Recipe Box Swap ~ December

Please visit i have to say to see all the recipes and visit some blogs. This month's theme is Holiday Favourites.

I am really a Christmas novice. I have relied on my Mum all these years except last year. My son was working in the end, so we had a quiet Christmas then some friends came over in the evening. We had a cooked lunch I suppose from the Chrisco goodies stored in the freezer. Then I found this great recipe for the unused roast vegetables.

Roast Vegetable Salad

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 small kumara (orange sweet potato), chopped
160g pumpkin, chopped
2 small desiree potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and sliced
small onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon olive oil
420g can Edgell Four Bean Mix, drained
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
rosemary, to garnish
crusty toasted bread, to serve

Method
Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Combine kumara, pumpkin, potatoes, carrot, onions, garlic, rosemary and oil in a large bowl. Mix until vegetables are evenly coated with oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Place vegetables in a single layer in a large baking dish. Roast for 35 minutes.

Place vegetables into a large bowl and stir in beans and vinegar. Garnish with rosemary. Serve with toasted bread.

From: Taste website.

Having said I am a Christmas novice is not quite true. When my husband and I were before live in children I made fruit cakes mixed with my hands and even decorated them with proper icing. I also made plum puddings. The recipe I liked the most was not from my own Grandma's but from my step-Dad's mother. I like the taste better than others and also the fact that it doesn't cost much to make, the spirit of a true Aussie Christmas.



Nan's Plum Pudding

2 cups plain flour
1 cup raisins or sultanas
1 cup currants
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Mix with 1 cup of boiling water to which has been added 2 tablespoons of dripping. Tie in cloth and hang overnight. Next day boil for 3 hours.

I assume you mix the dry and wet ingredients together. I used to hang the pudding on a cuphook on the mantlepiece that basically dripped near the drainboard of the sink. This recipe is probably imperial. Don't forget the cloth has to be prepared. The exact instructions I don't have but in includes boiling the cloth and rubbing flour into it.

I found directions for the cloth by accident later, it is interesting that you can use an old teatowel. My Mum doesn't throw hers out.

I have a Christmas cake recipe in the front of my book from that time, that has best and a star written in my writing, which seems to indicate that it is the fruit cake recipe I used.

Christmas Cake

250g (8oz) seeded raisins, chopped
same amount of sultanas, currants, butter and sugar
125g glace cherries, chopped
125g (4oz) chopped mixed peel
125g blanched almonds, chopped
2/3 cup brandy or orange juice
315g (10oz) plain flour
60g (2oz) Self Raising Flour
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
2 tablespoons marmalade or dark jam
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 eggs

Mix together all the fruits, peel and nuts and sprinkle with the brandy or orange juice. sift dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar, add jam and vanilla, beat, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then add fruit and flour alternately. Mix thoroughly. Place the mixture in a 8in round cake tin, lined with two layers each of aluminium foil and greaseproof paper and bake in a slow oven for about 4 hours.

Topping optional: Place nuts, glace fruit etc. on cake. Make toffee from equal quantities of sugar, water and sieved apricot jam. Drizzle over fruit and let set. Do this the day of serving.

My Grandma always had icing boxes at her house. I think anyway. Isn't it awful when your memories start to fade.

My Mum actually gives me a cake for my Christmas present. It usually has almonds on the top. My Nana did the threepence in the pudding thing. My Mum is big on custard, but has gone to cold puddings, this reflects my step-Dad's tastes I think.