Mummy and Daddy's Christmas Party- Australian style

For all who know, my parents always used to have a Christmas party. In Holland it was winter and we used the snow to cool drinks down outside. Now we have brought it to a new level, we're in Australia, Christmas is in the middle of summer, and I was in charge of the food!
In total I made 8 different dishes; Profiteroles stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts, Profiteroles stuffed with Chicken Liver Pâté, Blinis with Créme Fraîche and Smoked Salmon, Gazpacho Shots, Shrimp with Mary Rose Sauce, Sausages with Mustard, Honey and Sesame Seed Sauce, Mozzarella,Tomato and Basil Bites, and to finish everyone off, Christmas Pudding with Brandy Cream. The brandy cream had too much brandy in it because of a small misunderstanding between my Mother and Father, when both separately added a generous measure for good cheer!
I started preparing the food a week in advance and have been cooking and baking since then. Having made 300 profiteroles (slightly too many!), 100 blinis and a vat of gazpacho, I have learned how to cater large quantities in advance. Oh the joys of frozen shrimp!
The two most popular dishes seemed to be the sausages and the Christmas pudding, both of which were taken in multiples of two's and three's! Although the 'Master-chef cook book' has the recipes for Chicken Liver Pâté and Profiteroles filled with Cream, the inspiration to stuff one with the other, came from the legendary wine tastings by Gerard at Le Bouchon in The Hague. Although my Parents are always supportive and complimentary about my cooking, it gave me huge confidence to receive so much praise from other adults.
It seems that I prefer to cook everything in advance. I enjoy having time before serving so that there isn't a mad panic at the end. That said, it's back to dinners and desserts, this time for 12 people once the English relatives arrive for Christmas.

Ratings:
Taste: Profiteroles stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts 8: Profiteroles stuffed with Chicken Liver Pâté 9: Blinis with Créme Fraîche and Smoked Salmon 10: Gazpacho Shots 9: Shrimp with Mary Rose Sauce 8: Sausages with Mustard, Honey and Sesame Seed Sauce 9: Mozzarella,Tomato and Basil Bites 8: Christmas Pudding with Brandy Cream 9.
Appearance: Profiteroles stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts 7: Profiteroles stuffed with Chicken Liver Pâté 7: Blinis with Créme Fraîche and Smoked Salmon 10: Gazpacho Shots 10: Shrimp with Mary Rose Sauce 7: Sausages with Mustard, Honey and Sesame Seed Sauce 6: Mozzarella,Tomato and Basil Bites 9: Christmas Pudding with Brandy Cream 6.
Difficulty: Profiteroles stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts 7: Profiteroles stuffed with Chicken Liver Pâté 7: Blinis with Créme Fraîche and Smoked Salmon 6: Gazpacho Shots 5: Shrimp with Mary Rose Sauce 3: Sausages with Mustard, Honey and Sesame Seed Sauce 4: Mozzarella,Tomato and Basil Bites 6: Christmas Pudding with Brandy Cream 5.

Chicken, sweetcorn and courgette Pasties

My family and I decided to go to the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) Christmas concert in Langley Park (just outside Daddy's office) along with 20,000 other people.  The recipe in the book was for Chicken and Parsley Pot Pie but Mummy does not like parsley and it would be easier to made small pasties than pies for a picnic.  I made the filling with a white sauce and added chicken, sweetcorn and courgettes from Mummy's garden.  They were a bit crumbly but were filling and welcome on what was a very cold and windy night next to the river.
For similar recipe go to:
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/13218/chicken-and-vegetable-pasties.aspx

Ratings:
Taste: 7
Appearance: 6
Difficulty: 4

Wholemeal Bread

When I made the bread I cheated, instead of spending ages kneading the dough and it all taking a while. I put in all the ingredients into the bread machine and 4:30 hours later… BOOM I have a loaf of bread. It always smells amazing when you make a loaf of bread and it is done. The bread was moist on the inside and the crust was crusty on the outside.
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10121/bread-in-four-easy-steps

Ratings:
Taste: 7
Appearance: 9
Difficulty: 2

Roast Pork Belly with Gratin Dauphinois followed by Orange Sorbet

Cholesterol disaster! Gastronomic delight! The advantage of having parents who can cook well, is that I am learning how to adapt the recipes in the 'MasterChef Cookery course' cook book, to fit in with a busy family weekend. The trick to fabulous crackling, is apparently to score the skin and use plenty of salt on a high temperature. Then lower the temperature right down and cook the pork belly at a low heat for a long time. I used wine instead of water (3 guesses who suggested that?!) If anyone has any suggestions for a different approach to crackling - please comment on this blog - all input welcome! There was a divide in opinions with this meat. My parents and siblings adored it, claiming it was delicious, melt in the mouth, with very crunchy crackling. Personally, it wasn't my favourite because it was just too fatty for my palette.

For similar recipe go to:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/pork-belly-roast/

Ratings:
Taste: 10
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 7
Just to add insult to injury, I decided to completely clog up everyone's arteries by baking sliced potatoes in milk, then in cream, which keeps them sweet and tender. I can now add 'mastering a mandolin' to my list of achievements! The fact that our mandolin requires a major in physics and mechanical engineering to assemble, again required tuition from my father, who loves all culinary gadgets! The end product was perfectly al-denté (with a little crunch) and creamy with melted gruyère on the top. To balance out this health disaster, I steamed some broccoli to serve with the meal!

For similar recipe go to:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3253/ultimate-gratin-dauphinois

Ratings:
Taste: 9
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 6

Although we have an ice cream machine, it wasn't cold enough to use, so I adopted the traditional method of stirring the sorbet by hand! Each individual instruction taught me something new; how to make syrup, how to whisk egg whites into soft peaks and finally how to make a sorbet. The recipe suggests adding Campari for a grown up sorbet, obviously I didn't comply! I love citrus flavours, what is your favourite sorbet flavour? Please comment.
This was very simple to make and a wonderfully refreshing end to an indulgent meal.

For similar recipe go to:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8760/orange-sorbet

Ratings:
Taste: 8
Appearance: 9
Difficulty: 5

Stuffed Chicken breasts with mushrooms & thyme. Followed by baked vanilla cheesecake with a summer fruit coulis

Had a tennis match first thing this morning, followed by a picnic and kayak trip on the Swan River with friends.  This only left me 2 hours in which to finish these recipes. The chicken was relatively easy to make, but instead of pan frying the breasts, I baked them in the oven for a healthier and less time consuming option. The chicken breasts were large, so I cooked 3 between the 5 of us and served them in slices. To give a bit of "va va voom" to the sauce, my father advised that I add some cream to the mushrooms - yum! I served the chicken with kale and new potatoes.
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10031/mushroomstuffed-chicken-with-lemon-thyme-risotto

Ratings:
Taste: 6
Appearance: 6 
Difficulty: 5

This was a classic American style cheesecake. Very easy to make, but difficult to find genuine digestive biscuits in Australia. So I had to settle for Granita biscuits (a harder, dryer substitute). The fruit topping was delicious and cut through the sweetness of the cheesecake. Trying to photograph the final plate was a challenge, I had to try hard to stop it looking like road-kill!!
For similar recipe go to:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2869/new-york-cheesecake

Ratings:
Taste: 10
Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 5

Seared Tuna in a sesame seed crust with Tabbouleh followed by Peach Tarte Tatin

I got back from hiking on the Bibbulmun track after 5 days and 51 kilometers through the bush. Very  dirty, very stiff calves and an absolute hatred of flies! I had more free time on Saturday to cook (with the exception of a decent lie-in!) so cooked for my Parents & Grandparents - we children had homemade pizzas (made by my mother.) Bought the sashimi grade tuna from the Boat Shed, for those who don't know, this is Harrods food hall in Perth with equivalent prices! And dangerously, just a short walk from our house. The tuna was very easy to cook, once it was marinaded it took approx. 30 seconds on each side to cook, which left it very pink in the middle. Apparently, as lovely sat he tuna was, it needed a bit more 'bite', so my parents added some soy sauce. I made the tabbouleh in advance and served it at room temperature. Sadly at short notice I couldn't find bulgur wheat, so instead I used cous cous, which was equally nice and went well with the tuna.

For similar recipe go to: Tabbouleh
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/25915/super+easy+tabbouleh
For similar recipe go to: Tuna
http://www.food.com/recipe/seared-sesame-crusted-tuna-89826

Ratings: Tabbouleh                                                              Ratings: Tuna
Taste: 9                                                                                  Taste: 8
Appearance: 10                                                                    Appearance: 8
Difficulty: 2                                                                           Difficulty: 3


Peach Tarte Tatin
I cooked this dish in a special copper tart tat in dish from Normandy. This is a summery variation of a French classic, apparently mango slices would also work well. The recipe states that this should serve 6 people, but with my Grandfather at the table, it only served 4 1/2 (the 1/2 was me!) Trying to get the skin off the peach and the flesh off the stone was awkward. I also learnt, just in time, to flip the dish away from me to get the dessert out of the pan! Served a la mode!

For similar recipe go to:
http://recipes.coles.com.au/recipes/2545/upside-down-peach-tart/

Ratings:
Taste: 10
Appearance:
Out of the oven 8
Cut up 5
Difficulty: 4

Lamb and Apricot Tagine and Mixed Berry Fool

Tomorrow I am going on school camp, hiking on the Bibbulmun track in Southern WA. We need some healthy energetic food for the long and arduous trek. We have to be at school at 6:30am so my friend Hayley is staying the night. She is celiac, so this is a perfect recipe for her because there is no gluten. The lamb is accompanied by couscous and broccoli.
We have a beautiful Le Crueset red tagine, sadly it is not big enough to cater for 8 of us (my Grandparents are still here!). I am therefore using the old faithful copper casserole dish, which is large enough to feed a rugby team! The lamb tagine tasted to me, like a cross between a curry and a sunday roast, but with lovely spices. It was definitely more stew than tagine and would benefit from the apricots being cut into smaller pieces. It was a 'nice' dinner, but not my favourite!

For similar recipe go to:
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/19945/lamb+and+apricot+tagine

Ratings:
Taste: 8
Appearance: 6
Difficulty: 4

With this all this is happening I decided to make something nice and easy for dessert. I adapted the strawberry fool recipe from the Masterchef Cook Book and made it healthy, by swapping double cream with yoghurt. I used mixed summer fruit and topped the dish off with mulberries from the back garden. Top Tucker!

For similar recipe go to:
http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/cook/recipe/mixed-berry-fool-20130725-2qllx.html

Ratings:
Taste: 9
Appearance: 9
Difficulty: 1