Preparing for a Traditional British Christmas in America

Christmas Dinner (don't click the link until after
 Christmas; it's from a diet website!)

This Christmas my husband's parents are coming to stay in San Francisco and I will be hosting the Christmas celebrations in our apartment. I absolutely love hosting and dream of the day when we have a large house with several bedrooms (for our guests to stay over in) and a large dining table (big enough to seat an entire dinner party. Unfortunately we actually live in a 1 bedroom apartment and my husband really doesn't share my love of hosting so I don't get to do it very often.

Of course this means that when I do get to do it I absolutely go to town on it (though always with a strict budget - as cheap as possible - imposed by my husband). This Christmas will be no exception and I've already started planning.

It's a good job I've already started planning because it turns out sourcing traditional British Christmas fare is not always easy in the United States. From what I can gather Americans don't have a national traditional Christmas dish. The roast turkey Brits are familiar with is reserved for Thanksgiving (with some alterations/additions) and the Christmas meal is often a tradition only within each family unit, if at all. Families seem to choose a dish that is a family favourite and it may or may not be the same dish every year.

Christmas Pudding

Not only do they not have the same traditional meal, a lot of our traditional dishes aren't even eaten over here at all. Pudding to an American is what we would call Angel Delight and they assume Mince Pies are a savoury main course so I knew that I was going to be making a lot of things from scratch.

However, I did not realise that even the ingredients might be hard to come by. I've no plans to go to a specialised cook shop and I was expecting my local Safeway to have most things and I was planning to get the rest from Whole Foods.

My first problem - Mixed Spice. Simply doesn't exist so I looked it up on Wikipedia (I love Wikipedia) and found out that I can probably use Pumpkin Spice as a substitute.

Next up - Suet. Couldn't see any, even in Whole Foods. I didn't even find any lard. In the end I found 'Shortening' which is some sort of vegetable-based substitute, though the internet presented me with worrying rumours about it not being a 1:1 substitution.

I knew Whole Foods did Candied Peel!

Candied Peel or Mixed Peel. I know I've seen this in Whole Foods but it certainly wasn't there when I looked yesterday. I'm guessing its seasonal only and not there yet so I've found a recipe to make my own.

A more basic problem - Pudding Basin. Since Americans don't have puddings they also don't have pudding basins. Fortunately Amazon came to the rescue on this one, though I imagine I'm paying over the odds for one.

There are other things that I haven't even looked for yet but my occasional quick glances have not found. Marzipan, for example... must ask an American if they have it and where I can get it from.

Anyway I'm getting close to sourcing all the ingredients I need, which is a good thing since the Christmas Pudding and Christmas Cake ideally need to be made 2 months in advance to allow plenty of time to add brandy. I had no idea, before I started this, that so many traditional Christmas items have so much alcohol in! I will be posting the finished results of my attempts and the recipes as and when I get around to making them.

Brownies

Tray 7x11 inches 
Preparation time ~ 10 mins 
Cooking time - 30 mins 
Oven Temperature - 180 °C

Ingredients:

4oz Butter

4oz Plain Chocolate

8oz Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

4oz Plain Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1. Preheat the oven and grease and line the baking tray
2. Melt the butter with the chocolate over boiling water
3. Remove from the heat and add the remaining ingredients
4. Pour into the tray and bake until the mixture shrinks from the side of the tin

NOTES:

You can use different sized trays but the trick to getting the texture gooey on the inside and crisp on the outside is to keep the tray small enough that the mixture is just under 1 inch deep. If the mixture is too shallow the brownies will be drier and more chewy but still good.

Meat Heaven

Yesterday was my husband's birthday and I had been keeping a restaurant in mind for the occasion for a good few months. Having spent a while researching restaurants to go to in San Francisco I came across Espetus Churrascaria and thought it sounded amazing. However the $50 per person (plus tax, drinks, dessert and tip) price tag made me save it for a special occasion.

Yesterday was that special occasion and, oh my, the $50 was so worth it! The place is a Brazilian barbecue steak house. When you go in you help yourself to sides from the salad bar, buffet style. When you go back to your table the waiters start constantly bringing round perfectly cooked skewers of meat and carving you off chunks. They have 12-14 different types of meat per night, most of them different types of steak but lamb, chicken, prawns and pork are also respresented. You get as much of it as you can possibly eat (I'm sure I ate at least 3 normal meals worth!) and it's all mouth-wateringly delicious. The service is impeccable and somehow we forced space for dessert which was also delicious (and huge, as if I hadn't eaten enough!)

If you have the money or want to splash out on a special occasion and love meat then you have to check this place out. We are already looking for our next excuse to go there again :)

Sautéed Prawns

Serves 1 
Preparation time ~ 2 mins 
Cooking time - 5 mins 
Hob Heat - Medium

Ingredients:

Handful of Precooked Prawns

1 clove Garlic

2tbsp butter

1/4 Lemon

1. Melt the butter in a frying pan
2. Finely chop or crush the garlic and lightly sauté until browning
3. Add the prawns and squeeze in the lemon juice
4. Gently sauté just long enough to heat the prawn all the way through
5. Serve with a light salad and garnish with a slice of lemon

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 18 
Preparation time ~ 10 mins 
Cooking time - 10 mins 
Oven temperature - 180°C 

Ingredients:

4oz Butter

4tbsp Golden Syrup or Molasses

3oz Brown Sugar

6oz Self Raising Flour

4oz Milk Chocolate Chips

4tbsp Milk

1. Preheat the oven and grease a large, shallow baking tray
2. Beat the butter and then mix in the sugar
3. Sift the flour and mix in with the syrup and chocolate chips
4. Add enough milk to bring the mixture to a thick, sticky consistency
5. Blob the mixture onto the tray and squash flat, allowing plenty of room between each cookie for them to spread
6. Cook until the edges are turning golden brown (very thick cookies may take longer)
7. Leave to cool before removing from tray

NOTES:

You can add 2 tbsp cocoa powder and some extra milk to make double chocolate chip cookies

You can use white or dark chocolate chips instead or a mixture