Thursday 30 December 2010

Birdmania: Thanksgiving and Christmas 2010

Another year till Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Phew.  The last month has been a haze of food, drinks and airports. I am secretly glad it is over and I look forward to getting back into my daily routine.  

Although I feel like I don't ever want to eat anything but salad again (this will hopefully and probably go away soon), I thought I'd share the turkey Mr. Sprinkle and I made for Thanksgiving and the gorgeous duck that my mum cooked for Christmas.  Bless her - she cooked Christmas dinner two nights in a row so Mr. Sprinkle and I too could enjoy a traditional Danish Christmas feast despite arriving a day late due to the snow chaos at Heathrow Airport. 

But first let's go back a month to Thanksgiving. We had 10 friends over who helped us eat a beautiful pheasant from the amazing Clapham butcher Moen & Sons. We roasted it on top of garlic, cellery, red onions, carrots and parsnips.  

         

Like last year, we made Jamie Oliver's stuffing which consists of minced pork, sage, red onions, dried berries and chestnuts.  It is divine!  I also use Jamie Oliver's tip of mixing butter with lemon and orange zest and tucking it under the skin on the turkey breast together with fresh sage.  

                      













We served the turkey with potato gratin (courtesy of friends Pawel and Rena),  mashed sweet potatoes with marshmellows, green beans, lots of gravy and red cabbage.  No wonder my waistline slowly started expanding after Thanksgiving! 

Now to Christmas.  Traditional Danish Christmas dinner consists of roast duck, caramelised potatoes, gravy and red cabbage.  Due to popular request my mum also serves boiled potatoes and crisps heated in the oven.  The latter may sound weird, but is actually quite a common side dish with Christmas dinner in Denmark. My mum stuffs the ducks with apples and prunes.  It is delicious! 


I am happy to send full recipes your way should you be interested.  For now I would just like to wish you and yours all the very best for 2011! 

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