Time just seems to speed up around the holiday season. With Christmas gift shopping, tree trimming, and endless cooking, there does not seem to be enough hours in the day.
If planning the perfect Christmas dinner has you feeling stressed, we are here to help.
No matter if you are planning a big Christmas dinner with friends or a smaller dinner with your immediate family, these recipes will make the holiday dinner one you will never forget.
Grilled bone marrow
Roasting marrow bones could not be easier. Have two beef marrow bones, split lengthwise, for each person. Get your oven nice and hot and roast the marrow for 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve the marrow with slices of fresh or toasted sourdough bread (to mop up the delicious juices) and a parsley salad, to cut through the richness, on the side.
Parsley salad
Ingredients
1 ½ cup parsley/1 bunch, roughly chopped
½ cup red onion thinly sliced
1 tbsp capers
3 tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon freshly squeezed (or to taste)
⅛ tsp. ground black pepper
Parmesan shavings
Method
In a small bowl mix well together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
In a salad bowl toss together parsley with the sliced onions and roughly chopped capers.
Add the olive oil mixture and toss until completely coated.
Serve immediately with shavings of Parmesan if wanted.
Recipe by Dr Keneiloe Molopyane and and Sam Ramokoka.
1-hour cured Villiersdorp trout, Himalayan salt block with the usual accompaniments
Serves: 8
For the salmon gravlax
850g fresh salmon
2 large blocks of Himalayan salt
For the garnish
20g capers, deep fried
40g cream cheese
3 thin slices of red onion
10g baby green leaves
Grissini – very thin slices of bread, toasted
8 lemon wedges
30ml olive oil for garnish
Method
Pin bone the side of salmon (remove all bones with fish pliers).
Using the Himalayan salt blocks, place the salmon trout sides on the block, then, on top of the trout, place more blocks so as to cure the fish for 1 hour.
Once cured, rinse salmon and slice thinly with a sharp knife to get thin slivers.
Arrange them onto a plate or salt block.
With a dollop of cream cheese, deep-fried capers, lemon, grissini and red onion. Lightly sprinkle with baby leaves or micros and olive oil.
Note: When you cook food on a Himalayan salt slab, the moisture from the food draws the salt from the slab, adding rich flavour and trace minerals to the dish.
Recipe by The Salt Chef aka Craig Cormack.
Buccellato
Ingredients
Pre dough
1 packet of dry yeast
260g flour
260ml milk, warmed
Dough
100g raisins
2 tbsp rum
340g flour,
80g icing sugar
80g butter, at room temperature
6 egg yolks, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 lemons
1 pinch salt
Filling
120g sugar
140g butter
300g walnuts, ground
3-4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp honey
Icing
1 egg white
Icing sugar
Method
Prepare the pre-dough the day before. In a food processor, mix the dry yeast, flour, and warm milk then knead the dough on the work surface for a few minutes by hand and roll into a ball.
Place in a bowl, cover with cling film, and leave to rise at room temperature for half an hour. Place in the fridge overnight. The next day, take the pre-dough out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 180°C.
Soak the raisins in the rum. Mix the butter, egg yolk, vanilla extract, the peel of the lemons, and the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt) in a food processor. Divide the pre-dough into small pieces and add these gradually.
Stir the dough until an even mass is formed and it detaches from the sides of the bowl. Finally, mix in the soaked raisins.
Now place the dough on the work surface and knead by hand for a few minutes, form it into a ball, and leave it to rest.
Meanwhile, beat the sugar, honey, butter, and ground walnuts until creamy. Divide the dough into three parts. Roll out each ball thinly on baking paper dusted with flour. Spread a third of the filling on each part and then roll them up like a roulade.
Make vertical cuts at regular intervals in the rolled dough with a sharp knife. Grease a cake tin with butter and dust with flour.
Carefully plait the rolls and place them in the baking tin. Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for one hour, then brush with egg white and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool and sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.
Recipe from Capsicum Culinary Studio.