Christmas Recipes | Finding Feasts

Christmas Tree Ice Cream Cones

You would have had to been living under a log the last few weeks to not know that it is Christmas in 11 sleeps!

I am a Christmas junkie! I love the food, the wine, the decorations and of course the planning which starts for me as soon as humanly possible! Our Christmas tree goes up religiously on the 1st of December however if the 1st should happen to fall on a week day then you can legally without offending the Christmas spirits put your tree and decorations up the weekend before! Decorating is a huge event, the boxes come out, the Buble Christmas tunes are pumped and I plot around the house with with a glass of champagne whilst Imogen decorates the tree. The hubby on the other hand prefers to have a beer or two at the local, however he is getting better with the decorations going up!

It turned out that this year hubby had two work functions each night so paper art decorations in hand Imogen and I decorated our lounge and dinning room. Very proud of our colour coordinated efforts!

Back to the food aspect of Christmas! These little ice cream cone Christmas trees are too easy to make and the kids will love helping decorate them!

You need to ensure that the ice cream freezes well otherwise it will melt too quickly when you take the cones out. Although we didn’t have this problem, they were all gobbled up within seconds of coming out of the freezer!

If you have a Christmas inspired desert then please feel free to share!

Merry Christmas and Wesołych Świąt!

Bella 🙂

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Traditional Finnish Gingerbread Biscuits – Piparkakut

Traditional Finnish Gingerbread Biscuits – Piparkakut … If I were to choose one thing that is significantly Christmas to me, and for most Finns I would assume it would have to be the mounds of gingerbread biscuits that come out at this time of year.

My Nana has always been the one to stock the family with these delicious, spice laden, thin crispy biscuits. She would have tins of them, and knowing how much my sister and I loved them, would keep a continual stock of them throughout the year that we would have with coffee along with other lovely sweets.

I recently acquired a Finnish cookbook published in 1966, Kotiruoka by Uusi Laitos (translates to Home Cooking or something very similar) This is Nana’s and has been well thumbed through. It has nine different recipes for gingerbread cookies… NINE!

The Finnish/Nordic way is to have them neat, no fancy icing decorations and the shapes are simple hearts, stars and a scalloped circle… although I have, in the last several years, started a little tradition with my son and we now decorate large cookies cut from my gorgeous Donna Hay Christmas Bauble Cookie Cutters. The large size means the cookies can be intricately decorated and look stunning (my son channels Jackson Pollock when decorating these)

This amount makes about 50 cookies depending on the size of your cutters, but believe me they will disappear, and very quickly! Going with the FinSki’s theme for edible gift ideas, package them up in little bags or old biscuit tins and give them as gift.

Hyvaa joulua! Blondie

Blondie2 Comments

Wild mushroom soup

Warm up this winter with a beautiful wild mushroom soup!

With winter finally arriving in Sydney (although obviously not today as it is going to be 25 degrees!) I decided to celebrate the cold July by throwing a Christmas in July dinner party. Menu planning had begun many weeks ago! Books were gone gone through, magazines pulled, lists made up, list torn up only to be made up again. This was no ordinary dinner, I wanted to show case skill, technique and obviously good hearty dishes. A three course feast was settled on, consisting of entree and main prepared by me and dessert by Blondie.

The menu consisted of…

Entree
Wild Mushroom Soup

Main
Sous vide Chicken, Wilted Greens, Verjuice Butter Sauce

Dessert
Yoghurt Panna Cotta, Poached Pear & Quince, Pecan Crumb & Frozen Chocolate Wind

Being Polish I’m no stranger to soups, they were and still are a daily staple and on the menu at mums place so when it came to the entree for our Christmas in July dinner, Wild mushroom soup was a no brainer decision.

Mum make what I would say one of the most amazing wild mushrooms soups from a recipe that was handed down to her my my fathers mother, my Babcia and whilst its pretty amazing for this dinner I wanted to try something a little more hearty, full of body.

Pen and paper in hand I jumped onto the trusty internet and the research had begun. I must have looked at hundreds of mushroom soup recipes and they all looked very similar to each other until I came across Jamie Oliver’s The Real Mushroom Soup recipe. It looked earthy and full of flavour.

Decision made!

I of course didn’t follow the recipe too the tee, and used my private stash of FinSki’s Saffron Milk Cap and Slipper Jack mushrooms.

I had some tough critics to please that night…the husbands, but the finger licked bowls spoke for themselves.

Will I be making this again…a definite YES!

Bella 🙂

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Best Ever Christmas Fruit Mince Pies – Egg Free

My objective for this year is to make the perfect fruit mince pie.

Best Ever Christmas Fruit Mince Pies – Egg Free… For me, the most essential element to the perfect fruit mince pie is the pastry. It must have a buttery, fine crumb and be of the correct thickness (4mm) – this is very important as it needs to break apart in large enough chunks so as to get the perfect mouthful of fruit and pastry. It is vital that it maintains it’s structural integrity! There also needs to be a sweetness included in the pastry that sugar alone will not do… I thought I would be making at least three different recipes to come to the right one, but no, got it one! The fact that it’s egg free is just a bonus to those who have allergies but is in no way an intentional omission… just a happy coincidence.

Here is a small excerpt from Australian Gourmet Traveller about water and egg in shortcrust pastry… “Egg yolks and water also affect pastry. Egg yolks contain fat and act as an extra shortening agent but are used more to add colour and richness to the pastry. When you’re adding water to pastry, be careful to add only enough to bring the mixture from a crumbly dough to one that can be kneaded and rolled easily. Too much water in the mix means the pastry will steam as it cooks, making for a flimsy result, so add small amounts gradually until you have achieved the right texture.”

There is alot of butter in these pies so they need to be chilled; at room temperature the pastry becomes too fine a crumb, but with a slight chill the pastry holds firm and then each mouthful is a cacophony of cool and crumbly pastry, buttery, sweet and fruity flavours that marry and melt in the mouth…. too much? Nah, each bite is poetry!

Oh, I forgot to mention the hint of cardamon, this adds a mellow flavour that’s complimented by the fruit filling.

For the filling I used Robertson’s Traditional Fruit Mince, which is actually really good. It has the right texture and spice, but next year I will definitely work on my own filling – one step at a time!

Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of rum! (oh, is that Christmas?) Blondie

Blondie1 Comment

How to make Christmas turkey gravy

Jamie Oliver’s make ahead Christmas turkey gravy is simply the best! This will be my second year making it and as a gravy lover I have to say that it’s probably one of the best sauces I have tasted.

With only 10 days till Christmas, making this gravy now will save you loads of time and take the stress out of Christmas day. It’s dead easy to make and tastes delish!

Come Christmas day all you’ll need to do is take it out of the freezer, defrost it and warm it up!

Merry Christmas!

BellaLeave a comment

Lanttulaatikko – Swede Casserole

Lanttulaatikko aka Swede Casserole — Click image for recipe

Lanttulaatikko – Swede Casserole is just one of four traditional Finnish casseroles served at Christmas time. The other three are carrot, potato and liver, all unique and equally as important as the roast meats.

Mum makes this every year along with the potato and carrot casseroles, although it’s been many years since we have had the liver casserole. But don’t fret, I will be making it this year… oh yes, I will!

This casserole has a slight bitterness, which is offset by the golden syrup and is the perfect accompaniment to your Christmas dinner… plus makes excellent sandwiches with all the leftovers!

Hyvää Joulua, Blondie 🙂

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Finnish Christmas Ham – Joulukinkku

Finnish Christmas Ham – Joulukinkku… Hi, My name is Katriina and I have been a Christmas addict for over 40 years. There, I said it!

The food, the movies, the songs, the lights, everything gets pulled out and celebrated from the 1st of December, although the food prep starts earlier… I live and breathe Christmas for the entire month.

My sister and I now do the ham, she gets the most amazing Smoked Leg of Ham from The Free Range Butcher here in Sydney. It gets delivered to my house along with other meats to last for a few months. The aroma from the Smoked Ham is unbelievable, truly heaven. It is pricier than standard ham but the benefit of having such well kept, happy animals and the preparation of the meat after is that this ham freezes so well. After Christmas dinner has finished we divide the leftover ham between the 3 families and freeze the large chunks. We are happily eating ham for a couple of months after and it’s still as good as it was on Christmas Eve.

The traditional way is to cook the ham yourself and then assemble the crust (Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros) but being in Australia there isn’t much joy in having the oven on all day, unless you have air conditioning! Using a smoked leg of ham means you are just prepping the outside, but it also means the oven is free to cook all the other roasts and necessary accompaniments such as the casseroles (Swede casserole) and vegetables.

This ham is outstanding with its crunchy, sweet and hot crust protecting the glorious, smokey, juicy meat on the inside. I like to decorate with cute little characters but this year I will try to get a proper photo of the finished ham, before it’s devoured that is.

Finding Feasts - Finnish Christmas Ham

Merry Christmas! Blondie 🙂

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