MAKE IT A MICHELIN STAR CHRISTMAS
Use Chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen’s recipes to make a Checkers Forage and Feast celebration smorgasbord, writes
This year I will be celebrating Christmas in France with Elizabeth, my treasured dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. It’s the first year in a long time that we’ve decided to close the restaurant over the festive season. The team was busy with the Rugby World Cup so a break with their families is well deserved. On Christmas Day, we’ll be in Paris, probably having pap and snails.
What will I include in my festive spread? I want to be the guest, but it’s hard to keep me out of the kitchen, especially at this time of the year. So I’ve decided to do both. I love snails and pap and will pick up my favourite snails from a chain store in France that literally sells anything frozen! I’ll snatch a cup or two of mealie meal from the restaurant and indulge the pap with Forage and Feast Parmigiano, parsley, garlic butter and salt served topped with succulent snails.
This will be our sneaky snack before we head off to Elizabeth’s favourite bistro in Paris’s Rue Montorgueil, just off the main busy market. They serve wonderful chicken (bresse) with morilles (morel mushrooms) and yellow wine sauce. They love Lizzy so much, I’m sure she’ll have a small feast of her own. I want to sit back with a carafe of red wine and reflect.
Dessert will be made the night before and, as always, it will be my mother’s chocolate mousse recipe from my cookbook, A French Affair. It’s always a hit when served with anything seasonal and festive. Apart from the food, a spiced candle, a good playlist and a shot of Amaretto are my must-haves.
I’m not always able to be with my family on Christmas day, but we have long video calls, showing off our festive feasts and décor. It will probably be 40-plus degrees on the farm in Groblersdal, Limpopo, and my family nagged me the whole year to be with them for Christmas, but schedules and flights didn’t work out.
My favourites are the Forage & Feast orange vinaigrette made in the Cape with cold-pressed orange juice and a hint of garlic and the pomegranate and elderflower cordial.
My standout Christmas memory growing up was cooking up a storm with my mother and grandmother, with Boney M playing in the background. I used to set the table with flowers from my mother’s garden, and the whole family would gather for the feast. My Ouma Hessie made the best trifle — boozy, and layered with jelly, custard, sponge cake and whipped cream. I always dropped it just as I put it on the table. She’d say: ‘It’s OK Klein Jan, it’s just a pudding’. I use those words today to remind me when I drop a ball that there are more important things in life.
I collaborated with Checkers in developing the
Forage & Feast range. My favourite is the orange vinaigrette made in the Cape with cold-pressed orange juice and a hint of garlic. It’s so versatile; you can use it as a dressing, basting, marinade or pretty much anything except as a drinks mixer. Another favourite are the cordials; they can be used in drinks, desserts or added to a glaze for your festive table. If I must pick a favourite of all favourites, it’s the Forage & Feast pomegranate and elderflower cordial.
My three wishes for South Africans this holiday season are: No 1. Light. No 2. Lighter living. No 3. Light up someone else’s life.