Albany chef's local Christmas menu
A local chef has encouraged Great Southern residents to make the most of the region’s plethora of produce for their family Christmas feast.
Albany-based chef Dan Sharp has called for locals to head to weekly farmers’ markets to find the freshest produce they can turn into a gourmet menu.
“Anyone that lives in the Great Southern, if they don’t know already, they should know that we are extremely lucky down here to have a plethora of local produce available every single weekend at the Saturday markets and also the Sunday markets down at the boatshed,” he said.
“With more of a produce focus, the Saturday market can provide absolutely everything that you’d need to put together a stunning Christmas lunch.
“The markets only sell local produce and it’s all fresh, every week.”
Sharp said one of his favourite things at Christmas was a chicken from Perfect Poultry.
“These are from just up near %Kojonup,” he said.
“These chickens are grown naturally free-range and hormone free, (and) believe it or not, because of the variety of the chicken, I think the biggest he pushes out is around 5.2kg.
“Last year, I did one of them and stuffed it with hazelnuts, cranberries, lemon and sage with heaps of butter under the skin.”
Sharp said Albany had plenty of seafood for those who wanted prawns this Christmas.
“The Sunday markets are probably the best place to buy fresh local seafood,” he said. “
We’ve got beautiful marron and yabbies down here; in fact, the marron is native to this area.
“You could easily throw the yabbies into a cocktail in replacement of prawns — beautiful flavour.
“Just so nice and simple and sexy and fresh.”
For Sharp, nothing says Christmas more than a lavish banquet.
“Last year on Christmas Eve, I just cooked. I thought, someone will come over and sure enough they did,” he said.
“There were six or eight of us and there was more food than body weight, I think, on the table.
“So we sat there, all night, and just ate and ate and ate. It was absolutely divine.”
Cherries, which are plentiful at Christmas time, are another great treat at Christmas, according to Sharp.
“A good quality local seasonal cherry is not that expensive; you can find them at roadside stores,” he said.
“They pop up all around the place this time of year and you can pick them up for stuff all.”
As for dessert, Sharp said he could not go past his nanna’s tradition — Christmas pudding.
“We usually have nanna’s traditional Christmas pudding,” he said.
“A lot of people would have one, it’s a pretty standard thing to have.
“The leftovers always get made into a parfait. We make a parfait with the crumbly leftover bits and fold it through the ice-cream.
“Then we re-freeze it with toasted nuts crumbled on top.”
DAN SHARP’S LOCAL CHRISTMAS MENU
Entrée - Fresh oysters; Yabbie cocktail with a dill or herb mayonnaise and baby cos lettuce.
Mains - Jarrah honey and mustard glazed cured ham; Perfect poultry free range chicken stuffed with hazelnuts, sage, dried fruit and lemon; Duck fat potatoes; Steamed broccoli with shaved butter and parmesan; Prawns on ice with a brandy dill sauce; Roasted pumpkin salad with crumbled organic feta, toasted almonds and fresh herbs; Rich pan gravy; Brown buttered tiny baby onions and baby rainbow carrots.
Dessert - Nonna’s traditional Christmas pudding; Very Merry Berry Cherry Trifle, layers of berries, cherries, chocolate sponge, vanilla creme patisserie and cinnamon almonds.
