The book club Christmas drinks is today and I only got around last night to trying out the duffles. Fort the test I bought ingredients rather than got to too much hassle only for it not to work. Not being able to buy a pudding I used a moist Jamaican Christmas cake, reformed into balls. Ambrosia Devon custard injected into the middle and then rolled in icing sugar.
The main problem I found were that the cake was a little dry and did not hold its shape well. Plum pudding, as it is much stickier may have been better. Also, I found that small balls did not hold custard very well. The needle I was using for filling wasn’t ideal, but it was more a problem of size. Larger ball could hold a decent amount of custard, but the balance is still not quite right as there is a exponentially more cake. They looked too big too.
Anyway, have to put this down as a current failure, though will be working on them at a future stage. In the meantime, I have a pressing issue with what to serve tomorrow night. I have a little pastry left over from the beef wellington I cooked on Saturday, so it will probably just be mince pies. These will still be well received as they are not at all common in Jamaica. A little bit boring though. You will have noticed that the Wellington recipe is included in a later blog entry about the dinner party. I’m playing fast and loose with time lines but it is my weblog.
With all the effort saved by simply knocking out a few mince pies, I have decided to do a bit of a savoury dish to do; Mini ham dinners. These consist of a roast potato slice topped with a good dollop of bread sauce with a hunk of roast ham and garnished with a teaspoon of a Christmas chutney.
As it is intended to be finger food, the potato slices should be only less than 1cm thick and about 3 or 4 cm in diameter. These can be made in advance, but it is better to do prepare these to be ready just before assembling so that they retain the crispiness and fluffiness of being straight out of the oven. Par boil the roast potato slices, and roast in a baking tray for 15 minutes each side. I use a mixture of half olive oil, have canola oil for roasting, and a generous sprinkling of Maldon sea salt. Pat dry with kitchen towels to remove the extraneous oil before assembly. Asbestos finger come in handy for this.
For the bread sauce, you will want it thicker than would normally be served for a turkey dinner. Making it the night before will get a good aromatic flavor and the sauce will naturally thicken. My bread sauce recipe is very straightforward. Peel and half an onion. Stud a hand full of cloves in this and add to a sauce pan of about 250ml of double cream and 250 ml of milk. Add a few bay leaves and 3 or 4 whole pimento corns. Bring to the boil and remove from the heat. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes. Crumb 8 to 10 slices of slightly stale while bread in a food processor or blender (I remove the crusts to keep a whiter sauce). Remove the onion, bay and pimento from the infused cream and begin to stir in breadcrumbs until a smooth slightly thick sauce is achieved. The consistency is a matter of choice. I like it to coat the back of a spoon and not much more. Add a stick of butter in chunks with will melt in the residual heat in the sauce. If making the night before, store in the fridge with 2 of the bay leaves, 2 of the pimento corns, and the outside layer of one of the onions with a few of the cloves removed all submerged.
For expediency the ham I used for the party was simply 2 chubs of pre-cooked ham. I brought these to the boil in cold water and then poured the water off, to remove some of the saltiness. I did this is in a large le Creuset pot, which means I don’t have to worry about roasting pans and tin foil, though if I was doing a large leg of ham this would not be possible. There was no rind on the chubs, nor much fat to form the sticky glaze, so the “roasting” was more like steaming. To the le Creuset add a generous glass of pale cream sherry or two, and a number of bay leaves, few pimento corns and stick the hams with a few cloves. Cover with the lid and bake in the oven on a high temperature for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, ensure there is enough liquid remaining at the bottom of the pot, and pour 2 or 3 table spoons of honey over each ham. Don’t be afraid to add another splash of sherry. Put back in the oven and after a further 15 minutes. Remove the lid, add a further table spoon or two of honey to each ham and return to the oven for a final 5 minutes.
If you are doing the ham the night before, it should be sliced down in to hearty chunks and stored in the fridge in Tupperware. Deglaze the pan with water to form a liquid to add to the Tupperware to ensure the ham remains moist. Before assembly, this can be microwaved in the sauce to heat thoroughly without drying.
Top with a chrismas chutney, either a store bought, or home made. In this case because of the aromatics of the overnight infused breadsauce and ham, I have decided against a chutney wih more of the same, and gone for a simple sweet and tangy tomato chutney. Waitrose tomato chutney is a good store bought example.
The main problem I found were that the cake was a little dry and did not hold its shape well. Plum pudding, as it is much stickier may have been better. Also, I found that small balls did not hold custard very well. The needle I was using for filling wasn’t ideal, but it was more a problem of size. Larger ball could hold a decent amount of custard, but the balance is still not quite right as there is a exponentially more cake. They looked too big too.
Anyway, have to put this down as a current failure, though will be working on them at a future stage. In the meantime, I have a pressing issue with what to serve tomorrow night. I have a little pastry left over from the beef wellington I cooked on Saturday, so it will probably just be mince pies. These will still be well received as they are not at all common in Jamaica. A little bit boring though. You will have noticed that the Wellington recipe is included in a later blog entry about the dinner party. I’m playing fast and loose with time lines but it is my weblog.
With all the effort saved by simply knocking out a few mince pies, I have decided to do a bit of a savoury dish to do; Mini ham dinners. These consist of a roast potato slice topped with a good dollop of bread sauce with a hunk of roast ham and garnished with a teaspoon of a Christmas chutney.
As it is intended to be finger food, the potato slices should be only less than 1cm thick and about 3 or 4 cm in diameter. These can be made in advance, but it is better to do prepare these to be ready just before assembling so that they retain the crispiness and fluffiness of being straight out of the oven. Par boil the roast potato slices, and roast in a baking tray for 15 minutes each side. I use a mixture of half olive oil, have canola oil for roasting, and a generous sprinkling of Maldon sea salt. Pat dry with kitchen towels to remove the extraneous oil before assembly. Asbestos finger come in handy for this.
For the bread sauce, you will want it thicker than would normally be served for a turkey dinner. Making it the night before will get a good aromatic flavor and the sauce will naturally thicken. My bread sauce recipe is very straightforward. Peel and half an onion. Stud a hand full of cloves in this and add to a sauce pan of about 250ml of double cream and 250 ml of milk. Add a few bay leaves and 3 or 4 whole pimento corns. Bring to the boil and remove from the heat. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes. Crumb 8 to 10 slices of slightly stale while bread in a food processor or blender (I remove the crusts to keep a whiter sauce). Remove the onion, bay and pimento from the infused cream and begin to stir in breadcrumbs until a smooth slightly thick sauce is achieved. The consistency is a matter of choice. I like it to coat the back of a spoon and not much more. Add a stick of butter in chunks with will melt in the residual heat in the sauce. If making the night before, store in the fridge with 2 of the bay leaves, 2 of the pimento corns, and the outside layer of one of the onions with a few of the cloves removed all submerged.
For expediency the ham I used for the party was simply 2 chubs of pre-cooked ham. I brought these to the boil in cold water and then poured the water off, to remove some of the saltiness. I did this is in a large le Creuset pot, which means I don’t have to worry about roasting pans and tin foil, though if I was doing a large leg of ham this would not be possible. There was no rind on the chubs, nor much fat to form the sticky glaze, so the “roasting” was more like steaming. To the le Creuset add a generous glass of pale cream sherry or two, and a number of bay leaves, few pimento corns and stick the hams with a few cloves. Cover with the lid and bake in the oven on a high temperature for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, ensure there is enough liquid remaining at the bottom of the pot, and pour 2 or 3 table spoons of honey over each ham. Don’t be afraid to add another splash of sherry. Put back in the oven and after a further 15 minutes. Remove the lid, add a further table spoon or two of honey to each ham and return to the oven for a final 5 minutes.
If you are doing the ham the night before, it should be sliced down in to hearty chunks and stored in the fridge in Tupperware. Deglaze the pan with water to form a liquid to add to the Tupperware to ensure the ham remains moist. Before assembly, this can be microwaved in the sauce to heat thoroughly without drying.
Top with a chrismas chutney, either a store bought, or home made. In this case because of the aromatics of the overnight infused breadsauce and ham, I have decided against a chutney wih more of the same, and gone for a simple sweet and tangy tomato chutney. Waitrose tomato chutney is a good store bought example.
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