Merry Christmas!
I had a quiet but very traditional Christmas dinner/lunch at home this year.
To me there are 3 things which are essential to a proper and authentic Christmas dinner:
1) The main course must be a roast. Some people use turkey, but it is more for Thanksgiving, the most traditional dish is either ham or roast pork.
I originally planned to make a medium size roasted pork knuckle, but somehow ended up getting a 2.5kg hind leg quarter, so the dish is more like a roasted pork leg rather than just the knuckle. And I marinated it in a brine of salt, herbs and spices, vinegar and brandy for 36 hrs, so the taste and texture ended up close to a ham.
2. For a proper Christmas roast, I feel that it is very important that the meat must be very tough, preferably tasteless, like turkey breast or very dry roast pork. I think that this is a very Christian thing, denying yourself of earthly pleasures, instead, praising self sacrifice and sufferings.
By this golden standard, I passed with flying colours! While the outside meat was quite tender but very salty, especially the crackling, the inside meat was still quite tough and bland in taste.
But just like eating tough turkey breast, one can always be polite and avoid commenting on the taste of the meat. Instead, focus the priase on the richness of the stuffings, the tastiness of the gravy, or how pretty the Christmas paper napkins are. In my case, I cooked a home made apple sauce, which was indeed very good, and complemented the tough meat in a very nice and balanced manner. Of course the acidity of the apple sauce cuts through the fattiness of the meat, haha...
3. The final test of a good Christmas dinner is of course the leftover. A good Christmas roast must last for a week, and will reincarnate (sorry, wrong religion) in several different dishes, as it goes through the different phases of its karma existence.
We have already eaten this roast twice already today, lunch and then just now finishing dinner. Of course by definition, it gets better and better over time, after each rendezvous with the oven, much like an aging fine red wine (if you believe this, I've got 10 GEM board stock beauties just for you!).
Tomorrow, I very much look forward to my ham sandwich lunch, likely to be followed by a ham stew dinner. Day after tomorrow, we can still make a very nice soup stock with the bone (we don't have a dog)...
I have a very simple Christmas wish this year! Please let this pandemic pass ASAP, beacuse I don't want to do anymore #homecooking, much prefer going to Tin Lung Heen or Tak Sifu, to eat their very much NON Christmas, but much tastier Char Siu!
Merry Christmas to y'all!
聖誕節快樂！
我今年在家享受了一個安靜而傳統的聖誕節晚餐/午餐。
對我來說，正確和正宗的聖誕節晚餐不可或缺的三件事包括：
1）主菜必須是烤肉，有些人用火雞，但較適合感恩節，最傳統應該用火腿或烤豬肉。
我最初計劃製作一個中型的烤豬手，但不知何故最終買了2.5公斤的後腿肉，所以這道菜更像是一個烤豬腿，而不僅是豬手。然後，我將其在鹽、香草香料、醋和白蘭地的鹽水中醃製36個小時，最終的味道和質地和火腿接近。
2）正宗的聖誕節燒烤，非常重要的是其肉質必須非常堅韌，更最好是無味的，例如火雞胸肉或非常乾的烤豬肉。我認為這是一件非常基督教的事，拒絕世俗快樂，歌頌自己的犧牲和苦難。
按這個黃金標準來說，我成功通過考驗！雖然外面的肉很嫩很咸，尤其是那個脆皮，但是裡面的肉仍然很堅韌，味道亦淡。
但是就像吃堅韌的火雞胸一樣，我們總是要禮貌地避免評論肉的味道。取而代之的是，將注意力集中在餡料的豐富性、肉汁的味道或聖誕節紙巾的美觀上。就我而言，我自製了美味的蘋果醬，充分平衡了堅韌的烤肉。當然，蘋果醬的酸度亦蓋過烤肉的肥膩感，哈哈...
3）一個好的聖誕節晚餐的最後考驗當然是剩菜。一個好的聖誕節燒烤必須能吃足一個星期，並且能轉世用來烹調不同的菜式，以幾種不同的方式輪迴（對不起，錯誤的宗教信仰）。
我們今天已經吃了兩次這碟烤肉，包括午餐和剛吃完的晚餐。當然，每次再烤會越烤越美味，就像陳年的紅酒一樣（如果你相信，我會為你推介10隻GEM板靚股！）。
另外，我非常期待明天的火腿三明治午餐，晚餐可能還會有燉火腿。後天，我仍可以用豬骨煲靚湯（我們沒有狗）...
最後，我今年有一個非常簡單的聖誕節願望！就是希望疫情盡快完結，因為對比起#homecooking煮家常菜，我更想去天龍軒或德師傅吃他們非聖誕節，但更美味的叉燒！
祝大家聖誕快樂！
