Malabar kozhi nirachathu and neela pulav Blue rice pulav and stuffed roast chicken Malabar style

Christmas 2015

The year I went crazy on my love for the British and European culinary traditions .
For the first time, I made steamed pudding in the pudding basin. With the roast duck dinner, it was almost a Dickensian Christmas. Almost, because there was no goose, just a duck.

mince pies

steamed plum pudding

American cinnamon roll ready for the oven

Swedish julbullar

French kouign amann

Austrian Linzertorte

For Christmas eve, a roast duck dinner with red cabbage and pear-cranberry relish and sambar and rice pulao/pilaf for mom

On Christmas day, a typical Nazrani dinner -- with fish, in coconut milk sauce and fried, Kerala style,  roast chicken, braised and fried beef,  beef croquettes, lamb stew and paalappam

German roast beef - 2 kinds

Fuhrmannsbraten - cARTER'S ROAST

Sauerbraten with potato dumplings and pickled beets

Christmas 2017

Countdown to Christmas 2017

When Christmas arrives, Europe, especially England, calls. I have written about my liking for those quaint  olde English pubs, castles, cottages and of course, food. This year wasn't too crazy, I made just a few.

The rock cake and sticky toffee pudding are favorites of kids over there, I hear. And of Harry Potter too! But I did not make a sticky toffee pudding. Instead, I made a gingerbread cake and the sticky sauce of the toffee cake., because I wanted to make gingerbread. I substituted golden syrup for the molasses in the gingerbread recipe, and for treacle in the sticky sauce one. In any case, it was delicious. When eaten warm, it was heavenly!

As usual, the Kerala style plum cake was made ahead. Christmas cookies are the usual ones, except this time, my decoration is kind of sloppy. Also, forgot the nose on the snowmen!

Linzer cookie

rock cakes

gingerbread

warm gingerbread with sticky sauce

Christmas cookies

Christmas eve 2017


Appetizers

lamb chops

latkes

Soup:

butternut squash soup with spiced cream as garnish

and bread

pain d'epi

Should have diluted that soup a tad bit, but by then, the roast and the accompaniments were calling for my attention, and so, just served it as it is. It was a meal in itself!

For the main course, this X'mas eve, I prepared a typical English roast. Roast beef, roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and gravy. Gave an American touch with the creamed spinach.

roast beef dinner

Desserts:

Kerala style plum cake, creme brulee

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the clink of the spoon  against the caramelized sugar on top, and the softness of the pudding inside! yum!


On Christmas day, a pared down Nazrani Christmas. For breakfast, Paalappam and lamb stew. Just our fish in spicy coconut sauce, fried fish, Beef cutlets, and a vegetable. Paalalppam looks a bit tattered! waiting and transferring didnt go well.

paalappam and lamb stew

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paalappam and stew - an earlier better pic

Nazrani beef varattiyathu with leftover roast beef

leftover roast duck stirfry

It was roast duck with orange glaze for our quiet New Year dinner. Even though the duck was not that big, there was some meat left over. Enough for a quick stirfry.

I am not going to give a list here. Because there's n't much to expand on.

I had a small green bell pepper in the fridge. can use any other veg. I like bell peppers in stirfries. Heated a little oil in a wok and sautéd the green bell pepper first, and set it aside. Then did the same with some chopped onion + a few cloves of garlic, crushed/minced, in that oil.
Added a couple of tsp of crushed red pepper. Next, a few dashes of the sauces in the following picture:

That is, a splash of vinegar - say, a tbsp, 2 tsps of the sweet chili sauce, 3-4 tsps of the green chili sauce, 3 tsps of the  dark soy sauce. The aim was a sweet-sour-hot taste - just a teeny tiny hint of sweet and a little more sour and a lot more heat.

Anyway, stirred the thing around for a minute or two. Added the shredded (roast)duck. Gave a good stir. And don't let's forget the bell peppers, or broccoli or whatever vegetable you may have lying around. Added that now. Stirred it all around for some more.
 Should taste to see if you like the seasoning. Correct to your taste - salt and such.
If you still don't like it, nothing much you can do really, except tip it into the waste bin while no one's looking. Just kidding, you will like it. :)

Have it with some rice.

Now, you can make this using roast chicken or regular chicken, beef, or pork. Pretty much your basic stir fry. Just be sure to use thinly cut pieces. For instance, to make it easy, buy beef that's cut for asian-style stir fries. Or that Milanese cut , which you can further cut into smaller pieces.
This was the roast duck, btw.