The Magical Christmas Cookbook is truly the sweetest book ever. If your vision of the festive season is drinking mulled wine while snowflakes fall on Christmas markets, then you’re going to love this book (Murdoch Books, RRP $39.99).
Whether you’re expecting many guests or you just want to create a special meal for two, you’ll find a great selection of recipes to get you through the festive season. Light the candles, start mulling the wine, and get cooking!
There are delicious starters, mains and desserts, festive punches and warm drinks. Find your comfort food in baked treats like gingerbread biscuits, stollen and bundt cake — treats that will fill the house with the smell of spices.
Interspersed with the recipes are Christmas carols and extracts of poems and stories like The Nutcracker, along with illustrations of red robins, squirrels, floral garlands, reindeer and other enchanting images for a further sprinkle of magic.
Pepper-crusted fillet of beef with sweet potato rosti
For the beef fillet
600g (1lb 5oz) beef fillet
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons pink or black peppercorns
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
For the sweet potato rosti
500g (1lb 2oz) sweet potatoes
1 garlic clove
40g (1½oz) Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus
some extra for frying
1 egg yolk
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6). Rub the meat with the oil. Coarsely crush the peppercorns and sea salt in a mortar and sprinkle over the meat.
Peel the sweet potatoes and finely grate into a bowl. Squeeze out as much liquid as you can and drain. Peel and crush the garlic and add to the sweet potatoes. Grate the Parmesan. Add to the mixture together with the olive oil and egg yolk and combine everything well.
Sear the fillets in a frying pan for 2 minutes on each side. Transfer them to a baking tray lined with baking paper and continue to cook in the oven for a further 10 to 15 minutes.
Heat a generous amount of oil in another frying pan. Add the sweet potato mixture, shaped into portion-sized patties, and press flat. Fry over medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes on each side. Serve the beef fillets with the rosti.
Recipe and images from The Magical Christmas Cookbook, published by Murdoch Books, $39.99.
