Christmas in July - Chocolate Peppermint Coquito

As part of Christmas in July, Lance and I offered a mulled cider that we served as people arrived. A nice warm mug of spicy deliciousness welcoming them in from the cold. Stay tuned for that recipe! Then with dessert I served this chocolate peppermint coquito and my sister in law made egg-nog. Traditional Puerto Rican coquito is sort of a rummy coconut egg-nog. This chocolate version is barely adapted from Always Order Dessert's recipe for a chocolate coquito. I made mine minty as peppermint is such a "Christmas" flavour and it's impossible to find candy canes this time of year. They would make awesome swizzle sticks if you make this for your December Christmas. You could use Creme de Menthe instead of a peppermint extract but it would add extra sweetness and it would be the only reason for me buying a whole bottle of Creme de Menthe. The only other change is that I used unsweetened coconut cream instead of the sweetened version, I don't really drink super-sweet drinks.

The end result is a sort of more grown-up version of a peppermint Baileys. Perfect for sipping on the rocks and dunking your gingerbread into. I served them in cute little red shot glasses to add to the festivities (and take away from dishes).

This makes a little over a litre and lasts in the fridge for around 2 weeks.

Chocolate Peppermint Coquito

1 can coconut milk
100g dark chocolate (I used Lindt 85%)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can coconut cream
2 cups rum (I used Havana Club Anejo)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp vanilla extract

In a small pot, add the coconut milk and roughly chopped dark chocolate and place over a low heat. Stir to melt the chocolate and form a ganache. When completely amalgamated, set aside to cool to room temperature.

When cool, place the coconut cream, sweetened condensed milk and rum in the blender, blend to combine. Add the chocolate ganache and vanilla extract. Blend well to combine. Add 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract, mix then taste to see if it needs extra.

Pour into glass bottles with lids (like leftover rum bottles), add a cinnamon stick and pop in the fridge until it's really cold. Serve dusted with cinnamon if you'd like.

Christmas in July - Roast Pork and Apple Sauce

This is my go-to way to cook a roast pork. The spices and herbs might get mixed up a little bit (you'll maybe recognise the sage and cider from my cider braised pork), but the method is always the same. It guarantees a moist meat, crispy crackling and it makes it's own sauce all in the one roasting pan! How perfect is that?

A pork like this will easily feed around 10 people with sides.

Roast Pork and Apple Sauce

approx 4kg pork leg

1 tbsp + 1 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 tsp dried sage

1 tsp smokey paprika
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced

1 brown onions, diced

2 cloves garlic, peeled and squashed
330mL apple cider

Preheat the oven to 150C. Cut through the skin and into the fat of the pork and rub with the vinegar and 1 tsp salt deep into the cuts. Combine the remaining salt, sage and paprika. Rub all over the rest of the pork.

Mix the diced apples and onions together in the base of a large roasting pan. Add the garlic cloves. Gently place the pork roast, skin side up, on top of the apple mix. Pour the cider into the base of the pan.

Roast for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and lower the temperature to 120C, cover with foil and return to the oven for another 2 hours.

Remove from the oven and take off the foil. Turn the oven up to 200C. If the meat has collapsed in such a way as to submerge the skin, turn upright and place back in the oven, uncovered, so the skin will crispy up and turn into crackling. About 30 minutes.

Remove from oven, put the pork on a plate to rest. Meanwhile, use a fork to mash the apple and onion together into an apple sauce. Put this into a serving platter. Carve the pork, and serve!

Party Inspiration - Christmas in July

I love Christmas. So much. And I love all of the food traditions that go with it. The seafood and trifle and biscuits and BBQ roasts and every type of salad under the sun. Sun being the operative word. Growing up on American and British tv and movies and seeing snuggly winter Christmases makes you yearn just a little bit for a roaring fire and eggnog and all hot foods. I’m dreaming of a white Christmas! I was blessed enough to spend a Christmas in Germany on a high school exchange, and I was in New York City one year for the unveiling of the Macy’s and Saks’ Christmas displays and there really is something special and all-together more “Christmassy” about a winter Christmas. I would never give up our summer Christmases for the world…but that doesn’t mean I can’t have both. Whenever I can, I host or attend a Christmas in July party and get all winter-festive!

Recently I hosted a Christmas in July Party with the same friends that have a normal Christmas party. Everyone volunteers to bring a dish, the house gets decorated and we eat all of the traditional winter Christmas foods we grew up seeing on tv.

Given that it’s only for a day, not a season, I kept the decorations to a minimum. My least favourite chore of all time it taking down the Christmas tree, so there’s no way I’m doing it twice in one year! We had mulled cider and egg nog and a chocolate peppermint version of the Puerto Rican Coquito. There was roasted meats and vegetables. There was bonbons and santa brownies and a whole bunch of Christmas spirit. And it was such a great night. Lance even wrapped up some “re-gift’ presents so everyone received something from “Santa”.

 

Over the coming days, I’ll post recipes of the dishes that I contributed to the party, but in the meantime, here are some photos to whet your appetite and give you ideas if you were considering hosting your own Christmas in July.

To start with, there is gingerbread. This for me is still the ultimate gingerbread recipe, which Lance used to build a whole castle.

And coming:

Roast Pork with Apple Sauce

Cloudy Mulled Apple Cider

Chocolate Peppermint Coquito

Chocolate Salted Caramel Pavlova

Have you ever been to a Christmas in July party? What was your favourite winter tradition in it?