Dancing on My Table

I’m a great fan of Christmas because it gives the family a focus and brings everyone together – I uphold any celebration that does this.

And I have fond memories of my childhood – I’m the youngest of 10 children and our Christmases were amazing – we always had an enormous freshly-felled pine tree the tip of which touched the high-studded ceiling. More impressively for me and all my siblings, the presents stretched right across the room – you could barely walk in the large sitting room for fear of standing on something. I have no idea how my parents made their meager earnings stretch so far, but no one went without, and I always thought I was the luckiest girl alive when I received a new doll, or a plaything. One of the best presents I received was a golden-haired doll with eyes that blinked. My sister was jealous because, she’s a blonde and she was given a similar doll with blinking eyes but with short brunette hair. Oh the fights! The other best present was a toy cake mixer with a button that made little beaters go round and round. It was just gorgeous.

My father really came into his own at Christmas-time. Once all the glasses of milk and biscuits which dad eventually managed to persuade us to change to bottles of beer, had been left for Santa, and he had got us off to bed, we were usually helped on our way with a swig of something strong and ‘medicinal’, it was after midnight, and he sat up preparing bags and bags of sweets and surprises for our stockings. He got dressed up and darted in and out of our rooms delivering stockings – he never got caught – but his answer was at the ready had he been: there were so many of us that he had to give Santa a hand!

We also had the house decorated to the nines, with hand-made streamers strewn everywhere, and Xmas-tree lights, which were the bane of my father’s life, because, with old tree lights, you may remember, if one light went, it caused the whole string of them to go, so you had to methodically work through every light until you found the dodgy one. The lights were beautiful, bells and balls, all glass and painted, not like the plastic ones you get today. Dad also made a huge wooden Santa silhouette with ‘feet’ that he would ‘plant’ in the front lawn every Christmas. No one ever stole things in those days – the Santa was put out every year, and packed up safely at the end of the silly season, bikes were strewn on the front lawn and forgotten about until the following morning. It was safe back then and everyone knew their neighbours, especially the women because they chatted over the back fences while they hung up the washing.

Our Xmas-day feast was all about roasted meats, roasted vegetables, new potatoes and fresh peas and beans from the garden. My sisters and I would sit in the sun – it was always sunny on Xmas day – shelling peas, eating as many as we shelled. There was usually a roast of lamb or pork, roasted kumara and pumpkin, and always a ham. My father would scrub out the old stone ‘copper’ in the wash house and cook the ham in it by lighting a fire underneath it and keeping the fire ticking along for the several or so hours it took to cook the ham. He loved ham. And that brings me to traditions.

My dad is now 96- 97 this coming Februrary. He still loves ham. He spends Christmas day with us every year. I gather together the stray ones in the family, those who have lost their loved ones, or those who are now single. This year it’s just a small group of 8, but dad will at least get to spend the day with 4 of his children, and that’s what he loves.

Whenever I think about what to cook for Christmas day, the starting point has to be the ham. I sometimes think I’ll flag it, but then I think of dad. I sometimes think we’ll have the ham then, and anything else I care to cook, but then I think of dad, and I always come back to what he loves most, that is, ham with plenty of mustard, new potatoes, fresh peas and beans. I usually get carrots in there, too.

I still cook a turkey, sometimes, depending on how many I am cooking for, a leg of pork, or other meats – I have done little baby chickens before – but turkey seems to be the most sort after dish. And I’ve started a tradition of my own which I guess now I will never be able to break: the stuffing. I make double quantity of a really delicious stuffing and use some to stuff the turkey and the rest I shape into balls and cook quickly until they’re golden and crunchy. My children beg me for them. They go nuts about them. They love stuffing balls more than anything in the world. So, of course we will have stuffing balls.

I also make some little sweet bits and pieces, such as German almond biscuits cut in the shape of stars and glazed with egg white and icing sugar which puffs up as they cook and looks like snow. These are actually called zimsterne, but we just call them star biccies because that’s what the kids called them when they were young. I also make some gorgeous walnut and chocolate balls the recipe given to me by a Czech woman years ago. And I make mince pies and a Christmas cake.

On the surface it may seem a bit ho-hum – nothing exceptional here, but it is so steeped in years of family love and tradition that I can’t waver from it. I am not sure what I will do when dad is no longer with us.

On reflection, in my magazines, I do all manner of non-traditional Christmas menus, and these we eat with relish, but I’m usually preparing these in September or October, so it’s like we’ve had ten Christmases by the time it really does come around. This year I have done an all-seafood menu, which is stunning, and various dishes with veal, chicken, lamb and pork in the magazines, but we’ll be eating traditional food in our house. We usually start with a bit of Italian flare, with melon and prosciutto, good croissants, panettone, and maybe a glass of light bubbly, just my husband and two children. This is around 11.00am, then the family arrives about 2.00pm the main meal is served about 5.00pm – and we party into the night, sending dad home in a cab, and the others staying over.

Boxing day is different, we spend it with our closest group of old friends (truly old, now!), and we do a joint-meal, with leftovers. It’s always interesting to see what they’ve had at their various family celebrations. They’re all great cooks, but mostly, they have traditional fare.

For something different, try this stunning Fillet of beef studded with mortadella and pistachio nuts, and finish with the most impressive dessert I’ve ever created, Choux pastry tree with white chocolate and raspberries.

There are heaps more Christmas recipes on my site, including Pavarotti’s ham – the ham I cooked for Signor Luciano Pavarotti when he came to NZ in 1999 – turkey breast in verjuice with green grapes and almonds,quick mince pies, chocolate mince pies and my stunning meringue mountain with strawberries.

These are just the thing when you want a substantial and scrumptious nibble watch them disappear! Serve hot, wrapped in lettuce leaves, with a smattering of fresh herbs, sliced chilli and a splash of sweet chilli sauce.

These are great for brunch or as an accompaniment to fish or bacon.

These are a little messy to eat as finger-food, but they’re so good that nobody minds the dribbles! Serve them on plates as a starter, or cut them in half or into thirds to serve with drinks.

Pizza on the barbecue – if you don’t have a pizza oven, this is the way to go. You’ll get a crispier base browning it on the barbecue grill than cooking it in the oven. If you want to make meatless pizzas, substitute grilled artichokes for the chorizo or sausages.

Bread is a great addition to a salad, especially if its crunchy. It may not be authentic to toast the bread for this Lebanese salad, but it tastes so much nicer! Extend the salad by adding canned or barbecued fresh tuna or other barbecued fish or chicken fillets.

This is a cheats Semifreddo (theres no gelatine used) but the texture of the little turned-out desserts is velvety and smooth. And, yes, they wobble just as they should (like a young womans breasts).

This Syrian walnut and roasted red pepper dip is utterly delicious. Serve it as a dip with hot puffy pita breads at the start of a barbecue gathering, or to accompany barbecued chicken or lamb dishes.

The briny taste of green olives goes well with avocado oil and is offset with the sweet taste of tomatoes and peppery anise flavor basil. The kebabs can be skewered several hours ahead. Serve them with crusty bread and a rocket salad.

Lamb and aubergine is a legendary combination think moussaka but its even better with the tang of tomatoes and punch of garlic and lemon. Lamb backstraps arent cheap (theyre a prime cut), but in a salad like this, a little goes a long way.

Early September I went off to Sydney for the Fine Food fare. This event is not open to the public, it’s Trade Only, and it was good to see so many Kiwi food and drink producers there plying their products, or tasting what the Aussies had to offer.I tended to stick around the Spanish stand because they kept on offering me samples of Iberico ham. After my tenth visit I think they sussed that I was the same person coming back again and again (you probably know the usual disguises for such stunts: glasses on, glasses off, sunglasses on, jacket on, jacket off, hair up, hair down). But it’s gorgeous stuff and I can’t be blamed for being a a pig over pig. And I love the story of the ham as much as I love the ham. Iberico ham comes from a primitive breed of pigs that only exist in Spain. They’ve got black hooves and their legs are slimmer than those of pigs used to produce Serrano ham (Serrano ham is not as expensive as Iberico ham, but it’s still scrumptious). There are three types of these black-footed pigs (cebo, recebo and bellota), and the bellota (say bay-otta) pigs, the best of the lot, feed on aromatic herbs and acorns. You know you are going to love it when they tell you stories like that.

But I reckon you can taste it in the ham – it’s very savoury, and not as sweet as some other hams. The texture of the meat is not as fine and soft as prosciutto, it’s a little coarser, meatier, gruntier!!! Fat is marbled throughout the meat, unlike prosciutto which has a collar of silky fat around the edges of the premium slices. It makes for a very satisfying mouthful of salt, savoury, sweet and fat. Yum!!! You’ll want more. You’ll hop in the queue at food fairs to try it, doning disguises like me, I betcha! And the good thing is, you don’t have to concern yourself too much about the fat content as the fat of Iberico piggies is rich in unsaturated fatty acids that are good for us. Slice away!

Opting for lunch at Sala One Nine, instead of dinner the previous evening, was a good choice because lunch at Tarallucci is a more casual affair (it’s a great stop for a breakfast coffee and croissant, too; see previous blog). Sala at lunch was full and buzzy but not bursting at the seams like the night before. There’s a fading grandeur about the place – crumbling walls, old gold baroquish ceiling, ornate glittering lights and scrubbed wooden floor – which is hip and modern, and even if it is manufactured, it somehow feels authentic. Bread was delivered – a generous chunk partially sliced which brought into play the ritual of breaking bread. Nice. The dark crust was thick and leathery, chewy and wholesome, yeasty, malty, almost like beer. Then came four superb dishes. First, croquettas, golden orbs, crisp-crusted, filled with potato, ham and a melting cheese centre – hot, salty, creamy and crunchy.

A generous dish of alcachofas con jamon (artichokes from Navarra with ham) were gloriously tender, rich and oily (and don’t you love it when someone has got rid of all the prickly bits for you), with the ham providing a nice salty kick, but oilier still, were gambas al ajillo– shelled plump pink shrimps with heaps of chopped garlic and a few dried pointy chillies.

The remaining bread found it’s home in the bath of richly flavoured oil. We were dunking and slurping and purring like kittens when the final dish lomo adobado arrived, a sandwich of crusty bread stuffed with pork sirloin marinated in adobo sauce, gruyere and roasted piquillo peppers. The peppers lent a smoky slightly piquant briny taste to the dish which balanced the sweetness of the pork.

Everything we ate was simply delicious – an overworked word I know, but sometimes it is the only one to sum up the depth of gorgeous flavours, the perfect execution of the dish, the visual enticement and tantalizing smells. Although I am sure we would have enjoyed any number of dishes on the menu and that’s without even going near the ubiquitous tortilla Espanola or patatas bravas (I’m going back for the white anchovies), we could go no further as we had to dash to catch a flight. It was a bit of a speed-feed but all up, one of the best tapas feasts I have had out of Spain. If you’re in New York, don’t miss it. And for a nice little touch, order the same wine as us, a bottle of Cable Bay Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand.

Sala One Nine
35 West 19th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenue)
New York Tel 212 229-2300

With groaning stomachs, we sped to the airport and me on to my brother’s place in Boston, to finish the day with a dish of larb (a Thai salad of minced meat, chicken in this case, mint, chilli, and salad greens) followed by a slice of my German sister-in-law Dolores’ famous cheesecake (I’ll post the recipe soon). How’s that for a global 24 hour’s eating? Italian, Spanish, Thai, German. Next day? Diet.

I wish! Actually, got on the Air New Zealand flight from San Fran to Auckland, a 13-hour longhaul, and usual story, I wasn’t going to eat until the menu came around. I couldn’t resist the starter of a little square of baked parmesan ricotta cake with a salad of yellow beets, mache (lamb’s tongues), smoked almonds and pomegranate seeds, with a pomegranate molasses and avocado oil dressing. It was so fresh and citrusy with zingy little bits of pomegranate exploding on the tongue, the earthy taste of beets and bite of salty smoky nuts…. And it was all gobbled up too soon. I got on a roll, as is my want, and ordered a Spy Valley sauvignon blanc (I’d just flown Boston to San Francisco on United where I was offered ‘white’ wine, a dubious chardonnay, or ‘red’ which was a malbec, which was, let’s say, drinkable, – Air NZ had a choice of at least 6 wines and the sauvignon was bright, crisp and fruity, a perfect match for the appetizer). I switched to pinot noir for the lamb, and what a great match that made with a slightly peppery lamb loin served pink, with shredded braised lamb shank alongside, sweet potatoes and a spinach custard. You’ll hear me say this often: you can’t expect food in the sky to taste as good as food in a restaurant, because of the practicalities (it’s food in numbers which must be prepared in advance, sometimes partially cooked then blast chilled, which then has to pass rigorous bacterial checks, it’s then transported and kept chilled until just prior to reheating or serving, among many other considerations), but Air NZ gets as close as you can to serving up tasty well made food across their menus, with occasional stunning results. Highly recommended as an airline.

Now for me, it’s a brisk walk around the neighborhood to drink in some lovely spring air…and to stop that padding on the thighs taking hold!!!