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If eye candy is candy for the eye then what is eye food?

Christmas food that can go the distance

  • I need some gifty/snacky/delicious food ideas that hold up to serious environmental issues. I'm doing my usual trip to my favourite Christmas thing and as usual want to take a dish. However, this year, I'm going to be coming from a holiday house five hours drive away. I have no idea what resources I'll have at the house and let's just assume I'm going to be bug-fucking-nuts and incapable of cooking properly there anyway. So I need a dish I can prepare at home before I go to the holiday house, can keep there for a few days until I go to the Christmas party, that will cope with the following: ten+ hours driving on different days (aircon in the car, but not great) three days storage (probably a fridge, maybe an esky) high heat and humidity (during the creation, transport and consumption thereof) Now, dish is fairly loose - in previous years we've done little chocolates (melted but tasty), most of the other guests cook something at the party, there's seafood as far as the eye can see, a drink is good, no allergies around the place that I need to be wary of, everybody is adventurous as far as taste goes and are going to want to know how to make it. My grandma has the pudding sorted, and the locals tend to have actual food items well under control. We're talking the northern parts of Australia as well, so when I say hot and humid I mean it, and hot chocolate is so unwelcome as to be risible. Bread goes mouldy in a day or two, biscuits too, and everything else melts. Technically these aren't gifts, but individual versions of things go well. I really do enjoy cooking, so complex is fine, but I'm aware that Christmas is a difficult time and I don't want to over-extend myself too close to crunch time. It's important to me to bring something though, which is why I'm trying to work it out now rather than later. I've been thinking about the following: some sort of cordial/syrup that I can mix with soda water or alcohol to make a cocktail, some sort of candy (I find the humidity is an issue for everything from hard candy to chocolate), or a non-food thing. Anyone have any recipes along those lines, or other suggestions? I've got some experience with jam-making and so on. I'm happy to buy as well, will probably buy some fancy tea anyway. Plus, if I ask now, most of you are in the throes of summer so it'll be easy to think of 'now, if someone came over with a batch of this I'd be happy as hell'!

  • Answer:

    Anzac biscuits aren't seasonal, but they were conceived to deal with difficult storage conditions. I love them and welcome any opportunity to eat them long after ANZAC day.

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Last night I drank tequila that had been soaking for a month with blueberries, lime rinds and cherry peppers. It was awesome and a pretty bright purple color. So I vote for some kind of infused spirit. The alcohol will keep it and the longer it sits the better.

Katine

What about an American classic, Chex Mix? You can find a million different recipes, some variously holiday themed, some sweet some savory and all steps in between, or just stick with the original (which is mostly a combination of store-bought stuff + a little seasoning, which you might not have access to.) If you don't have Chex, any kind of mostly unsweetened cereal should do. The key is to mix it up, let it come to room temperature and really dry, and then pack it in airtight containers. The one regular ingredient to Chex Mix that might be a little iffy for you is that normally it involves nuts, which might go off in your high heat. But if you caramelized them, the sugar should seal them well enough, I think, and make it fancier, to boot! You could do a few different batches with different flavor profiles (sweet, salty, spicy?) to make it more special and less monotonous. Chex Mix is sort of a traditional holiday thing but it's just great for times when people are mingling and want something not overwhelming but with variety to nibble on.

Mizu

What is this, mid-August? You just about have enough time to start an http://www.dochara.com/the-irish/irish-christmas/traditional-irish-christmas-cake/ if you bake it in the next two weeks. It will survive a nuclear war, so it will survive your two drives no problem. You can ice it on-site if you want to ice it.

DarlingBri

I'm in Atlanta and our go to food for these weather circumstances (although not at Xmas) is cheese straws. Tons of easy recipes online.... Make and take a few varieties. Always a big hit.

pearlybob

Fruit salad. Get others to help you peel and chop stuff and toss it together once you get there. It doesn't have to be a pudding/dessert thing. You can make em savoury. One of my aunts used to make a killer watermelon and onion salad for Christmas. I do one with (slightly unripe) pineapple and asian herbs. And if you wanted to take it beyond simply fruit and veg, you can toss something like tinned or bottle caviar (or truffles, or smoked duck bits, or whatever) through. Another really simple one is unripe star fruit sliced thin, lumpfish roe, fish sauce, chilli, palm sugar and maybe crushed roasted peanuts (if fresh roasted peanuts aren't going to last, thoroughly wash a pack of bar nuts - works for cashews too). It's getting the proportions right in that last one that really make it zing. Try it out, make it to taste. Worst case scenario, you drink all that lovely stuff people have mentioned up above and forget to make the salad. Then you just hand out the fruit instead.

Ahab

What about some jars of homemade ice cream sauces: chocolate, butterscotch, salted caramel. Would you have sources for buying ice cream, or better yet ingredients for homemade ice cream at the house? I usually start with http://www.davidlebovitz.com/search/?cx=partner-pub-0782082012469704%3As8xzsai1t0k&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=sauce&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&siteurl=www.davidlebovitz.com%2F2013%2F09%2Fsalted-butter-chocolate-sauce-recipe%2F&ref=&ss=3088j2373134j7 or http://smittenkitchen.com/search-results/?cx=009671904594399389362%3Aoll_ocju5k8&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=ice+cream+sauce&sa=search+smittenkitchen.com&siteurl=smittenkitchen.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F12%2Fpeppermint-hot-fudge-sauce%2F&ref=&ss=4292j1069996j25&siteurl=smittenkitchen.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F12%2Fpeppermint-hot-fudge-sauce%2F&ref=&ss=4291j1070651j25.

CathyG

Oh! Something you may be able to get in late winter and that matures nicely: home made pickled onions or gerkins. So good and tasty. They're kind of a pain to prepare, particularly the onions (you need to find small onions for this), but again with nice jars and fancy labels they'll look and taste so much better than the bought ones.

shelleycat

Thank you! I'm not really going to get a chance to shop really, since the holiday house is in the middle of nowhere so fresh fruit and salads aren't going to work. I think a jam or chutney (not plum season yet but that's going on a list) if I can't find a good cordial/liqueur recipe. And Anzacs are on the menu! (I'll be passing the starfruit salad recipe to my sister though, that sounds intriguing)

geek anachronism

MrBobinski

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