Christmas & Boxing Day Delights

Christmas Eve 

Cottage Pie

For Christmas Eve dinner after picking up Holly from the airport, I made us a classic sort of Cottage Pie. That's a pound of ground chuck, a bag a frozen mixed veg, and half a dozen medium white potatoes cooked and mashed for the topping. Brown the beef, add the vegetables, and a couple tablespoons of Bisto tm Gravy granules to pull the mixture together. Spoon into a large glass bowl and top with mashed potatoes.

Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. Turn the oven on Broil to get the potato topping somewhat browned and crusty, say another 10 minutes. Makes half a dozen servings.

If you use beef, it's a Cottage Pie.  Only if you use ground or cubed lamb is it a Shepherd's Pie.  Steak and Kidney Pie has... you guessed it -- cubes of steak and kidney -- plus mushrooms, peas and gravy.

Christmas Day

Strata

I actually made these dishes on Christmas Eve day, so they'd have a chance to set overnight and get even better. This year we decided to go with a Mediterranean theme, and since vegan Uncle James was in town, I made a meated and a meatless dish.

I did a Greek Pastitsio with ground chuck, spinach and cheeses layered with cavatappi noodles rather than my usual seashells. See my post from May 18th for details: http://foodingaround-kiltedcook.blogspot.com/2015/05/pastitsio-and-marmalade-my-way.html 

For the non-carnivores, I made a red sauce Vegan Lasagna with diced eggplant substituting for the ground meat. See my post from Sept 21st: http://foodingaround-kiltedcook.blogspot.com/2015/09/veggie-sides-mains.html

Boxing Day

Boxing Day began with the British monarchy, when, on the day after Christmas, they distributed boxes of leftover Royal feast, alms, and other goodies to the Royal servants and the poor. The custom was taken up by the high society houses, and eventually became celebrated as its own holiday, the day after Christmas Day.

English Roast Beef Dinner

Being originally English, Sally, her Mum and daughter Holly have always celebrated Boxing Day with an English style holiday dinner -- roast beef, roasted potatoes and parsnips, Yorkshire Puddings, and a rich dark Christmas Pudding for dessert, which is traditionally doused in brandy and set aflame.

 

Photo by Sally

This year I bought a beef tenderloin (almost 5 pounds) and tied the thin tail back on the rest of the meat before marinating and roasting. I marinated overnight with Saucy Mama's Lime Chipotle Marinade tm, thinned a bit with water. Then I roasted the beef low and slow at 250F for about 1-1/2 hours to reach a medium-rare internal temp of 135F.

Sally and Holly prepared most of the rest of the meal -- the roasted vegetables and Yorkshire Puddings. I made the horseradish sauce and the fried Brussels Sprouts. 

Sally's Mum made a wonderful Christmas Pudding.

 Christmas Pudding is somewhat similar to Fruit Cake, but a lot more cakey and moist, and not as fruited.  Very rich, it's a bit of an acquired taste.  If you look closely, you'll see that the brandy is alight.  Look closer, and you'll see that the spillage on the tablecloth is also alight!  No damage done.

DIY Horsey Sauce

The perfect accouterment for beef roast (like the Tenderloin roast I prepared) is a horseradish sauce. Sure you can buy it. But it's simple and easy to make, and you can preserve the rest of the grated root for later use.

1 Horseradish Root, 8-10" long

Mayonnaise or plain yogurt

White or Cider Vinegar

Salt

Peel the root to remove the outer tan skin. The inner part is very stringy. Use the small cutter side of your box grater (not the smallest cutter though), and reduce the root to a pile of fine white, pungent (!) shreds. Be careful, as some roots can be eye-searingly pungent! while others can be almost sweet. My one root broke down into about a cup of grated horseradish.

Sauce:

Stir to combine 1/4 cup of mayonnaise or yogurt with 2 Tbsp of fresh grated root, to start. Taste, and adjust the amount of mayo or root until you reach your happy medium.

Preserve the rest:

Let the leftover grated root sit on the counter for awhile. This allows the pungent enzymes called isothiocyanates more time to be released, making the grated root even more pungent. Adding a bit of vinegar kills the pungency development. Place the grated ginger in a small screw top jar or bottle. Add white or cider vinegar to cover. Add a pinch of salt, and stir to combine. Seal jar and store in the refrigerator, where it will last for months!

Yorkshire Puddings

These puddings are sort of a cross between a biscuit and a puff pastry. The molds are blistering hot with a pool of smoking lard in each recess. The batter is thin, almost like a crepe, and begins cooking even before the mold is returned to the oven. This recipe is "interpreted" from Sally's Dad, Ted Cushnie.

Preheat oven to 400F.

2 cups AP flour, sifted into a bowl (sifting helps make the batter thin and lump free)

2 eggs

half milk and half water, sufficient to make the batter a thick cream consistency

Make a well in the flour. Add the eggs whole, then beat them into the flour along with the milk and water. This is the tricky part. You want a really thin batter; even thinner than a crepe batter. Refrigerate the batter 15-20 minutes while the molds finish heating. 

 

Place a 'knob' of lard in each mold cavity. 

As you can see, the molds Sally has are heavy cast iron, which you might find in a antique shop.   Heat the molds 20 minutes or more, to 'smoking' hot. Carefully remove a mold from the oven (don't spill!!!). Put 2 Tbsp of batter in each cavity. 

Return the mold to the oven, cook 20-30 minutes until the Yorkshires are risen and golden brown.

Slather them with butter, or use them to mop up excess gravy.  Any way you eat them, they are really tasty!

Eggnog Bread-Cake

Sally's daughter Holly sent me this recipe, and I made it for us all when she came home for the holidays.

1 (16-oz.) package pound cake mix (ignore the package directions)

1 1/4 cups eggnog

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat the ingredients together until well blended. Pour into a lightly greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour plus, until a wooden pick (I use a chopstick) inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Then remove loaf from the pan and cool completely (about an hour).

Can be eaten "as is", or sliced and toasted for breakfast "bread". Yuuuuummm!