Of course you could make this slice at any time of the year, but as it has the traditional combination for fruit, nuts and brandy, plus the bonus of chocolate, it seems like Christmas is really the right time to make it.

Our family has decided on a much more casual Christmas this year and part of that is a cold meat and salad buffet. It will be the usual pork, turkey and chicken combo, but if you want something different what about this duck ballotine? It can be done the day before and although a bit more fiddly, it’s well worth the effort especially when all you have to do on Christmas morning is slice it.

Now the calendar has ticked over to December I’ve realised that I’d better get onto Christmas planning. What’s more important food or presents? How good is it if you can combine the two. When my children were at school I used to make a variety of sweet treats to give to their teachers. I’d put them in a jar or basket decorate, it with with Christmas ribbon and problem solved. One of those treats was White Christmas, made with copha and milk powder. This White Christmas is a step up from that as it uses white chocolate, butter and icing sugar and is great for all those who don’t like copha.

When I look at this recipe all I can think of is Mum’s asparagus rolls, that she made for afternoon teas and suppers. They were much, much plainer than these and although we grew asparagus in our backyard, hers were always made with tinned asparagus spears and definitely didn’t have ham or mayonnaise. They tasted good, but I’ve never had much inclination to make them, think I’d give this ‘updated’ version a go though.

The Women’s Weekly published this recipe in one of their liftout features back in 1999. I thought it might be of interest as it gives step by step instructions on how to assemble the Kiev. It also came with a couple of useful tips about deep frying it – use a wide-topped deep frying pan, which is half full of well heated oil. If the oil is not hot enough the Kiev will absorb too much oil. Obviously an electric deep fryer takes away that worry.
