TO ALL CHRISTMAS DINNER COOKING HOME CHEFS, PART 2

CHRISTMAS IS COMING SOON

When you have read part 1 of Christmas is coming soon, I assume that you are convinced that pre-preparation of your Christmas dinner with the vacuum method works. 

There is usually a bit more to a Christmas dinner than a main course, even though your main course is and should be the highlight of the evening.

But you will most likely also have one or two starters and a dessert to complete the menu and to make Christmas dinner a true feast and memorable to look back at.

Let me refer back to some parts of part 1 of my Christmas article.

I mentioned that we all tend to overdo Christmas dinners and make them  lavish. It is perfectly okay to be lavish during Christmas though but if you put in a lot of effort and your efforts result in being futile, there is no gain for anybody. 

I would like to  therefore give you some tips to choose your menu wisely and proportionately.

An average adult consumes between 700 grams and 1 kilo of food during a dinner with a starter, main course and dessert.

This fact is calculated per meal segment. 

Starter 150 grams

Meat (or other protein) 175 grams

Vegetables 200 grams

Potato (or other carbohydrates) 150 grams

Dessert 150 grams

Drink 150 ml

These segments combined total up to 975 grams.

But it is Christmas and we are allowed to indulge our self. Enjoy the occasion and be merry and happy, so keep the above list just in mind when you shop.

If you plan for ten people for example, this list will help you not to break your wallet .

A turkey will give you between 50 and 55% of meat in a raw state, cooking loss will be 

10 to 15 %.

So for ten people you need approximately 2 kilos of meat, which a 5 kilo turkey will give you and you do not need an 8 kilo turkey because you are afraid that you do not have enough.

For hard vegetables like the parsnip, Brussels sprouts, carrots and red cabbage you can calculate a weight loss of 10 to 12 % from the raw weight due to peeling and cleaning. Cooking loss is negligible for these types of vegetables.

Same percentage of weight loss can be used for the potatoes.

Now back to my menu.

Whole Roast Turkey with a Sauce of mixed Berries and Port Wine

Garden Herbs infused Roast Potatoes

Assorted Garden Vegetables

Roasted Chestnuts

Christmas stuffing 

Having done your pre-preparation with the vacuum method as explained in part 1, all you need to do on Christmas day is to place your turkey in the oven and you need about ½ an hour to finish the condiments, roughly 1 hour in the kitchen.

So there is time to complete your dinner with a starter and a dessert.

Let’s fill in some ideas.

When planning a menu one should always keep variety in mind, when your main course is meat choose a starter with vegetables or fish.

Think also about shapes, color and textures of the dishes to serve.

It happens to be that I am in charge of the selection of dishes in this article and I love fish. So I choose a surprising fish based starter.

Quite easy to make and best of all it can be made in advance. I keep in mind that chefs also celebrate Christmas

My starter:  

SMOKED SALMON SOUFFLE   (serves 6)

Soufflé always sounds a bit scary but do not worry about this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

40 Gr Butter

25 Gr All purpose flour

300 Ml Milk

85 Gr Philadelphia cream cheese

2 Tsp Chopped dill

3 Nos Egg

85 Gr Smoked Salmon (chopped)

Zest of ½ Lemon

To Finish:

6 Tbsp Crème Fraiche

6 Small Smoked Salmon slices

Twigs of dill, some color full winter salad leaves

METHOD: 

Place the butter, milk and flour in a saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring on medium heat.

When the mixture boils lower the heat and add the cheese bit by bit and the chopped dill, mix well to incorporate.

When the cheese is incorporated turn off the heat and add the eggs one by one.

Add the chopped smoked salmon and lemon zest.

Pre-heat an oven to 180 -200 Celsius or

Grease six ramekin moulds and cover the base with grease paper.

Divide your mixture over the six mould about ¾ full.

Place the moulds in an ovenproof tray and place in the oven, fill the tray half way full with hot water.

Bake for 15 minutes uncovered.

You will see that the mixture rises above the edge of the mould.

Remove from the oven and let cool, the mixture will now sink somewhat, that is ok.

When the soufflés, have cooled down cover them and store with the moulds in the refrigerator.

You can do this up to two days in advance.

To finish the dish before you serve: 

Remove the soufflés from the moulds. If needed move a small knife around the inside of the moulds. The grease paper on the bottom of the moulds will help the removal.

Pre-heat your oven to 180– 200 Celsius or between 350 and 390 F

Place the soufflés on a baking tray, top with a tablespoon of crème fraiche each and bake for ten to fifteen minutes or until the soufflés puff up.

Place some of the color full leaves on a plate, then the soufflé, top with a slice of smoked salmon and a twig of dill

Serve warm.           

      

Main course:

Best is to follow the cooking instructions given by the turkey supplier, some have a pop-up pin and sometimes there are cooking times given.

I explained how to finish the vegetables, sauce and potatoes after you have pre-prepared and vacuumed them in part 1.

That leaves us with a dessert, personally I prefer to use something easy, something that you just have to place on the table.

Remember that you will be also somewhat poofed after the main course.

Besides, desserts are usually quite tedious and time consuming to make. 

I advise therefore buy a nice Christmas cake or log.

After or with that coffee, some pralines and the whole family, including you, can lean back very satisfied.

You will have a great Christmas dinner this way.

Pre-preparation and vacuuming an important and time consuming part of your dinner has saved you a lot of time on Christmas day. 

Go for it.  

Written for PMG 

By Professional Chef Marinus Hoogendoorn 

Culinary expert in recipe development. 

www.vacupack.com

   

CAN SOUS-VIDE COOKING MAKE A HOME CHEF FAMOUS

 CAN SOUS-VIDE COOKING MAKE A HOME CHEF FAMOUS

Ok, you have invited some of your best friends for dinner, now you need to decide what to cook to prove that you have the quality of a professional chef.

You are not the most experienced chef and spending hours of preparation time is not your thing also.

Well sous-vide cooking is your best friend or will definitely become your best friend after you have given this cooking method a try. And that try is so easy to do.

Sous-vide, it sounds soft and sweet like the finished products it achieves, means nothing more than “cooking in vacuum”.

Sous-vide has taken professional restaurant cooking by storm over the years. It can now turn your home kitchen to a level you never imagined.   

All you need is a vacuum sealer, good quality vacuum bags, a stockpot and a digital thermometer. 

This will do for starting sous-vide cooks. When you fall in love with the concept and you will, believe me, you may want to invest in a thermal water circulator.

The whole secret is to bring meats and vegetables in a vacuum sealed bag under low temperatures in a hot water bath, to the desired serving temperature. 

To achieve this part of the process, you need a good quality thermometer and a bit of effort to keep that temperature steady. 

Once the serving temperature has been reached and that may vary, pending on the cut of meat you use, you need to keep that temperature steady. Preferably you should not have any variation in temperatures and maintain the temperature within the range of one degree Celsius in temperature.

This can be a bit tricky but with a bit of dedication you can overcome this hurdle.

A good way of keeping temperatures of water steady is to keep the water moving or swirling, I know of people who use a small aquarium pump for this, the pump creates bubbles and swirls the water, it proves to be a really good tool.       

To keep things simple, let’s take an example, a sirloin steak of 2.5 cm or 1 inch thickness.

Season the steak to your liking, salt, pepper, a rosemary twig, onions, garlic, the choice is yours.   

Place the steak in a vacuum bag and vacuum seal the bag, using one steak per bag.

A good quality vacuum bag is important. This is to avoid any leaking if or when the bag submerges in the water bath. 

Now you need to heat your water. 

There are many guides about sous-vide cooking temperatures and times but for the steak in our example you can follow this guide.  

A rare steak 120 F or  49 Celsius

A medium rare steak 130 F or  56 Celsius

A medium steak 140 F or  60 Celsius

A medium well steak 150 F or  65.5 Celsius

A well done steak 160 F or  71 Celsius

It will take about 45 minutes for a steak of this size, straight from your fridge, to reach this temperature.

Now here is the good part, if your guests are an hour late, no problem. Just leave the bag with the steak in the water and it will be perfect, but make sure your temperature is steady.

When you are ready to serve, remove the bag from the water, take the steak out of the bag and let it rest for 1 or 2 minutes, the slow sous-vide cooking method ensures that the steak is evenly cooked so there is no need for a long resting time for redistribution of juices.

The only, little, disadvantage of sous-vide cooking is that the method does not brown your meat.

To get a perfect looking steak on a plate just pan sear the steak in a hot pan with a little oil until nicely browned on both sides. This will take about 30 seconds on each side.

And there you are, the perfect steak. 

Five minutes preparation time, more time to greet and chit chat with invited friends or family and the applauses are all yours.

Once you have mastered the temperature control, sous-vide cooking will become an integral part of your cooking adventures. I am sure of that. 

Written for PMG 
By Chef Marinus Hoogendoorn 

Culinary expert in recipe development and proof reading.

https://www.vacupack.ca