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Cooking, Recipe and Food Blog

Roast Duck

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Succulent, juicy and a great treat – and becoming more and more popular as an alternative to Turkey as a Christmas Dinner.

Roast Duck

All you have to do is look at the image above to see how juicy it is!

To serve 4
1 large Duck
The Neck and Giblets
1 Small Onion
1 Celery Stick
1 Carrot
Oil
1 Bay Leaf
1 small glass Red Wine
½ teaspoon Redcurrant Jelly

1.       Heat the oven to 220 C, and if the Duck is tied up, untruss the Duck – cut the string and pull the legs out away from the body gently – this will help the heat get around them easier

2.       Remove the wing tips on them – there’s no meat on them, but keep them to help with the flavour of the Giblet Stock. Chop up the Neck, Heart, Gizzard and Wing tips, plus the Onion, Celery and Carrot roughly. Fry them over a medium-hot heat in a little oil to brown them off, and the vegetables are slightly caramelised. Put these into a saucepan, as well as the Bay Leaf, cover with just over half a litre of water and simmer for around one and three quarters of an hour.

3.       Remove any extra fat from inside the cavity, and prick all over the fatty area of the skin – make sure you prick where the breast joins the legs, and you don’t go too deep, and season with Salt and Pepper.

4.       Place the Duck in a roasting tin, and cook for around twenty minutes, until the fat starts running. Turn the heat down to 180 C and baste the bird, before returning it to the oven.

5.       Baste the bird every twenty minutes or so, and check to see if the juice is clear after around ninety minutes. Tip the Duck to make sure any juices and fat are back in the Roasting Tin, and then transfer the Duck to a warmed plate or carving tray.

6.       For the gravy, pour the juices from the roasting tin, deglaze the tray with the red wine, and then strain the giblet stock into a clean pan. Boil down to reduce into a rich, syrupy gravy, and add some of the redcurrant jelly to make sweeter if you’d like.

Photo Courtesy of: Avlxyz

Christmas Pudding

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It’s Christmas! So what better way to get in the mood than by making a traditional Christmas pudding, it’s best to start making one now, as needs to be refrigerated for anything from two to eight weeks. This recipe has no nuts in as well, but please check on the packaging for anything that you buy (especially for the dried fruit), to make sure regarding allergies.

Traditional Lit Christmas Pudding

To Serve 4
200g Currants
200g Raisins
200g Sultanas
150ml Sweet Cherry
175g Butter
175g Brown Sugar
4 Beaten Eggs
150g Self Raising Flour
100g Breadcrumbs
50g Blanched Almonds, chopped
Juice of 1 Orange
Grated Rind of ½ Orange
Grated Rind of ½ Lemon
½ Tsp Ground Mixed Spice

1.       In a large glass bowl, put the Currants, Raisins and Sultanas, and pour the Sherry over the top. Leave to set for at least two hours – more if you can help it.
2.       Mix the Butter and Sugar in a bowl, beat the Eggs into the mix and fold in the Flour.
3.       Stir in the Fruit and Sherry mix, as well as the Breadcrumbs, Almonds, Orange Juice, Rinds and Mixed Spice.
4.       Grease a basin and press it in, leaving a gap around an inch at the top. Cut a circle of greaseproof paper about one and a half inches wider than the top of the basin. Secure with string, and cover with two layers of foil.  Place the basin into a pan of boiling water, which reaches two thirds of the way up the basin, and simmer for six hours, topping up with water when needed.
5.       Remove from the pan, and leave to cool. Change the greaseproof paper and foil, and leave in the fridge for two to eight weeks. Before serving, steam for two hours (as before – in a pan of boiling water).

To serve, you can light it, making sure you blow it out before serving.

Photo Courtesy of: Anina2007

Traditional Roast Turkey

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Granted, the quantities seem a bit extreme, but it’s a big treat! It’ll make enough to provide you with Turkey and Stuffing Sandwiches for a while!

Roast Turkey

To serve 6

6.5kg Turkey

75g Softened Butter

225g Very Fat Streaky Bacon

900g Stuffing

1.       Heat the oven to 220C

2.       Loosely stuff the Turkey with the stuffing, pushing it up between the flesh and skin, towards the breast.

3.       Cover a large baking tray with 2 sheets of foil, one going each way (width-ways and lengthways), and lay the turkey on its back in the centre. Cover in butter, and cover with bacon, making sure that the bowl is completely covered (even if some is overlapping it would be okay.)

4.       Wrap the Turkey in foil loosely, sealed firmly but leaving enough space for air to help the Turkey and Stuffing cook through.

5.       Place in the oven for forty minutes, and then carry on preparing other sides.

6.       After the forty minutes, reduce the heat to 170C.

7.       After three and a half hours, turn the heat back up to 200C, remove the Turkey from the oven (you may need some help with this!), take the foil and take off the bacon slices. Baste thoroughly, and return for another thirty to forty five minutes, basting it on a regular basis.

8.       To make sure that the Turkey is cooked through, pierce in several places with a skewer and make sure that the juices that come out are golden and clear, with no trace of pinkness.

Serve with Roast Potatoes, Parsnips, Cranberry Sauce, Roast Parsnips and a range of vegetables (Carrots, Brussel Sprouts, etc.)

Christmas Pudding Cakes

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Christmas Pudding cakeFruit and Gluten Free, these chocolate puddings are a great alternative to the more traditional mince pies as a treat.

They look just like Traditional Christmas puddings, and can be decorated in a variety of ways – such as using left over Icing Sugar to create Holly and Berries, or Iced fruits.

To Make 6

75g Dark Chocolate (minimum 70% Cocoa Solids)

50g Unsalted Butter

75g Ground Almonds

3 large Eggs, separated

40g Caster Sugar

130g Icing Sugar

3 or 4 tsp Water

Red and Green Food Colouring

1.       Heat the oven to 180 C or Gas Mark 4, and lightly grease six pudding tins or rounded bottom ramekins, and line with baking paper.

2.       Break the Chocolate into pieces, and put into a large bowl, with the butter.

3.       Put the bowl over a pan of hot water, making sure that the water doesn’t touch the base of the bowl or the Chocolate and butter mix will burn. Stirring occasionally, wait until the chocolate has melted, and then remove from the heat, leaving to cool for five minutes.

4.       Stir the Ground Almonds in, before adding the Egg yolks. Beat well to combine.

5.       Whisk the Egg whites until they form stiff peaks, whilst adding the Caster Sugar, one teaspoon at a time. Fold a third of the Egg whites into the Chocolate mix, to soften it.

6.       Fold the rest of the Egg whites into the Chocolate mix, before dividing equally into the six baking tins.

7.       Bake for twenty minutes, before removing from the heat to cool on a wire rack. Mix the Icing sugar with the water, and drizzle most over the top (to look like snow), and mix some red into a small amount of the left-over sugar, and green into another amount. Cut into Holly and Berry shapes, and decorate with these

Photo Courtesy of F0t0Synth

Rich Fruit Cake

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This Christmas Classic can last for up to three months if you don’t ice it – so it’s a great treat to take to family gatherings, parties or to have ready to eat at home for those days where you just want to eat junk! You’ll also need a few extra things for making this cake – some string, baking paper, brown paper, and a large cake tin – quite a deep one, and it can be round or circular! This recipe makes enough for around twenty people.

Rich Fruit Cake

It takes about two weeks to make (with the setting and absorbing of the alcohol) so get making them now!

Makes 1 Cake

500g Dried Mixed Fruit

500g Sultanas

250g Currants

180ml Rum, Brandy or Sherry

125g Glace Cherries

275g Plain Flour

2tsp Ground Mixed Spice

225g Softened Butter

5 Large Eggs

Zest of 1 Medium Orange

Zest of 1 unwaxed Lemon

100g Ground Almonds

1.       Put all of the Mixed Fruit, Sultanas and Currants into a large bowl, and pour 90ml of the alcohol over. Cover the bowl with cling film, and stir occasionally over a twenty four hour period.

2.       Line your cake tin with three layers of the baking paper, and wrap the outside of the tin with a double layer of the brown paper.

3.       Heat the oven to 150 C or Gas Mark 2

4.       Rinse the Cherries in some warm water, before patting dry and cutting in half.

5.       Sift the Flour and Mixed Spice together.

6.       Cream the Butter and Sugar, before adding the Eggs one at a time, with 1tbsp of the flour mixture. Make sure you beat the mixture well before adding the next egg.

7.       Grate the zest of the Orange and Lemon and stir it into the mixture with the rest of the Flour mixture, Ground Almonds, Cherries and the Dried Fruit (with the alcohol)

8.       Spoon the cake mixture into the tin, and make sure the top is level. Pat the top with damp fingertips, but make sure you don’t transfer too much water over – you don’t want to get it wet.

9.       Bake for an hour, before reducing the heat to 140 C or Gas Mark 1.

10.   Bake for a further three hours or until a skewer comes out clean from the centre of the cake.

11.   Remove the cake from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

12.   Once cold, wrap in foil and store for a week, before piercing with a skewer. Drizzle over two tablespoons of the liquor, re-wrap and store. Repeat twice over the next two weeks.

Photo Courtesy of I Don’t Know, Maybe.

Getting Ready for Christmas

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Fortune Cookie

Okay, so I didn’t really need a fortune cookie to tell me that my Christmas would be a busy one- last year, I felt like I couldn’t stop to breathe for the whole of December.

This year, I’m doing things differently. This year, I’m preparing for Christmas. Here’s how: I’m using my freezer.

A few weeks ago, my freezer just upped and died. We had it repaired, and now it’s running like (almost) new- something I’m extremely grateful for, because it’s not even December yet, and I’ve already packed the following in my deep freeze:

… all of which, of course, will make my December so much better. Consider: my husband, friendly guy that he is, invites a bunch of people over “for coffee”. In about fifteen minutes, I can serve them their coffee with freshly baked Sugar Cookies or, better yet, Chocolate Chip Cookies hot from the oven. Or I could suddenly have a hankering for rockin’ Apple Pie. Since I already have the crust chilling in the freezer, all I need to make is my recipe for Rockin’ Apple Pie Filling.

While it’s not yet December, start planning ahead. Use your freezer. You’ll be glad you did.

Gingerbread House

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gingerbread-house.jpg

Here’s a fun (and yummy!) activity you can do with your kids — a gingerbread house! You can even make your creation the centerpiece of your family holiday celebrations. Try not to eat all the candy, though — it’s for the house, remember? Get decorating ideas and the original recipe.

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter
7/8 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground allspice
6 egg whites
4 (16 ounce) packages confectioners’ sugar, sifted

What’s Next:

Gingerbread House

1. Shape the frame of the house out of cardboard. Measurements are: a side wall, 4 1/2 x 8 inches; an end wall, 4 1/2×5 inches; a triangular gable, 4 1/2x3x3 inches; and a roof rectangle, 4 1/2×9 inches.
2. Tape the rectangular end wall piece to the triangular gable piece.
3. Match the long side of the triangle, 4 1/2 inches, to one of the 4 1/2 inch sides of the end wall.
4. Now comes the baking. Get a large bowl and cream the butter and sugar until it becomes fluffy and light.
5. Throw in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and molasses.
6. Slowly beat in the two eggs.
7. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and spices together.
8. Stir the powdered ingredients above into the creamed mixture.
9. Wrap dough in parchment paper, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
10. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface.
11. Divide the dough into into 6. Two of the pieces must be larger.
12. Dust flour over a table. Roll out the 4 smaller pieces to approximately the size of the side wall and the end wall with gable templates; cut out two of each.
13. Roll out remaining dough, and cut into two rectangular roof pieces.
14. Transfer gingerbread onto greased baking trays.
15. In a preheated 375 degree F (190 degrees C) oven, bake gingerbread for 10 minutes, or until crisp. When removing from the oven, leave the gingerbread on the baking trays for a few minutes to set, then transfer to wire racks. Leave out overnight to harden.

Gingerbread House

16. In a large bowl, lightly whisk 2 egg whites. Gradually beat in approximately 5 cups confectioners’ sugar. The icing should be smooth and stand in firm peaks.
17. Spread or pipe a 9 inch line of icing onto a cake board, and press in one of the side walls so that it sticks firmly and stands upright. If necessary, spread or pipe a little extra icing along either side to help support it.
18. Take an end wall and ice both the side edges. Spread or pipe a line of icing on the board at a right angle to the first wall, and press the end wall into position. Repeat this process with the other two walls until they are all in position. Leave the walls to harden together for at least two hours before putting on the roof. Spread or pipe a thick layer of icing on top of all the walls, and fix the roof pieces in position; the roof should overlap the walls to make the eaves. Pipe or spread a little icing along the crest of the roof to hold the two pieces firmly together. Leave overnight to set firmly.
19. When ready to decorate, make the remaining icing. In a large bowl, lightly whisk 4 egg whites, and mix in remaining confectioners’ sugar as before. Use this to make snow on the roof, and to stick various candies for decoration. Finish with a fine dusting of sifted confectioners’ sugar.

Check out more gingerbread house pictures and find more gingerbread recipes at Recipe Finder, your cooking recipe search engine