Cold-cured Salmon with Juniper, Vodka & Orange

Photo: Louis Pieterse

Slice fresh salmon fillets fairly thinly into strips, about 0.5 cm. Arrange on a plate or dish. Squeeze orange or lemon juice over. Sprinkle with salt. Turn fillet strips and salt the other side. Scatter lots of juniper berries over. Sprinkle generously with vodka. Toss the strips around so that everything is coated. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for two days, turning after one. Serve rolled into salmon roses, with fanned avocado, sprinkling some of the dressing over.

Roast Turkey Crown

I bought a whole turkey and dissected it. If frozen, defrost in the refrigerator for four days. Here’s a YouTube video to show you how to dissect a turkey. The crown should be intact, i.e. the two breasts should be joined by the skin.

Make a stuffing:

1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves
2 celery sticks, sliced thinly
2 or 3 slices of day-old bread, crumbled
1 pack streaky or back bacon, diced
100g raw almonds, whole
50ml port, muscadel or similar fortified wine
50ml liqueur (I used Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey for its spicy joy)
1 egg, beaten

Simmer onion, celery and garlic till soft. Add bacon and cook through, stirring. Add breadcrumbs, almonds and liqueur, and cook, stirring, to combine. Cool to room temperature. Beat the egg and stir it in well.

Season the inside of the double breast with salt and pepper. Pack the cavity with stuffing but don’t overfill it. (If there’s a lot of stuffing left over, pack it into a greased loaf tin and bake it.) Fold the breasts over towards one another and tie in several places with kitchen string. Trim the strands. Roast in a preheated 180 °C oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn oven off, remove turkey to a different dish and return to the turned-off oven. Cut the string and carefully remove, being careful not to break the skin. Leave the door ajar to let it rest for 15 minutes. Deglaze the turkey pan with red wine, on the hob, stirring with a wooden spoon. Pour in 50ml of the same liqueur you used for the stuffing, and 100ml chicken or turkey stock. Simmer, stirring, till it’s reduced to a delicious jus. Season lightly with salt and pepper to taste and cook for a few minutes more. Serve the turkey immediately, passing the sauce in a gravy boat.

Balsamic-Demerara Glazed Gammon

Photo: Louis Pieterse

Take note of the gammon’s weight (on the label), or weigh it. In a deep pot, cover gammon with cold water. Add 1 whole onion studded with cloves which are in turn stuck through bay leaves. Roughly chop 2 or 3 carrots, 2 leeks, 3 celery sticks, and add, along with 6 to 8 peppercorns, 6 juniper berries, but no salt. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, for 20 minutes per 500g, plus 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool in the stock. Drain and set aside.

Remove the outer rind and score the thinner layer of fat neatly into diamonds. Push a clove into the middle of each diamond. To ½ cup demerara sugar, add enough balsamic vinegar to make a viscose paste, stirring to combine. Pack onto the scored skin, and bake in a 160 °C oven for 15 minutes or until the glaze has set. Overcooking risks burning the glaze.

Fondant Potatoes

Photo: Louis Pieterse

Peel potatoes and cut into fondant shapes. Here’s a video showing how. Melt enough butter in a heavy-based flat-bottomed pan to cover the potatoes when standing side to side. Add thyme sprigs and a clove or two of garlic. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for three hours or more on very low heat until the potatoes are tender and have developed crusts on both flat sides. Keep the used thyme butter in the fridge to simmer chicken pieces in slowly for supper a few days later.

Green Beans Amandine

In a dry pan, toast 1/2 cup of flaked almonds until they blush. A punnet of green beans, washed: top and tail and slice diagonally about 2.5 cm in length. Blanch, refresh and reserve. Slowly heat 2 Tbs butter until the fat turns from white to a hazelnut brown. Add a dash of lemon juice to seize the cooking. Return beans to the pan, add almonds and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. Almonds complement the nuttiness of green beans for a perfect pairing.

Butternut Purée

Peel and deseed large butternut. Steam until soft, about 30 minutes. Blend scooped-out flesh until smooth. In a heavy-bottomed pan, cook the butternut flesh over moderately high heat, stirring vigorously, to cook out as much water as possible as it holds a lot of water. Stir in 150 g mascarpone. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Glazed Beetroot

Boil whole, peeled beetroot in water until the liquid has almost disappeared. Once boiling, add to the pot 50 ml honey, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 star anise, 3 or 4 cloves, 1 tsp salt and a bay leaf. When there’s only a sticky red glaze at the bottom of the pot, stir with a wooden spoon to coat. Slice and serve.

Ridiculously Lavish Trifle

Photo: Louis Pieterse

The DM food nuts went utterly, well, nuts on this.

First macerate halved strawberries overnight in a liqueur of your choice. Quantity also of your choice but we went a bit wild.

At the bottom: a crumbled bought Christmas cake laced with liqueur, topped by a layer of bought marzipan. The liquor we chose was Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey, but use what you have to hand. We’d recommend Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Drambuie or Triple Sec. Or opt for sherry or port, or whiskey or brandy if you want something less sweet. (Quantity? You be the judge.)

On top of the marzipan, pour a jelly that has cooled to room temperature but not yet started to set. I made jelly from a homemade syrup infused with fresh halved strawberries:

Bring 2 Cups water and 1 Cup sugar to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add 12 or so halved ripe strawberries and simmer for about 10 minutes on low. Cool until medium warm and stir in gelatine that has softened in 2 Tbs water, simmering and stirring until dissolved. I used 2 sachets of powdered gelatine, or use two leaves. Leave to cool and pour over the marzipan layer. Refrigerate to set.

When fully set, add a layer of the macerated strawberries. Refrigerate.

Next, we made a generous layer of bavarois, essentially a set Creme Anglaise. You can swop this for a layer of homemade or bought custard, no sweat, but if you want to go the whole hog, try this recipe. Once made and cooled but still runny (don’t let it set), pour it over the strawberry layer and refrigerate for 3 or 4 hours to set.

Now make chocolate mousse for your top layer, according to this recipe, but ignore the instructions for serving. Ladle on top of the (very) set bavarois or custard.

We decorated with green marzipan leaves, fresh raspberries and strawberries. To make marzipan leaves, shape a fistful of bought marzipan into a little bowl and add a few drops of green colouring essence. Carefully work it with your hand, squeezing in your palm, until the colour runs even throughout. Roll out thinly and use a sharp knife to cut into leaf shapes. Refrigerate until needed.

We made 5 leaves and place them in a circle in the centre of the trifle, surrounding a little pile of fresh raspberries. Halved strawberries decorate the circumference. Dust with icing sugar and voila!

Just don’t get carried away. Our quadruple quantities (we’d bought this really big bowl, see) could feed much of the Karoo. DM168/TGIFood

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