One of the benefits of living down under is that you get to celebrate Christmas twice a year. It’s been really cold lately- not cold cold, but for Aussie spoilt with sunshine and warmth it’s been unbearably wet and chilly.

Christmas seemed to have arrived very early this year in many ways.

I got my first Xmas present from my friend, Alice, who knows my fashion taste better than myself. She’s so good at picking the right present for people. I’m still wearing the slippers she got me for my birthday 2 years ago. I called them bumper cars. They are always parked by the bed and I drive around the house in them.

Thanks again, Alice, for the lovely fancy shoes. I’ve been enjoying wearing them.

I also got a job that I had tried to get for a long time, so my spirits have been very high this winter.

To keep the Xmas spirit going, I called for an instant midwinter Christmas party with some friends and students of mine to give them a cultural experience about Christmas in July – more honestly as an excuse for more food and booze :-O.

Capsicum Cashew Pesto, Olive Cashew Tapenade and Salsa Vede

I was going to get a Xmas tree and tinsels, but shops didn’t have them on sale yet, not til December. But I still made an effort to give a bit of a Christmas feel, at least a party feel, to my place for the guests by hanging around balloons and party.

Initially, I wasn’t going to do much cooking up since people were bringing some food, then I thought, ‘The party wouldn’t be the same without one big dish for people to share like big roasted turkey.’ So I went down to the fish market – god, I love living so close to all that fresh seafood! – and got a HUGE salmon, about 3kg. The weight of the fish in my hand made me so excited and, at the same time, worried about cooking it right so that it wouldn’t all go to waste.

Realising the fish was too big to fit in my oven, I chopped off around the head and kept it for dinner later. Cooking whole big salmon turned out to be less hassle than I imagined. All you need is a bunch of fresh dill and a whole packet of coarse sea salt. Now with the big Christmas feed in the oven, it is time to make the special green sauce to go with it - Salsa Verde.

I combined two recipes found on the net and made my own green salsa. To make 2 cups of salsa verde

A whole bunch of parsley, mint and basil – finely chopped – I didn’t use a food processor to make it look more rustic

A whole small jar of capers in white wine vinegar, two garlic cloves and 6 anchovies – I processed these for smoother texture to contrast with herbs.

2 Tbs Dijon mustard

2 Tbs red wine vinegar

1 Tbs lemon jice

3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

I had a lot of comments on this sauce from my guests. They got absolutely blown away by it and started floating around the house with balloons.

The whole fish business was the highlight of the evening, leaving so little praise for my unfortunate Christmas cake yet to be served.

Christmas cake is meant to be made long before the special day so that the fruit flavor can be brought out. Since it wasn’t going to be a traditional cake, I created my own recipe, less fruity and nuttier – modern Christmas cake, that is, in an effort to watch out my bulging waistline. *:-P*

My students brought some desserts as well, and the Thai coconut banana was really delicious, yet not as good as my cake

Thank you to all the guests who came around that night despite the rain. I really appreciate your effort you had to make to drag your cold and wet body outside, and all the lovely food you brought. I hope you all had lots of laughter and enjoyed the strange experience of having a Christmas party in the middle of winter with bunch of strangers.

Merry Christmas, everyone, once again.

Let’s hope for the best Christmas to come this year.