Help! {Christmas Fayre}

[Greabo Girl]

heh, for my Christmas fayre, me and me mate Joy are doing a selection of food from around the world (charging 50p per plate). The internet has loads of recipes, but not very many ones for the New Year or for Christmas. So, can you's lot help?

The fayre's on December the first, so there is a little urgency with this post (We have to figure out how to make the stuff, and then buy the ingredients and all that jazz)

[nzilla]

There's a type of Japanese rice cake called mochi that's served around new years. It's made from rice (whatever kind you can find that has the most gluten in it) and sugar pounded together into a paste, traditionally with a wooden mallet. You can shape little balls of the stuff and cover them in confectioners' sugar, optionally with something sweet like adzuki bean paste or ice cream stuffed in the middle or strawberries, other fruit, or green tea powder mixed throughout, or you can roast them and serve them with seaweed.

[Darb]

Added note on cooking pre-packaged mochi: just cut it in strips, and broil (or grill) it until it puffs up and turns golden brown. Careful not to burn yourself when eating it ... the inside is like napalm, if you try to eat it too quickly. Great stuff.

[Sean Whitton]

France? tollbaby will be the best to ask of course but you could offer a Raclette, if you can get the equipment.

[tollbaby]

a) I've already explained that I am French-Canadian (i.e. a francophone living in Canada), NOT from France.

b) Raclette is Swiss in origin, not French.

[Darb]

/me hands a roast beef sandwich au jus to the FC french dip dressed in tweed.

[tollbaby]

Watch it, you... I have a freezerfull of frozen tourtières...

[Darb]

Yeah, and I put real pot in my pot pies.

[StefanY]

Here's an easy German Recipe for ya.

<b>Lebkuchen (Spice Bars)</b>

2 cups honey
5 ½ cups flour
¾ cup grated unblanched almonds
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. powdered cloves
¾ cup mixed candied fruits (orange, lemon and citron peel)
½ tsp. baking powder
Egg White Icing (see recipe below)

Heat honey until thin; do not boil. Mix in all other ingredients except icing. Turn onto floured board and knead until smooth, adding a little flour if necessary. Roll with a floured rolling pin to ½" thickness. Grease and flour a baking sheet and lay rolled dough on it. Bake in pre-heated 350 degrees oven about 20 minutes. Spread with icing while hot; cool before cutting into rectangles.

<b>Egg White Icing</b>

2 egg whites
1 ¼ cups confectioner's sugar, shifted
1 tbl. lemon juice

Whip egg whites until they stand in stiff peaks. Add sugar and lemon and juice and continue beating until thick and glossy. Spread on cake or cookies with a spatula.

[Darb]

Question: are "grated almonds" the same as ground almond meal ? If so, I assume I can just pop almonds in a food processor, and pulse them untril they form a coarse gritty meal ... or is that too fine ?

[StefanY]

The almonds are there mainly for flavor, so I wouldn't think that having them in a powdered form would have much of an effect on the finished product.

[Darb]

Do you grate them yourself, or buy them that way ?

I've never seen them pre-grated, and since I'm a do-it-yourself kinda guy with an aversion to skinning my knuckles on a box-grater, I thought I'd ask.

[StefanY]

I grate them myself. That way you get extra protein in the recipe from the chunks of knuckle skin that get mixed in! I'm just a little slow sometimes and hadn't thought of the food processor myself.

[Sean Whitton]

https://thatsmyhome.com/ and http://razzledazzlerecipes.com/ may be of use.

[Darb]

heh, for my Christmas fayre, me and me mate Joy are doing a selection of food from around the world (charging 50p per plate). The internet has loads of recipes, but not very many ones for the New Year or for Christmas. So, can you's lot help?

The fayre's on December the first, so there is a little urgency with this post (We have to figure out how to make the stuff, and then buy the ingredients and all that jazz)

If this is an event that will last for several hours, then you're going to need to focus on food that's fairly counter stable ... so that means jams, jellies, baked goods, dried goods, pickled goods, etc. If it's perishable, you'll need to either keep it appropriately hot, or cold.

Let me know your preferences (baked, hot or cold), and I'll post a recipe or two. Also, are you of sufficient age to make/serve holiday fare that includes modest amounts of alcohol ?

[Darb]

As long as we're on the topic of holidays, nuts, and alcohol, here's a nice recipe from my own archive ...

Cookies, Rum Balls
Origin: A very popular holiday recipe made by/with some of my co-workers.
Comments: This is a regular staple every holiday season at work.
Batch: Makes approx 1 pint of paste, enough for 3-4 cups of 1" balls {serves 6-8}.

Batch x1
1 cup Nabisco "Nilla Wafer" crumbs (approx 130 gr)
1 ½ cups Walnuts or Pecans, shelled, ground fine (approx 185 gr)
1 cup Confectionary Sugar (approx 130 gr)
1-2 tbs Hot Cocoa Mix (approx 8-16 gr)
2 tbs Light Caro Corn Syrup
1/3 cup Premium Rum

Coating: 10x sugar or coarsely ground nuts

Directions:
· CRUMBS: Grind the wafers into meal in food processor & set aside in a large bowl.
· NUTS: Grind nuts into a fine (but still gritty) meal, and add to the nilla crumbs.
· Add remaining dry ingredients, and stir together until well mixed.
· Add the wet ingredients, stir together until it forms a thick firm paste.
· REST: Refrigerate in an air-tight tupperware until well chilled (approx 2-3 hrs, or overnight - the paste will thicken slightly) .
· BALLS: Roll into 1 inch balls & coat with extra crushed nuts or 10x sugar. Re-roll them gently to force the coating to adhere, and gently shake off any excess. Refrigerate again in sealed container until ready to serve.
· STORAGE: The best way to store unused paste is to wrap it snugly in plastic, and regrigerate it until you want to make more balls - then make them either just before serving them, or several hours in advance.
· VARIANT: BOURBON BALLS (a tribute to my maternal grandmother). Same directions as above, but with slightly different ingredients. This version prefers pecans to walnuts, substitutes bourbon for rum, and uses an extra cup of nilla crumbs and ½ cup less ground nuts. Taste wise, they're slightly firmer, more doughy, and slightly less sweet, than the rum version above.

Note: My Uncle told the story of how Grandma (paternal side) once made a similar recipe with "White Horse Scotch" (she was out of bourbon and rum) and announced to a party that "here are my White Horse Balls" - and everyone roared with laughter.

[Greabo Girl]

If this is an event that will last for several hours, then you're going to need to focus on food that's fairly counter stable ... so that means jams, jellies, baked goods, dried goods, pickled goods, etc. If it's perishable, you'll need to either keep it appropriately hot, or cold.

Let me know your preferences (baked, hot or cold), and I'll post a recipe or two. Also, are you of sufficient age to make/serve holiday fare that includes modest amounts of alcohol ?

It'll go on for a few hours, yeah. Hot isn't prefered, but baked and cold are cool. Heh, and we can have alcoholic stuff (like tiramisu) but it has to be labeled and guarded from the kiddies

[Aunflin]

As long as we're on the topic of holidays, nuts, and alcohol, here's a nice recipe from my own archive ...

Cookies, Rum Balls
Origin: A very popular holiday recipe made by/with some of my co-workers.
Comments: This is a regular staple every holiday season at work.
Batch: Makes approx 1 pint of paste, enough for 3-4 cups of 1" balls {serves 6-8}.

Batch x1
1 cup Nabisco "Nilla Wafer" crumbs (approx 130 gr)
1 ½ cups Walnuts or Pecans, shelled, ground fine (approx 185 gr)
1 cup Confectionary Sugar (approx 130 gr)
1-2 tbs Hot Cocoa Mix (approx 8-16 gr)
2 tbs Light Caro Corn Syrup
1/3 cup Premium Rum

Coating: 10x sugar or coarsely ground nuts

Directions:
· CRUMBS: Grind the wafers into meal in food processor & set aside in a large bowl.
· NUTS: Grind nuts into a fine (but still gritty) meal, and add to the nilla crumbs.
· Add remaining dry ingredients, and stir together until well mixed.
· Add the wet ingredients, stir together until it forms a thick firm paste.
· REST: Refrigerate in an air-tight tupperware until well chilled (approx 2-3 hrs, or overnight - the paste will thicken slightly) .
· BALLS: Roll into 1 inch balls & coat with extra crushed nuts or 10x sugar. Re-roll them gently to force the coating to adhere, and gently shake off any excess. Refrigerate again in sealed container until ready to serve.
· STORAGE: The best way to store unused paste is to wrap it snugly in plastic, and regrigerate it until you want to make more balls - then make them either just before serving them, or several hours in advance.
· VARIANT: BOURBON BALLS (a tribute to my maternal grandmother). Same directions as above, but with slightly different ingredients. This version prefers pecans to walnuts, substitutes bourbon for rum, and uses an extra cup of nilla crumbs and ½ cup less ground nuts. Taste wise, they're slightly firmer, more doughy, and slightly less sweet, than the rum version above.

Note: My Uncle told the story of how Grandma (paternal side) once made the recipe with "White Horse Scotch" (she was out of bourbon and rum) and announced to a party that "here are my White Horse Balls" - and everyone roared with laughter.

This has nothing really to do with the recipe...but how do you pronounce "Caro?" (As in "Caro Corn Syrup?")

Is it "care-o?"
or "kay-ro" as my parents and grandparent pronounce it....
or "ky-ro" as some people in St. Louis pronounce it...?

Or many other variations....?

[Darb]

I've always said "kah-row" ... but I'm a new yaw-ker, so that's par for the course.

[laurie]

And the Upstate New Yorkers say "care-oh" - but we get laughed at by the Downstaters...

[Darb]

Anyway, getting back on topic ... the rum balls tend to be pretty popular with the working crowd, and they keep well (as long as you keep them covered, so the alcohol doesn't evaporate).

[RecluceMage]

Well, I'd have to say one of my favorites is Savoury Toasted Cheese. Its something medieval. Call it European. It can be put on bread, veggies, meat, you name it. Here's a link to a recipe:

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/sauces.html#1

I love the stuff....

[Darb]

Pasta with cheese sauce is just a simple variation on that ... start with roux, whisk in enough milk to form a thick sauce, grate in some sharp cheese (cheddar, gorgonzola, etc.) then serve over pasta.

After a while, you start to see the common threads of a lot of recipes, and one you learn those underpinnings, it becomes easier and easier to put away the recipes and just improvise/adapt.

[KeE]

We've discussed gravlax in the "extreme" thread (recipies are linked, at least one is..)- It is a very traditional christmas food in Norway.

Gingerbread cookies and houses are also on the top 10 christmas list in Norway.

KEE

[Darb]

We've discussed gravlax in the "extreme" thread (recipies are linked, at least one is..)- It is a very traditional christmas food in Norway.

That reminds me ... it was my Mother's favorite, and she had to give it up towards the end of her life because of Gout (high purine content). She passed away very recently.

I'll have to make it again for the holidays ... as a tribute to her.

Also, the old Fulton Street fish market in Brooklyn has moved uptown, so it'd be an excuse for me to see the new ultra-modern facility.