Christmas Dinner :)

So on Christmas Eve (24th December 2014) my dad and I went to PJ Hilton for a Christmas dinner at their restaurant, Paya Serai. He took me there on a surprise because a day before he asked me what I wanted for the Christmas Eve dinner. So I told him, I wanted turkey with mashed potato, yorkshire pudding with brown sauce and cranberry sauce. Unfortunately, the food there did not suit my liking at all. Well at least their Moist Banana Cake was nice. :)

So because of that dissatisfaction, and since my mom, my grandmother and my siblings are finally coming back home from visiting my hometown I thought why not I cook them all by myself and at the same time giving them a welcome home surprise dinner. So I did. :)

I wanted to buy a turkey but I do not know how to cook one so I bought a whole chicken instead. So my menu tonight for Christmas was Gordon Ramsay Inspired Roast Chicken, Mashed Potato with Saute' Sausage, Cranberry Sauce, Yorkshire Pudding and Brown Sauce.

So first thing first you must prep the chicken.

What you need:
Fresh Rosemary
Fresh Thyme
Garlic
1 lemon
3 spoonful of butter
1 carrot
salt and pepper
1 medium bombay onion
1 medium red onion

1- In a bowl mix butter, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper and half of the lemon juice and their lemon zest. Don't take the pit (the white part) but just the zest. This is to give it a zing to the chicken. After mixing all of these together put it aside.

2. Clean the chicken. Cut the top of the garlics and put it inside the pan with the chicken. You also can add a cob of corn if you want.

3. Wear you disposable gloves. Now its time for you to smoldered the butter mixture into the chicken skin. You can refer here how to do it. If there is any leftover of the butter mixture then smoldered it on the chicken. Now cut the onions and put it inside the chicken.

4. Put it into the oven for 20 minutes at 220 degrees celsius. Afterwards, take it out of the oven and turn the chicken over. Take out the onions. At 190 degrees celsius roast it for another 1 and half hour.


The second recipe is the brown sauce.

I used mccormick Turkey Gravy mix and the onions that I had taken out from the chicken earlier. I'm sorry that I had forgotten to snap a picture of the brown sauce but the steps are simple.

Diced the onions and preheat the pot on the stove adding some olive oil in it. Saute' the onions. Add the gravy mix on a low heat and gradually adding water. Stir until the onions are soft.


Next is the mashed potato.

You will need:
6 Potatoes
300ml of Milk
1 and 1/2 cup of Cheese
A dollop of mayonnaise

1- Boil the potatoes. I think it was for two hours or less but yes, boiling potatoes takes a very long time.
2- Drain the water.
3- Mashed it using a masher.
4- Add milk.
5- Add cheese and mayo. Stir and serve. :)

The the Mashed Potato topping that is the Saute' Sausage.

What you need :
1 carrot
half of medium sized bombay onion
2 Ayamas English Breakfast Sausages
3 Ramly Beef Sausages
Salt
Pepper

1. Saute' the onions with a knob of butter. Then add the carrots. Stir until the carrot is half cook.
2. Add the Sausages, salt and pepper. Stir.
3. When everything is fully cooked, served.

Now for my Yorkshire Pudding recipe is from Jamie Oliver. You can check out his video here :)

For my cranberry sauce as you can see in the picture, I served it inside that small crystal bowl. :) Well atleast you had a glimpse of it. hehe


Well I do not know where to find fresh cranberries here but because I already had some dried cranberries so I decided to use that instead. :)

So here's what you need:
1 cup of dried cranberries
1 cup of no sugar added pomegranate juice (I used dimes)
2 pinch of sugar. (Just to balanced out the sour taste of the juice and the cranberry)

1- Insert the dried cranberries in a pot.
2- Adding in sugar and stir.
3- Add in the juice and constantly stirring. You don't want the sugar to burned but just caramalised.
4- Once the gravy/sauce started to thicken or the cranberries are soft turn off the heat and serve.

Basicly, I think your dinner is done. Enjoy the recipe xoxo, Leka Leqa. :)