Part 2 of budget cooking for 50 – breakfast. Menu: scrambled eggs, sausages, grilled tomatoes, toast. (sorry but hash browns too fiddly).

Scrambled eggs: allow 2.5 eggs per person. So that’s 11 dozen eggs.  Find 2 massive casserole pots, and break half the eggs into each.  Using an electric handheld mixer, beat the eggs, and add in 5 teaspoons of salt into each as well as the same of cracked black pepper. Mix in 300ml of thickened cream (or full fat milk if you’re watching your weight ).

Start the sausages on a BBQ - 2 per person.  Turn on the oven to 180degrees, and cut the tomatoes in half (across the width).  Lay them in a single layer, cut side up on a tray. Sprinkle salt and pepper, and splash olive oil over them as well as mixed herbs, and some salt and pepper. Place in the oven and baked until soft.

When the sausages and tomatoes are being cooked, put the pots of eggs on the stove on medium, and stir, while scraping the cooked egg from the bottom, until it’s almost cooked.  Take off the heat, and stir in half a bunch of finely chopped parsley or chives.  It should take around 20minutes as there is so much there.

Hopefully by then, the sausages and tomatoes will be ready, and hopefully you will have around 6 loaves of bread, or 50 english muffins toasted for you by anohter little helper, in which case you can line up everything ready for people to help themselves buffet style

Chicken shish kebabs

13kg chicken breast or thigh, cubed 

 Method

1. In 2 large bowls, pour in enough olive oil to cover the base of the containers, and enough to cover the chicken. Add in half the garlic in each bowl, as well as half the rosemary. Stir.
2. Pour in the chicken into the bowls, and using your hands (there’s no other way!) marinate the chicken. Let it sit in the fridge, covered, overnight preferably or for 3 hrs to marinate.
3. Soak the skewers in water for at least half an hour to avoid them burning
4. Thread one piece of chicken, then a piece of onion, another chicken, a capsicum, another chicken, zucchini and a final piece of chicken onto each skewer.
5. Season skewers with salt and pepper, and cook on the BBQ, turning only once when it looks almost cooked through.
6. Organise a production line starting with lebanese bread, then the salads and finally the chicken for people to serve themselves and wrap up to eat!

Ever found yourself in a situation where you’ve purchased a 7kg frozen turkey 2 days before Christmas, and wondering how you’ll ever have enough time to thaw it, let alone cook it?  Well I did, and here’s some wisdom/tips I can share.

1. Even though the turkey packet says that each kilogram requires 18 hrs to thaw in the fridge, and not to thaw it on the kitchen bench, it doesn’t actually say that you shouldn’t thaw it by sitting it in a bath of water On my estimationg 18 hrs x 7 kgs is around 5 days. And I only had 2. So in the water it goes.  Did you know that it actually floats? No problem. Anchor it down with a 2L bottle of diet coke.  the next morning, I found that it started to seep some yucky pink liquid, so I took it out, ripped open the packet, and washed my turkey. Seemed thawed enough (after 24 hrs) so I put in my fridge just in case.

2. Next day (eating day). It actually says that each kg requires 45-50mins cooking; so for a 7kg turkey it recommended 5hrs 55minutes. This could be a problem if you are having more than one meat – so find a nearby relative to cook it at their place.  Make the stuffing: pan fry half a bulb of chopped up garlic with 5 rashers of chopped bacon, a chopped onion, then process half a loaf of bread to make breadcrumbs, and mix in with a handful of chopped parsley, thyme and 1/4 cup of lemon juice.  Shove stuffing up turkey carcass if you are not faint hearted.  Massage the bird with olive oil and butter. Sick…

3.  Cook the turkey covered with foil for the prescribed time. Since I wasn’t sure if my turkey did in fact thaw, and thinking that I would have double chance of food poisoning through improper thawing and undercooking, I used a meat thermometer for good measure. 180 degrees meant it’s cooked. And amazingly – that coincided with the 5hr 55 cooking time!  Actually I was a bit worried that 6 hrs of cooking would result in turkey jerkey, but it was fine – as I unwrapped it every hour and based it with the pan juices.  End result – every bit eaten up. Lovely!

I think next year I may just be a bit more organised and buy and thaw it ahead of time Merry Christmas!

Ingredients (for 15)

• 2 cups arborio rice
• a pinch of saffron, soaked in 2 tblspoons hot water
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 chorizo sausages
• 1 squid tube
• 1 sliced red capsicum
• half kg of uncooked prawns
• 500g chicken meat
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 300g piece of fish fillet (I used barramundi)
• 1 tablespoon smokey paprika
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Method

1. In a large (I meant large!) deep frypan or paella pan, saute the sliced chorizo until cooked.  Set aside. Do the same for the chicken.
2. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, and saute the onion until translucent.  Add the rice and saute slightly to form a crust on the outside so it doesn’t go all gluggy when you cook it.
3. Add the paprika, saffron (and water) and the stock, and bring to the boil.
4. Arrange the seafood and capsicum in a nice pattern in the pan, add back the chorizo and the chicken, and place lid on the pan. Simmer on low-medium heat for 20-25mins or until the seafood and rice is cooked.
5. Scatter chopped parsley, and bring to the table to serve.