Merry Christmas!!! Hope you had an amazing time with tons of happy moments. I had lots of fun with my family. Also I had a couple days off work so I had the time to prepare everything and be calm and joyful during Christmas. We also had time to hit the cinemas with Penelope and with Giannis.
As I already mentioned before, each year I cook our family Christmas meal it is like tradition. Check out our last year’s meal here. It is obvious that in my home it is all about new tastes and recipes. We have certain type of plates (starters, main course, dessert) and then my fantasy goes wild 😛
This year the menu included a chestnut mushroom soup, rice with fruits and nuts served on a pumpkin, asparagus with prosciutto, green salad with cream of balsamic vinegar, strata with bacon, edam and chives, barbecue baby pork ribs. Apologies of the few photographs, I run a small marathon preparing all these plates and everyone was drawling above the dishes so I only took few pics.
Our dessert was Mini Chocolate Pavlovas (for photos and recipe click here).
This year my table setting changed and I bought a new, non-black, tablecloth (this one).
Let’s talk about meal preparation: cooking preparation started at Christmas Eve when I prepared the meringues of my pavlovas, cleaned and empty my pumpkin, prepared the strata and salad and gathered all the ingredients for my recipes.
The next morning, I began with slow cooking the baby pork ribs, finishing off the dessert, letting the strata come to room temperature. Then, I baked the pumpkin while preparing the risotto, cutting the salads to a salad bowl and cooking the soup. I finished by baking the strata and the asparagus while setting me table for my beloved quests. It all sounds a little complicated but is really not, especially if you get a little help from you better half 😉
The strata recipe can be found in Greek here and in English here. My addition was some chives (1tbsp).
Check out below the recipes of our meal:
Yield: 10-12 persons
- 5kg baby pork ribs
- Salt
- 2 bottles of barbecue sauce ( usedthis one)
- We rinse the meat with salt and most of the barbecue sauce using a silicon brush. Keep half bottle of the sauce for the end.
- We place the ribs in our slowcooker with the meaty side facing the inside of the pot. We cook for about 6 hours in low temperature.
- We prepare our oven at 200o Celsius (grill function)
- We place the meat on an oven pan and parchment paper and glaze with the remaining barbecue sauce.
- We bake for approximately 10 minutes to crisp the outside of the ribs
- We keep the sauce from the slow-cooker, strain it and used it as sauce at serving.
Initial recipe can be found here
Yield: 8 pieces
- 8 asparagus
- 100gr prosciutto crudo
- 1tbs extra virgin olive oil (used these lemon flavored)
- Balsamic sauce syrup
- Sea salt
- asparagus
- gr prosciutto crudo
- tbs extra virgin olive oil (used these lemon flavored)
- Balsamic sauce syrup
- Sea salt
- Prepare the oven at 180o Celsius (air turbine function)
- Wash and cut the asparagus keeping the softer part
- Wrap around each asparagus a piece of prosciutto and spread them on an oven pan
- Rinse with salt and the olive oil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Rinse with the balsamic sauce upon serving
Yield: 8 persons
- 500gr plevrotous mushrooms fine chopped
- 400gr boiled and peeled chestnuts
- 1 glass of white wine (non- sweet)
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 200ml buttermilk
- 400ml boiling water
- 200gr cheddar minced
- Σε μία βαθιά κατσαρόλα λιώνουμε το βούτυρο και σωτάρουμε τα μανιτάρια σε δυνατή φωτιά.
- Σβήνουμε με το κρασί και ανακατεύουμε συνεχώς μέχρι να εξατμιστεί.
- In a large pot we melt the butter and cook the mushrooms in high temperature stirring continuously
- Rinse the wine and keep stirring until it evaporates
- Add the boiling water, salt according to our taste, and lower the temperature to medium.
- Add the chestnuts and stir
- Melt in our food processor or with the blender the ingredients
- Lower the temperature to the lowest and add the cheese and buttermilk while stirring.
- Should we need the soup to become more watery add some more boiling water.
Yield: 10 persons
- 1 lettuce
- 1 rosso lollo lettuce
- 1 green lollo lettuce
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1 cup macadamia
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup croutons of our preference
- ½ cup pine nuts
- 100gr pomegranate seeds
- Sea salt
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tbsp aromatic vinegar (used this one)
- Rinse, dry and chop the lettuces in big chunks in a large salad bowl
- Add all remaining ingredients except for the croutons
- Salt, rinse with the olive oil and vinegar and stir well
- Add the croutons and serve