Christmas Dinner!

I know I'm a bit late writing about my Christmas dinner, but in my defence I was busy cooking, eating and partying. But, rest assured I cooked up a storm.


And what a kitchen to cook up a storm in. My parents recently moved into a new house, and for those of you who haven't heard about the new house's infamous kitchen here is a picture:

It's a full-on industrial size kitchen. On the right hand side you can see the oven, which easily cooked the entire Christmas dinner, a 6 burner gas stove top, and a professional wok burner. I'm afraid to go near the wok burner, it apparently cooks food in 30 seconds flat and sounds like a jet engine when the gas burner is lit :p You will also see heat lamps hanging from the ceiling, to keep food warm while you plate up.I

I stuck to a very traditional Christmas dinner theme this year, cooking what I know and doing it well. Luckily the weather wasn't sticky hot this year, so the thought of cooking a hot meal for 10 people on a hot summer's day wasn't as daunting as it has been in previous years. 

My speciality vegetables which I cook every year, and in fact I cook whenever I make a roast are: crispy roast potatoes (my upmost speciality), garlicky green beans, and balsamic glazed carrots. One tip I have about cooking is: make sure you can cook something well and that you can cook it easily without any thought. I know these vegies will turn out perfect every time, no questions.

Of course I cooked a turkey and I made white wine gravy from scratch. And what Christmas dinner would it be without a ham? Redcurrant and balsamic glazed ham that is. This glaze was the best I've ever made, the recipe contains a jar of redcurrant jelly, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, and 1 teaspoon of peppercorns. These ingredients were cooked slowly at first, to melt the sugar and jelly, and then simmered for 5 minutes until the mixture became syrupy and thickens slightly, the mixture is then strained with the peppercorns discarded. I basted the ham every 20 minutes with the glaze and it was cooked for about an hour and a half. 

And for dessert, I made a classic trifle. First trifle I had ever made, and I really like the dramatic effect the trifle has with so little effort. My trifle had a layer of strawberry jelly with berries mixed through, chocolate custard, jam rolls soaked in sherry, fresh cream and berries on top.

The short story is, we couldn't stop eating the ham, my uncle took home a LARGE helping of potatoes he loves them that much (and no one else seems to be able to replicate them), and there weren't many leftovers. All signs of a successful Christmas dinner!