Delightful & Delicious Festive Recipes
21 Dec 2020
Dive into recommended recipes below from our previous Active Retirees publications!
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Frances’s Marmalade Recipe.
Recipe by the late wife of Probian Trevor Cross, Wantirna Heights Probus Club.
Ingredients
Seville Oranges or Kumquats.
White Sugar. (Brown Sugar will work but it will make the Marmalade slightly darker).
White Wine. (Cask Fruity White Wine works well).
Note: 5 Seville Oranges requires approx. 2 litres of White Wine and 2kgs of Sugar.
Method
Oranges. Cut off the peel and segment the fruit.
Take the peel and remove as much of the pith as possible. Just leaving the shell of the skin. Cut the skin into strips. The size of the strips depends how chunky you like your marmalade to be.
Trim the thin edge of the segment away, which will expose any pips. Remove the pips from the segments and put into a separate cup of water or wine.
Remove any pith left on the segments. Cut off and discard any tough segment skin. Cut remaining segment in half.
Place all the skin shell pieces and fruit segments into a bowl.
Kumquats. Cut the Kumquats in half or quarters dependant on their size. (Do not try to peel).
Remove the pips and put them in a separate cup of water.
Place the fruit into a bowl.
Recipe Instructions
- Put the fruit into a large bowl with an equal quantity of White Wine by volume and place in the fridge to soak for 24 hours.
- Take the cup of pips and put them into the fridge as well. Next day take the pips out and put them into a muslin bag and put it into the fruit and wine liquid. Also pour the water that the pips have been soaking in, into the liquid.
- After 24 hours boil down the fruit, wine, and muslin bag of pips to half its quantity, remove the bag of pips and discard. When the liquid is cool, put it back in the fridge for another 24 hours.
- Make sure you have sufficient glass jams available to bottle the marmalade and that they are sterilised (wash well and put them into a 150 degree oven for at least one hour). Note. The jars must be hot when they are filled, otherwise they can crack when the hot liquid is poured into them.
- Take the pulp liquid and put it into a large saucepan with equal quantity of sugar, by volume. Boil liquid and keep testing it until setting point is reached. 105 degrees C. (A saucer in the deep freeze of the fridge works well). Turn off the heat and leave for a few minutes before bottling. Fill jars to just below the top. Place a small piece of greaseproof paper on top of the jar and seal lid tightly. Allow to cool, wipe down jars, to remove any spillage, label with date and store.
- Marmalade will keep for some time, unless it gets all eaten!!
Pavlova
Ingredients
4 large eggwhites
220g superfine(caster) sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch (cornflour)
1 teaspoon white vinegar
Whipped cream, to serve
Seasonal fruit, to serve
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Line a heavy baking tray with baking paper.
2. Using electric beaters, beat the eggwhites on medium speed until soft peaks form, adding a pinch of salt. Begin adding sugar, a spoonful at a time, then increase the speed to high and continue beating until the mixture is thick and glossy.
3. Sift over the cornstarch and add the vinegar. Fold into the eggwhites using a spatula and very gentle strokes. Pile the mixture onto the prepared baking tray and put in the preheated oven.
4. Immediately turn the heat down to 130°C and bake for one hour. Turn oven off and leave meringue to cool overnight.
5. Before serving, top with whipped cream, passionfruit, berries, kiwi or other seasonal fruits of your choice.
Recipe extracted from Bake Your Cake and Eat it Too. Published by New Holland Publishers, available from all good bookstores or at newhollandpublishers.com
Barbecued Jerk Chicken
Ingredients
Serves 8
2kg free-range chicken pieces (drumsticks, thighs on the bone, with skin on)
1½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Jerk marinade
1½ tbsp whole allspice
1½ tbsp black peppercorns
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp picked thyme leaves
6 spring onions, chopped (use the white part and most of the green)
3 small fresh red chillies or Scotch bonnet chillies (extra hot chillies for
the serious chilli lover), finely chopped
1½ tbsp dark brown sugar
3 tsp fine salt
¼ cup (60 ml) dark soy sauce
Juice of 2 limes
1½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Method
1. For the marinade, wrap the allspice and peppercorns in a dry tea towel and pound with a heavy rolling pin to crush them. Tip into a blender and add the cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme, spring onion, chilli, sugar, salt, soy sauce, lime juice and olive oil. Blend to form a coarse paste.
2. Scrape the marinade into a large glass bowl, add the chicken and, wearing disposable kitchen gloves, massage the marinade into the meat, making sure you also rub it underneath the skin. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least six hours, or overnight. (I slip the marinated chicken pieces into a large oven bag and fold it closed, so that the aromas do not transfer to other things in the refrigerator.)
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Select a baking dish large enough to hold the chicken pieces in a single layer and add the olive oil.
4. Tip the chicken into the oiled baking dish, reserving any marinade still in the oven bag or bowl to brush on the chicken later. Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer easily penetrates the thickest part of one of the thigh pieces. It can be prepared to this stage one hour before barbecuing. Keep in a cool place, covered tightly. If longer, then refrigerate, allowing extra time on the barbecue for the pieces to become really hot in the centre.
5. Just before serving, heat a barbecue to high heat, brush the chicken with any leftover marinade, then sear, turning for 15 minutes, until slightly charred and crisp on all sides and thoroughly hot right to the centre of each piece and the marinade is heated through. Serve at once.
Broccoli and Pomegrante Salad
Ingredients
1 head broccoli, broken into small florets and sliced in half
3-4 cups baby spinach or small lettuce leaves, broken into bite-sized pieces
2 cups fresh sprouts – sunflower or radish if you want a slight ‘warm bite’
½ red onion, peeled and finely sliced
1 large pomegranate, peeled, seeded (retain half the seeds to sprinkle over the salad just before serving)
2-3 small spring onions (shallots, scallions), finely sliced
Method
1. Lightly steam the broccoli over boiling water for a few minutes until the florets turn bright green. Remove from the heat and spread on a plate to cool.
2. In a bowl, combine the spinach leaves, onions, sprouts and pomegranate, and toss well. Add the cooled broccoli and toss through the other ingredients. Sprinkle the pomegranate seeds and spring onions over the top of the salad, and serve with dressing of your choice.
Recipe extracted from Della McCabe, published in Feed Your Brain Cookbook.
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