[recipe testing] my christmas spread
Jan. 13th, 2010 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reikaChristmas feels like ten years ago, so I'm sorry that nobody will really care about this anyway, but I did just want to post this for the record.
In Phiilippine culture, it's expected that the noche buena ("the good night") feast will served on Christmas Eve. It's essentially our version of Thanksgiving, when we bring out lots of good food, including ham, queso de bola, and the Simbang Gabi sweets of puto bumbong and bibingka. Since it was just me and M for Christmas this year, I decided to go the opposite way and to have a intimate and smallish spread for Christmas instead.
This is my Christmas cocktail party: gougeres, various cheeses with olives, cornichons, fruits and nuts, firecracker prawns and lots of wine.
I followed David Leibovitz's [recipe] for gougeres. It was, surprisingly, easy to make these savory puffs. I suppose if you've made eclairs before, it's not really that much of a stretch, but I suppose I'm generally intimidated by recipes where you have to add eggs really quickly to a hot mix. I've never ended up with scrambled eggs in any of the other things that I've tried, but that doesn't mean that I'm not paranoid each time I have to do it.
The firecracker prawn recipe comes from [Yumsugar], and I would definitely recommend it if you're planning a cocktail party or just looking for appetizers. It's super easy to prepare, but the dish comes out to be so tasty. I love recipes that involve a minimum of effort yet yield maximum results. The kicker for this recipe is definitely the hoisin sauce -- so if you can try to get it, do so! It just won't be the same without it.
In Phiilippine culture, it's expected that the noche buena ("the good night") feast will served on Christmas Eve. It's essentially our version of Thanksgiving, when we bring out lots of good food, including ham, queso de bola, and the Simbang Gabi sweets of puto bumbong and bibingka. Since it was just me and M for Christmas this year, I decided to go the opposite way and to have a intimate and smallish spread for Christmas instead.
This is my Christmas cocktail party: gougeres, various cheeses with olives, cornichons, fruits and nuts, firecracker prawns and lots of wine.
I followed David Leibovitz's [recipe] for gougeres. It was, surprisingly, easy to make these savory puffs. I suppose if you've made eclairs before, it's not really that much of a stretch, but I suppose I'm generally intimidated by recipes where you have to add eggs really quickly to a hot mix. I've never ended up with scrambled eggs in any of the other things that I've tried, but that doesn't mean that I'm not paranoid each time I have to do it.
The firecracker prawn recipe comes from [Yumsugar], and I would definitely recommend it if you're planning a cocktail party or just looking for appetizers. It's super easy to prepare, but the dish comes out to be so tasty. I love recipes that involve a minimum of effort yet yield maximum results. The kicker for this recipe is definitely the hoisin sauce -- so if you can try to get it, do so! It just won't be the same without it.