Umami Christmas

It’s all about balance

When you will have had all the rich seafoods, hams, creamy cheeses and desserts with impactful exotic wines, the next day it'll be brown rice and soy that I crave.

What I've recommended here are food and wine suggestions for the days between the big celebrations, where time slows down, you have to pivot leftovers. Try more savoury and umami flavours to recalibrate the senses. "We wish you 'n umami Christmas........."

Create your own Umami holiday period

Keep some traditions and create some new ones (for leftovers I mean.) What are your favourites?

USEFUL TIPS

Have some handy puff pastry in the freezer and a well stocked pantry.

Get your butcher to cryovac your meats to extend their shelf life, try not to double up on the same flavours too much, have some pork mince on hand or in the freezer for a quick tasty meal or meat loaf and employ some shortcuts if you can.

Starters

MARBLED EGGS + SOY, SESAME MAYONNAISE

Nigella made devilled eggs sexy again but when you have more  tea than you can drink, tea soaked eggs transform the humble boiled egg into a work of art.

Best served with 2017 Bloodwood Riesling. Also with 2017 Bloodwood Schubert

Ingredients

• 12 eggs

• 1 cup tea leaves

• Mustard micro herbs /greens

See this SBS writer who has improved on the recipe I was going to give you. https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2020/11/19/way-my-grandmother-instilled-my-love-tea-eggs

Mayonaise

• Egg yolks

• Grape seed oil and peanut oil mix and splash of sesame oil

• Mustard powder

• Soy sauce

• Ginger juice (grate ginger and squeeze out juice from the pulp)

• Sushi rice vinegar

• Seasoning to taste

Make your own.  (Early cookbooks used to list ingredients and not detail the method as most were supposed to know what to do. Here I've been brief and followed their example. You have the internet at your disposal.)  

Method

Boil to soft yolk stage, cool and crack the shell and refer to the SBS recipe or others you prefer

Shortcuts

Buy mayonnaise. Tried S & M whole egg mayonnaise and it is so salty. Try to add low salt Tamari or the less salty dark soy to keep the level down. Reckon kewpie mayo would be just as salty. Stir in those umami flavours.

Serve like sang choi bau i.e.  egg half in a lettuce leaf with a cover of mayonnaise and mustard micro herbs on top. 

Starters

ONE BIG CANAPE  

Don't bother mucking about with fiddly little bite sized morsels. One per person is all you need for these but it'd be best to consume them whilst sitting. For an extra bit of bling, splurge with the caviar.

 Serve with 2017 Bloodwood Riesling  or if you have some in stock icy cold 2009 Bloodwood Chirac

Ingredients

• Corn tortilla (entree plate sized)

• Enough light oil to shallow fry the tortillas

• Avocado

• Smoked trout (de-boned and flaked)

• Sour cream

• Lime juice

• Mini tomatoes

• Cucumber (finely chopped)

• Spring onions, coriander, garlic and chilli (all finely chopped)

 GARNISH OPTIONAL

• Salmon caviar

Method

Shallow fry the corn tortilla and drain on absorbent paper. 

Mash the avocado, add lime juice salt and pepper. Cover with a thin layer of sour cream and top with decorative bits of tiny tomatoes, cucumber, flaked smoked trout, appropriate herbs and perhaps salmon caviar

Shortcuts

Again this is more food arranging rather than cooking.

Entree

TURKEY and SUN DRIED TOMATO SALAD

Yep, it is time to resurrect the sun dried tomato and experience their intense umami flavours. I enjoy the taste of turkey but not the texture - it can be a bit like eating cardboard. Marinate it in the dressing to moisten the meat if roasting made it too dry.

Serve with 2017 Bloodwood Schubert, 2016 Bloodwood Pinot Noir* or 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon. Not bad with the 2014 Merlot Noir* either.

(*only available by phoning Bloodwood or at the cellar door)

Ingredients

• Left over turkey, shredded

• Sun-dried tomatoes quartered (moisten with a touch of hot just boiled water if they are too mouth puckeringly dry)

• Pine nuts (toasted)

• Greens eg lettuce, basil leaves, rocket, raddichio,

• A couple of radishes thinly sliced

• 1 Zucchini thinly sliced also

DRESSING

• Olive oil

• 1 t grainy mustard

• a splash of the wine you are drinking (harsh acidity here adversely affects the taste of the wine) 

Method

Shred turkey into bite sized pieces,

Sun-dried tomatoes (soaked in scant warm water if they are achingly dry.)

Have your nuts already toasted in a jar (ie bake for 10 mins in an 150 degree oven then cool.)

This isn't cooking, just food assembly. You know how to arrange a salad.

Shortcuts

TURKEY TACOS

The success in pivoting left-overs is using dramatic spice here. Leftover turkey is transformed with Mexican spice. Add some Taco shells, shredded lettuce and grated cheese, sour cream and avocado and you have a delicious meal.

Serve with 2017 Bloodwood Schubert, 2014 Merlot Noir (cellar door only) or 2015 Cabernet Franc. Not far behind are our 2017 Riesling or 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon.

INGREDIENTS,

• Leftover turkey, shredded and warmed through with Mexican spice

• Cheese grated

• Lettuce shredded

• Runny sour cream

• Avocado (optional)

• Taco shells

Method

Mexican spice mix ie sweet paprika and tomato

(readily obtained from the supermarket)

Prepare all the extras

Entrée

SEARED THINLY SLICED BEEF, TAHINI and MISO with SOBA NOODLES

Serve with 2016 Bloodwood Pinot Noir and 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon

Ingredients

• Scotch fillet of beef cut thinly across the grain, (easier to cut meat semi frozen )

• 2 T Peanut oil and 2 T sesame oil

• Ground black pepper

• 1 t miso

• 1 t tahini

• dash of Tamari

• hot water

• 1 packet organic soba noodles

• 1 large carrot (peeled and thinly sliced like noodles)

• 2 spring onions ( sliced thinly like noodles)

• 8 slices air dried beef (sliced thinly like noodles )

• 1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds

Method

Boil the noodles in salted water. At the last minute throw in the carrot to blanche it. Drain noodles when cooked and run cold water over them to stop them from

clumping. Drain well and toss into a big enough bowl with 1 T each of peanut and sesame oil. Season with ground pepper and mix through.

Sauce

Mix the tahini, miso and dash of Tamari with enough hot water to give the mix a runny cream like consistency. Pour over the noodles and toss through.  

* NOTE You can serve these noodles hot, warm or cold. I prefer cold noodles and just seared beef. (Also substitute slivers of left over ham for the beef)

Shortcuts

You can have the noodles already cooked and slightly oiled to stop it sticking

Entrée

DUCK RILLETTES and BEETROOT  RELISH on oven dried baguette slices

Fabulous beetroot, sweet and earthy with some tang. Mum always kept a large jar of her pickled beetroots in the fridge. (I even enjoy tinned beetroot to this day.) This grated relish is easy to manage on sandwiches. 

Serve with 2016 Bloodwood Pinot Noir, 2015 Cabernet Franc, 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, pretty good with 2014 Merlot Noir and 2017 Schubert too.

Ingredients

• Duck Confit

• Left-over roast duck meat

• Duck fat

• Beetroot Relish

• 1 red onion (sliced)

• 1 carrot (grated)

• 3 large beetroot (cooked peeled and grated)

• 1T olive oil

• 1 orange (rind and juice)

• 2 t ras el hanout

• 1 t sumac

• 1 T pomegranate molasses

• 2T beetroot vinegar

• 1/3 cup of brown sugar

• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Long slow cook the duck meat in the duck fat until it easily shreds with 2 forks.

Season if necessary and pot the meat under the fat and leave in the fridge for later use.

Serve duck on oven dried thin slivers of day old baguette topped with beetroot relish.

Sauté red onion and carrot until cooked. Add beetroot and spices, flavourings and the rest of ingredients. Keep stirring until all is mixed throughly and the liquid reduces. Store in a jar in the fridge.

Shortcuts

Buy a jar of duck rillettes from Essential Ingredient

DUCK RILLETTES STUFFED PASTA with MUSHROOMS or DUCK RILLETTES and MUSHROOM PASTA

Entrée

Serve with 2016 Bloodwood  Riesling,  2017 Bloodwood Schubert

Shortcuts

Buy the mushroom pasta from Harris Farm, Duck Rillettes from Essential Ingredient

Entree

Lamb cutlets

A.k.a. lamb lollipops, expensive little buggers, more than $6 each for just one delicious bite.

As children, we used to have roast lamb legs for every Sunday lunch and chicken once a year at Christmas. But you had to kill your chicken first. There are so many recipes for chicken for every night of the year. The price of lamb is too prohibitive to enjoy quite so regularly.

So this year we are going to feast on marinated lamb cutlets as our rare and exotic fare. 

Serve with 2015 Bloodwood Cabernet Franc

Ingredients

• 3 "French-ed" lamb cutlets per person- ask your butcher to do this for you.

• 1/2 cup of hazelnut Dukka

•  1/2 cup of Greek yoghurt (salted and with 1 clove of garlic crushed and mixed in)

• Some pommegranate seeds and coriander leaf to garnish

Method

Season and sauté oiled chops in a pan or place on a grill. Cook to your degree of doneness.

Shortcuts

Ottolenghi without the multitude of ingredients. Treat these as a post marinade. Buy some dukka and dip the lamb lollipops in the garlic yoghurt then the dukka post cooking. No double dipping  now.

CHEESE

TRUFFLE PECORINO

A sheep's cheese that is not fatty so much as a touch oily.

The smell is grassy with earthy tones of truffle with a garlicky nutty flavour- just perfect with the Pinot Noir and Riesling.  This truffle Pecorino is almost as good with the 2014 Merlot Noir, 2015 Caberent Franc and 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon. Least of all with the 2017 Schubert, it's ok but not as good as the others.  Shave the Pecorino to get maximum flavour without the bulk.

Serve with 2016 Bloodwood Pinot Noir  or 2017 Riesling

Ingredients @ Essential Ingredient or Harris Farm

Dessert

Apricot fruit crostata

FRUIT CROSTADA 

Apricots and flaked almonds or all use all red fruits like rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, redcurrants and cherries

Serve Apricots Crostada with Bloodwood 2016 Silk Purse.  A red fruits Crostada would be too rich for the dessert wine. Accompany it with Pinot Noir cherry ice cream instead.

Ingredients

Sheet of puff pastry

FRUITS -your choice.

Almond frangipane or just flaked almonds. Maybe cook the apricots first (and drain off the syrup as it makes the bottom of the pastry soggy. Dust with icing sugar.  Serve with whipped cream.

Shortcuts

Buy the pastry sheets already rolled.