Cooking with Nico and Bianca: Another Christmas

Christmas - This magical time of the year who demands good foods. Tradition is one of the great things about Christmas. I don’t know from where the traditions come from but I know these menus with lots of tradition will be here now and also in the future. If your family asks, "Can please have the roast turkey again this year!" you will know that you scored a hit. And when the meal is over, remind your guests for the considerable effort you have put in by saying, "I cooked, you clean!" I am chef for many years and I think in the last 10 years, I have worked around 12 Christmases:)))

It's something you get used to do as a chef – never stop cooking not even on the Christmas day!!! Normally the restaurant is close on the Christmas day then I have day off and I want to spend time with my family, enjoy some good food and a good glass of wine. For me Christmas is about spending time with the people I care and love. I will spend the evening with my wife, my daughter and our dog here in Estonia and with the rest of the family on the phone or on the internet.
In Estonia to have plenty of Christmas food at home, symbolically meant enough food for the whole coming year and is usually to eat large meals on Christmas days. Traditional Estonian Christmas food is roast pork with sauerkraut, blood sausages, pumpkin salad, roast potatoes with dill, cranberry sauce and hot cream sauce or gravy. According to an old tradition, seven to twelve different meals were served on Christmas Night.Before dinner, a group sauna is traditional. For Christmas dessert, crunchy gingerbreads (piparkook), or kringel bread (my recipe here) is served. In Estonia, to be drunk is also part of the tradition in Christmas days.

Christmas in Romania for me is unique. On Christmas time, every Romanian family have on their table stuffed cabbage, home made sausages and traditional sweet bread. (sarmale, caltabosi, carnati, toba si cozonac). Real god old Romanian culture and traditions for Christmas days are kept with respect in the countryside. The magic religious carols, a big fresh Christmas tree every year, not to many presents under the tree, the smell of stuffed cabbage leaves, family and friends – this is how I remember my Christmases in Romania. I miss my Christmas. It’s not that I don’t enjoy Christmas in Estonia as well – but we do, miss the rest of the family, and there’s nothing more important than having your family around you all the time. And yes, something is missing more in Christmas - the children caroling with the star, gathering with friends, the glorious food that my mother and my grandmother use to make, - my mouth waters only when I think about it. I don’t have this here and I will never have this here.
For this time I don’t have any pictures and recipes of Romanian food, but I will share with you some pictures and two recipes of what I cook on these days for some friends and in the restaurant.
Who says you can't serve turkey after Thanksgiving? I will show you the way I made this easy recipe with great success that I use for Christmas and Thanksgiving. I love the fruity stuffing in this recipe. Not only does it get even more flavor cooked with the turkey, but you end up with a main dish and side dish in one step. I served with roast carrots with honey and cumin, sweet potato mash, roast Brussels sprouts, red wine gravy and cranberry sauce.
Ingredients for 8 People:
- A 5kg turkey:
- 500g bacon cubed
- 50g chopped sage
- 50 g chopped flat Italian parley
- 300ml Brandy
- 300g raisins
- 300 chopped apples
- 200ml hot water or chiken stock
- 500g garlic butter
- 2 white onions chopped very small
-Salt and pepper.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
First put dry raisins into a bowl and pour over the brandy. Cover and leave to soak until most of brandy has been absorbed.
To make the stuffing, combine the onion, sage, bacon, parsley, raisins, apples and breadcrumbs together in a large bowl.

Add in the half of the melted garlic butter, water or stock, season with a generous amount of salt and pepper and mix by hand. Stuff the turkey but not too tightly because it will expand while cooking. Next, rub the turkey all over and under the skin with garlic butter. Massage the bird and get the entire turkey covered. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Now wrap the turkey in foil with a lot of foil and it’s really important to seal the package well so that all the moisture stays in the package. Place the turkey in on a roasting tin and cook at 200C for 30 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 160C. Cook for a further 3 hours for a 5kg bird. Now, uncover and turn the temperature back up to 200C. Cook at this temperature for another 30 minute until the skin is a golden color. Cooking time depends on the size of the turkey. The best and safest way to cook a turkey is to use a food thermometer. Turkey should have an interior temperature of 72C to be properly cooked and the juice should run clear.

Now, allow it to sit for 20 minutes to rest before carving. Transfer turkey to a serving platter. This is the time to finish cooking the rest of side dishes. Use the fat and juices left sitting in the foil to add to the gravy. Carve turkey by removing drumstick, wings and thigh by running a sharp carving knife through joints. Slice the breast diagonally across the grain. Serve with stuffing, gravy, and sides dishes. I serve with roast carrots with honey and cumin, sweet potato mash and roast Brussels sprouts. Enjoy.

My Christmas cake(Jõulukook)
Ingredients for 16 nice portions
-200g raisins
-200g dry dates
-200g dry prunes, chopped
-200g dry cherries, halved
-100g dried blueberries
-100g dried cranberries
-Zest and juice of 2 large oranges
-300ml brandy
-200g butter, softened
-200g dark brown sugar
-6 eggs
-300g self-rising flour
-2 tbsp. maple syrup or honey
-2 tbsp. vanilla extract
-2 tbsp. cinnamon powder
-1 tbsp. ginger powder
-1 tsp. baking powder
-1 tsp. soda
For the icing
-300g sugar powder
-350g cream cheese, I use Philadelphia cheese
-50g vanilla sugar
-Zest from 2 oranges
-100g unsalted pistachio nuts chopped.
If you don’t find same mixed of dry fruits please fell free to make your own combination (use dry figs or a mix of dry exotic fruit to add more color to your cake). You need 1kg of mix dry fruits for this recipe.
Put all dry fruits, zest and juice from two oranges into a large bowl and pour over the brandy. Cover and leave to soak overnight until most of brandy has been absorbed.
Preheat the oven to 150°C. Grease the base and sides of a 32cm round cake tin and line with baking paper. In a clean bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, adding a little of the flour if it starts to curdle. Add the flour spoon by spoon, cinnamon powder, ginger powder, fruit and brandy, maple syrup, vanilla, soda and the backing powder. Mix everything together until well combined. Spoon in the prepared tin and smooth with the back of the spoon. Bake for 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for a few hours, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.
For the cream cheese icing, put the sugar, cream cheese, vanilla sugar, and zest in a large bowl and mix to just soft and smooth. Swirl over the top of the cake and sprinkle with pistachio nuts. Store the cake in an airtight container and keep in the fridge. Eat within one week.

Happy Thanksgiving or Merry Christmas.

Here more pictures with other thinks we did and serve for this Christmas.

Here we made 3 diferent jams and chutney to be serve for a snack with some nice cheese, marinated olives and a good glass of wine.- Clementine and Indian spices jam, Cranberry chutney, Bitter Oranges and ginger jam. All home made.

Home made wine jelly. Here I use Chardonay and a nice Merlot mix with a bit of sugar sirop and gelatine. After I cubed the jelly and served with snacks. This go very well with cheese and antipasto.