Merry Almost Christmas everyone! Are you as exhausted as I am towards the end of the year? Well don't worry, I've got something for you. Come along to my Friendmas (aka Christmas with Friends) dinner where I share both easy and spectacular Christmas recipes. There's an antipasto Christmas tree, a beautiful cherry glazed ham, a spectacular salmon wellington, glorious garlic butter potatoes, moreish sage and onion stuffing meatballs and an epic Christmas Pavlova trifle!
As tired as I am, I still hold a couple of Christmas dinners and a tradition I started last year was holding a friends Christmas or Friendmas the week before Christmas because I want to get these Christmas recipes ready for you with enough time for your Christmas. Also with my family being in Singpoare and Mr NQN's family being vegans and then some, I wanted to make food that I wanted to eat and my friends wanted to eat and that you might want to eat too!
This last quarter has gone really quickly - something happened in October and suddenly the calendar days were being ripped off at warp speed. I suddenly found myself at the end of November, being launched out of a tornado and deposited onto the ground. Still dizzy, I picked myself up off the ground and started planning Friends Christmas with each friend bringing a dish.
Valentina would bring a Christmas Tree dip while Queen Viv and Miss America would take care of the drinks. Monica was working up until that afternoon so she brought her signature dip made of smoked trout, cream cheese and a generous topping of salmon roe with potato chips (sometimes you just have to throw money at the problem).
We were all set to go for Christmas but then sadly the day before, Valentina broke the news that her husband Peter had COVID so they couldn't come. I was devastated because Valentina is like my wingman with events and dinners as she is so helpful and a great cook. The night before I set the table with my new tablecloth that I bought in Hawaii for this very occasion. I laid out my favourite In The Roundhouse plates and polished the cutlery. I had my run sheet ready too so that everything would be made in time. So here is what we served!
I swear everyone this year is putting food on foam cones and I am no exception. This is a very cute and fun way to serve up antipasto. All you need is olives, cherry tomatoes, salami and cheese and a lot of toothpicks. The hardest thing might be getting your hands on a foam cone! I bought a couple online (for $1.40 each) and had it express posted (for $19) because I cannot deal with the shops at this time of the year and it ended up the same price as buying it at the shops.
My favourite item at Christmas is a ham because a ham is the easiest thing to make for Christmas and feeds a large crowd and lasts for weeks afterwards. Hams in Australia come cured and cooked (in the UK some have to be boiled) so that all you have to do is remove the rind, score the fat and add some glaze and then bake. This year Australian Pork sent me a beautiful ham from Sunshine Meats in Milperra. Last year the full leg of ham barely just made it in my oven so this year it was a beautiful double smoked half leg and was perfect for the amount of people plus with enough leftover. And it seems everyone is doing cherry glazed hams if my Instagram feed is anything to go by!
I feel like a cherry glaze can be a uniquely Southern Hemisphere sort of ham glaze because cherries happen to be in season then. But realistically this can be made if you have a cold weather Christmas because it uses cherry jam and you can also use frozen cherries too. This cherry ham glaze has a cherry jam mixed with spices like mixed spice, fennel and whole cherries. The quantity is enough for a whole leg of ham, feel free to halve it if you have a half leg of ham.
I love seafood at Christmas and this salmon wellington was inspired by the Saint Peter salmon wellington. The photo of theirs shows, somehow a cooked pastry but barely cooked salmon interior. I have no idea how that is achieved (which is why I often don't trust non-blog recipes because I find them staged). But it is a salmon rolled in mushroom duxelles, nori and then baked in butter puff pastry. The lovely people at Huon Salmon sent me a side of salmon. Their salmon is harvested at night so that it is less stressful for the fish.
This was my first time skinning a whole side of salmon and honestly I did it with gritted teeth and a lot of pulling. Most sides of salmon come already skinned so hopefully your prep will be easier. And as for the skin, Teddy and Milo were hugely appreciative of it as they got a special Christmas treat. I tried my hand at a lattice crust which was fiddly but fun challenge too!
Another dish that I always have to serve at Christmas are potatoes. I was once asked the two ingredients that I would bring on a deserted island and they were garlic and butter because you can season anything with it and it will be delicious. If I see anything with garlic butter I immediately perk up and I first saw these garlic butter potatoes on Instagram on Farahjeats, an account I followed after she made my salmon belly recipe. It's deliciously simple but the result is the most swoonworthy Christmas potatoes or potatoes for any occasion.
We love stuffing in this house but even without a turkey, goose or duck to stuff we weren't going without. So I decided to make a classic sage and onion stuffing but in meatball form so it was easy to serve. I ate one of those straight from the oven it was so moreish.
There always has to be bread on the table be it Christmas or any other day and I served a butter candle in a home made bread wreath. I'll show you exactly how to make this very, very soon - it's so easy and gives you butter that is the perfect spreadable consistency and burns like a candle!
I had in my mind that Christmas dessert this year had to be a trifle. I have a love/hate relationship with trifle. I hate jelly because when I was a kid my dad was a food scientist at a gelatine company and all we got for dessert was jelly. I don't mean nice jelly, I mean packet jelly (I'm traumatised I tell you). But Mr NQN loves the stuff and it is the sort of large dessert that only really has an occasion like Christmas as it feeds a dozen people. This one has cherries, pandan custard, whipped cream, cherry jelly (I placed that layer on the bottom so I could avoid scooping it up for myself) and meringues in the centre and on top.
Everyone arrived together and it was so lovely to see my friends look so gorgeous and colourfully dressed. Everyone was excited and in good spirits especially Marco who came fully caffeinated up and who loves being thee focus of attention ("everyone thinks Marco is the quiet one and I'm the loud one!" said Monica). Champagne corks were popped. Monica carved the ham but then Marco wanted some and we realised that he carves hams like Kendall Jenner slices cucumber.
Over a very long lunch we did a little personality test too - long time readers may remember this very clever three question test that my friend Ute taught me about the desert, cube and a horse. It was lots of fun to do and the results were absolutely fitting for everyone concerned!
Teddy and Milo were surprisingly well behaved only doing a little bit of begging and even then it was mostly to sit in a lap. Miss America gladly obliged with Milo who he took an immense liking to. It was many hours later when they bade us goodbye and we quickly cleaned up and we were on our way to our next Christmas party!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you do a separate Friendmas? Are you exhausted and ready for a rest?
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