Still contemplating what to serve tomorrow Christmas Day? Thursday Food shares four recipes from Master Crafter Gregory Burrowes guaranteed to elicit wide smiles and spice up your festive spread: Roast Beef, Christmas Baked Salmon, Brown Sugar Garlic Butter Pork Roast, and Christmas Stuffed Flank Steak.

Roast Beef

Ingredients:

1 4 lb round roast

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 450°F. In a small bowl, combine oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper. Rub all over roast.

Place roast in roasting pan fitted with a roasting rack. Roast for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 325°F and roast 1 hours 45 minutes more for medium, or 2 hours for medium well done.

Remove from oven and let rest 15 to 30 minutes before serving.

Christmas Baked Salmon

Ingredients:

Salmon:

2.4-3 lb salmon side (skin on, bones removed)

2 1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp black pepper

Honey butter glaze:

150 g/5 oz unsalted butter

1/2 cup honey

3 garlic cloves, finely minced (garlic press or knife)

Creamy dill sauce:

1 1/2 cups sour cream, full fat (low fat is too watery)

1/2 cup fresh dill , finely chopped (lightly packed cup)

1/2 onion, finely grated

1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Holiday “tapenade”:

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup orange juice

1 cup slivered almonds, toasted

1/3 cup parsley, roughly chopped

1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Finishing:

1 pomegranate, only the seeds

1/4 cup parsley, roughly chopped

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 extra lemons, cut in 6 pieces each (for serving)

Method:

Creamy dill sauce

Mix ingredients in a bowl until smooth. Keep refrigerated until required.

Holiday tapenade

Plump cranberries: Heat orange juice in a saucepan over high heat until hot. Turn stove off, add cranberries, cover. Stand 15 minutes, then drain in a colander (discard liquid). Cool.

Mix cranberries, toasted almonds, parsley, salt, and olive oil in bowl. Use at room temp.

Cooking salmon

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.

Prepare salmon: Place a large sheet of foil on a tray (double layer for safety is recommended), then top with baking/parchment paper. Place salmon on paper, then fold up the foil sides a bit to cup them so glaze won’t run onto tray.

Glaze: Place ingredients in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once it started foaming, turn down to medium, let it foam for 2 minutes then remove and pour straight over the salmon.

Season: Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper, putting most of the salt on the thicker part of the salmon.

Wrap: Cover salmon with a smaller piece of paper, then foil. Fold and seal up sides to enclose salmon in a parcel — it doesn’t need to be 100% tightly sealed.

Bake 15 minutes. Remove salmon from oven.

Uncover/fold excess paper — Remove paper and foil and paper cover. Fold/scrunch paper and foil sides down to expose salmon surface. Tucking paper down also ensures it won’t catch fire when broiling.

Grill/broil to brown: Switch oven to gill/boiler on high. Place salmon on middle shelf in the oven and broil 7 to 10 minutes until you get caramelisation mostly on the edges, a bit on top. Don’t put it too close to the heat element otherwise paper might catch on fire! Check to ensure salmon is cooked — either pry open in middle to check or use a probe to check internal temperatures.

Transfer to plate: Use foil overhang to transfer salmon onto serving platter straight away (otherwise it keeps cooking). Slide the foil then paper out from under the salmon, allowing juices to pool on platter (it’s gold stuff!).

Cool: Loosely cover with foil, then leave to cool for at least 15 minutes, up to 1 hour or longer (for room temp serving).

Assembly and serving

Dollop then thickly spread with creamy dill sauce.

Pile over holiday tapenade, scatter generously with pomegranate seeds, and then remaining parsley. Squeeze over lemon juice.

Serving: Serve with extra lemon wedges so people can add more to taste. Cut into pieces and encourage people to slop up some of the honey-butter sauce that will be mixed with semi melted creamy dill sauce — it’s so good!

Note: This dish is best served slightly warm, not piping hot; also excellent at room temp.

Brown Sugar Garlic Butter Pork Roast

Ingredients:

3.5-4 lb pork shoulder/butt, cut into 8 equal pieces

1 tsp each salt and pepper

Sauce:

100 g/7 tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 cup/80 g brown sugar

1/4 cup/65 ml cider vinegar (white wine or red wine vinegar also fine)

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 160°C/320°F (standard) or 140°C/290°F (fan).

Place sauce ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Once butter has melted, stir to combine then leave for 1-2 minutes until sugar is melted. Remove from heat.

Sprinkle pork pieces all over with salt and pepper.

Line pan with foil then parchment/baking paper, place pork in pan.

Pour sauce all over pork. Cover with foil. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes.

Remove from oven, remove foil. Turn pork. Return to oven uncovered for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven. Turn pork, spoon pan juices over. Return to oven for 20-30 minutes or until pork is golden and sauce has reduced to a thin syrup (thickens more when it cools).

Stand for 5 minutes, then turn pork to coat in sauce. Serve pork with syrupy pan sauce.

Christmas Stuffed Flank Steak

Flavourful flank steak stuffed with a roasted red pepper walnut stuffing makes a show stopping holiday meal.

Ingredients:

3.5 lb flank steak, butterflied*

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

For the filling

1 head of garlic, cloves removed and peeled

1 cup of chopped walnuts

6 sprigs of thyme, leaves removed from stems

3 sprigs of rosemary, leaves removed from stems

2 sage leaves

1 12 oz jar of roasted red peppers

1 cup of fresh parsley

1 cup of grated parmesan cheese

3 shallots

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp salt

Black pepper to taste

1 cup of olive oil

Method:

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lay three pieces of cooking twine on a baking dish or cast-iron skillet. Lay piece of meat on top. Sprinkle one side of the flank steak with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Add all the dry ingredients for the filling into the food processor. Pulse and drizzle in the olive oil until it reaches desired consistency. Spoon evenly over meat.

Roll the meat around the filling. Tie it with twine to secure and time ends of twine if needed. After meat is rolled, mix two tablespoons balsamic and two tablespoons oil together. Brush over outside of meat.

Heat a pan with a little oil (cast iron works great), over medium to medium high heat. Place meat roll on the pan and cook for 3 minutes, flipping to sear each side of the meat.

Transfer to a 425°F oven. Bake covered for 35 to 45 minutes or until meat reaches desired level of doneness. Let rest for 10 minutes prior to serving. Enjoy.

Notes: *Have your butcher butterfly the steak.

Recipes from: www.delish.com, www.recipetineats.com, www.seasonedsprinkles.com &