 |
| Christmas Pudding |
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you're all having a fabulous day. We had a Christmas feast last night, and I've spent today just relaxing and watching junk TV. (Although I did make waffles for lunch, with the new waffle iron that my dad got me for Christmas, hehe!) I also got the new Karen Martini and Bill Granger books, so there will be lots of cooking coming up in the new year!
A Christmas Eve Dinner for 4Baked Ham
Grilled Lobster with Garlic Butter Sauce
Macaroni Cheese
Petits Pois à la Française
Christmas Pudding
You'll see that last night's dinner was pretty much my standard pre-Christmas
ham dinner, minus the spiced peaches I usually have. No reason for me omitting them, I just forgot!
Sandra received this beautiful organic ham from her work (they received chocolates and cherries too - jealous!), which formed the base of our meal.
 |
| 5.3 kg organic ham from Donati's |
Of course, being 5.3 kilos, it was way too much for 4 of us, so we sliced off what we wanted to eat and heated the slices in the oven. Not as resplendent as a huge glazed ham, but the remaining ham lasts longer if you don't heat and let it cool again. So speaking of which - any ideas for what to do with the leftover ham? Apart from sandwiches, of course.
 |
| Slices of Ham |
Apart from the lack of spiced peaches, it wasn't quite a standard dinner, because we also had - say what?! - lobster tails! Oooh... pretty!
 |
| Shiny lobster tails |
Earlier that day, I went to
Rendinas Butchery to pick up our Boxing Day turkey, and saw these gorgeous lobster tails in the window. The nice lady at the shop told me they were $100 a kilo - OMG - and that each of them weighed about 400g, so I thought I'd give them a miss. But when I came home and told Dad about the lobster tails - from the pictures I think you can guess how this story ends - he went up to the butcher and splashed out on some lobster tails. YAY! It was about $120 for three, so
definitely a once-a-year treat!
I'd never cooked lobster before, but after some googling I cooked them like this:
I sliced through the middle of the soft shell underneath the tails, flicked them open and cut them off.
 |
| Preparing the lobsters |
Then I stuck a couple of skewers lengthwise through each of the tails (to prevent them from curling), and boiled them until the shells were red and the flesh was opaque.
 |
| Boiling lobsters |
 |
| Boiled lobsters |
While all that lobster and ham was cooking, we made some French style peas...
 |
| Peas |
... and Mac and Cheese! Mmm... pure comfort food.
 |
| Mac & Cheese |
It's not a celebration without Champagne!
 |
| Champagne! |
Ta-dah!
 |
| Dinner! |
You can see a small bowl of sauce under the lobster - that's just a mixture of melted butter, garlic and parsley. However, when we sliced into the lobster we saw that it wasn't cooked all the way through (oops!). So while we were eating, I sliced the lobster tails in half, basted them with that garlic butter sauce, and grilled them. The smell was divine!
 |
| Grilling! |
 |
| Grilled and buttered |
So delicious.
For dessert, we dug into that Christmas pudding I made at
The Langham's Pudding Making Class. I'd steamed it for 2 hours, and served it with custard.
 |
| Mmm... custard |
The pudding was very different from my normal
Roux Brothers' Christmas pudding. The Langham's was very light and cakey, with a low proportion of fruit to dough. We all liked it (I think my folks loved it!) but I found myself craving a traditional rich and fruity, boozy and suet-filled Christmas pudding.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!
|
| Christmas Pudding |
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you're all having a fabulous day. We had a Christmas feast last night, and I've spent today just relaxing and watching junk TV. (Although I did make waffles for lunch, with the new waffle iron that my dad got me for Christmas, hehe!) I also got the new Karen Martini and Bill Granger books, so there will be lots of cooking coming up in the new year!
A Christmas Eve Dinner for 4Baked Ham
Grilled Lobster with Garlic Butter Sauce
Macaroni Cheese
Petits Pois à la Française
Christmas Pudding
You'll see that last night's dinner was pretty much my standard pre-Christmas
ham dinner, minus the spiced peaches I usually have. No reason for me omitting them, I just forgot!
Sandra received this beautiful organic ham from her work (they received chocolates and cherries too - jealous!), which formed the base of our meal.
|
| 5.3 kg organic ham from Donati's |
Of course, being 5.3 kilos, it was way too much for 4 of us, so we sliced off what we wanted to eat and heated the slices in the oven. Not as resplendent as a huge glazed ham, but the remaining ham lasts longer if you don't heat and let it cool again. So speaking of which - any ideas for what to do with the leftover ham? Apart from sandwiches, of course.
|
| Slices of Ham |
Apart from the lack of spiced peaches, it wasn't quite a standard dinner, because we also had - say what?! - lobster tails! Oooh... pretty!
|
| Shiny lobster tails |
Earlier that day, I went to
Rendinas Butchery to pick up our Boxing Day turkey, and saw these gorgeous lobster tails in the window. The nice lady at the shop told me they were $100 a kilo - OMG - and that each of them weighed about 400g, so I thought I'd give them a miss. But when I came home and told Dad about the lobster tails - from the pictures I think you can guess how this story ends - he went up to the butcher and splashed out on some lobster tails. YAY! It was about $120 for three, so
definitely a once-a-year treat!
I'd never cooked lobster before, but after some googling I cooked them like this:
I sliced through the middle of the soft shell underneath the tails, flicked them open and cut them off.
|
| Preparing the lobsters |
Then I stuck a couple of skewers lengthwise through each of the tails (to prevent them from curling), and boiled them until the shells were red and the flesh was opaque.
|
| Boiling lobsters |
|
| Boiled lobsters |
While all that lobster and ham was cooking, we made some French style peas...
|
| Peas |
... and Mac and Cheese! Mmm... pure comfort food.
|
| Mac & Cheese |
It's not a celebration without Champagne!
|
| Champagne! |
Ta-dah!
|
| Dinner! |
You can see a small bowl of sauce under the lobster - that's just a mixture of melted butter, garlic and parsley. However, when we sliced into the lobster we saw that it wasn't cooked all the way through (oops!). So while we were eating, I sliced the lobster tails in half, basted them with that garlic butter sauce, and grilled them. The smell was divine!
|
| Grilling! |
|
| Grilled and buttered |
So delicious.
For dessert, we dug into that Christmas pudding I made at
The Langham's Pudding Making Class. I'd steamed it for 2 hours, and served it with custard.
|
| Mmm... custard |
The pudding was very different from my normal
Roux Brothers' Christmas pudding. The Langham's was very light and cakey, with a low proportion of fruit to dough. We all liked it (I think my folks loved it!) but I found myself craving a traditional rich and fruity, boozy and suet-filled Christmas pudding.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!
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