Christmas Dinner for Six

I usually don't get to do a comfy cosy sit down dinner during festive seasons but this is a very unusual occassion. Someone did not manage to defrost 14 XXL size prawns for the Christmas day BBQ which actually turned out to be a wonderful blessing for tonite's six!

Such large prawns deserve to be eaten at its fullest of flavour which happens to be grilled and seasoned with sprinkles of sea salt. In this case, I just grilled them on my pan-grill which saved a lot of time. If you want them to look stiff and straight, just soak some fine bamboo sticks (or satay sticks) in some water for 1 hour and poke it through the prawn from the rear and out of the head before leaving it to grill. As I said, I wanted a quick, without hassle type of sit-down dinner, so no fancy stuff. Just leave them on the pan-grill for about 2 minutes each side. When almost done, sprinkle sea salt on them and serve on a platter. That's the main dish!

Appetiser was stuffed portobello mushrooms, grilled in the oven for 10 minutes at 170 degree celsius. Easy to make and delicious to gobble.... Just use a small vegetable brush or a new toothbrush to brush away the dirt on the mushrooms. Cut off the stem slightly and place them with the stem facing up (like a shallow bowl). Fill the mushroom with finely diced yellow capsicum, zucchini, tomatoes, bacon or ham and topped with some shreaded cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with a little sea salt, a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and pop them in the oven and before you know it, it's ready! Note : Do not rinse portobello mushrooms, it will spoil the taste.

Brussel Sprouts seems to be great idea for tonite's meal, maybe the fibre will scrap down all the cholesterol in the prawns. Wishful thinking. Trim off the bottom part of the stem. Blanche the sprouts and leave aside. Heat a pan, drizzle some grapeseed oil and saute some bacon chips or in this case some chicken ham. Put all the sprouts into the pan and saute for a good 2 minutes, season with sea salt and a dash of white wine.

As for the carbo, an interesting nutty flavoured bread and butter pudding seem appropriate. First, slice one and half sticks of french loaf and arrange them slightly slanted on a oven proof dish. Butter in between slices and throw in some hazelnuts and baby almond (raisins optional). In a litre jug, crack 4 farm fresh eggs, a can of evaporated milk and 250ml fresh milk. Stir mixture together and pour onto the bread slices gently, making sure liquid is pour over every slice of bread. Pop it into the oven marked 160 degree celsius for 15 minutes then sprinkle some demerara sugar over the pudding and drizzle 2 scoops of brandy over it. Pop it back into the oven for another 5 minutes. Cover with aluminium foil if your pudding starts to brown too much. Take out from the oven and sprinkle another tablespoon of sugar and 1 more scoop of brandy. Pudding ready to be served. Note : this pudding has a crispy top layer unlike some other soft spongy bread pudding.

As for dessert, the wonderful christmas cupcake was served. Will post later!