Christmas Part 3: The Sides

Along with your typical roast vegetables and some steamed greens, we had:


Cucumber Salad

My Nanna used to make this all the time, and then Mum would make this for me, so it's special to me because of the nostalgia as well as because it tastes awesome.

White vinegar
White sugar
Cream
Cucumber
Red onion
Salt and pepper

Mix a half to three quarters of a teaspoon of sugar in three-four tablespoons of white vinegar in bowl until sugar dissolves. Add cream, stirring, until the mix tastes nicely tart and creamy. Add sliced cucumber and red onion, then season with salt and pepper. Leave to sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before serving.

It really is a recipe that depends on taste, and I often add too much cream and then have to balance it out again by adding more vinegar. It's worth it though.


Yorkshire Pudding

DD mentioned how much he loved Yorkshire Puddings recently, and asked if I could make them for Christmas. I have never had these before, never even seen them before, so it involved some research on my part. I found a nice simple recipe on Recipezaar and we made them on Christmas Day.

Yorkshire Pudding
Recipe courtesy of Marie Alice on Recipezaar.

2 eggs (at room temperature)
1 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup milk (at room temperature)
1 cup flour

1. Beat the eggs together until light

2. Beat in the remaining ingredients well

3. Let stand, covered, for 1 hour

4. Fill muffin tins 1/4 full of oil or drippings and put into a hot oven until the fat is sizzling hot (nearly smoking)

5. Fill each muffin cup half full of batter, Place in a 450*F oven and bake for 20 minutes, gradually lowering the oven temperature every 5 minutes by 25 degrees until puffed, crispy and brown.


I had read through some of the comments on this recipe, and many reviewers had said that 1/4 muffin tin of oil was way too much, so I cut it down so that my oil only just covered the base of the muffin tin. They turned out very well, I think. DD seemed to like them.