Last Minute Xmas Dinner Menu

For those of you who are struggling for last minute xmas dinner ideas, or if you have been given the job of bringing the salad, you may like to peruse the menu and recipe links below for inspiration.

Xmas Dinner Menu

Glazed ham - with Marmalade Glaze or if you happen to be in Auckland or Hamilton, one of the Farro's boned and stuffed turkey

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New Potatoes (jersey bennies are wonderful at this time of year, OR

Roasted Sweet potato Salad

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Choose two of the following:

Pea and Feta Salad

Broad Bean salad

Lettuce, Pear, Blue Cheese

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To Finish - Fresh NZ strawberries and Kapiti vanilla icecream or for those who love xmas pudding there is a brilliant range in your local supermarket AND nothing wrong with the custard in the packet.

 

Marmalade Ham Glaze  (6kg ham serves 30)

5-6 kg cooked ham on the bone
½ cup whole cloves
¾ cup orange marmalade
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup port or sweet sherry
1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Put the ham, skin side up, on to an ovenproof tray with sides. Cut the skin around the thin shank end.
Starting at the opposite end from the shank end, slide your fingers under the skin and move them from side to side to loosen the skin in one large piece, and then carefully peel it off. Most definitely leave the layer of fat on, as this gives flavour and keeps the ham moist. You can leave it on the side of your plate later if you get a slice with too much fat on it.
Score the fat layer down to the flesh in a criss-cross diamond grid pattern. Push a clove securely into where each line of the grid intersects.
Mix the jam, brown sugar and port or sherry to a paste and spread all over the top of the ham, making sure you don’t disturb the cloves.
Pour the water into the bottom of the tray and place in the oven. Leave in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, basting frequently until the glaze is gooey and adhering to the ham, the water has evaporated and the ham is just browning around the edges. Be careful towards the end that the sugary glaze doesn’t burn.
Remove to a large serving platter and serve hot, or cool quickly and serve cold, with the Red Onion and Apricot Relish or Rocket Salsa, which is like a deconstructed Italian Salsa Verde.

 

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Pecan and Maple

Try this wonderful recipe as a side dish at your Christmas table or as an original picnic salad. Serves 4
Ingredients:
• 2 sweet potatoes (about 850g in total)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 35g pecans
• 4 spring onions, roughly chopped
• 4 tbsp roughly chopped parsley
• 2 tbsp roughly chopped coriander
• ¼ tsp flaked chilli
• 35g sultanas
• Salt and pepper
• Dressing
• 60ml olive oil
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 190ºC/Gas Mark 5. Start with the sweet potatoes. Don’t peel them! Cut into 2cm cubes, spread out on a baking tray and drizzle with the olive oil. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper, mix well with your hands and roast in the oven until the potatoes are just tender, about 30 minutes. Turn them over gently half way through the cooking.
In a separate tray, toast the pecans in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove and chop roughly.
While the potatoes are roasting make the dressing. Whisk together all the ingredients in small bowl. Taste and add salt and pepper in needed.
When the potatoes are ready, transfer them to a large bowl while still hot. Add the spring onion, parsley, coriander, chilli, pecans and sultanas. Pour the dressing over and toss gently to blend, then season to taste. Serve at once or at room temperature.

Pea and feta salad:

Defrost say 500g of plain frozen peas in warm water then drain very well

Dressing:

• 3tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar or balsamic or white wine vinegar.
• Add ¾ finely chopped onion which has been soaked in water to get the real oniony taste from it

Add freshly chopped mint to peas and put dressing over
Crumble few good handfuls of good quality feta on top

Broad Bean & Crispy Pancetta Salad with a pea pecorino and mint dressing  - Jamie Oliver

Even though this salad's really simple and really tasty, it's also quite a brave dish because it hasn't got lots of leaves everywhere − just some beautiful ingredients put together with a little common sense. It's one of those combos that makes the back of your mouth juice up when you think about it. Ideally use young peas and broad beans when they're in season. If they're a little older then take the skins off the beans, and if the peas are large it doesn't really matter as you'll be mushing them up anyway.

Ingredients
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and left whole
• 300g/10½oz podded broad beans
• 8 slices of pancetta or smoked streaky bacon
• a handful of whole blanched almonds
• 150g/5½oz podded fresh peas
• 70g/2½oz pecorino or Parmesan cheese, or a mixture of both, grated
• a handful of fresh mint, leaves picked
• 8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• juice of 1 or 2 lemons
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a pot to the boil, half-filled with water, but with no salt as this makes broad beans and peas toughen. Add your garlic and allow the water to boil for a couple of minutes before adding the broad beans. Cook for around 3 to 5 minutes, depending on how young the beans are. Simply taste one to check. If you feel the skins are a little tough, which they can be sometimes, let them cool a little and then you can peel them very quickly by pinching and squeezing the bean out. Throw the skins away, and keep the garlic clove to one side. Place your pancetta on a baking tray, with the almonds spread out next to it. Place in a hot oven at 250°C/475°F/gas 9 − keeping an eye on the almonds to make sure they don't colour too much. You should be able to crisp up the pancetta at the same time as toasting the almonds, but simply remove one or the other if it is getting too far ahead.

To make the dressing, put your raw podded peas and the soft, boiled garlic clove into a pestle and mortar or a Magimix and bash or blitz until smooth. Add the cheese and most of the mint and stir or pulse to make a smooth paste. You want to turn this into a thick dressing, so add the olive oil and 4 to 5 tablespoons of lemon juice, to your preference. Season to taste − it should have an amazing flavour of sweet peas, twangy lemon, fragrant mint and a softness and roundness from the cheese. A balance is good, but you should also trust your own personal judgement. I generally like mine to be a bit more lemony, to cut through the smokiness of the pancetta.

Mix the dressing with the broad beans and sprinkle this over four plates. Crumble the pancetta over, followed by a sprinkling of the almonds, which can be crushed or bashed up a little. Tear a little mint over the top with a little shaved Parmesan if you like.
N.B. Fresh peas are best with this recipe but you can get away with frozen
broad beans. Don't forget to take the grey skin off the bean pods or they will tasteless and tough.

Lettuce, Pear, Blue Cheese and Caramelised Walnut salad

1 pack of good quality lettuce mix
1 green skinned pear
1 small packet of blue vein cheese (or feta if you don't like blue cheese)
1/2 to 1 cup of walnuts
A couple tablespoons of brown sugar, butter and a good splash of water (to caramelise the nuts.)

Caramelise the walnuts.
Toast walnuts in a non stick pan over high heat. Add the butter and brown sugar and melt. Add the splash of water and cook until it caramelises. Watch carefully so it doesn't burn. Cool on wax paper and seperate later with a rolling pin to crush them a bit and to make sure they don’t stick together. (Cover with wax paper before so you don’t get toffee on your rolling pin.)

Core and slice pear.
Super thin slices are best, so that it’s not too overwhelming but adds a nice sweetness.

Layer.
In a big salad bowl, layer your salad leaves, nuts, pear slices and cheese and give a final toss. Mix up your dressing and toss that in there as well.

Dressing:  best to use Cuisinescene - mild curry vinagrette if you have it available in your local shops - here is a list of stockists

or your favourite simple vinagrette

 

Have a wonderful xmas from Rae and Geraldine at wisanow!!