Another late post? I never get an opportunity to cook like I do during the Christmas holidays – I can take a little time off working to devote to cooking; I have access to a fantastic kitchen at my parent’s house in Sydney; and I get many days to make as much good food for as many people as possible. So, following on from a recent post documenting last year’s Christmas dinner, I now present our (post) Boxing Day lunch. For the last couple of years, we have had many friends over on the day after Boxing Day (giving us a little time to recover from Christmas) – people we weren’t able to see on Christmas itself, but want to have over and celebrate with in the presence of a great deal of food. This year was our biggest yet, having fifteen or so people (not including small children), so there was an emphasis on producing as much good food as we could manage, so no one went hungry. I aim to provide recipes to go with these pictures in future posts, but for now, and in no particular order, this was how we fed everyone:
1. Mushroom paté (made by Nick)
2. Barbecued halloumi
3. Spicy pumpkin, olive and feta salad
4. Roasted chat potatoes with rosemary
5. Cauliflower and gruyere tart
7. Hot smoked salmon salad with toasted almonds and asparagus
Making a range of salads made the whole preparation process significantly less intensive than it otherwise might have been. There was no rushing around desperately trying to get things finished when the guests arrived – just sitting in the garden enjoying the food.
