Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We have had some lovely food over the festive period. We started on Christmas Eve with Whole Roasted Carp with Capers. I made potatoes boulangere to go with it. The texture of the fish was far too soft for me though, I much prefer a meatier fish, but it was good to try it.



Opening the presents on Christmas Day was accompanied by lovely canapes made by my sister. We had vol au vents filled with olives and spicy peppers,

salmon and creme fraiche blinis and basil pesto and cheddar palmiers. They were delicious.

For our main course on Christmas Day we had Venision Wellington, Red Cabbage, Spaghetti Squash, Mash Potatoes, Roast Potatoes and Mangetout with Gravy.

Then for pudding my sister made Chocolate Truffle Cake from Nigel Slater's Real Fast Puddings. It was gorgeous but very rich so we only needed a small slice. We had some more for pudding on Boxing Day with raspberries and cream and the tartness of the raspberries cut nicely through the rich chocolate.

Christmas Canapes

As my Mother usually does the main cooking for Christmas, this year I decided to make Canapes for both Christmas Day, and today when we had relatives for lunch. They were used as a starter so that she didn't have to cook an extra course. The Canapes were inspired by the drinks party I went to a couple of weeks ago where they had fantastic Canapes. I chose quite simple recipes, and there were only six of us on Christmas Day and eight today, so it was a good number to practice on. I made some Hummus and some Muhummara, as made by Were rabbit, do check out her blog as the bento's are beautiful, for earlier in the day but these were eaten before I had a chance to take a photograph. For a first attempt these Canapes were a success.

I made Lemon Chilli Prawn Sticks and Lemon Marinated Tortelloni with Olives.



To go with these there were Mini Jacket Potatoes with Garlic and Herb Cream Cheese (from Delia Online), and Cumin scented Kofte with Minted Yoghurt Dip, from Canapes by Eric Treuille and Victoria Blashford-Snell.



Cumin Scented Kofte with Minted Yoghurt Dip (from Canapes by Eric Treuille and Victoria Blashford-Snell)
(Makes 20)

350g lean minced lamb
1 medium onion, chopped or grated
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Dip
175ml Greek yoghurt
15g mint, finely chopped
15g parsley, finely chopped
juice of half a lemon
salt, cayenne pepper

Place lamb, onion, garlic, cumin, ground coriander, lemon, fresh coriander, salt, and cayenne pepper in a food processor and whizz until combined and slightly pasty.

Divide into 20 equal sized pieces, with wet hands roll into balls, cover and refrigerate for 30 mins
For the dip, combine yoghurt, mint, parsley and lemon. Add salt and cayenne pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate for 30mins so that the flavours combine.

Grill the Kofte for roughly 5 mins on each side until browned, serve hot or cold with the dip.

Today's canapes were Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche Blinis, more of the Minted Yoghurt Dip, Avocado Lime Cream Dip, Herbed Pitta Crisps, Hummus and Prosciutto wrapped Asparagus. The avocado dip was delicious, I put in about a quarter of the amount of chilli, as we are not a big chilli family, and it had a delicious hint of heat at the end that was just right.