BTM Brings You:Excellent Chefs on Christmas Dining

Except for a few moments in history, dining with family and friends has been included as a major aspect of mid-winter holiday celebrations, whether the ancient pagan celebrations of the Romans or Germanic Tribes, Christmas, Hanukkah, the Lunar New Year. Along with Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Christmas trees or other home decoration and the Menorah, fine dining is a key aspect of any winter holiday’s observance. Browsing the Internet reveals that there are many ways to prepare a holiday meal.

l        In Australia, a Christmas lunch is of traditional treats including ham, turkey and plum pudding

l        In the United States, a traditional menu often involves turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin tarts

l        In Great Britain, turkey became a main dish after the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901)

Turkey is now a dominant dish, with its origins as a holiday delight tracing back to 1620, when the ship Mayflower reached America with Europe's Pilgrims. Native Americans reportedly introduced the colonists to wild turkeys to help them avoid starvation. Turkey is often served on Thanksgiving Day in commemoration of this assistance. It is also served on Christmas and Easter. In this sense, turkey is somewhat like China's dumplings (jiaozi), a common holiday dish.

But there are other holiday specialities. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, as in The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, Holmes tells Watson that, ''It (a hat) arrived upon Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's fire…a most unimpeachable Christmas goose.'' So a Christmas goose is on most occasions associated with Victorian England.

Fortunately, Christmas is the season of the year for indulgence. As Samuel Pepys remarked of a London yuletide in 1682, ''feasting reconciles everybody.'' Though BTM editors believe that a Christmas Eve in Beijing is consonant with the spirit of Christmas, there's no doubt that there's no better place than home to celebrate a holiday. But if in Beijing, why not prepare your own Christmas dinner with the aid of BTM? Why not pamper your family members and friends at your home?

BTM invited three of the best chefs in town to gift you with recipes of exotic dishes with different flavours for you and your loved ones. The editors are grateful for the assistance of three five-star hotels, the Hilton Beijing, Shangri-La Hotel and the China World Hotel, who ''lent'' our editors their busy chefs' time during this festive season.

It will be greatly appreciated if you can e-mail the editors your comment about these dishes or your own holiday recipes. Please write to edit@btmbeijing.com.

 

Chef Amar Panwar

Chef Panwar began his career in Mumbai and Bombay where the tandoori concept originates;Chef Panwar is now an expert in this particular cooking technique. He brings his extensive knowledge of Indian cuisine and techniques to the exciting and vibrant Café Cha, Shangri-La Hotel, Beijing.

Chicken Lajawab

Chicken Lajawab is the Dusarah festival special dish, which is shared by the entire family. Dusarah is celebrated in October, in the worship of Goddess Durga or in the celebration of Rama's victory over Rawana.

l        Ingredients can be divided into two categories. The ''must category'' includes four pieces of skinless chicken leg, 50-grams of oil, 500-grams of deep-fried onion paste, 250-grams of steamed tomato puree, red chilli paste, salt and pepper. The ''free choice'' category refers to the Indian spices you like. Chef Panwar's choices are 100-grams of cashew nut paste, 15-grams of ginger, 15-grams of garlic, 15-grams of cream, 15-grams of coriander leaf, 10-grams of turmeric powder, 10-grams of cumin powder, 10-grams of garam masala powder, two pieces of green cardamom, two pieces of black cardamom, two pieces of bay leaf, two pieces of cinnamon sticks and two pieces of cloves. All these spices can be found in large supermarkets.

l        Heat oil in a cooking pot, fry the garlic and ginger until they are fragrant.

l        Reduce the heat and then add onion paste, 250-grams of steamed tomato puree, salt, pepper and all the spices.

l        When the fluid in the pot is boiling, add the chicken legs and red chilli paste.

l        Cook for 20 minutes over medium heat.

l        Pour the sauce into a big plate and place the chicken legs. Add in fresh cream, coriander leaf and some seasoning if you like.

l        Garnish the dish using your imagination.

 

Chef Dan Segall

At Louisiana, the Hilton Beijing's Creole-Cajun reworking of Beijing's oldest steakhouse, diners often describe chef Dan as ''superb'' and ''handsome.'' Segall, who previously worked at Canteen in New York’s SOHO district, is well known for adding quirky touches to his food.

Maple-glazed Atlantic Salmon   

 

Chef Dan serves salmon with bacon-wrapped Chinese broccoli, brown-butter pumpkin rice for two diners. He demonstrated how to make the broccoli and rice, but the editors cannot show it here because of the space limitation. Please write to edit@btmbeijing.com for the recipes if you are interested.

For the maple glaze, ingredients include: 100 millilitres of real maple syrup, 20 millilitres of light soy sauce, 100 millilitres of chicken stock and lemon juice and salt. For the salmon, you need olive oil, two salmon fillets without skin, salt and pepper, the aforementioned maple glaze, lemon juice and butter.

l        Combine syrup, soy sauce and chicken stock and whisk together. Season with salt and lemon juice. Get the maple glaze ready.

l        Heat oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Season salmon with salt and pepper. Place salmon in pan and cook until nicely browned on one side. Turn salmon and lower heat, cooking another 2-3 minutes. Top with lemon slice.

l        Pour maple glaze over salmon and use a spoon to baste the salmon for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.

l        Reserve salmon and keep warm. Add lemon juice and butter to the remaining glaze in the pan and mix to create a sauce. Season with salt, if necessary.

l        Garnish the salmon in the way you like. Chef Dan serves it with vegetables, Chinese broccoli and pumpkin rice.

 

Chef Yuan Jinhui

The China World Hotel opened in 1990; chef Yuan has worked in its Chinese restaurant Summer Palace for 12 years. Yuan is also reputed to be one of the ''Ten Best Hong Kong Chefs.''

Beef Kneecap

It is said that Chinese cuisine is not suitable as fast food, because it's not as amenable to standardization, as with specific set dishes, as with a typical western fast-food restaurant such as McDonald's or KFC. The taste of Chinese dishes depends much on a cook's understanding and experience, and this is true with the dish Chef Yuan will introduce. Please exert all your sensibilities in gaining a perspective about Chinese cuisine and create your own recipes. The advantage is that you can always savour a different taste for the same dish if you change some ingredients.

l        Basic ingredients are ginger, shallot, pepper and pure beef soup. Though the dish is called beef kneecap, you can replace it with other kinds of beef if you like. The vegetables chef Yuan uses are carrots and tomatoes. Again, it is no problem that if you want to replace one or add more vegetables.

l        Heat the oil and fry the beef until its colour turns golden. Add the beef into the beef soup and season the soup with the ginger, shallots, pepper and vegetables you choose. Heat the soup in an oven for 3.5 hours.

l        Place the beef on a deep plate and pour the soup.

l        Garnish the dish with fruit, vegetables or noodles. Chef Yuan chose green-tea noodles and included the boiled noodles with the soup. Pay attention whether the tastes and colours of the trimmings match each other.