A Christmas feast without breaking the budget

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Christmas on a budget is easy with these festive recipes from recipes +

Rosemary Potato Skewers with Sweet Chilli Butter

A feast to make dad

SERVES 10 PREP 10 minutes COOK 15 minutes COST $1 each

+ Make ahead Potatoes can be par-cooked up to 1 day ahead. Cover, then refrigerate.

20 mixed baby red (desiree) and (coliban) white chat (baby) potatoes

80g butter melted, plus 80g extra, at room temperature

2 tablespoons chopped rosemary

3 cloves garlic, crushed

10 wooden skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes

10 rosemary stems

1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce

2 teaspoons mild english mustard

1 Pierce potatoes several times all over. Place potatoes in a large saucepan; cover with cold water. Bring to the boil. Boil for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain. Refresh under cold water. Transfer to a large bowl.

2 Combine butter, rosemary and garlic in a bowl. Drizzle butter mixture over potatoes; toss to coat. Season. Place a rosemary stem and a wooden skewer side by side. Using the skewer as a guide, thread potatoes, alternately, onto skewers. Whisk extra butter, sweet chilli sauce and mustard in a bowl.

3 Preheat a barbecue grill plate to moderately high. Cook and turn skewers for 5 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a serving platter. Serve topped with sweet chilli butter.


Citrus Salt Crusted Pork

SERVES 8 PREP 25 minutes + 10 to rest COOK 3 hours COST $3.45 a serve

5kg half pork leg, bone in

1/4 cup citrus salt (see recipe xxx), crushed

16 pearl onions, peeled, leaving root intact

4 lemons, cut into wedges

Here to Help - 10 ways with... Seasoned Salt - Mushroom and chive salt, Mixed pepper and salt, Rosemary salt, Curried salt, Sumac salt, Citrus salt, Fennel, pistachio and cumin salt, Nori, chilli and sesame seed salt, Five-spice salt, Lemongrass and mint salt

1 Preheat the oven to 250C/230C fan-forced. Using a sharp knife, score pork rind at 1cm intervals. Using hands, rub salt all over pork. Place pork in a large roasting pan. Roast for 40 minutes or until rind crackles.

2 Reduce oven temperature to 180C/160C fan-forced. Roast pork for a further 2 hours and 20 minutes, adding onion and lemon to pan in last hour. Remove from oven. Cover with foil; rest for 10 minutes. Carve to serve.

Citrus Salt

2 teaspoons grated orange zest

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

2 teaspoons grated lime zest

1 cup coarse sea salt

1 Preheat oven to 120C/100C fan-forced.

2 Pulse zest and salt in a small food processor or the bowl of an electric stick mixer until finely crushed. Spread mixture on a baking tray.

3 Bake for 15 minutes or until dried, stirring and shaking tray halfway during cooking. Cool. Makes 1 cup


Sausage Christmas Wreath

Christmas Brunch - Festive Brunch - Sausage Christmas wreath

SERVES 8 PREP 10 minutes COOK 20 minutes COST $3.40 a serve

16 chipolata sausages

Cooking oil spray

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 egg, lightly whisked

2 teaspoons sesame seeds

2 tablespoons rosemary leaves

Bought beetroot hummus dip, to serve

1 Preheat oven to 240oC/220oC fan-forced. Line a large pizza tray with baking paper. Spray sausages with oil. Heat a large frying pan over moderate heat. Cook and turn sausages for 5 minutes or until browned all over. Transfer to a heatproof plate. Cool.

2 Cut each pastry sheet into 9 equal squares. For each sausage, brush 1 pastry square with a little of the mustard. Place a sausage diagonally across pastry square. Roll up to enclose sausage, leaving ends open. Brush top with egg; sprinkle with sesame seeds. Repeat to make 16 in total. (Discard 2 leftover pastry squares.)

3 Arrange sausage pastries, side by side, in a wreath shape on prepared tray.

Bake for 20 minutes or until pastry is golden. Decorate with rosemary. Serve with dip.


Red Velvet Ice-cream Cake

Christmas Barbecue - Deck the Outdoors - Red velvet ice-cream cake

SERVES 10 PREP 20 minutes + 1 hour overnight to freeze COOK 25 minutes COST $2.95 a serve

100g butter, chopped, at room temperature

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 egg

1 cup plain flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1 teaspoon red food colouring

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 litre strawberries-and-cream ice-cream, softened slightly

1 litre summer berries sorbet

500g fresh cherries

1/2 bunch mint, tips picked

1 cup fresh raspberries

1 tablespoon icing sugar, to dust

1 Preheat oven to 170oC/150oC fan-forced. Grease and line base of a deep 22cm (base measurement) round cake pan with baking paper. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add egg; beat to combine. Sift flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Combine vinegar, vanilla, food colouring and buttermilk in a jug. Add half of the dry ingredients to butter mixture on low speed, then add half of the wet ingredients. Repeat, using remaining dry and wet ingredients. Spoon mixture into prepared pan; level surface.

2 Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted at centre comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Using a serrated knife, level top of cake. Grease and line base and sides of a deep 22cm (base measurement) round cake pan with baking paper. Spoon ice-cream into prepared pan; press firmly to ensure there are no air pockets in mixture; level surface. Freeze for 1 hour or until firm.

3 Working quickly, process sorbet in a food processor to form a paste. Spread sorbet over ice-cream layer; level surface. Place cake, base side up, on sorbet. Press gently. Cover, then freeze overnight. Invert cake onto serving plate. Remove paper lining. Top with cherries, mint and raspberries. Serve dusted with icing sugar.

Amanda Lennon is the editor of recipes + and AWW FOOD magazine

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Amanda Lennon is the editor of recipes+.