Christmas Recipes: Main Dishes - Duck with Cardamom Sauce

Confit Duck Leg and Slow Cooked Duck Breast with Cabbage - Photo: Flickr

Christmas recipe serves: 6

calories per serving: 400

preparation time: 15 minutes

cooking time: 2hours 30 minutes

suitable for freezing after step 3.

Christmas recipe ingredients:

duck legs, 6, about 2 kg (4.5 lb)

onions, 350 g (12 oz)

root ginger, fresh, 5 cm piece, (2 inches)

butter, 125 g (4 oz)

caster sugar, 15 ml (1 tbsp)

green cardamom pods, 8 whole

chicken stock, 1.7 liters (3 pints)

ginger wine, 300 ml (10 fl oz)

dry white wine, 150 ml (5 fl oz)

salt and pepper

orange juice, 45 ml (3 tbsp)

lemon juice, 15 ml (1 tbsp)

oil, 5 ml (1 tbsp)

sea salt, coarse 10 ml (2 tsp)

garnish, coarse fresh coriander

Christmas recipe instructions:

1. Simmer the duck legs gently in a large pan of boiling water for about 2 hours.

2. To prepare the sauce, fry peeled chopped onions in 50 g (2 oz) of the butter for about 10 minutes or soft. Add peeled and grated ginger, with the sugar and cardamom seeds from one pod. Cook until the color of the mixture turns dark golden brown.

3. Add the stock and boil until the volume is reduced by half. Reduce by half again till syrup like after adding the white wine and dry ginger. Add salt and pepper and orange juice to taste.

4. Stir in 25 g (1 oz) of the butter into the sauce at boiling point. Separate the onions from the liquid and combine with the rest of the butter. Keep.

5. Remove excess water from the duck and put over a roasting tin on a rack. Brush the duck with oil and sprinkle with salt and the remaining cardamom seeds.

6. Roast until the skin is very crisp. About 20 to 25 minutes at gas mark 8. (230 degrees centigrade, 450 F). Add the reheated butter and onion and serve the food with heated cardamom sauce. Garnish with coriander.

Author: Paul Curran

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Christmas Recipes: Turkey Meatballs with Cranberry

Photo: Flickr

Turkey Meatballs with Cranberry

Christmas recipe serves: 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Calories per serving: 875
Suitable for freezing after step 3.

Christmas recipe ingredients

Sherry or balsamic vinegar, 15 ml (1 tbsp)
Caster Sugar, 10 ml (2 tsp)
Salt and pepper
Olive oil, 120 ml (8 tbsp)
Cranberries, fresh or frozen 50 g (2 oz)
Celery, 125 g (4 oz)
Walnuts toasted 50 g (2 oz)
Turkey, roasted meat 450 g (1 lb)
Garlic cloves, 2
Olive oil, 15 ml (1 tbsp)
Fennel seeds (optional), 10 ml (2 tsp)
Oregano dried 10 ml (2 tsp)
Cranberry sauce, 30 ml (2 tbsp)
Breadcrumbs, fresh 125 g (4 oz)
Eggs, 2
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated 50 g (2 oz)
Oil
Green salad

Christmas recipe instructions

1. Chop the turkey, walnuts, and celery into small pieces. Crush peeled garlic. Cook the oregano, fennel seeds, garlic and celery in oil for about five minutes. Then add the cranberry sauce. leave to cool.
2. Add salt and pepper to the vinegar and sugar, mix in the oil and cranberries. Heat to boiling, cook for 1 minute and leave to cool.
3. Combine salt and pepper, parmesan cheese, walnuts, eggs, breadcrumbs, celery mixture and turkey. Split into twelve golf-sized meatballs.
4. Deep-fat fry the meatballs until golden brown (about 4 minutes). Place them on kitchen towel paper to soak up the oil and serve onto green salad sprinkled with cranberry dressing from step 1.

Author: Paul Curran

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Christmas Recipes: Delicious Christmas Puddings

Christmas pudding - Photo: Wikipedia

Pudding Recipes given here are easy to cook and absolutely delicious.  Properly made Christmas puddings will be extremely tasty and make your Christmas celebrations a memorable experience.  Enjoy these Puddings with your loved ones during this Christmas.

Christmas Pudding (1).

Ingredients of Christmas Pudding:-

• 1 lb. raisins (stoned), 
• 1 lb. chopped apples, 
• 1 lb. currants, 
• 1 lb. breadcrumbs, 
• 1/2 lb. mixed peel chopped fine, 
• 1 lb. shelled and ground Brazil nuts, 
• 1/2 lb. chopped sweet almonds, 
• 1 oz. bitter almonds (ground), 
• 1 lb. sugar, 
• 1/2 lb. butter, 
• 1/2 oz. mixed spice and 
• 6 eggs.

Instructions:-

Wash, pick, and dry the fruit, rub the butter into the breadcrumbs, beat up the eggs, and mix all the ingredients together; if the mixture is too dry, add a little milk. Fill some greased basins with the mixture, and boil the puddings from 3 to 4 hours.

Christmas Pudding (2).

Ingredients:-

• 12 oz. breadcrumbs, 
• 1/2 lb. currants, 
• 1/2 lb. raisins, 
• 1/2 lb. sweet almonds, 
• 1 doz. bitter almonds, 
• 3/4 lb. moist sugar, 
• 3 oz. of butter, 2 oz. candied peel, 
• 8 eggs, 
• 1 teaspoonful of spice and 
• 1 teacupful of applesauce.

Instructions:-

Rub the butter into the breadcrumbs, wash, pick, and dry the fruit, stone the raisins, chop or grind the almonds, beat up the eggs, mix all well together, at the last stir in the applesauce.  Boil the pudding in a buttered mold for 4 hours, and serve with white sauce.

Christmas Pudding (3).

Ingredients:-

• 1 lb. each of raisins, currants, sultanas, chopped apples, and Brazil nut kernels; 
• 1/2 lb. each of moist sugar, wholemeal breadcrumbs, wheatmeal, and sweet almonds and butter; 
• 1/4 lb. of mixed peel, 
• 1/2 oz. of mixed spice, 
• 6 eggs, and 
• some milk.

Instructions:-

Wash and pick the currants and sultanas; wash and stone the raisins; chop finely the nut kernels, blanch and chop finely the almonds, and cut up fine the mixed peel. Rub the butter into the meal and breadcrumbs. First mix all the dry ingredients, then beat well the eggs and add them. Pour as much milk as is necessary to moisten the mixture sufficiently to work it with a wooden spoon. Have ready buttered pudding basins, nearly fill them with the mixture, cover with pieces of buttered paper, tie pudding cloths over the basins, and boil for 4 hours.

Christmas Plum Pudding (1)

Ingredients of Christmas Plum Pudding:-

• One cupful of finely-chopped beef suet, 
• two cupfuls of fine breadcrumbs, 
• one heaping cupful of sugar, 
• one cupful of seeded raisins, 
• one cupful of well-washed currants, 
• one cupful of chopped blanched almonds, 
• half a cupful of citron, sliced thin, 
• a teaspoonful of salt, 
• one of the cloves, 
• two of cinnamon, 
• half a grated nutmeg and 
• four well-beaten eggs.

Making of Christmas Plum Pudding:-

Dissolve a level teaspoonful of soda in a tablespoonful of warm water. Flour the fruit thoroughly from a pint of flour; then mix the remainder as follows: In a large bowl put the well-beaten eggs, sugar, spices, and salt in one cupful of milk. Stir in the fruit, chopped nuts, bread crumbs and suet, one after the other, until all are used, putting in the dissolved soda last and adding enough flour to make the fruit stick together, which will take all the pint. Boil or steam three to four hours. Serve with wine or any well-flavored sauce.

Christmas Plum Pudding (2)

Ingredients:-

• 2 cups ground suet, 
• 2 cups breadcrumbs, 
• 2 cups flour, 
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder, 
• 2 cups sugar. 
• 2 cups seeded raisins. 
• 2 cups currants, 
• 1 cup finely cut citron, 
• 1 cup finely cut figs, 
• 1 tablespoon finely cut orange peel, 
• 1 tablespoon finely cut lemon peel, 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground mace, 
• 1 tablespoon salt, 
• 1 cup water or prune juice and 
• 1 cup grape or other fruit juice

Instructions:-

Mix thoroughly all dry ingredients and add fruit; stir in water and fruit juice and mix thoroughly. Add more water if necessary to make a stiff dough. Fill greased molds 2/3 full, and steam two or three hours.  This pudding should be prepared and cooked a week or more before used. Before serving steam one hour and serve with hard, lemon or foamy sauce.

Author: Amy Tylor

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