Great Recipes For Hosting This Christmas

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A Christmas lunch with all the trimmings can be a daunting prospect for many home cooks, sending them into panic mode leading up closer to the 25th December lunch for their family. The idea of working over a baking oven might be less than appealing for many, as Australia starts heat up during Summer sun and your thoughts of visiting a pool while refresher. Take the stress out of Christmas Day and opt to make fresher, healthier and simpler affairs. However you choose to celebrate, the most important aspect is spending time with family, loved ones and friends.

Here’s a few ideas on how to have a great Christmas Lunch.

 

ENTREE

 

  • Selection of Seafood
  • Vietnamese Summer Rolls
  • Selection of BBQ skewers

 

 

MAIN

 

  • Cold Turkey Salad
  • Thai Beef Salad
  • Glazed Ham and Asian Apple Salad
  • Japanese Cold Soba Noodle 

 

 

DESSERT

  • Mango and Sticky Rice
  • Palova, Cream, Berries and Kiwi
  • Summer Fruit With Coconut 
Great Recipes For Hosting This Christmas

Selection of Seafood

New to cooking seafood? Start here to find advice on choosing fish at the grocery store, as well as tips on how to simply prepare and store seafood at home.

It might be easier to start with a baby step of getting the freshest possible seafood for your lunch by ordering them as earlier as you can. I would recommend to have 200g of fresh meat per person. This means you will need 500g if you buy them with shells. 

Get a mixture of prawns, crabs, lobsters, clams and fish. Soak them well to get rid of the sands. Make a large pot of water with lemon grass, kafir leaf, ginger and salt and slowly poach one at the time. Go for the prawn and lobster first then clams and mussels. Make sure you get a ice bucket with water so you can drop the food in there to make sure they stop cooking so your seafood would be juicy.

Place all the ingredients nicely on a big platter. You can divide them in small plasters if your guests are not coming at the same time to get the food safe in the heat. When you serve your seafood make sure you get some ice and something green plus some lemon wedges for garnish. Might be nice to get some mints for garnish as well. 

Other things you could do well in the seafood plasters are some nice sausages to boil with them or great with some fresh corns. 

Boiled Seafood For Xmas Lunch

 

Vietnamese Summer Rolls

We love our Vietnamese summer rolls and it might be nice for the guests to roll them too. Get some boiled pork belly and slice them thin. You only need few slices and few cooked prawn per person. And each person you would need to have 1/2 cups of herbs and vegetables such as mints, coriander, Vietnamese mint, Thai basil, sliced iceberg and julienne carrots, and perhaps some boiled rice noodles. Lastly get a package or two of rice papers - make sure each guest get 2-3 rolls. You also get a large plaster or plate with water to dip the rice paper in.

How to serve it? I would organise all the vegetable and herbs neatly on a plaster and show your guests how to put together a rice paper rolls first. You can use cold or warm water to soften the rice paper. Each of the roll require about 2 finger volume worth of vegetable, herb and meats. Lay the wet rice paper and place the mixture in the middle. Make sure you have heaps of space around the mix. Fold away from you then both sides in then roll them into a log.

Christmas rice paper rolls

Selection of BBQ skewers

Summer BBQ would great without some skewers as it would make eating for fun. You don't need to do so much except buy chunky chicken, beef and or lamb meats with couple of toasted Japanese Yakitori  and Kewpie mayor for Christmas lunch. Pop them on the BBQ during the lunch and get people to turn them for you. You can do the meats couple of days ahead marinating with oil, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and a bit of chopped chilli.Upon finishing the grill, dizzle some of the sauce and add some sesame seed. This would taste and look beautiful.

 

Cold Turkey Salad

I would think you can give turkey a Thai taste with this delicious turkey and vermicelli salad, fresh herbs and lime juice. A great recipe for turkey in the heat! 

 

Thai Beef Salad

I’m probably completely crazy, but I think that Thai beef salads are the best in the Christmas Lunch. For a Thai Beef salad, you really only need around 80-120g of good quality steak. I would cut them into 2-3 fingers and marinade with soy, ginger, garlic and leave in the fridge for couple of hours. Heat up a pan with some oil, fry them 1 minutes each side. Make sure they are medium rare. The dressing for this salad, I just use chopped chilli, garlic, coriander both stem and leaves with equal amount of canola oil, sugar, fish sauce and lime juice. For the vegetable, I would use celery, some cabbage, carrot, cherry tomato, red onions and cucumber, mint and coriander leaves for garnish.

 

Glazed Ham and Asian Apple Salad

A little planning and imagination can go a long way for your favourite leg of ham. I just got equal or 1/2 cup each hoisin, plum, soy, rice wine plus few garlic, ginger and Chinese five spices plus table of brown sugar to make the sauce. Make sure you mix well.

You can roast your ham as usual then use a pastry brush to brush the sauce on the ham to finish it off. Cool then slice. This might take couple of hours in the oven depending on how large your ham leg would be. If you know the weather getting hot, just cook them the day before.

I would just dice apples, celery and mint then mix them up with lemon juice and kewpie mayo. If you don't have kewpie mayo you can just use normal one you have.

 

Japanese Cold Soba Noodle 

Cold soba is a popular Japanese summer salad. The cold noodles are traditionally served in a bamboo basket. Chopsticks are used to pick up a small amount of the noodles which are then dipped into the sauce, mixed with some wasabi and ginger. 

 

Mango and Sticky Rice

This classic, much-loved Thai dessert is prepared at home and in restaurants in Thailand and overseas. If mangoes aren't in season, try using sliced sugar bananas instead. Sticky rice is readily available from Asian grocers as is also known as glutinous rice. 

 

Palova, Cream, summer Berries and Kiwi

Crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside, light as a feather, and laden with colourful fruit… this is the ultimate pavlova recipe and a summer staple in Australia. The Pavlova an iconic and sometimes controversially so classic Australian dessert. New Zealand may claim to be the original inventor of the Pavlova too. Either way you will have a winner dessert.

 

Summer Fruit With Coconut 

Simple yet tasty. This no-cook dessert is served straight from the freezer, for a true taste of summer indulgence.

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