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Mar 25th, 2025
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Joined: Jun 2006
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This menu does not involve meat, but does involve cheese. Enjoy!
Pre-dinner drinks:
Martinis (of Blackwood’s Vintage Dry Gin) with marinated juniper berries
Sicilian Green Olives
Dry roasted spiced cashew nuts, almonds and walnuts
Sheep’s milk cheddar served with quince paste
Followed by: Ninth Island Sparkling (blend of the classic pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay) nv [Piper’s Brook, Tasmania]
Entre:
Grilled goat’s cheese on a mango coulis
Salad of wild greens and pomegranates with vintage red wine vinegar dressing
Served with: Petaluma Picadilly Valley Chardonnay 2005 [Picadilly, South Australia]
Main Course:
Wild mushroom stroganoff with herbed crumb crust
Served with:
Maple syrup and mustard sweet potatoes
Roast baby beets with horseradish
Roast parsnips
Steamed green beans with ginger
Served with: John Loxton McLaren Vale Shiraz 2000 [McLaren Vale, South Australia]
Salad:
Cos and Oak Leaf lettuce with Cherry Tomatoes, fresh Asparagus and Nashi Pears
Served with: an aged Balsamic Vinegar, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano.
Dessert:
Christmas Pudding icecream
Served with: Elliot Rocke Estate Ice Wine Semillon 2006 [Mudgee, NSW]
Cheese:
Sardinian Sheep’s Milk Pecorino
Australian Hard Chevre (Goats’ Milk Cheese)
Margaret River (Western Australia) Camembert
Carr’s Table Water Biscuits
Served with: Galway Pipe Fine Old Tawny Port or Courvoisier VSOP Cognac
After Dinner:
Fruit Mince Pies
Australian Rich Fruit Cake
And Fresh Summer Fruits: Mangos, Bananas,White Grapes, Strawberries, Apricots, Plums and Nectarines
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Joined: Oct 2003
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Wow - that's all I can manage as a comment! No - wait - let me offer as an additional elegant dessert, the recipe for our brother Anton's famous Chocolate Cake FOR THE CAKE
125 g (4 oz) butter
225 g (8 oz) dark soft brown sugar
2 eggs
142 ml (1/4 pint) soured cream
175 g (6 oz) plain flour
5 ml (1 tsp) baking powder
2.5 ml bicarbonate of soda
50 g (2 oz) Cadbury Bournville cocoa
FOR THE FILLING
40 ml (2 Tbs) Cadbury Bournville cocoa
125 g (4 oz) butter
150 g (5 oz) icing sugar, sieved
Vanilla essence
FOR THE FROSTING
200 g bar of Cadbury Bournville chocolate
40 ml (2 Tbs) Cadbury Bournville cocoa
142 ml (1/4 pint) double cream
Or you could use your favourite chocolate/cocoa instead.
Two 20 cm (8-inch), shallow cake tins, greased and base-lined
For the cake, cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light in colour anti texture. Gradually beat in the eggs, and then the soured cream (the mixture looks curdled at this stage). Sieve together the dry ingredients and fold them into the mixture. Divide the mixture equally between the tins. Bake at Gas Mark 5/190?C:/375?F for 30 ? 35 minutes, until cooked. Turn out on to a wire tray to cool.
Make the filling by mixing the cocoa with 40 ml (2 Tbs) of boiling water to a smooth paste, allow to cool. Beat together the butter, sieved icing sugar and essence, until light and fluffy. Beat in the cocoa. Slice the cake in half and then sandwich the halves together with the filling.
For the frosting, melt the chocolate carefully. Make the cocoa into a paste with water as before and mix with the chocolate. Slowly whisk the cream into the chocolate until smooth and thickened. Spread the frosting evenly over the cake with a palette knife.
Serve in slices, with whipped cream or ice-cream. If possible warm each slice in a microwave or oven, if you have made the cake in advance; it can also be served cold but is definitely more interesting hot, with the contrast of ice cream.
USE LOTS OF WHIPPED CREAM. Many years, Neil (who sure would like the recipe for Fruit Mince Pies)
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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This menu does not involve meat, but does involve cheese. Enjoy! I'm struggling with hunger pangs and with COLD here... This is cruel!  I just baked my vegan chocolate cake for our post DL meal 12/24.
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Dear Father Serge, Bless! It is always enjoyable to read this menu which you share with us...I hope that you will not only be reading but also partaking of it as well.  Now, to take the spanakopita which I made for the family out of the oven (light style, since I spray oil on the phyllo instead of loading it with butter and/or oil as others do)... ...unfortunately my husband is also fasting dairy this time, so he will not be able to partake with the rest of us today. Alice
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Joined: Nov 2002
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Father Serge:
Father bless!!
To echo Neil--WOW!! May you be blessed as you partake of this feast on the Feast of the Nativity.
Have you ever considered doing a show on the American Food Channel? I'm sure you'd get plenty of good ratings as folks watched you in the kitchen.
Asking for your blessing and continued holy prayers,
BOB
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Dear BOB,
If I remember correctly, this is a menu which friends of Father Serge prepare...(?)
Alice
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Alas - the annual menu is one prepared by two friends in Australia, which would be a lengthy trip to go and share it on Friday.
However, being shameless, I shall ask my friends for the recipe for Fruit Mince Pies!
Fr Serge
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I like the pomegranate seeds in the salad on Father Serge's gourmet menu. I tried them in my Christmas salad greens last year, along with goat cheese, pears, walnuts and an olive oil/honey/orange juice/dijon mustard vinaigrette my daugther introduced me to. Pomegranates have been long loved and eaten in the Mediterranean countries, and are extremely healthy. Alice, (who likes to talk about food!) 
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I did wonder about all the various Australian items on Father's list. Margaret River is just a few hours drive to the south of Perth. Merry Christmas to you all. 
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Father Serge:
Father bless!!
Well, it was the thought that counts. Maybe your friends will send you a portion packed in dry ice and you could enjoy it at New Year's.
BOB
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LOL - I wondered about the Australian focus - was debating whether I could get Paul, Matta, and Collin to chip in and send me a CARE package with the fixings  Alice, Apparently Father has posted this menu previously by what you posted. I must be slipping, because it's pretty memorable and I don't remember it  Bob, You've got to admit, it's a tad fancier than our fasting chili recipe - but I do think that Anton's cake would fit in well with the elegance of it. (I did go searching for maple syrup-mustard sweet potato recipes on-line and found a few. That's likely to get a try, if I can convince my eldest - the sweet potato queen - to experiment.) Many years, Neil
Last edited by Irish Melkite; 12/24/09 02:56 AM.
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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Joined: Jun 2006
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My friends are both Orthodox and vegetarians, and they send me their menu each Xmas. Some dishes may be repeated, but in general the menu does change from year to year. When I am occasionally in Australia, they always feed me most sumptuously.
Fr. Serge
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My friends are both Orthodox and vegetarians, I'm planning on sending a copy of this to my non-Orthodox, but very vegetarian, eldest son. I suspect that Timm will find it very interesting and appealing. Many years, Neil
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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This appears to be the (or an) Australian version:
part from Christmas Pudding, nothing says Christmas more than the fragrance of freshly baked Fruit Mince Pies. Instead of doing a typical Fruit Mince Pie recipe with dates, sultanas and cherries, I decided to use the native fruits of Australia. The recipe uses quandong, riberry, rosella, wild limes together with granny smith apples.
They are great by themselves, but do try with Lemon Myrtle Custard.
Ingredients
Marinated Fruit Mix - makes approx 1kg
150g (¾ cup) riberry confit
150g (¾ cup) quandong confit
150g (¾ cup) wild rosella confit
150g (¾ cup) wild lime confit
3 Granny Smith apples
100g (½ cup) brown sugar
7g (1½ teaspoons) Australian Fruit Spice
60ml (2 fl oz.) Bundaberg Rum
Mince Pies pastry - makes approx 24
300g (1½ cups) plain flour
150g (5 oz.) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons macadamia nut oil
1 teaspoon lemon myrtle
40g (1½ oz.) sugar
2 fresh large eggs
20ml (½ fl oz.) water
Cooking instruction
For the marinated fruit mix, finely chop the quandong, rosella and wild lime and combine with riberries in a bowl. Then grate the Granny Smith apples into the mix. Add brown sugar, fruit spice and rum. Mix well then allow to sit overnight, mixing the mix from time to time. The fruit can be prepared and matured well a head of time.
For the pastry, preheat oven to 200°c.
Sift the flour into a bowl, then rub in the butter, macadamia nut oil, sugar and lemon myrtle until crumbly. Add 1 beaten egg and water to make bind the dough. This could be done in a food processor. Then turn out to a floured table and knead till the dough is smooth. Cover and place in fridge for at least 1 hour. The dough can be made ahead of time and stored in fridge till required.
Then roll out the dough to approx 3mm think and then cut out 6cm pastry rounds (or what ever size the patty pans are). Place each pastry round into the patty pan, then spoon in a little of the fruit mix. With the remaining pastry roll out star shaped tops for the pies and place on top. You can do stars or completely cover them. If you do cover them, you’ll need to make a hole at the top. With the reaming egg, lightly beat and brush on top the tops of the pastry.
Bake at 200°c for approx 20 minutes, then remove from oven and allow to cool on baking trays. To serve dust with icing sugar.
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