The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982)(about) |
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Saturday 21 December 1940
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CHRISTMAS DINNER
Here it is-a traditional
. For those who like to celebrate Christmas Day with a hot dinner-poultry, puddings, and all the other items and trimmings-our cookery expert has arranged a special menu together with recipes for preparing the complete Yuletide meal.
By MARY FORBES
Cookery Expert to The Australian
Women's Weekly.
rC-7
#HE Christmas dinner menu given below
/ includes everything from "soup to
nuts," and recipes for all the main dishes are given.
If you follow instructions carefully you should have no difficulty in preparing the meal, which is elaborate enough to excite both family and guests.
Recipe for a Christmas pudding is not included, as recipes for various puddings were given on this cookery page in a recent issue. However, it is suggested as a change that small individual pud- dings might be served.
HOT CHRISTMAS DINNER MENU
Hors-d'oeuvres and Cocktails and Spiced Fruit Cup
Asparagus Cream Soup
Roast Fowl Imperial
Plum Pudding with Hard Sauce and Clear Brandy Sauce
Charlotte Russe Ice Cream Meringue Basket
Salted Almonds Fruits and Nuts Coffee
SOME of the
dishes in the ' menu .' ' for a hot Christmas dinner given on this page.
SPICED FRUIT CUP
Two cups orange juice, 1 teaspoon grated orange rind, Î cup lemon juice, 5 teaspoon grated lemon rind. 1 cup pineapple juice, 2 cups water, 6 whole cloves, '? teaspoon nutmeg, I teaspoon cinnamon, Í cup sugar, 1 tablespoon honey, 2 large bottles ginger ale.
Combine orange juice and rind, lemon juice and rind, pineapple juice, spices, sugar and honey. Warm the 2 cups of water and pour over juices and spices. Cover and allow to stand in a warm place for 2 hours. Strain through muslin, over cracked ice. Add iced ginger ale and serve at once.
ASPARAGUS CREAM SOUP
One small tin of asparagus, li pints chicken stock, 3 pieces of celery, 1 small onion, 1 white turnip, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 dessertspoon butter, 1 gill cream, salt and
cayenne.
Cut tips off asparagus and put aside for garnishing. Cut stalks into inch lengths, cut up vegetables roughly and put in an enamel saucepan with stock and boil to- gether slowly for one hour. Rub through a sieve. Melt butter in the saucepan, add flour, salt and cayenne, stir till smooth. Pour in the soup gradually, and stir till it boils and thickens. Add cream off the stove and do not allow soup to boil again or it will curdle. Put 3 or 4 asparagus tips into each soup coupe and pour the soup over
them.
ROAST FOWL IMPERIAL
One fowl, prune and bacon sea- soning, 12 saute potatoes, 3 large tomatoes, sherry gravy, bread sauce, prune and bacon rolls.
Seasoning: One bacon rasher, 4 chopped prunes, 1 teaspoon mixed
-'m herbs, 1 teaspoon chopped parsley, J teaspoon salt, 1
cup breadcrumbs, 1 dessertspoon butter, 1 egg.
Cut prunes and bacon into small pieces. Add to breadcrumbs, herbs, and salt. Rub in the butter and mix to a stiff paste with egg.
To Stuff Fowl: Place seasoning in front of neck, fold skin over, press into a neat plump shape, and truss. Cover with greased paper and bake in a hot oven là to 2 hours, accord- ing to size and age of fowL Re- move paper half an hour before dishing, baste well and allow to brown evenly.
Sherry Gravy: One tablespoon flour, i teaspoon salt, pinch pepper, 1 pint chicken stock (made from giblets), 3 tablespoons sherry.
Sprinkle flour into baking dish after pouring off roasting fat. Brown well add stock, salt and pepper. Boil 3 minutes, strain, and add sherry just before serving.
Saute Potatoes: Cut potatoes into small even-sized pieces after peel- ing. Parboil for five minutes, drain well. Wet fry in fuming fat until a golden brown.
Saute Tomatoes: Cut tomatoes into halves, sprinkle with salt, pep- per and very little sugar Place on a shallow dish and cook in oven until soft.
Bread Sauce: Two tablespoons breadcrumbs, 1 small piece onion, 1 blade mace, 1 dessertspoon butter, ! pint milk, 1 tablespoon cream, 1 tea- spoon salt.
Boll milk, add onion and mace, simmer for three minutes. Strain, return milk to saucepan. add crumbs, beat well with a fork, leave with lid on saucepan for five minutes, add butter and cream. Serve in sauce-boat.
Prune and Bacon Rolls: Remove stones from 6 soft dessert prunes and wrap each in a piece of bacon
M&sß^ about four .^ÄSL" inches long,
^^^^Ç fasten with a
toothpick. Place on a shallow tin and bake slowly until bacon fat is clear and crisp.
To Serve Fowl: Place fowl on a large meat dish. Arrange saute potatoes and tomatoes around it, and put a prune and bacon roll on each tomato. Garnish with pars- ley. Serve sherry gravy and bread sauce separately in sauce-boats.
CHARLOTTE RUSSE
One packet raspberry Jelly crystals, J pint milk, 1 gill cream, 7 or 8 sponge fingers, 1 teaspoon gelatine, 1 tablespoon sugar, \ tea- spoon vanilla, i gill sherry.
Pour sherry over jelly crystals and add boiling water to make one pint of liquid in all. Line bottom of a plain charlotte russe mould, or a straight-sided basin (li pints capacity), with jelly one inch in thickness and allow to set. Trim sponge fingers and line sides of mould, wedging fingers well together so they will fit tightly. Have gela- tine soaked in milk and warm it slowly until dissolved (being care- ful not to curdle lt). Add whipped cream, sugar and vanilla and, when nearly set, pour into centre of mould. Place in refrigerator until quite set. Trim sponge fingers level with top of mould. Turn out onto a flat glass plate and decorate with chopped jelly and whipped cream.
SALTED ALMONDS
Four ounces almonds, 1 dessert- spoon powdered gum arabic, salt.
Dissolve gum in water after soak- ing. Blanch and dip almonds in dis- solved gum arabic, drain, and place on a buttered enamel plate. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Place in a moderate oven until a light brown shade. Sprinkle again with salt, and serve
cold.
Continued on page 39
Christmas Din nor
Continued from poge 37
MERINGUE BASKET
Four egg-whites, 31b. castor sugar, 1 small level teaspoon cream of tartar, vanilla and coloring.
Cut a round of greaseproof paper six inches in diameter for base of basket. Draw a handle six inches high on another piece of grease- proof paper. Put each on a reversed swiss roll tin.
Beat whites stiffly and gradually sift in castor sugar. Place basin over a saucepan of warm water and put over a very slow heat. Beat meringue over this and as water heats the meringue will set. When firm enough to hold its shape, color and flavor and fold in the cream of tartar. Using a cream rose pipe and bag, pipe a ring round edge of greaseproof paper. Spread centre with a thick layer of meringue. Build up sides to form a basket, and decorate top with meringue roses. Pipe the handle on prepared paper
(it is wise to make an extra handle as they break very easily).
Place in a very moderate oven (235 deg. F.) to set without brown- ing. Store in airtight tin until re- quired.
Vanilla Ice-Cream for Basket: Quarter-pint cream, 1 pint fresh milk, I tin condensed milk, 1 tea- spoon vanilla, pinch of salt.
Blend condensed milk and fresh milk, and beat with a rotary beater, add vanilla and salt. Whip cream until stiff enough to hold its shape. Fold into beaten milk, and continue to beat until a creamy consistency, about 5 minutes. Pour into freezing tray, place in refrigerator, turn to maximum freezing for one hour.
Fill meringue basket with ice- cream just before serving. Decorate with maraschino cherries and angelica. Place handle in position,
and serve at once.