26 December 2009

Family Christmas 2009: Alaskan King Crab, Homemade Panna Cotta and Mahjong (25 Dec 2009)


Alaskan King Crab ... mmm!

Christmas with my family has traditionally been eating copious amounts of seafood, watching a comedy movie like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, digesting, feeling very full and then having left overs for dinner. This year is no different except for the inclusion of trying Alaskan King Crab for the first time which I bought 36 hours prior from the Sydney Fish Market. I was fearing the amount you pay would somehow be disappointing but it was great. Finally, some real juicy chunks of crab meat which doesn't take painful and fiddly efforts to extract from the shell — I can never go back now. OMG look at the size of this monster — Alien is alive!

The soft French cheese Munster Gerome is full of great flavour and strong on the nose. Pacific Oysters were nice and plump. We always seem to prefer Boston Bay Mussels which are pre scrubbed and de-bearded. This time we cooked them in a simple white wine and fresh cream recipe with butter, salt, pepper, onions and parsley. Mum and Dad successfully made a Thai beef and prawn salad for the first time. We always get cooked Tiger Prawns and a lobster to share (Coles was only $18). As a special dessert treat my brother prepared Vanilla Panna Cotta and Fresh Berries with caramel sauce and shaved dark chocolate (picture above) which went very nicely with the 2008 Brokenwood Sauvignon Blanc Semillon dessert wine. And to top off the sugar hit we shared Adora chocolates and a Magnum Sandwich with almond ice cream — my beating stomach be still.

Between lunch and dinner it was time for a movie to pass the time while feeling very full and then my dad tried to teach us Mahjong. My god it's a hard one to learn — for me anyway. He competes in competitions so plays regularly. Before lunch I did a drive by Chauvel Street in North Ryde to check out the Christmas decorations which was blogged on FoodiePop — hope to visit at night which will obviously be much better.

Other Family Christmas lunches:



Alaskan King Crab $51.55 ($59/kg)


French Munster Gerome cheese $24.90 (200g)

Pacific oysters, $18.90/dozen

Boston Bay Mussels ($6.99/kg) with white wine and cream sauce

Large Tiger Prawns (20 for $25.94)

Smoked ham and turkey

Lobster ($18 each from Coles)

Large Tiger Prawns for Thai salad (10 for $21.44)

Thai beef and prawn salad

Table set for Christmas Lunch

Vanilla panna cotta with fresh berries, Chef Pat

Fresh herbs for Thai salad and cooking

2008 Brokenwood Sauvignon Blanc Semillon dessert wine

Adora chocolates

Magnum sandwich with almonds ice cream

Mahjong setup

Dad teaching us the rules of Mahjong

Beers to help with Mahjong concentration

Left overs for dinner

Dinner dessert — Meringue with fresh cream, mixed berries and passionfruit

My Presents
MasterChef Australia MasterClass DVD



Lottery scratchies — WOOHOO I win $2 and $4 :-)

Christmas Street Decorations


Chauvel street Christmas light decorations by day, North Ryde

10 comments:

joey@forkingaroundsydney said...

Look at all that seafood! Looks like it was a great feast!

I've never seen Chauvel Street by day, so thanks for the pics!

billy@ATFT said...

merry xmas simon! looks like a scrumptious feast u got there.

Brenda said...

Merry Christmas!!
What a lovely Christmas spread. I've never tried Alskan Crab, it's huge!!!

Gummi Baby said...

Wow! That looked like a LOT of food! I hope you had a lovely day!

YaYa said...

That is some freakin' big king crab! Haha, your leftovers dinner looks strangely like our leftovers dinner, possibly the same all round the world!

chocolatesuze said...

woahh that is a massive crab! hehe i love mahjong!

the happy blogger said...

CRIKEY! That's a BIGGGGGGG CRAB!

sugarpuffi said...

merry christmas simon. wow that king crab looks SO NICE!

and you tempted me to play mahjong!

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

Hehe at the matching Merry Christmas shirts! I've had Alaskan crab and it is indeed so nice and meaty. Have you seen the Deadliest Catch show?

Simon Leong said...

hi joey, hope to check out chauvel at night, would be so nice.

hi billy, merry xmas to you too! can't go wrong with seafood.

hi brenda, merry xmas! i don't think i could ever go back to the tiny blue swimmer — just too small and fiddly. you have to try it one day.

hi gummi baby, was a great day thank you. hope you've had a wonderful xmas.

hi yaya, hehe freakin' big indeed. i think your right about the left overs all round the world.

hi chocolatesuze, mahjong is sooooo hard to learn but i guess it's all about practice. seems like so many rules to remember — Pong, Kong etc

hi the happy blogger, finally a crab which hasn't decent meat :-)

hi sugarpuffi, good luck with the mahjong, it get totally confused but it sure keeps the mind active :-)

hi lorraine, i've heard about the Deadliest Catch show but have yet to see it. really want to watch it now. i hope not too many fisherman were injured in catching my crab

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