My Christmas Table 2012 – Christmas Eve dinner

It’s that time of the year again! Yay. I hope all my readers a very Merry Christmas and hope everyone can enjoy the fantastic break with some SA produced food and drinks to support our local farmers too. Anyway, getting back to the topic for this post, what’s on my table for tonight. Well, heaps of things. All of them are home made using ingredients that are mainly locally produced and are available in Adelaide’s markets.

Menu

Antipasto

1. {Front Left}

Home style preserved chargrilled eggplant – made using SA eggplant, well char-ed and marinated in extra virgin olive oil with various herbs for a week. Serve at room temperature. I’ll have a separate blog for the recipe. In terms of taste, the char-ed eggplant and soft with smooth texture. The smokiness and mint and tarragon smell combined very well on nose. 😀 I love it!

Barossa Fine Food Duck terrine with jalapeno – I’ve reviewed the duck terrine before so I’ll not waste my words here. The jalapeno is my fav. one from Sandhurst Fine Food. The chilli hot flavour is well planted in the duck terrine’s soil and brought much more flavours than just hot!

2. {Front Center}

Huon Smoked salmon with dill and sour cream

and

Hot and spicy twiggy sticks salami – Hot, dry and very tasty!

Luigi guffanti gorgonzola piccante – This is an Italian blue vein from the Smelly Cheese Shop. It is a very very very delicious cheese. With a strong peachy and fruity taste, the blue vein was nicely grown in the cheese. It is a bit salty but other flavours of the cheese complemented the saltiness well. Highly recommended! {Adelaidefoodies recommended}

3. {Front Right}

Marinated mushrooms – These mushrooms were preserved in the same way as I mentioned before, but I added tarragon once they  were in the preserving bottle. The tarragon flavour was fully soaked out in the mother juice and diffused into the olives well. Yum!

Always Fresh sundried tomatoes – well dried tomatoes giving a mediterranean flavour with an Aussie twist. Sour and tasty.

Entree

Grilled octopus with citrus and fennel salad – an Italian styled salad using premium grilled octopus from Samtass Bro Seafood. The octopus was juicy, tender and moist even after grilling. The salad contained fennel, orange and grapefruit and gave sweet, bitter and strong aromatic flavours. The two parts of the salad did a successful job together and with my secret vinaigrette, the sour taste was well promoted and implemented into the dish. So delish!  I’ll have a separate post on detailed steps of this dish soon.

Main Course

1. Australian Meat Trio platter

Chargrilled Beef Rib eye with truffle salt – The beef is from Angus Pure, a premium beef company based in Sydney but offers great SA angus beef from the Riverland nationally. The beef was cooked to medium and was super moist and tender with all juices well maintained in the meat. I love char-ed meat, don’t I?

Red wine glazed lamb cutlets w mashed blue cheese potato – pan fried lamb cutlets cooked to med rare then glazed with a special red wine and sugar glaze. This added some extra flavour and sweetness to the lamb. I can’t have two char-ed meats in the same way, can I? So, this dish is to provide some variation on the menu.

Deep Fried Port Cutlets with mixed vegie salad, balsamic vinegar – The pork was done similar to my Tonkatsu, but with thicker pieces with the bone. This is the most popular dish of the night! The meat was so succulent and all juices of the pork was kept deep within the meat, giving a hot and sizzling taste for every single bite! It’s just beautiful.

2. Pan seared wild caught NT barramundi steaks, egg, fish caviar, truffle salt with mixed vegie salad

What can I say about barramundi? It is one of my most loved fish in Australia. The crispy skins, the soft meat and the freshwater flavours are just some highlights of the dish. You just got to try them yourself. 🙂 This dish received lots of credits from the guests too.

Wine

Jacob’s Creek St Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

My new toy – magic wine decanter 😀

Okay, this is it for now. Tomorrow, I’ll come back with my Christmas Day Lunch menu to share with you. Stay tuned as an Aussie Christmas is coming!