Christmas on the Islands Part II
- Charlene Albert
- Dec 28, 2017
- 3 min read
This year I ventured out in my choices for our Christmas Eve Dinner, I decided to change up the way I normally roast the turkey and the gravy that comes with it. Also I decided to include Salmon to my menu for the first time and it was also my first time cooking salmon! I strayed away from the tried and tested honey, soy and mustard glaze for the Ham and a few other dishes that were the first time attempting them.
Normally, I keep my flavours for the turkey simple which is normally lemon, butter and herbs (thyme, parsley and rosemary) but this year I got inspired to try out different flavours especially when it came to the herbs I used. This year I went with the choice of using basil and dill as my herbs of choice. Over the years I have learnt the best way to keep your turkey from drying out is to spread a generous share of butter under the skin of your turkey.
Ideally once your butter has softened, mix in the chosen chopped herbs (this year the choice was dill and basil), salt and pepper. Then once you have separated the skin from the meat, creating a pocket, spread the butter mix creating a layer on the meat, please do this careful as you do not want to tear the skin!
I decided to be a little more adventurous and chose to cook salmon as well, which could have been a right failure as I actually never cooked salmon before. Once I decided that I would be brave and include salmon in my menu, I probably did the most research on finding the right recipe for me to cook.
After a while, I finally found a recipe online Roast Salmon with Peppadew Peppers and Cherry Tomatoes which I liked the sound of the flavours being used. It was the first time I heard of Peppadew Peppers, once researched what they were I knew I would not find them here on the islands. So I decide to create a substitute for the Peppadew Peppers, that was my take on pickled whole peppers.
For my pickled peppers, I used whole peppers (yellow, green and red peppers chopped in largish squares to give vibrancy to the dish), vinegar (balsamic preferably), olive oil, salt, pepper and chopped red onions. I put all the ingredients in a zip lock bag, shook it well and sealed the bag and placed it in the fridge overnight.
On a lined tray, place the pieces of salmon fillet skin down and cover with the pickled peppers. In a preheated oven (180 degrees Celsius Fan) roast the salmon for no more then 10 minutes uncovered. If I say so this dish turned out to be quite successful and was one of the favourites of the night.
Another staple dish at our table is the Christmas Ham, which normally is glazed with a blend of honey, mustard and soya sauce (which I was taught by my mum), this year I decided to go with a cranberry dijon mustard glaze. Cranberries are traditionally used in the US at Thanksgiving and with Turkey at Christmas in the UK, but I thought it would be nice for a change in flavour for the Christmas Ham.
Reduced over the stove was a mixture of cranberries (preferably fresh but dried are fine as well), water, apple cider vinegars, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, honey and dijon mustard. Once the mixture is thoroughly reduced and blend it together and your glaze is ready.
Another new dish I tried this year was sweet potato mash which might not seem to be out of there dish to some people but in Seychelles it is. Sweet potatoes are a staple food in the Seychelles but it isn't eaten as a mash predominantly it is cooked in coconut milk (another post for another day). After steaming the sweet potato chunks, they were mashed along with milk, maple syrup, butter, salt and pepper.
I always never eat on Christmas Eve, because spending the day cooking especially that amount of food I never seem to have an appetite! That I think the greatest part of the festive period is the days that follow and the leftovers that you can enjoy!
Cooking is one of the great gifts you can give to those you love
-Ina Garten
SIDE NOTE: My mum and I came across a very useful website: Cooking Herb Chart which gives a detailed list of which herbs are compatible with each other.High recommend a visit and I even printed the chart to have it at all times when I need inspiration.
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