Goose Stuffed with Mashed Potato
Click here for roast goose recipe
Braised Red Cabbage
Click here for braised red cabbage recipe
Danish Christmas Caramel Potatoes
Mr NQN came home from work the other day and he told me about a Danish colleagues Christmas tradition. It involved singing at least three songs while they are dancing around a Christmas tree. I knew my tightly trussed conservative parents would completely eschew that idea (although Mr NQN's family would love it) but what really interested me was the Danish caramel Christmas potatoes. It involves boiling potatoes and then cooking them in a sweet caramel. I was sold instantly!
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1 kg/2 pounds of baby chat potatoes
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6 Tablespoons of sugar
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2 Tablespoons of butter, unsalted
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a little salt
Step 1 - Boil and peel the potatoes until just done but not mushy.
Step 2 - In a large heavy bottomed frying pan or pot, cook the sugar on moderate heat in an even layer until completely melted-most importantly do not stir it. When it has melted, add the butter and stir until combined
Step 3 - Add the potatoes and turn them gently with tongs so that each side is covered (the caramel is very hot!) with the caramel. One batch of potatoes takes about 10 minutes until they become lovely and glazed. Add some salt at the end.
Moominmamma's Best Buns
Receiving the book prompted the whole Finnish theme for Christmas and one thing that delighted me was the recipe for Moominmamma's best buns which contained the tempting line "Press your thumb into the top of each bun, leaving a shallow hole and spoon a knob or butter into each hole". Swoon
Sadly I think I came across a bit of a recipe typo when I saw that there was basically equal parts milk to flour which meant that it was a sloppy cake batter mixture. I added more flour and crossed my fingers hoping that the dough would still come together as it should and it did. And my oh my these were good fresh from the oven slathered in even more butter (of course).
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350ml/12.5 fl ozs. warm milk
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23g dried yeast (or 50g fresh yeast)
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80g/2.8 ozs. sugar
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1 teaspoon salt
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1 teaspoon ground cardamom
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1 egg
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600-650g (21 ozs-23 ozs) plain flour (approximately)
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100g butter, melted
To glaze and decorate
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1 egg
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granulated sugar
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slivered almonds
Step 1 - Measure the warm milk into a mixing bowl and crumble in the yeast and whisk in the butter and the egg. Fold in the sugar, salt, cardamom and flour and knead either by hand or with a dough hook of the electric mixer until the mixture becomes elastic. Add more flour if necessary.
Step 2 - Cover the dough with a cloth and allow it to double in size, around 30 minutes (I did a slow fermentation overnight in the fridge as I wanted to do as much ahead of time as possible). Divide the dough in half and roll each half into a long sausage shape. Cut each sausage into 12 pieces and roll them into buns.
Step 3 - Line an oven tray with baking parchment and place the buns on the oven tray and allow them to rise for another 15 minutes.
Step 4 - Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Once risen press your thumb into the top of each bun, leaving a shallow hole and spoon a knob or butter into each hole. Glaze the buns with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the granulated sugar and slivered almonds. Bake for about 10-12 minutes.
Austrian Orange Punsch
Recipe from Kochen in Wien cooking school in Austria
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120ml rum
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40ml lemon juice
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40-60ml Peach nectar
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800ml orange juice
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2x Cinnamon sticks
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6 cloves
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sugar (if needed to taste)
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curled orange peel for decoration
Bring all ingredients to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Taste it, if it needs more sugar add it to taste. Decorate with curls of orange peel.
_ As we have every year, we held a Secret Santa. And of course you know that Santa comes from Finland right? ;) _
Tuulikki opening up her present-I think she was worried that she might have gotten a box of shortbread as her Secret Santa psyched her out with a large empty shortbread tin.
Amaya opens up her presents-these Elliotts love fruit!
Thanks for stopping by our little Finnish Christmas (in a Southern Hemisphere summer)! I hope your Christmas was full of fun and frolicking :) So tell me Dear Reader, what did you get up to for Christmas? I want to hear everything! :)
Red and white straws from Lovely Little Parties, Lindt chocolates from Lindt, cherries from Harris Farm Markets, bird napkins by Citta Designs, Smood potato masher by Dreamfarm.