It is finally Christmas and time to enjoy the fancy spread with your friends and family. However, while setting the table, if you feel you have missed something, Prem K Pogakula, Executive Chef The Imperial New Delhi helps you out with a few recipes.
RIS Á LA MANDEDANISH RICE PUDDING
- 1 cup short-grained white rice
- 1/2 cup)water
- 1 liter milk
- 1-2 vanilla beans
- 50g (5.5 oz) almonds
- 2 tbsp sugar
- heavy cream
- In a sauce pan, add rice and water. Boil for around two minutes. Add milk to the pudding and let it boil
- While stirring, add vanilla from a vanilla bean. Boil the pudding under a lid at low heat. Let it boil for around 35 minutes.
- Remove vanilla beans. Rice pudding is now done. Let it cool off in a refrigerator before you proceed to make Ris á la mande. You can make this rice pudding a day in advance.
- Peel almonds and coarsely chop the almonds and mix them with the cooled rice pudding. Mix vanilla with 2 tbsp sugar, add it to the cold rice pudding and mix well. In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream into whipped cream.
- Gently mix the whipped cream with the rice pudding.
- Ris á la mande is now done. Put it in the refrigerator until serving. Before serving, use a blow torch to give little colour on the top.
This is a cookie made with cinnamon, cloves and orange dipped in light syrup which is then sprinkled with nuts. It is often called Christmas Cookies.
- 6-3/4 cups all-purpose flour,
- 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 200g unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1-1/2 cups olive oil
- 1 cup fresh orange juice
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 3 orange peel,
- 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1-1/2 cups honey
- 1-1/2 cups water
- 240g walnuts, very finely chopped
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp cloves
- Make Cookie Dough: In large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and cloves.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated after each addition.
- Add oil, orange juice and orange zest. Mix until combined. Gradually add flour mixture and beat until just combined.
- Transfer dough to large bowl; cover and refrigerate it at least for an hour.
- To make Honey Syrup, stir together orange peel, sugar, honey and water in a pan. Heat to boiling over medium and let it boil for a minute.
- Then remove from heat and let the syrup cool completely.
- To make the Walnut Topping, stir together walnuts, cinnamon and cloves in a bowl.
- Preheat oven to 350oF. For each cookie, take about 1-1/2 tablespoon of dough and roll and press it into an oval shape with your hands. Place on rimmed baking pan; repeat until baking pan is full.
- Prick tops of cookies four-five times with a fork so that tine marks are lightly visible. Return remaining dough to refrigerator between batches.
- Transfer cookies to oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Using slotted spoon, transfer cookies to parchment-lined pan. Immediately sprinkle with walnut mixture.
- Repeat with remaining cookie dough, honey syrup and walnut topping.
- When completely cool, transfer cookies to airtight containers.
- 1 large jar mincemeat (about 600g)
- 2 orange segmented
- 1 apple finely chopped
- zest 1 lemon
- icing sugar, for dusting
- 375g plain flour
- 260g unsalted butter, softened
- 125g caster sugar, plus extra forsprinkling
- 1 large egg plus 1 beaten egg forglazing
- Place plain flour and softened unsalted butter in a bowl and rub together to a crumb consistency.
- Add caster sugar and 1 large beaten egg, and mix together on a lightly floured surface and fold until the pastry comes together.
- Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill for 10 mins. Then scoop the jar of mincemeat into a bowl and add two segmented oranges, one chopped apple and zest of a lemon.
- Heat oven to 220oC/200oC. Roll out the pastry to 3mm thickness. Cut out 16 bases, place them in muffin trays and put 1½ tbsp mincemeat mixture into each. Brush the edge of each pie with a little beaten egg.
- Re-roll out the pastry to cut 7cm lids and press them on top to seal. Glaze with beaten egg, sprinkle with extra caster sugar and then make a small cut in the tops. Then bake for 15 mins until golden brown and leave to cool before releasing them from the muffin trays and dusting with a little more icing sugar before serving.