New ideas for a celebration meal

Press, 23 April 1984, Page 12

New ideas for a celebration meal

COOKING with

Celia Timms

For those who are planning a special meal I have selected four recipes which I regard as “special” fare and hope they might prove helpful to those seeking new ideas. Mushroom and Crab au gratin: This is a useful recipe as it is a good starter or entree, and can also be served as a luncheon dish. To make eight servings you need: ft cup butter or margarine 1 small green pepper 1 small red pepper 450 g small mushrooms 1 tablespoon lemon juice; ft teaspoon salt 2 cups cream or evaporated milk 2 small cans crabmeat 3 tablespoons melted butter, additional 5 tablespoons flour % cup grated Swiss cheese 2 tablespoons chopped parsley ft cup grated parmesan cheese Method: Melt the quarter cup of butter in a large heavy based pan and add the peppers cut into thin strips; cook two or three minutes. Add sliced mushrooms and sprinkle over lemon juice and salt. Cook two minutes, stirring occa-

sionally. Add cream or evaporated milk and the drained crab liquid; bring to boiling. Combine the three tablespoons melted butter with flour and blend until smooth. Add to pan stirring until thickened. Add drained crab meat and simmer for one minute or until crab is heated through. Stir in half a cup of the Swiss cheese and the parsley. Divide between eight greased ramekin dishes. Combine remaining Swiss cheese with the Kiesan and sprinkle over g. Grill until cheese is golden brown. Jellied gazpacho Set in individual moulds, this can be served as a starter to a meal or as an accompanying salad. It is made in an electric blender or food processor and dependant on the size of the moulds used, will serve six to eight persons. You need: 1 large can peeled tomatoes, about 3 cups 2 envelopes gelatine 1 onion 1 medium size cucumber 1 medium size green pepper ft cup coarsley chopped parsley 1 clove garlic 1 tablespoon wine vinegar; 1 tablespoon lemon juice Dash Tabasco sauce; Ift teaspoons salt

ft teaspoon pepper Lettuce; sour cream; chopped chives Method: Peel onion and cucumber and remove seeds from cucumber. Drain liquid from tomatoes, pressing pulp gently to extract excess juice. Measure the drained liquid and add water to make Ift cups. Soak gelatine in ft cup of this tomato liquid for five minutes. Heat remaining liquid to boiling and add softened gelatine, stirring until dissolved. Chill until beginning to thicken. Cut up tomato pulp, onion, cucumber and green pepper coarsley. Put in blender a little at a time together with parsley and garlic and blend until smooth. Combine blended puree with vinegar, lemon juice, Tabasco, salt and pepper and stir into the slightly thickened gelatine mixture. Spoon into individual moulds and chill until set Unmould on lettuce at serving time and top with a small spoonful of sour cream and a sprinkling of chopped chives. Baked ham with port and orange To serve eight to ten, with leftovers, a small ham or half a ham on-the-bone is required. It can be

cooked or uncooked, the cooking time for this dish being adjusted accordingly. Whether a cooked ham or an uncooked ham is used, it needs to be marinated for at least 24 hours. You also need:

Ham on the bone, precooked or uncooked, 3ft - 4kg % cup fruit juice, pineapple or apricot ft cup port wine

2 teaspoons grated orange peel Ift cups brown sugar 1 teaspoon Dijon style mus-

tard ft teaspoon ground cloves

Method: Place ham in a large bowl and pierce deeply with a skewer or prongs of a fork. Combine fruit juice, port wine, orange peel and one cup of the sugar, mustard and cloves. Pour over ham and marinate in this for 24 hours in a cool place, turning the ham several times. Remove ham from marin-

ade and place in a shallow roasting pan; reserve marinade. Bake in a 160 c over allowing 10 minutes for each 450 g in weight if ham is cooked and 25 minutes for each 450 g if uncooked. Baste frequently with marinade Forty minutes before the end of the cooking time, remove ham from and drain off any excess fat. With a very sharp knife, cut skin from ham and score the fat lightly, cutting in a diamond or other uniform pattern. Cover the top of the ham with remaining brown sugar and pour remaining marinade around it. Continue baking until glazed and the marinade slightly thickened to form sauce. Carve and serve with sauce in pan.

Pear cheesecake:

This is not strictly a cheesecake. It is a baked pastry shell with a cream cheese filling slightly flavoured with almond surrounded with canned or cooked pear halves and topped with an apricot glaze. For about eight servings you need:

1 cup flour 2 tablespoons sugar 7 tablespoons soft butter; ft teaspooon lemon rind 1 large egg yolk 125 g cream cheese; 1 cup cream

ft cup icing sugar; ft teaspoon lemon rind (additional) 1 teaspoon lemon juice; ft teaspoon almond extract; ft teaspoon vanilla essence; 2 tablespoons Kirsch liqueur; 1 can pear halves, drained, or cooked pear halves % cup apricot jam; 1 tablespoon water ft cup sliced almonds Method: For pastry: Mix flour with sugar; add butter and crumble it into the flour until mixture is mealy. Stir in lemon rind then the egg yolk until well blended. Work dough until it holds a smooth ball that does not crumble. Press dough over base and sides of a 20cm spring form pan. Bake at 150 c for 20 - 30 minutes; cool.

Beat cream cheese until smooth, add cream, icing sugar, lemon rind and juice, almond and vanilla essences and Kirsch and beat until stiff. Spoon into the cold pagtry shell. Cut the pear halves in half again and arrange in spoke design (wide portion on outside, narrow point towards centre) on top of cream filling. Cover and chill until firm, about one hour.

Heat jam and water. Drizzle over the pears.

Cover and refrigerate until' glaze is set. When ready to serve sprinkle almonds over pears.