Christmas Dinner!

Last Christmas my family and I decided to stay home and have Christmas dinner at home just so we could avoid the terrible Christmas traffic jams that came with the holiday.

Of course, they left the cooking to me, surprise surprise.

Since we'd bought some really expensive looking salmon a couple days ago, I figured, 'why not match this with some asparagus, since that's what everybody does anyway?'. And mom, being mom insisted we added some carbs to the menu - baked potato wedges. 

I'm really not sure how to write a recipe for these 3 dishes because they were relatively easy to make but oh well, here goes nothing. 

Bacon-wrapped asparagus (serves 3)

Ingredients:

6 strips of bacon

2-3 bunches of asparagus (~24 stalks of asparagus), depending on your bacon to asparagus ratio

3 cloves of garlic

olive oil

Directions:

1. Wrap about 4-5 stalks of asparagus with bacon and slip in half a clove of garlic in between the asparagus and bacon as shown. 

2. Drizzle with olive oil.

3. Place it into a cold oven and set it to 200ºC for 20 minutes or until the bacon begins to brown.

Tips:

• If you're worried about making a mess, line your baking sheet with some aluminium foil to trap all that oil. Lining the sheet with some foil will also make it easier to trap that bacon fat for other uses.
• You're not supposed to preheat the oven because the bacon will burn.
• Cover your baking sheet with an aluminium foil once it is out of the oven to keep warm. 

Bacon-wrapped asparagus before hitting the oven.

Baked potato wedges (serves 3)

Ingredients:

6 small potatoes/3 medium potatoes

2 tbsps of butter

2 cloves of garlic, smashed

Rosemary

Salt 

Pepper

Directions:

1. Raise your oven temperature from 180ºC to 200ºC, assuming you baked the asparagus before this.

2. In a food processor, combine room temperature unsalted butter, garlic, salt, pepper and rosemary. You can make extra portions and freeze them for later use.

3. Wash and cut your potatoes into wedges, as shown. Leave the skin on for extra crunch and texture.

4. Season with the butter mixture and mix with your hands. Yes, get your hands dirty!

5. Place into the oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown. 

Potato wedges before being baked.

Baked salmon (serves 3)

Ingredients:

600g of salmon fillets

1 lemon

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Dill (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 200ºC, if you haven't already.

2. Season your salmon with salt, pepper and dill (optional). Drizzle over it with some olive oil.

3. If you want a crispy skin, sear your salmon in your hot pan.

4. Place the salmon into the oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish and how cooked you want your salmon to be. 

5. Cut your lemons into wedges to be served alongside the salmon.

And voila! The final product. Hope this recipe works for you too. I kind of just winged it so I really hope it works.

The final product.