An easy summer Christmas menu

Posted by kathryn in Seasonal Health, Pudding, Dinner parties and Main courses

This is a Christmas menu I developed for Life etc magazine last year.

It’s an easy-summer Christmas menu. Each dish is designed to take no more than ten minutes of preparation and to keep the cook out of the kitchen.

This also makes a light and healthy meal, with a few Christmas treats to follow.

I’ll also post a preparation guide, showing what you can do the day before – to make Christmas day even easier!

The Menu

• Antipasto platter
• Baked cod with lime and summer vegetables
• Roast potato, pumpkin & sweet potato with rosemary
• Berry, ricotta & panettone cake
• Chocolate mascarpone biscuits
• Cranberry, raspberry & lime fizz

Antipasto platter

Serves 4. Make up a platter of antipasto for people to help themselves. Choose from:

• sliced prosciutto or pancetta
• fresh bocconcini or goat’s cheese
• olives
• sliced tomato
• hummous, baba ganoush or other dips
• grossini bread sticks or slices of crusty bread
• cornichons
• stuffed bell peppers or dolmades

Baked cod with lime & summer vegetables

This is an easy and quick meal, cooked in one dish, which saves on washing up! You can prep the whole dish the night before, cover with clingfilm, leave to marinate overnight and then cook it the next day just before serving. Serves 4.

• 200g green beans, stem end cut off
• 2 bunches of asparagus, snapped in half
• 300g snowpeas, stem end snapped off
• 2 punnets cherry tomatoes
• 4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 4 blue-eye cod fillets (sometimes called blue-eye trevalla)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tablespoons pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 2 limes, sliced into wedges

Preheat the oven to 250°C.

Place the vegetables and garlic into a roasting dish. Make four spaces and nestle each piece of fish among the vegetables. Drizzle over the olive oil and sprinkle with pine nuts and capers. Season with salt and pepper and push the lime wedges in amongst the fish and vegetables.

Roast uncovered in the oven for 10 minutes, until the fish and vegetables are cooked. Serve immediately.

Roast potato, pumpkin & sweet potato with rosemary

Serves 4.

• 8 chat or cocktail potatoes, cut in half
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3cm pieces
• 500g jap pumpkin, cut into 3cm pieces
• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

Heat the oven to 250°C. Put a roasting tray in the oven while it is heating up.

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and add the potatoes. After 5 minutes add the sweet potato, and cook for another 5 minutes. Drain and then toss together with the pumpkin, rosemary and olive oil.

Add the vegetables to the roasting tray and cook on the top shelf of the oven for 10 minutes, until roasted. Serve immediately.

Berry, ricotta & panettone cake

Serves 4

• 2 punnets blueberries, washed
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• 1 panettone (about 15cm in diameter)
• 2 tablespoons sherry
• 300g fresh ricotta
• 2 punnets strawberries, washed and stalks removed
• extra icing sugar for dusting

Put the blueberries and icing sugar into a bowl and mix together, mashing slightly. Put to one side (this can be done the night before).

Just before serving cut a thin slice off the bottom of the panettone (discard this). Cut two more slices, about 2cm thick from the base of the panettone. Put one slice on a serving plate and drizzle over the sherry. Spread over half the ricotta and then cover with the blueberries.

Put the other slice of panettone on top and then cover with the rest of the ricotta. Decorate with strawberries and dust with icing sugar. Serve immediately.

Chocolate mascarpone biscuits

Serves 4

• 50g dark chocolate
• 1 tablespoon espresso coffee
• 3 tablespoons mascarpone
• 16 store bought thin butter biscuits
• Silver cachous

Place the chocolate and coffee in a bowl over a saucepan of hot water. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from heat and and the mascarpone, whisk until well combined. Set aside to cool for 30 mins, or overnight.

Cranberry, raspberry & lime fizz

Serves 4

• 1 orange, thinly sliced
• 2 limes, thinly sliced
• 500ml cranberry & raspberry juice (I used a firefighter nudie)
• 500ml Soda Water
• Juice of 2 limes
• Lots of ice

Place fruit in the bottom of a large jug (or individual glasses), add ice. Pour in the lime juice, Firefighter Nudie and soda water. Stir.

Spread chocolate mascarpone mix over one biscuit and sandwich another one on top. Spread a small amount of the mascarpone mix on top and sprinkle with sliver cachous. Repeat for the remaining biscuits.

19 December, 2007