Xmas Dinner.. Eve & Day

So, after the Xmas gathering, my family and I, just the four of us, had a descent dinner at home on the eve of the Xmas
And I made this easy crispy roast chicken which my family likes including the kids

 

 

The kids love tearing the crisp skin apart and eat it just with plain rice. I used carrots and corn to roast together with the chicken, as these are vegetables they love the most

 

 

I just estimated the recipe...

 

What you need:

 

1 free range chicken, discard the head and feet and all the extra fats. Keep skin intact

juice of a large lime

salt, black pepper, butter

carrots - peeled and chopped

sweet corns - peeled and chopped

1 garlic bulb

 

Method:

1. Rub chicken all over with lime juice including the cavity, let it stand for about 15mins and then rinse well, pat dry with kitchen towel
2. In a bowl mix salt, and black pepper. Rub chicken with butter all over and continue with rubbing it with salt/pepper mixture. Refrigerate uncovered for a few hours
3. Before roasting, preheat oven to 200degC
4. Take the chicken out of the fridge and fill up its cavity with garlic bulb and the chopped carrots
5. While waiting, prepare a baking dish enough to fit the chicken plus all veggies
6. Rub the cut veggies with butter all over and place them in the dish
7. Place the chicken at the centre over the veggies and roast for about 20mins
8. Remove the dish from the oven and check on the veggies (at this point the chicken will not be browned yet). If the carrots have softened and the corns are cooked, remove them from the dish and transfer to a serving plate (if not you may continue roasting for about 10 more mins)
9. Put the baking dish with the chicken back into the oven and continue to roast until the chicken turned golden brown (mine was about 75mins - it depends on the size of the chicken)
10. Once cooked, remove from oven and transfer to carving board. Let it stand for about 15mins before carving (I didn't do this step as my family likes to rip it off by hand LOL)

 

We love this birdie. The skin was so crispy and tasty. The meat was still juicy. The roasted carrots and garlic were really good as well as the corns, cooked to perfection. Yum!

 

The next day on Xmas day, my sis & her DH came over for the usual Xmas dinner and gift exchange time. This time I cooked chicken cordon bleu, avocado mango salsa and scalloped potatoes au gratin and I also baked light fruits cake. My sis and her DH brought their homemade Dutch bitterballen which I always love :)

 

So here's the recipes I used for my cooking that day...

For the Cordon Bleu, I adapted from Emeril Lagasse

What you need:

4 boneless and skinless chicken breast
salt and black pepper
4 slices ham (I used honey baked)
4 slices Swiss cheese
1 cup all purpose flour
2 large eggs
2 tbsp. fresh milk
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 tsp garlic salt
some cooking oil

Method:

1. Place chicken breast on a cutting board, layer a clingwrap over it and pound til evenly flattened
2. Remove the clingwrap, rub salt and pepper over it and place ham on one side of the chicken followed by cheese on top of the ham. Fold the other side of the skin over to the other side so it'll cover the ham and cheese slice
3. Press lightly to flatten and seal the edges, making sure the ham and cheese tucked securely inside the chicken
4. Pour flour on a plate. Mix together egg and milk, whisk in a bowl. And pour breadcrumbs on another plate and mix in garlic salt
5. Heat cooking oil in a
6. Put stuffed chicken breast on the flour, coat evenly. Transfer to the egg mixture bowl, making sure it's dipped thoroughly and then next to the breadcrumbs mixture, coat evenly
7. Do the same to the rest of the chicken and keep in the refrigerator for about 30mins
8. Heat oil in a non stick skillet over medium heat
9. Place the chicken slowly, top with 1/2 tbsp butter, be careful not to overcrowd the skillet. Fry til golden brown at the bottom about 4 to 5mins. Flip to the other side and put another 1/2 tbsp butter over it and fry for another 4 to 5mins til the chicken is evenly browned and cooked through
10. Serve immediately while it's hot with Parmesan Dijon mustard cream sauce (recipe below)

Recipe for Parmesan Dijon mustard cream sauce...
Source: Mel's Kitchen

What you need:

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp chicken stock powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Method:

1. Melt butter. Stir in flour, whisking constantly, cook for 1-2 minutes
2. Slowly pour in milk while whisking quickly. Stir in chicken stock powder and salt. Whisk constantly over medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer and thicken, about 3-5 minutes
3. Once it has bubbled and thickened, remove from heat and stir in mustard, worcestershire sauce and parmesan cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. Serve warm over the chicken

***I made a mistake on that day, thanks to my ignorance not reading the recipe thoroughly first. Instead of using one chicken breast for one cordon bleu, I used two! So I put the ham and cheese on the chicken breast and then I put another slice of chicken breast over it. I ended up with giant and thick pieces of chicken cordon bleu! After frying them, I found that the centre part wasn't fully cooked so I cut them into two and place them on a slightly buttered baking sheet, and baked them til cooked, about 200degC for 20mins. I couldn't get the cheese oozing out because of this :(
Well, I will give this a try the right way next time and update here...

Next dish is Scalloped Potatoes Au Gratin
Yummy cheesy and creamy, a great companion to the chicken dish
Source: Ellie Krieger

What you need:

1 1/2 kg potatoes, rinse well and slice into 1/8" thick
750ml cold skimmed milk
1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2 cloves of garlic, minced
a little dried thyme
1 3/4 cup grated Swiss cheese
1 1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180degC. Grease a rectangle baking dish (I used 20x30x5cm)
2. Boil potato slices til just tender. Drain and let slightly cool
3. Put milk and flour in a saucepan and whisk til the flour dissolved. Add in garlic and thyme, heat over medium fire and stir to a boil and is thickened. Remove from heat, stir in salt and 1 cup of the cheese until melted
4. Arrange half of the boiled potato slices in the baking dish. Pour half of the cheese sauce over it. Arrange the remaining potatoes and lastly pour the remaining sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese
5. Bake for about 25mins til bubbling. Change oven to broil function and broil til the top is evenly browned, about a few minutes. Serve immediately

Now the last dish for the main meal is the refreshing avocado mango salsa

This is the second time I made this and I still enjoyed it a lot
Recipe can be found HERE

The quantity doesn't look much but I was really stuffed. Yum yum...

 As for the light fruits cake, I used recipe from Kenneth Goh of Guai Shu Shu

Fresh from the oven

 

 

 

This impatient me cut the cake while it's still quite warm, hence the messy cut :)

 

 

 

What you need:

 

250g butter, room temperature

250g mixed dried fruits (I used dried cranberries and golden raisins)

250g castor sugar

150g self raising flour

100g unbleached all purpose flour

4 eggs, lightly beaten

50ml fresh orange juice

1 tsp vanilla essence

 

Method:

1. Soak mixed dried fruits in orange juice for 15mins. Drain and squeeze excess juice out of the fruits and set aside, also the juice in separate bowls. Mix a little flour with the dried fruits
2. Preheat oven to 160degC. Grease and line an 8inch square pan
3. Cream butter and sugar til light and fluffy and light. Add in egg one at a time, beat thoroughly after each addition
4. Fold in mixed fruits. And then fold in orange juice and flour, doing it alternately start and end with the flour
5. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 45mins or until the skewer comes out clean and the top is evenly browned
6. Cool in the pan for about 10mins and transfer to a cooling rack

 

Sweet, light, soft, and delicious pieces of fruity cake accompanied by Kronenbourg 1664 :)

 

This post is linked at Cook and Celebrate: Christmas 2015 hosted by Yen from GoodyFoodies, Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids at here.

 

 

***Please pardon the quality of all the pics above, they were quickly taken just with my mobile phone LOL