A feast of purples and blues and earthy hues

Christmas Feast 2006 Menu


~ French Onion Soup
~ Roast Turkey with Mushroom Stuffing
~ Blue-Rippled Mashed Potatoes
~ Red Cabbage with Prunes and Apple
~ Spicy Pumpkin Pie
~ Cranberry Cooler
~ White Wine (from LY) & Red Wine (Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz vintage 2001)


The soup

This turned out sweet and earthy. Lots of thinly sliced onions sauteed in butter until brown, then brought to a simmer with real beef stock (freaking expensive at RM9.89 for a small carton) and chicken stock. It was buttery and comforting, served with a slice of baguette and topped with cheese.


The bird

The bird had quite an adventure. An overnight defrost. A quick massage with olive oil, lemon juice and butter. Loose stuffing of its nether regions with the used lemons and cut onions. And then 'plop' into the roasting pan for a trip to YL's place.

Little did we know that the bird's surrogate oven was actually a GAS one. And we didn't know what the Gas Marker equivalents were in Celcius. Aiya. We made a guess, popped it into the oven and went out to do some last minute Christmas shopping.

When we got back we found out there had been a black out in the past hour. Uh oh. The cooking time of the bird went all wonky from then on. YL's mom upped the temperature when we were out, but the turkey didn't even break into a sweat. By the end of the stipulated cooking time, it looked a light brown, barely golden. And the pop-up indicator didn't pop to announce the bird's ready.

So I took it home and gave it another blast in the oven, 15 minutes at a time, to a total of 45 minutes. Still no pop. Oh dear. Better a slightly undercooked turkey than a stringy dry one. So I took it out.

The result, it wasn't undercooked at all. In fact, the breast was a tad on the dry side. Drat. And after searching high and low around PJ and Subang for roasted chestnuts, there were none to be found. So I took the mushrooms meant for mushroom bruschetta, and turned it into stuffing instead, with some of the turkey's roasting juices, celery and onions.


Something blue

I bought the loveliest blue potatoes, boiled them with some normal ones, mashed them separately with butter, milk and salt, and swirled them together. Mom thought they looked like mouldy 'tatoes. But I thought they were pretty, in a blueberry in vanilla ripple ice-cream kinda way. They were the waxy type of spuds though, and were hard to mash (hence the lumpiness). My fingers were cramped by the time I was done. I think I'll try it with purple sweet potatoes next time.


Deep purple

This was a first with red cabbage for me. I sliced it thin and it looked so nice on the cutting board. It was almost a shame to cook it into mulch, with sliced green apples, prunes and spices (nutmeg, cinnamon). I had a bottle of red wine open and poured in a slug of that. It had a complex taste - earthy, tangy, sweet, savoury, all at the same time. I liked it, but it was a little strange to my family. Red cabbage was always a salad by-the-way, and never eaten like this. I'd make this again, but in lesser quantities.


Pie, oh, pie!

Oooh, I love pumpkin pie. Maybe because it's not easy to get at the shops and I love all things pumpkin. I followed the instructions to an ordinary pumpkin pie, with shortcrust pastry and a pumpkin custard made from canned pumpkin, eggs, evap milk. After the pie set, I crushed enough ginger nut cookies to pile a layer of spicy crumbs on top!

Didn't get many pictures this time. My camera battery died on me right after I took the red cabbage photos. Haha! The rest were from LY's camera :)

It's been over a week since the dinner. I'm gonna finish off the rest of the wine right after this. Cheers!