Christmas for 15
Dear Future Andrea & Claudia
This is our now annual letter to ourselves with our notes for planning Christmas 2026. Firstly can we just say well done. Also excellent present giving and Claudia liked a sea of presents. Another great Christmas delivered and our menu continues to slay. The liquor advent calendar was an excellent addition. Firstly some general notes:
Claudia thought Andrea had too much to do. Andrea just thought Claudia just didn’t do her jobs but she did get it all done.
Overall a very relaxing day and we loved the food.
Had a toast station for breakfast (no extra cooking). Good for our off site guests. Loved Christmas champagne - Bill notes it was 2 1/2 bottles. Claudia do not cook pancakes on the day.
Someone needs to sanity check the New World order. I hope you got through those 12l of Milk Claudia & Bill. Having the order delviered on the 23rd was preferable. Ideally in the morning. On the 24th they have run out of things and also well timed for our last supermarket run. On a side note if Victoria Park New World is not under construciton by next Christmas I will be very sad.
Andrea made a timing error by getting some of the mains ready for 1.30pm (our entree start time). This was a dick move for the potato cooker.
Things were very relaxed and we had a swim before lunch.
We loved the KMart cocktail glasses for our prawn cocktails.
It was good to be a long way from the cleanup fighting. Loved this years wolf apron theme.
We had a really big break before dessert. This was awesome but only possible due to no guests.
Had two starch options. Enjoyed potatoes and potatoes.
Max noted the layout of the food table affected how much of things got eaten. Could have used bigger plates. Sauces at end.
The menu was:
Starter
Perfect. No notes. Two 1kg bags of prawns was just enough. Steaming them was the way to go. Eleven people ate this. Pulled Ella’s out early and made GF dressing.
Continues to deliver. Maybe chop the end off the salmon for Penelope. We might have left an ingredient out. Tasty but lacked something Lulu said.
Mains
Eye Fiillet
Well done to Marcus who said to only cook one eye fillet. We ended up cooking a 1.5kg. There weren’t leftovers, but amount seemed okay.
Sous vide the beef for 1 hour 15 minutes and kept in chillibin. This worked well. BBQ at end.
Served with bernaise. An excellent addition. Did not miss the red wine sauce. Worked well with the salsa verde.
Glaze was great this year. Doubled recipe. Was a very big ham (8kg). It was a Farmland NZ Glazing Champagne Ham.
Do the ham in a tinfoil tray.
So last year we didn’t have quite enough of this for left overs and this year far too much. We did a very large side. A small one would have been fine for 13 of us. We had a freshwater one. It was delicious.
On reflection the salmon wasn’t a bad size. We do need a large one if 15 people.
This is a dish that could be swapped out if we wanted a change, but agreed that salmon in general is a good balance to the meal.
Crispy Potatoes
Cooked 2kg. Did less as Marcus was doing his cheesey ones. Definetely needed more.
Claudia parboiled and left covered in tea towel for 15 minutes and then put in fridge. She used a blunt knife to crack (the “Fanny Chop”). Cooked in duckfat. 10/10. Thanks Marcus.
Claudia thinks the “Fanny Chop” is a GAMECHANGER. She wants to buy the knives for her and Marcus.
These were an addition begged for by the children. Marcus made 24. There were five leftover. Was just over 2kg of potatoes.
Everyone was united in their hatred of cleaning muffin tins. Maybe try some silicone ones.
Marcus says he needs proper double cream.
Suggestion to rotate with macaroni cheese which is Penelope’s ultimate wish. To be discussed.
One each is good. Sylvia ate four.
Ottolenghi Green Bean and Mustard Seed Salad
Can be prepped day before.
Agreed that we need to keep some sort of green bean dish.
Large (ok sized container) left over. Used 750g beans, 400g peas and only had 100g snowpeas. All good.
Antonio Caluccio Capsicum Salad
Can be done the night before.
Another thing that could be changed out if another dish presented, but is loved by some (especially Claudia, but not Andrea).
Avocado & Strawberry Salad with Candied Peacans
Single size is correct. Leave feta out.
If another show stopper salad came up could change. Noted that Sylvia HATES strawberries and Ted doesn’t love it. I think he’s being judgey. Max says everyone else likes it.
Marcella Hazan Salsa Verde
Doubled it.
Had sucess keeping egg yolks in water for a day. Good with other stuff.
This is also a GAMECHANGER says Claudia.
Dessert
Delia Smith Triffle
AJ’s gluten free sponge was a disaster due to siri fucking her over. We added in a store bought one.
Ella said her individual triffle was amazing.
Claudia is non-negotiable on triffle. Andrea hates peaches. Claudia will consider making the OG triffle recipe with banana instead although Sylvia does hate bananas.
Claudia didn’t like the thermomix custard recipe.
Used Pedro Ximénez sherry again. Continues to be excellent.
No notes. Helen thought the oven contained to much residual heat but we liked it. Was nice and crisp and marshmellowy. Leave pomoegranite for pav.
Bill Small’s Christmas Pudding and brandy butter. Too much brandy in the brandy butter. Thermomix did a good job of mixing however. Try 5-6T.
Also had strawberries and fresh cherries.
General Notes
Table decorations were great. They are in the Xmas boxes at Claudia’s. AJ need to bring her table weights. Getting the silver out the day before was also good.
AJ made lots of our sauces and dressings the day before.
Having two ovens made things work better. Also being able to glaze while doing presents also worked well.
We had a steam oven and a “dry” oven on the day. Bill noted this would be good to do in the days leading up to Christmas.