Christmas 2010 Dinner

Merry Christmas all! (There's 12 days, remember? :p) I've been meaning to write this earlier but unfortunately I fall sick, had meetings in between and some errands to run. I'm now back in Kuching for a short break!



I just did a full medical check up yesterday in Prince Court Medical Centre and boy was it weird to have my breast touched by a woman! Lol. I think I'll stick to men. Thankyouverymuch. Eh wait, I'm not supposed to know if it's not weird when touched by a man. Heh. *cough* :p



Back to the Christmas dinner! It was more like a supper for us. Hah! We were stuck in the jam and when we reached home, it was already 8.30 p.m. By the time we're done with the cooking, it was already 10 p.m! The food pictures didn't turn out so great cause I wasn't using my own camera and really, by then I was too hungry to even bother what setting the camera were at.



Despite our hungriness, we did prepare a plethora of food to feast on! First was the finger Vienna sausages which I pan fry them with butter and chilli flakes. The sausages were from Farm's Best, a local brand and it's quite cheap! Half the size of a normal sausage and make a great finger food.



Then we also had garlic bread. We didn't have an oven so we have to make to do with the frying pan! Well, there's a funny story behind the garlic bread. We were choosing the bread for about 15 minutes in the bakery before I decided that dinner rolls would do. When we came home, we realized it wasn't dinner rolls that we were getting, it was red bean bun! FOL! So we had to use bread instead. It was hilarious though. Lol



My favourite dish of the night was actually the stir fry Portabellos. I fry it with home made garlic butter and some parsley. That's all! But the mushrooms were really fresh so it tasted great despite the simplicity of the dish.



The main dish for the night was Lamb in Brown Sauce. We managed to get some nicely thick cut lambs and it was really delicious, tender and uhhh so good. I shouldn't be waxing lyrical about all the dishes since it was all home cooked but really, can't help it for the lamb. :P



As if all the meals weren't fattening enough, we also made potato salad. It's the easiest salad to do but also possibly the most fattening salad. And like they say, fat food are happy food :D



Like every other cholesterol and fat laden meals we have, we just have to have a plate of greens to make us feel better. hehe. That night, we prepared a simple Romano salad and added some smoked black pepper salmon. We also had butter broccoli actually but the picture is too blurry to salivate you. hehe.



For drinks, we made mojitos! There was a debate of whether the leaves we were using was the right one. We bought spearmint but apparently it was suppose to be peppermint. The spearmint leaves were rather mild but we didn't have any choice as a lot of places were out of these herbs. Everyone's making mojitos at home on Christmas eve! :p

The night ended with tequila shots, and tequila shots and more tequila shots! I got really tipsy - nay, more like quite drunk but I was happy! It was a bad idea though cause the next day I ended up nursing a terrible hangover.



I did however recalled myself saying 'I love you' three times before passing out. Even though it was said with me under the influence of alcohol, but I really meant it. :)



Hope you all had a great Christmas dinner like I did. And can you believe 2010 is coming to an end? This year totally flew man. Ahh.

How to prepare Christmas Turkey with Stuffing

If you've read my blog long enough, you would know that I am one who is not fascinated by any festivals. The only one that I get really thrilled is the jolly Christmas! Partly because it comes with really awesome food and it's also the only time I get to eat to eat turkey. It's not that its of much difference compared to chicken but I love the preparation!



Last year was actually the first time I had a hands-on experience on preparing the turkey. My parents were away for holiday and they gave me the responsibility to prepare the Christmas dinner. :P

The turkey price ranges from RM 95 - RM 150 depending on size and has to be defrosted thoroughly before marinating it. The turkey is marinated overnight with minced/blended garlic, black pepper, worcestershire sauce, rosemary, thyme, salt and MSG. Marinating it overnight will also ensure the meat to be tender and moist.



For the stuffing, finely diced onions, fennel, button mushrooms and sausages. Try not to used the local frozen sausages as they tend to be quite soft. I used Vienna sausages where you can get it at Cold Storage for roughly RM 27 - a pack of five.



The diced potatoes and carrots are to be pre-boiled to cook. Let it cook for about 75% only though. You don't want them to be slimy and soft once the turkey is cooked.



Then you also have the streaky bacon. It's pre sauteed so that the caramelized fats of the bacon would add flavors to the stuffing.



Mixed all the above ingredients together with italian herbs, black pepper, salt and MSG.



Before you start cutting the vegetables and what not, remember to soak the bread in the milk first. White bread soak faster but I used wholemeal loaf so it take a while to fully soak. This is added to the stuffing so that the stuffing would be slightly creamy (not the liquid kind of creamy but you get the idea right?) and at the same time won't be all lose and scattered.



Once the bread is soaked thoroughly, mixed it with the other stuffing ingredients. It should look like this before being stuffed into the turkey.



There's actually no "engineering" to stuffing the turkey. Just stuff it till it's full, then stitch it. Remember not to cut away the skin at the upper breast - if you do, then you have nothing to cover your stuffing. I'm sure surgeons or doctors are good at this. Lol.



Rub butter on the turkey skin and arrange rolled streaky bacon the side. Bacon are like magic in cooking. They always add flavors to any cooking especially the fat streaky ones! hehe.



Roasting the turkey takes a long time so if you have guests coming, you should at least have five hours grace. The turkey should also be put on room temperature at least an hour before roasting.



To avoid it from being too dry - as it will be roasted for a couple of hours, glaze the turkey skin with butter and the oil that ooze out from the turkey itself every fifteen minutes or so.



Once the temperature thermometer is all popped up, your turkey is done! Serve it with sides of your choice. :D



If you're not too tired after all the turkey roasting, you can also prepare espagnole sauce to go with the turkey. It's very easy!

Melt about five tablespoon of butter (They say Christmas is when you put on weight :P) with about three tablespoon of flour.



Then add the turkey goodness - stock from the roasting! :P



Stir in a very low heat cause you don't want it to curdle, and you're done!



Serve the espagnole sauce with the roasted turkey. Bon Apetit!



This is actually a post I had been wanting to write for a year. I didn't wanna blog right after I prepare it cause I didn't see the relevance of writing about how to prepare turkey after Christmas. A year has passed and now Christmas is just less than a week away from today, so I hope this post comes in handy.

Feliz Navidad everyone! ;D