Posts tagged Festive & Entertaining Dishes
Tacos de Carnitas

When Mexican families get together there is a lot of food served to feed a lot of people. Tacos de Carnitas is a dish where tortillas are filled with loads of fresh salsa and then lashing of rich pork, slow cooked, sometimes over a smoky fire, with zingy citrus, loads of fresh herbs, onion and garlic until the pork is super soft sitting in a rich sweet yet tangy sauce. So easy to make. So easy to eat. 

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Spanish Roast Chicken and Vegetables with Paella Stuffing

This is an excellent way of bringing a little variety and spice into the kitchen and big family dinners. First, you make a stuffing that looks and tastes like paella and you stuff that into a big chicken to feed a crew. Then you cook potato and onions and chorizo in chicken stock and wine alongside the roast chook. The result is a juicy flavoursome bird, loads of paella stuffing and a load of delicious Spanish vegetables. Add a few greens, crusty bread, and a bottle of tempranillo and you have a dinner party for six or just a great family meal.

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Blood Orange Honey BBQ Ribs

Sweet, smoky, sticky and so delicious these pork ribs are the perfect finger-licking accompaniment for a get together with friends or as a meal for the family. You will need plenty of napkins or even wet towels to get your fingers clean when eating this very moreish treat. Blood oranges have extra flavour and will be in stores until mid-spring. If you can’t find them, try navel oranges. Hint: Zest citrus before juicing them as it is much easier.

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Porchetta with Sage and Hazelnuts

Porchetta is a dramatic dish presenting a beautiful golden roll of crisp-skinned, boneless pork that looks impressive on the plate. The breadcrumbs are optional but do absorb a lot of the cooking juices, giving a juicer piece of pork. You can make the porchetta using pork belly, or you can purchase a porchetta already seasoned and trussed for a really easy impressive dish. The fat rendered from the pork is used to roast crisp, crunchy and tasty potatoes. Great with fermented cabbage, coleslaw or other brassicas serve with a medium bodied red wine, such as tempranillo or sangiovese.

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Middle Eastern Lamb Shoulder with Couscous Salad

The flavours of the Middle East resonate with the Australian summer. Mint, figs, pomegranate, cumin, and thyme. This dish is packed with flavour and can be easily cooked in a BBQ with a lid. Just remember to cook it fast to get the golden-brown crust and then low and slow to make the meat inside lip-smackingly tender. This will feed a big family get-together, and you can stretch out the numbers by making more couscous salad.

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Bourbon Brined Esky Turkey

This is a sure-fire method to stop complaints about a dry turkey. We take a whole turkey and brine it in a solution of salt, brown sugar, bourbon, and other spices and aromatics. We cook it until it is almost done, wrap it in a towel and finish it in an esky where it will cook a little more and become super juicy and super tender. You’ll need a big pot, a container that will fit a turkey AND fit into the fridge, a big Esky, aluminium foil, and some clean towels.

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Cold Roast Beef with Summer Herb Dressing

Serve it warm, serve it cold. Serve it with sparkling shiraz. Serve it on Christmas Day as an alternative to a hot roast or entertaining guests when you want to do the cooking before everyone arrives. This is a country classic that has been doing the rounds of farmhouse kitchens for over half a century and still tastes fresh and delicious. Serve with salads, especially potato salad and fresh tomatoes.

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Rolled Pork Shoulder Stuffed with Spinach, Raisins and Pinenuts

We are incredibly proud of our butchery at Daylesford Meat Co. We love how we can take a piece of meat that is a pretty decent cut already, but with a bit of knifework and decades of experience, we can make it into something truly special. The rolled shoulder is a great cut, with skin that crisps into crackling and meat that is tender and juicy with the added flavour of our special stuffing. Easy to carve and so delicious.

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Truffled Chicken with Porcini Stuffing

Pimp Your Chook! A simple way to transform our already excellent free-range chickens into a super luxurious dish to entertain or simply enjoy with family with a really good bottle of pinot noir or Nebbiolo. We have suggested you use truffle paste, (available at Tonna’s or Blake Family Grocers) but if you’ve got your hands on a locally grown Daylesford truffle, then nobody is going to stop you grating it into this dish. You can make a quick sauce by deglazing the roasting pan with a glass of white wine and cook until reduced by half.

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Beef Wellington

It has been a ripper season for mushrooms with thousands of the little fungus popping up in the forests and fields. For those who can’t get out for a forage, Daylesford has a ripper mushroom grower called So Mush Goodness at the Sunday farmer’s market. Mushrooms are the essential ingredient in this classic beef dish that is making a retro comeback. Serve Beef Wellington with some local greens and a good cool-climate pinot noir and you’ll have the perfect weekend lunch. Plus, it’s a surprisingly easy recipe to make.

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Porchetta with Garden Herbs with Salt and Vinegar Potatoes

With its golden crisp skin and super succulent flesh porchetta is a celebratory pork belly dish that is perfect for putting on the table to feed family and friends during the festive season, the big day itself, or any time you need to feed a few. There will be some fat render as the porchetta cooks, and this is excellent for coating potatoes before you roast them. Speaking of potatoes – serve this porchetta with these wonderfully tasty salt and vinegar potatoes.

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Slow Cooked Shoulder of Lamb Spanish Style

Take a whole shoulder of lamb, rub it with herbs and spices, plonk it top of a bed of potatoes and peppers and slowly cook it until the juices run down to flavour and enrich the dish. This dish, with a loaf of crusty bread, will easily feed four or with some other vegetable dishes, feed a family of six. Serve it with a big red wine. As they say in Spain Buen Provecho – Enjoy!

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