Having been on the hunt this year for some new Xmas day menu items, I turned to the expertise of three acclaimed chefs of MasterChef Australia fame for some foodie inspiration.
Former contestants Sarah Tiong and Reece Hignell each offer a unique twist on their signature dishes to keep the sweet and savoury gods happy, while guest judge and famous pastry chef Kirsten Tibballs shares her glorious shortbread wreath recipe.
Enjoy recreating these recipes and treating your tastebuds to a very delicious Christmas.
Sarah Tiong’s Stir-Fried Pippies With Chilli & Garlic
What is your ultimate Christmas dish recommendation?
I adore seafood at Christmas. I like to have a full spread of seafood dishes from oysters to prawns, crabs and pippies. One of my best crowd-pleasers is stir-fried pippies with chilli and garlic.
This is a dish you have to eat with your hands! There’s something fun and heartwarming about getting your hands a little sticky and oily with a lip-smacking sauce. Plus, shellfish is a little luxurious and it always looks so impressive when it lands on the Christmas table. The other bonus is that it literally takes 10 minutes to cook. The payoff is massive for very little prep time!
Ingredients
4 tablespoons of a neutral oil (e.g. rice bran, grapeseed, canola)
8 garlic cloves, finely sliced
3 long red chillies, finely sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh ginger, in 1cm pieces
1kg live pippies, cleaned and drained
2-3 spring onions sliced into 5cm lengths
1 tablespoon finely sliced coriander stalks, leaves reserved for garnish
Sauce
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
5 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons cornflour
Lemon wedges to serve
Method
Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl or jug and set aside.
In a wok or large frying pan on high heat, add the oil. Once hot, stir fry the garlic, chilli and ginger for about 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Then add the pippies. Mix well and then cover with a lid for another 30-40 seconds. The pippies should only just start to open a little bit.
Give the sauce a thorough stir, then pour it into the wok. Stir fry the pippies in the sauce for another 60 seconds. Then turn off the heat, and add the spring onions and coriander stems. Toss well for another 20-30 seconds, then transfer to a serving plate.
Garnish with the coriander leaves and serve with a squeeze of lemon!
This recipe would also work with prawns, mussels, calamari or other shellfish.
Follow Sarah on Instagram here.
Reece Hignell’s Pavlova
What is your ultimate Christmas dish recommendation?
You cannot go past a good old pavlova. Pavlovas are just so traditional and popular.
My Nan would always make one jam-packed full of fruit. Nan had a massive passionfruit vine out the back so she would always go heavy on the fruit, haha.
As for the recipe itself, it’s fairly simple and can be made the night before and left in the oven until the next morning, ready to decorate.
Ingredients
220g caster sugar
120g brown Sugar
6 egg whites
1 tablespoon corn flour
1 teaspoon white vinegar
Method
Preheat the oven to 200ºC, and grease and line a flat baking tray.
Mix together the caster sugar and the brown sugar in a bowl. Place egg whites into a large mixing bowl, then with an electric mixer, mix on high until the egg whites start to foam.
Add sugar one spoon at a time until all the sugar is added. Whisk until a firm soft peak is formed and all the sugar is dissolved.
Fold the cornflour and vinegar into the meringue, then shape into a dome on a flat baking tray.
Place the meringue into the oven, then immediately drop the oven temperature to 130ºC. Leave for 90 minutes, then turn the oven off and leave the pavlova in the oven until it is completely cooled or overnight.
Assembly
1 jar dulce de leche
600ml whipped cream with vanilla folded through
200g crumbled shortbread biscuits
2 bananas, sliced
100g dark chocolate, shaved
Crack the centre of the meringue, then start to fill the meringue with layers of whipped cream, caramelised condensed milk, shortbread crumbs and banana. Decorate pavlova with chocolate shavings.
Follow Reece on Instagram here.Reece Hignell
Kirsten Tibballs’ Christmas Shortbread Wreath
What is your ultimate Christmas dish recommendation?
I always love to create a dessert that can be made in advance but is still a showstopper. That way you can still impress but have it pre-prepared so you can enjoy the festivities on Christmas day.
You can’t go past my shortbread Christmas wreaths, which is a delicious buttery shortbread layered with rich ganache topped with fruit and nuts to balance it all out. It is hard to stop at one. Plus I always feel that touch of fruit on top puts it in the ‘somewhat healthy’ category.
Coconut Shortbread (Makes 10) – Ingredients
75g unsalted butter
50g pure icing sugar
17g desiccated coconut
25g whole eggs
130g plain (all-purpose) flour
1g salt
1g baking powder
QS plain (all-purpose) flour, for dusting
Equipment required
Stand mixer
Plastic wrap
Coconut Shortbread – Method
Place the butter and icing sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix at a low speed until you achieve a smooth paste. When there are no more lumps of butter left, add the eggs and coconut. Mix until combined.
In a separate bowl, sieve the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the sieved dry ingredients to the mixture and combine on a low speed, being careful not to overmix or it will develop the gluten.
Once the pastry has come together, press into a neat, flat square and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Cinnamon & Nutmeg Ganache – Ingredients
140g cream 35% fat
1g freshly grated nutmeg
3g ground cinnamon
60g Callebaut 823NV milk couverture 33.6%
73g Callebaut 811 dark couverture 54.5%
Equipment required:
Whisk
Plastic wrap
Cinnamon & Nutmeg Ganache – Method
Boil the cream, nutmeg and cinnamon in a saucepan.
Place both the milk and dark couverture in a bowl. Pour the hot mixture over the couverture and whisk by hand until the couverture has fully melted.
Cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap touching the surface of the ganache. Leave the ganache at room temperature for approximately 1-2 hours until it reaches a piping consistency.
Rolling The Pastry
Equipment required:
Rolling pin
70mm cutter
40mm cutter
Demarle 1/2 Silpain mat perforated half size baking tray
Lightly dust the bench with flour and cut the pastry in half to roll in two batches. Lightly dust the top of the first half of the pastry and roll out to a 3mm thickness with a rolling pin. Keep moving the pastry and dusting it as you go to ensure it doesn’t stick. Using a 70mm cutter, cut out discs.
Cut the centre out of each disc with a 40mm cutter to create rings. Place the rings onto a Silpain mat on top of a perforated baking tray or an aluminium tray lined with baking paper. Reserve any offcuts and add them to the second batch of fresh dough. Repeat the process until you have 30 discs in total.
Bake for 10-12 minutes at 160 ̊C. Allow to cool at room temperature.
Assembly
Equipment required
Disposable piping bag
8mm round piping tip
Transfer the ganache to a disposable piping bag fitted with an 8mm round piping tip.
Pipe a layer of ganache onto the ring. Place another ring on top and gently press it, ensure you don’t press it too hard or the ganache will spill out.
Pipe another layer of ganache and set another ring on top.
Garnish – Ingredients
100g (3.53oz) Callebaut 811 dark couverture 54.5%
10 glace cherries
36 whole almonds (skin on)
10 skinned pistachios
36-40 whole roasted hazelnuts
QS icing (confectioners’) sugar, for dusting
Equipment required:
Paper piping cone
Garnish – Method
Temper the couverture. Quarter the glace cherries and cut the pistachios in half.
Prepare a paper piping cone and fill it with a small amount of tempered chocolate. Pipe a drop of chocolate onto the nuts and cherries and decorate the top of the wreath, using the chocolate to secure them.
Dust with icing sugar prior to serving.
Follow Kirsten on Instagram here and her cooking school, Savour here. Kisten Tibballs
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