In Sweden, they celebrate Christmas on the 24th Dec rather than 25th, so this is our meal for Christmas Eve!
This is the table that we set, and its a fusion between traditional swedish christmas food and some of my own preferences :-)
The swedish food consists of cooked & mustard smeared ham, beetroot cream salad, "Janssons temptation" which is made up of potatoes, milk, anchovis and small sausages.
https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/janssons-temptation/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ND4IliJ1hM
Whole Roast Chicken
Ingredients -
1 whole chicken (about 1.2kg)
2 potatoes
1 big onion
1 sweet potato
Olive oil
Marination -
40g unsalted butter, soft room temperature
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
ground black pepper
Steps -
Preheat the oven to 200 degree celsius.
1. In a small bowl, mix together the butter, dried thyme, minced garlic, salt and pepper.
2. Stuff the mixture under the skin of the chicken between the breast and skin for both sides. Remaining mixture - rub it inside the cavity and massage on outer skin as well. Then sprinkle skin with salt and pepper. Tie the chicken legs together.
3. Drizzle some olive oil to the roasting pan. Add both potatoes in, drizzle some salt and pepper, give it a toss together and push the potatoes to the sides of the pan. Arrange the onions in the middle of the pan. Place the chicken on top of the onions and tuck the wings under.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, rotate the pan, cover the top with aluminum foil and bake for another 20 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 170 degree celsius.
Rest the chicken for at least 10 minutes before carving.
Chocolate Ganache Log Cake
Something which is a tradition from Singapore - and which I brought with me to Sweden - is the log cake. It's a soft roll cake covered by chocolate ganache, and as you can see I create a textured surface using the ganache to create the appearance of a tree log. Cute isn't it?
The roll cake is actually based on a recipe from my Swedish mother in law. It takes only 5 minutes to bake but it is soo soft and yummy.
Ganache - using double boil method and melt 120g dark chocolate, then add 40ml heavy cream or just follow this recipe http://platepalate.blogspot.se/2014/12/chocolate-ganache-christmas-yulelog-cake.html
Dessert - Cheng Teng
Christmas is about having lots of food so having a log cake for dessert is not enough!
This is called Cheng Teng and is a common dessert in Singapore. It's made up of dried longan, red dates, white fungus, sago & gingko nuts cooked with fragrant pandan leaves and rock sugar.
