Christmas in my family is usually very ‘asian’. In saying this, a normal Christmas would consist of fresh seafood, dad’s awesome noodles, hundreds of homemade spring rolls, whole steamed barramundi with ginger shallot, rice, vegies, etc. Over the years, my family has become very multicultural with chinese, filipino, irish, vietnamese, indian and polynesian blood that you’ll often find a range of foods from various regions.

This year we’ve decided to try and change the style of cooking by doing ‘roasts’ (slow cooking methods) as this type of cuisine is something that is cooked yearly and very rare for us. This year, we thought we’d fire up our ovens and have a good ole ‘aussie’ christmas filled a leg of ham (officially the first christmas ham i’ve ever had!) After hearing many people rave on about how awesome xmas ham is and how they could eat it for days or even months, i figured this ham must be blardy awesome and awesome it was.

Filipino spring rolls
My mom rolls hundreds of these mini filipino springrolls. When guests arrive its what everyone munches on while holding a beer in their hand

Empanadas – beef mince, onion and peas
Mom made empanadas. She’s been practicing for the last couple of weeks and whoa man i ate 4 of these that by the time dinner came round, i hardly ate =|

Roast garlic chicken with potato and herb stuffing, roasted carrots,s weet potato, onion and garlic cloves
When ever the family does a roast, dad always seems to be the one who masters roast chicken! Potato and herb stuffing is always the highlight of this and not to forget the caramelised onion and garlic cloves at the bottom of the pan.

Maple Syrup and mustard glazed christmas ham
God I love you pork candy!

Roast lamb with rosemary and garlic
My sister married an aussie irishman and has mastered the lamb roast that her husband loves to attack. I love going over her place for a mean lamb roast especially when she stuffs it with rosemary and garlic with a white wine sauce.

Caramelised turkey glazed with butter
Don’t think anyone knows how to cook a big turkey bird so dad decided to make another oven caramelised turkey breast. Soo tender baby!  i really don’t know wtf he done to make it so yummy

Pan fried fish cooked in white wine with butter and parsley
Dad always makes this as it seems to be a favourite with many of us my favourite is eating this with rice. Crunchy on the outside soft and tender in the center.

Homemade tandoori chicken on a bead of rocket and avocado salad
Cousin made this awesome tandoori chicken salad. Usually when I buy tandoori chicken salads at work, its always fairly bland. But I dunno what my cousin done but it was soo soft, tender and tasty. LOVED IT COUS!!

Pea Salad
Pea salads seems to be the ‘in salad’ peas used to be broke ass food but now there seems to be a influx with pea salads. My favourite salad at the moment and one that is often eaten for dinner after work out at the gym.

Fiji Indian chicken curry
Fiji indian curry isn’t like the curries you find at a north indian restaurant where sauce buries the meat.  Fiji indian curry isn’t as saucy and uses a lot more spices and flavouring. My dad makes a different kind of curry using potato, tomato, curry powder and chicken. Where as the curry my uncle makes, is the best fiji indian curry ever! I always look forward to eating this whenever there’s a shin dig at my or their place. With all the indian spices, its a very fragrant taste that it definitely takes years to master.

Kokonda – (raw fish)
My aunty sarah made kokonda which is very popular in fiji. Its raw fish which is cooked with lemon and drowned with coconut milk. Definitely a must try when your in fiji. It’s a really nice fresh dish to eat.

Mini cheesecake with marinated blueberries in st germaine liqueur and orange blossom pashmak
I got fairly lazy, initially i was meant to bake but the kitchen was too hectic so i decided to do something which didn’t require an oven. Pashmak i bought at david jones food hall for $16 a packet ZOMG ripp off.

Trifle
Last year my sister made this for the family and this year she decided to make it again. I usually hate eating trifle but this is the only one i eat because its not too sweet and sickly like some can be.

Sans rival (filipino cake)
Everyone has been raving on about this meringue layered with cashew and french butter cream. Its soo delicious everyone kept going back for more.

Filipino turron
My step mom usually makes turron with banana but this time she used jackfruit. Its a sweet spring-roll with burnt caramelised brown sugar

In a nut shell, this is the kwan’s christmas for 2010. I wonder what next years christmas will be… I assume its back to asian and fresh seafood *WHOO HOO*. The one thing I missed this christmas was eating everything with rice. I love my rice DAMIT!

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