With Christmas Day just around the corner, who better to ask for their much-loved festive menu than the social media sensation behind YiaYia’s Greek Kitchen, Helen Dedes.
From refreshing Prawn and Salmon Cocktails to traditional baklava for dessert, Yiayia Helen’s Christmas Day menu has it all.
Entrée – Shrimp with Smoked Salmon Cocktail
- Five shrimps.
- Two pieces of smoked salmon.
- A nut in the bottom of the glass.
Decorate them nicely and add whatever seafood sauce you prefer.
Main – Stuffed turkey
- 1 turkey about 4-5 kg.
- 1 cup of butter.
- Two medium chopped onions.
- 250 grams of chopped mushrooms.
- Three quarters of a cup of rice.
- Four quarters of chopped parsley.
- Two glasses of cognac liqueur or good white wine.
Sauté the onions and mushrooms in three tablespoons of butter until they are wilted. Add enough parsley, rice, cognac, salt and pepper, and 1 cup of turkey (or chicken) stock.
Let the liquid drain out and stuff the turkey. Put the turkey in the oven for one hour at 200 degrees and then 180 for another two hours.
Serve with mashed potatoes and vegetables of your choice.
Dessert – Baklava
- 500 grams of coarsely ground carrots.
- 3 spoonfulls of sugar and 3 cinnamon (mix them all together in a cup of 500 grams of buttermilk (melted).
- 500 grams of baklava pastry.
Dip the baking tray, put one filo (pastry sheet) on it, fill it with butter and add another filo on top.
Pour walnuts on the filo with a thin stick, roll it up like a cigar when all the friends are finished, brush it with butter and bake well at 180 degrees for an hour.
For the syrup:
- Two and a half cups of water.
- Three cups of sugar.
- One cinnamon stick.
- Three quarters of a cup of honey.
Boil for seven minutes. Cold baklava, hot syrup.
Want more recipes from Helen Dedes? You can follow her on
- FB: Yiayias Greek Kitchen
- Instagram: Yiayiasgreekkitchen
- Tik Tok: Yiayiasgreekkitchen.au
