into 4-6 (I usually make them smaller so more like 8-10) small 'nests' making the edges slightly higher than the centre
Bake 30 mins then turn over off and leave in for a further 30 mins. Cool on rack.
I made the mini pavlovas 2 days before hand and stored them in an airtight container and I used castor sugar which had vanilla beans sitting in it for the last 6 months instead of using pure vanilla. The pavlovas were beautiful and again despite the first failed attempt they were quite quick and easy to make when I had a good recipe to follow.
To make the vanilla cream you combine 3/4 cup of thickened cream and 1 tablespoon of sugar, scrape in seeds from 1/2 a vanilla bean (I actually used a whole bean) and beat cream until soft peaks form.
Finally, to assemble the mini pavlovas:
Divide the vanilla cream and place in the center of each meringue disc.
Top each with halved strawberries.
Spoon strawberry coulis and basil coulis around the pavlova circle and over the strawberries.
Sprinkle with crushed pistachios (I totally forgot about this component of the recipe until I started writing up this blog post - it was still amazing). Serve immediately.
These were delicious. I am quite in awe of how beautifully strawberries and basil go together in desserts and savoury dishes. They were 2 perfect ingredients for bringing the Christmas colours to the table and the plate and the flavours complimented so deliciously in each pairing.
So, what did you make for your Christmas Culinary Extravaganza?
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