By Sorcha on Monday, December 6, 1999 - 01:45 am:
What is your favourite Christmas food tradition?
My Irish Grandmother's Trifle
In Australia a cool dessert goes down very well at Christmas time. This is my grandmother’s yummy trifle recipe, which is a big family favourite. On Christmas night we used to gather at her house, eat leftovers and have her trifle after singing Christmas Carols together. My grandmother playing the organ for us. It is a special memory.
Ingredients
Sponge cake, cut into layers
Bananas, cut into thin circles
Strawberry or Plum jam
Dissolved jelly/jello cystals
Thick custard
In large glass bowl, place one layer of sponge. Gently spread jam over it then layer the banana on top to cover. Gently pour some of the dissolved jelly until the layer is saturated. Place another layer of sponge on top and repeat process until the bowl is almost full or until you run out of ingredients.
Place in fridge until jelly is set.
Make up custard and pour over the top of the trifle.
When set sprinkle desiccated coconut over the top and serve with whipped cream.
If any of this doesnt translate from Australian very well, let me know
aussiesorcha@yahoo.com
By Suzycat on Monday, December 6, 1999 - 03:40 am:
Trifle is also popular this side of the Tasman... but in our house it includes SHERRY, and the jelly/jello has gone west many years since.
As per Sorcha's recipe, make a layer of sponge, spread with jam; dampen (or drench, as you prefer) with sherry (orange juice or tinned fruit syrup, see below, is nice for a non-alcoholic version); add a layer of fruit (tinned peaches were the tradition in my childhood, with the syrup allowed to dampen the sponge, but since then we have discovered the joy of FRESH STRAWBERRIES!!); then your custard; and repeat till the bowl is full. Whipped, non-sweetened cream on top, with decorative strawberry slices and maybe a little grated chocolate.
Most important thing with trifle (Sorcha may agree) is that you don't eat it at once! In fact day-old trifle is arguably the best of all.
Another vital part of Christmas in my house is pavlova ... I'll get mum's recipe and post it for all those Americans/Europeans who have yet to experience the Antipodean Pudding De Resistance!
By Lyrika on Monday, December 6, 1999 - 01:31 pm:
What we do for Christmas type treats at my house is (actually, sort of, Christmas Eve treats)as we're decorating the tree on Christmas Eve, my mom just puts out a bunch of finger foods to eat while we decorate, and that's dinner for that day.
Some of these things are foods we only get around holiday time, so they're special as well as being good. I'll try to get some of the recipes to put up here.
By Sorcha on Monday, December 6, 1999 - 11:01 pm:
Thanks Suzycat and Lyrika *s*
By Guest on Tuesday, December 7, 1999 - 01:50 am:
Christmas Whiskey:
Pour whiskey (Jameson) into a decorative glass, embellish with a splash of water or cracked ice, drink, repeat
By Sarette on Saturday, December 11, 1999 - 05:15 pm:
If you have any Sugar-less recipes....please send them to texoh@wwdb.org....I can't have sugar! Well thanks!
from,Sarette
By Sarette on Saturday, December 11, 1999 - 05:16 pm:
sorry! just acame in to say the e-mail was wrong! it's
texoh@wwdb.org
Sorry! no I at the end! hehe :-)
By Suzycat on Sunday, December 12, 1999 - 09:09 pm:
Sarette, sadly this is definitely not for you! Here's the recipe for pavlova.
Take the whites of six eggs (make sure NO yolk gets in them) and beat until stiff. Then gradually add one and a half cups of castor sugar, at the rate of about 1 tablespoon at a time, while continuing to beat - about 10 minutes beating time. You'll have a shiny peaking mixture at this point.
Now gently fold in one teaspoon vanilla essence, one teaspoon malt vinegar, and one dessertspoon cornflour. Pile the mixture in a giant round on a foil-covered baking tray and bake for one and three quarter hours at 120 degrees celcius (248 farenheit??). Leave it to cool in the oven. this is important as the pavlova needs to dry out!
When cool, decorate with whipped cream and anything else you like - slices of kiwifruit are traditional. Grated chocolate is nice too.
Pavlova is a NZ/Australian dessert cake invented, apparently, to honour the ballerina Anna Pavlova. A good pav should be palest beige and crisp on the outside (like meringue) and white and marshmallowy on the inside. My mother informs me this is the most failsafe recipe she has tried. HOwever, they do fail and go chewy (the more important the occasion is, the worse the pav, usually) but are still pretty delicious when they do.
And Christmas is not Christmas without a pav!