Soooo. I’m a Hindu. Which means I’ve never celebrated Christmas in my life. But the older I get, the more there is to get excited about. Christmas holidays from work, Christmas gifts from people, mulled wine and Christmas cookie parties… what’s not to like? The only problem is, in Singapore, you get your holiday season in the summer.
I decided to get into the festive spirit and do it properly with a Christmas dinner on the actual day itself. Which is today. I think this is the fastest I’ve ever uploaded a post lol. But, clockwise, I made:
- Garlic butter green beans
- Chicken chipolatas
- Onion gravy
- Parmesan mashed potatoes
- Honey roasted carrots
- Parmesan roasted asparagus
- Two different kinds of deli turkey breast
There were bread rolls as well (store-bought) that I forgot to place in the picture, and then there was also dessert. Phew!
Since I was working all by myself, I decided to do the carrots first as they’d take the longest. These were incredibly easy, and although they took a while, the prep time was absolutely minimal.
All you have to do is get your carrots (baby or adults, whichever lol), toss them in some olive oil, honey and salt and pepper. Done! I popped them in the oven and got started on the next bit.
Which was….the mashed potatoes! Also super easy, but very, very time consuming. I boiled the potatoes, put them through my potato masher food processor and waited. I kept them very simple; butter, milk, salt + pepper and a sprinkling of Parmesan.
After I was done mashing them, I put them in an oven-proof bowl, added some knobs of butter on top, sprinkled some dried herbs and put the whole dish in the oven to keep warm.
I did the green beans next. This was quicker; I just blanched them in some boiling water, and heated up a saucepan with butter. I kept an eye on both the pans while I chopped up some garlic very fine and added it to the butter. I drained the green beans and put it all in the pan, tossing frequently until everything was coated well. Salt and pepper, and then that was also done.
The asparagus was next. Took about 15 minutes, all I did was drizzle some olive oil, Parmesan cheese, salt + pepper. I think I overcooked them a bit, because they were no longer crunchy, but it was my first time cooking asparagus. Next time, I’ll do them for just 10 minutes. They still tasted good though!
I got the turkey and the sausages from the supermarket deli this morning. There were two kinds; honey roasted turkey breast and regular turkey breast. I didn’t do a proper big turkey, because it would be way too much food for us, and I didn’t want to waste anything. Plus, the idea of handling a bird that big is terrifying, hahha! Maybe another time.
The chipolatas were also super easy; just had to pan-fry them until they were heated through. They kept spitting though, so I ran away quite a bit to avoid the crossfire. LOL. Today was a bit dangerous.
The onion gravy for the mashed potatoes was the hardest thing on the menu today. I fried some minced onions in butter until it was nice and brown, sprinkled some flour, added chicken stock and let it all boil…but it wouldn’t thicken like I wanted it to! I waited 10 minutes, 20 minutes, nothing happened. My mom came in, shook her head and turned up the heat. Apparently, that’s all I had to do! I finished it with salt and pepper (I got through a lot of salt and pepper today, damn).
I served everything with bread rolls, crusty and hot from the oven. Anddddddd, Christmas dinner was done! All in all, I ended up making quite a bit of food! I was in the kitchen for two hours, and I didn’t even realise it. I was supremely tired once I was done and also surprisingly not hungry.
I kept dessert really simple. I got blueberries, pomegranate seeds, raspberries and cherries fresh from the supermarket today and mixed them all up with a tablespoon of sugar.
I kept the whole mixture in the fridge while I prepared the rest of the stuff, and then once lunch was over, I spooned everything over some good quality praline ice-cream (store-bought!). It was seriously delicious.
I definitely understand why meals like this are only made for special ocassions like Christmas and Thanksgiving… it takes a lot of work! I was too tired to even eat or enjoy myself once I was done. But that was also because I had stupidly decided to do everything myself haha. I had good feedback though, so this was a success! Yay!