The happy turkey Christmas

The happy turkey Christmas


What to cook for Christmas if you do not eat meat

I found the following good websites:

• BBC GOOD FOOD

• VEGETARIAN SOCIETY

• THE VEGGIE TABLE

• HUB PAGES -- Here are some interesting meat look-alike vegetarian recipes.

• VEG COOKING --- More meat look-alike cooking

Fruit mince 2

Fruit mince 2

250g currents, washed and dried
250 g sultanas, washed and dried
250 g seedless raisins, washed and dried
500g raw cooking apples, peeled and cored, coarsely chopped then weighed
120g candied peel
120g dried figs or apricots, washed, soaked and dried, chopped
1orange
1 lemon
250g suet, with membranes removed and finely chopped
120g chopped nuts
500g soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons marmalade
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1 wineglass sherry
2 wineglasses rum
½ t salt


Chop all the fruit and nuts except the orange and lemon.
Grate the orange and lemon peels, squeeze the juice and strain.
Mix all the ingredients except the rum and sherry.
Cover the container and allow tostand for 24 hours.
Now mix all ingredients together and pack into glass jars and seal as for jam.
This mixture will keep for one year and may be moistened with sherry if it becomes too dry.

So you can make some for next Christmas as well.

Christmas fruit mince 1

Christmas fruit mince 1

250 g sultanas or raisins, washed and dried
250g currents, washed and dried
250g suet from which membranes have been removed
250g candied peel
250g raw cooking apples, peeled and cored then weighed
250g caster sugar
60g prunes, stoned (that means removing the pips and not drunk)
70g walnuts
2 teaspoons mixed spice
3 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons rum
Pinch of salt


Method:
Mix all the ingredients except the brandy and rum, pass through a coarse mincer.
Add the brandy and rum, mix and pack firmly into jars.
Seal as for jams



BOOK REVIEW

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CHRISTMAS PREPARATION TIME AGAIN

It is time to get those international cards and letters sent off for relatives who do not have e-mail.
(photograph from http://free-christmas-time-screensaver.smartcode.com/screenshot.html)

All about Cooking with Turkey

Since I do not believe in trying to re-invent the wheel, I decided to just post links to how to cook the turkey.

Here in South Africa we never used to cooked turkey for Christmas in the old days. We used to eat meat during the week, because meat was cheap and chicken on Sundays and special occasions. The first time I got into the turkey for Christmas spirit, was when I lived in England in the seventies. We had turkey for Christmas and turkey and ham sandwiches until New Year.

That was then

This year I stuffed my turkey using (fried onion, chicken livers, bacon, salt to taste, mixed herbs and rice par boiled with canned tomatoes. I first cooked the rice with the canned tomatoes then I added the other ingredients prior to stuffing the bird.

It tasted quite nice)

Here are a few ways with Turkey.

Roast Turkey

Roast Turkey 2

Roasting a turkey 3

Classic Turkey Roast 4

preparing a turkey in the webber

Roasting times for whole turkeys

Turkey Tips and Cooking Times

How to Cook A Thanksgiving Turkey On A Charcoal Grill

How to make the stuffing

Different ways to cook turkey

More Hints?

What to do with Turkey Leftovers

_________________

(Recipe adapted from Cook and Enjoy)

Economical fruitcake

• 2¼ c flour

• ¾ c brown sugar

• ¼ c butter or margarine

• 2 eggs

• ½ c golden syrup or molasses

• ½ t bicarbonate of soda

• ¼ t salt

• 1t mixed spice

• 1t ground cinnamon

• ¼ c brandy

• ¼ c raisins

• ¼ c currants

• ½ c candied orange peel

• ¼ c almonds

METHOD

• 1. See recipes for Christmas Fruit Cake for preparation of fruit and cake tin.

• 2. Beat the butter, adding the sugar gradually. Beat till creamy.

• 3. Add eggs one by one, beating well after each addition.

• 4. Add the syrup and mix thoroughly.

• 5. Sift together all the dry ingredients and fold it into the mixture.

• 6. Add the prepared fruit and the brandy and lastly the nuts.

• 7. Turn the mixture into a greased cake tin, lined with 3 layers of greased paper, and tie on a cover made of 2 layers of paper.

• 8. Bake in a slow oven at 150 ° C (300 ° F) for 3 hours.

This cake may be steamed for 2 hours and then baked for I hour. (See recipes on steamed puddings.)

South African Recipe:

Teaspoon measure (t) = 5 ml

Cup Measure (c) = 250 ml

Tablespoon (T) = 12,5 ml

Preparing for Christmas fruitcake Baking day (absolute beginners)

The day before:

• Finding the recipe

• Buying the ingredients

• Finding or borrowing the baking pans

• Soaking the fruit

Baking day:

• I photocopy my recipe in big print and stick it on the fridge for easy referral

• Dress Comfortable. Use an apron if you have it. Flour has a way of getting onto ones clothes

• Clean the kitchen and clear the sink and working surfaces.

It is best to wash the dirty utensils immediately. One can get oneself tied in knots when one allow the dishes to pile up.

Preparing the work space

• Make sure your workspace is big enough.

• A plastic sheet over an ironing board can increase the work surface if you live in a caravan or small flat.

Oven and Pans

• Turn oven on take butter from freezer

• Prepare the baking pans and line them with wax paper or tin foil.

If you inherited old pans from granny, it is better to line them with tinfoil to cover rust spots or to prevent them from rusting.

• Get extra baking utensils and edible ingredients for little Mary or Johnny and space for them to make a mess where they will not bother you too much.

Final touches

• Measure out all the ingredients and group them in order of need.

• Put on your favorite relaxing music if you do not have a little Mary or Johnny,

• Make a cup of coffee or pour some of that fruit-soaking alcohol that is left over into a glass and have a sip now and again.

Follow the recipe.

My very late Christmas Fruitcake.

Don't need to read another word - Just go directly to the recipe and start baking

SOS

My Christmas cake was so nice, and we had visitors so we ate it.

Not to worry. This cake can be eaten immediately. The longer one leaves it (and feed it a bit of booze now and again) the nicer it is though, but it can be eaten almost immediately.

I prefer light fruit cakes so it does not matter if I bake late.

Regardless of the method of preparing the fruit in a fruitcake recipe,

I substitute it for my own, which is:

• Soak the fruit in brandy overnight,

• Drain as much of the brandy off just prior to baking

(The brandy is set aside for casual sipping during the baking process or adding to the wet ingredients later.)

• Pat the fruit dry and coat th fruit some of the sifted flour so that the cake mixture easier embraces the fruit.

(One can say I marry the fruit with the flour)

• If this is too messy, I just add a little of the sifted flour to the brandy and fruit mix first.

The reason for this is to get the fruit evenly distributed throughout the cake and not all the fruit doing breaststrokes at the top of the cake, or lazing around at the bottom.

When I choose a recipe I use my own dried fruit and nut mixtures as long as the combined weight is the same as the combined weight of fruit in the recipe.

I do the same with the nuts if I am going to use it.

I do not soak the nuts in brandy, though.

I choose the freshest ingredients and real butter for my very expensive Christmas cake, but many people will have to use what is cheapest this year.

Luckily for me, my husband is still working and Christmas cake time coincides with bonus month time, so I can splash out a bit.

• If the recipes I use do not make allowance for alcohol, I simply reduce the amount of fluid in the recipe.

Even people who do not take alcohol normally may add it to cooking.

The heat process used during cooking is supposed to destroy the active alcohol ingredient in fruitcakes. So they say, but watch out for my cake. I "skelmpies" feed it brandy or sherry so by Christmas time my cake is a swaying alcoholic.

We may no longer drink and drive so at least let the cake enjoy itself.

Something has to consume the booze.

Mind you, that is now another can of worms, come to think about it.

One does not want one of our guests to fail the Breathalyzer test because he/she ate a slice of my Christmas cake.

Perhaps I will bake alcohol free kiddies and drivers cake also and put a big warning sign on my alcoholic cake.

"Do not eat and drive" a doggy bag is recommended.

This particular cake is beboozled."

Happy late baking

Follow the link to the recipe

Light Christmas Fruit-cake (level beginners)

This year I baked the same light fruit cake for Christmas as I did last year.
After looking through many of my cook books, I settled for "old favourite" from "Cook and Enjoy."
The only difference was that I baked it in two loaf tins so that I have one small cake for Christmas and one for my husband's birthday a month later.

I added all the weight of fruit, cherries and peel together and made up my own mixture of glacè- and dried-fruit and cherries.
All except the preserved ginger which I ate before the baking day. I loooooove ginger.

My husband normally buy's the fruit mixture. I just give him the amount and tell him buy whatever he wants in the cake. It is then his job to feed the cake some brandy every now and then, after it has been baked, while it is waiting in the cake tins to mature.

I soak the fruit in brandy the night before and use some of the flour and just sprinkle it over the fruit before adding it to the flour mixture. The reason for coating the fruit is to spread it evenly throughout the cake when it bakes and not all go to the bottom. The flour coating "marries" the fruit with the dough before it is mixed.

Light Christmas fruit cake

• 250 gram butter

• 250 gram castor sugar

• 6 eggs (or 4 extra large)

• 3 cups flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 500 g mixed fruit (chopped sultanas, candied peel, seeded raisins, currants)

• 250 gram candied cherries, cut into halves

• 55 g (2 oz.) chopped nuts

• 1 teaspoon lemon essence

• (45ml - 60ml) brandy

METHOD

• 1. Cream the butter and gradually add sugar. Beat until light.

• 2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

• 3. Add the prepared fruit, cherries and nuts. Mix well.

• 4. Sift together the dry ingredients and fold in.

• 5. Lastly add flavouring and brandy and blend well.

• 6. Turn the batter into a cake tin lined with aluminium foil or a few layers of buttered brown paper.

• 7. Bake in a moderately cool oven at 150 °C (300 °F) for 2-2 1/2 hours.

My variations
Before I start I turn the oven on and prepare my cake tins.
Clean the kitchen and prepare my work surface.

People living in small flats may even use the ironing board with plastic over it for more work space.
Next I find and weigh or measure all the ingredients

I did not have castor sugar so I added normal sugar to the blender and blended it into caster sugar.
Then I added the butter and mixed it until it resembled cream.

Then I transferred it to the mixer and added the eggs one at a time.
I sifted the dry ingredients and coated the fruit with some of the dry ingredients first.

It was less messy to add the other ingredients to the soaking fruit so I first added the wet ingredients and then the dry ingredients.

I mixed it carefully aiming not to break the trapped air caught up by the mixing and the sifting process. ( using a metal spoon rather than a blunt spoon.)

Microwave Fruit Cake

I found this recipe in my mother's old recipe book. It seems like an interesting way to bake a fruit cake.

I have not tested it, so it is posted for interest and for experienced cooks. When I test it I shall add my own comments.

Microwave Fruit Cake

• 125g butter or margerine

• 500g box dry fruit mix

• 125 ml snipped dates

• 125 ml mixed peel

• 250ml soft brown sugar

• 5ml bicarb

• 180ml water

• 125 ml snipped cherries OR lOO ml yellow sultanas soaked in orange juice

• 125ml chopped nuts (any nuts or lpkt Brazil + 1/2 pkt Pecan)

• 50ml brandy

• 500ml cake flour

• 5ml mixed spice

• 3ml ginger

• 5ml cinnamon

• pinch of salt

• 2 large eggs ' "~

• 5ml baking powder

Method

• Use dish with a funnel in middle. (or ring tin)
  
• Lightly grease dish,
  
• put wax paper in bottom.
  
• Put funnel in.
  
• Microwave butter 30 seconds on High.
• Add cake mix (dried fruit), dates, peel, sugar, mixed with bicarb and water.
  
• Microwave 5 minutes on High.
  
• Add nuts, cherries/sultanas, brandy, flour, mixed spice, ginger, cinnamon, salt and fold in.
  

• Add beaten eggs.

• Pour into dish and

• Microwave 20 - 22 minutes on Medium or Medium Low.

Find similar recipes on the web Click

This weeks best Christmas Cake search results

Allrecipes .com has the following best links with easily to follow recipes and photographs

Best Christmas Cake

and

Twelve Cakes for Christmas

"Christmas craft ideas" websites review 20081107

"Free Christmas craft" website review:

www.christmas-joy.com
The following recipes on this website are all written out in a clear and easily to follow print with additional information and photographs.

Christmas Fruit Mince


Christmas Plum Pudding
The introduction to this recipe reads:
Introduction:
Although often confused with fruitcake, this classic Christmas dessert tastes more like a rich, dense spice cake. This version uses butter instead of the traditional suet and can be made with your choice of candied fruit, currants, or raisins.


Christmas Pudding
The introduction to this pudding recipe reads:
Introduction:
No traditional Christmas dinner is complete without pudding. It is best if allowed to mature for at least two days before serving, but it can be made up to three months ahead.

Makes 12 to 16 servings.
Preparation time: 5 hours and 3 days.

Christmas recipe review 2007