What will you be eating/drinking this Christmas, traditional turkey or foie gras and oysters, champagne or cava?
Let us know your top five food and drinks you can't do without this Christmas!
Well I’ll have a typical Corsican Christmas dinner…(I am from there…)
Polenta of chestnut flour with marinated and roasted pork ribs, a slice of “figatellu” a fired egg and a piece of Brucciu…For dessert we have 13 of them…(one little piece of each) it’s supposed to be representing Jesus and the twelve apostles and bring good luck to the people around the table for the coming year…
Jane - thanks for the tip on using the sloes. I do a similar re-cycle with the raspberries left from making raspberry vinegar - turn them into a savoury jelly.
We are having smoked salmon pâté with Melba toast, then a venison casserole made with the sloes from last years sloe gin and my lovely home made beef stock and red wine, hassle back potatoes and creamy mash, sweet and sour red cabbage, carrot and swede purée and kale from the garden. Cheese and Christmas pudding.
My grandson, who is two and a half has asked me to get him some green olives and Roquefort!
I have a poached guinea fowl in the freezer, ready to be covered with a wonderful celery sauce.
For those who do not like the richness of Christmas pudding, how about bread and butter pudding made with Panetone and sultanas soaked in rum.
I've had the Avocaat and lime cordial sent over. Our secretary (French) has already told me the egg nog is disgusting, without even tasting it!
Ooh snowballs, haven’t had one of those for ages, lovely
I'm doing traditional "Snowball" cocktails for our Chrimbo do
chrisrmas crackers bought online via Amazon.champagne snails mmmm the smell of the garlic butter
Foie gras which I make from Picard and my raspberry trifle
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you cant beat scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and champagne on xmas morning....
I’m in the middle of making pork pies for my ex-pat guests. I got fed up with hearing them moan about not getting them here so thought I’d give it a go! Alternatively both caviar and Jim Beam are on offer at Intermarche.
Back in the UK I used to stock up the freezer with supermarket 'party' foods . . . great for lunch or tea, depending on when you've had your main meal, and more luxurious than the usual sandwhich. Now I have more time (supposedly) I spend a week or so frantically baking and fill up the freezer (before the family arrives) with sausage rolls, mini quiches, savory tartlets . . . etc.etc. End result = even better! I also make an English Christmas cake AND a creamy, chocolatey, gooey, Buche de Noel (NOT to be frozen!)
Christmas dinner itself? I'm very traditional - turkey and all the trimmings followed by Christmas pud - but my cousin from Rennes brings scallops for starter (as I don't like oysters) which he prepares himself and which are to die for! I can't wait!
We start here with fois gras, smoked salmon, bouche noel champagne then jump on a plane the next day for Australia where two days later I will be cooking roast turkey, boiling the puddings(already madeby other family members) heating up the mince piess all in 30 - 40 degrees heat! Grandparents English hence the tradition. And I just love it. Boxing Day is backyard cricket of course! Hope you all have a happy Xmas
Drinks well it has to be Snowballs.... and have been stocking up on the 2 for 1 champagne offers in the supermarket... Christmas dinner on the 24th.. Oysters (the flat rounds ones) Chestnut soup,turkey with all the trimmings, Christmas pudding, cheese, etc. etc. Christmas day breakfast accompanied by champagne then off to a restaurant for lunch... Boxing day... pork pie, ham, cold turkey, pickles etc. (the best meal of the holiday for me!) All this accompanied by large quantities of champagne, cava, sherry, port, Baileys...might even consume a haggis at some point.... I'm so grateful that with the world of online shopping you can get anything from anywhere sent here in france... I also have to fit in some fois gras too... and suffer the guilt bit afterwards...
Best bargain in France apart from Diesel, is Malt Whisky. Average price is 40% less than best UK supermarkets and on occasions 50% less
On the cooking front, we are having rib of beef. It is my all time favourite, and I can do it with my eyes closed with one arm tied behind my back.
Not sure on the pudding front, but I guess Christmas pudding will make an appearance.
As I'm Danish, we'll have a wonderful Christmas Dinner on the 24th, which include pork with wonderful crackling(bought at our local butcher, so it's organic, it's expensive, but worth it that for that one special evening even if you nearly have to re-mortgage your house), a few white potatoes, lots of caramlised small potatoes, lovely sweet red cabbage(no, not how you English knows it), gravy and cranberry jelly. For dessert it's a lovely rice pudding full of whipping cream (so it's light), roughly chopped almonds, served with a warm cherry sauce, BUT one almond will not be chopped, and whoever gets 'the almond' get a nice chololate pressy (as a child, my cousins and I would eat ourselves sick just to get this ONE almond - brings back lots of happy memories). Then the dinner table is cleared and then all the candles will be lit on the tree, and then presents(no, it's not a fire haqzzard, as we get a fresh tree inside on the 22nd and most people in Scandinavia do this, and we would not have it any other way)! PS! Forgot, we have some nice red wine with the dinner too!
On the 25th, a few of our neighbours (rock chicks, as they are in a rock band) will come in brunch where Eggs Benedics will be served with champagne/Bucks Fizz!
A few presents, then....
later on the 25th we might all come together again and have a juicy turkey Christmas Dinner (ALWAYS 'Nigella's Christmas Turkey' as it beats anything you will ever have tried, soooo juicy) with lots of lovely vegetables(some are vegetariens), and yes that would include sprouts. Some will have the infamous English Christmas Pudding (I personally hate it), so as some feel like moi, we'll enjoy some more of the Danish left-over rice pudding and warm cherry sauce....AND THEN WE'RE FULL....again the ddinner is served with some nice red wine.
So two days of far too much wonderful food, and the majority of this wonderful cooking is done by that husband of mine....
....so Happy Christmas everybody wherever you and yours are.... :)
Home made mincemeat for mince pies. Made with plenty of brandy and rum, gingerbread stuffing, and on Christmas a starter of seafood before the main event
I just checked online to see if Picard still delivers to us and now it doesn't - boo! That was always a bit of a treat - some of the goodies from Picard.
I'm going to keep to the tradition of Turkey for Christmas as we messed about with other birds over the past few years - not to great success I might add :(
Anyhow - 5 things on my table this Christmas
Turkey with Yorkshire pudding
Homemade Cranberry & Port sauce
Terry's Chocolate Orange - yes I know, but I still love them in my Christmas stocking
A giant bowl of juicy clementines/satsumas - I can eat these in season till they come out of my ears :)
Leftover Champagne from our wedding - really need to drink it up as it's been 8 years!
I am giving a dinner party on the 28th. I saw a programme where they prepared pan seared ducks breast which is then wrapped in pastry (think beef wellington) and cooked in the oven. I will probably serve it with honey roasted veg and two potato mash (sweet and normal). I might even make a Yorkshire pudding to go with it. Dessert will be a Christmas pudding (that I really need to get ordered!!) and lemon cheesecake.
With regards to food I like, I tend to have a cold buffet on Christmas day as I'm usually on my own. Smoked salmon with honey bread and salted butter, shrimps with homemade mayonnaise. Jambon de Bayonne, Rillettes de Poulet rôti on fresh crusty bread. Dessert varies; I usually order a small Christmas pudding even though I don't really like it but it reminds me of home and makes me feel more traditional. Failing that a Choux Chantilly always makes the grade :D
If I go to friends on Christmas eve then they will often prepare little toasts and nibbles for the aperitif, 2 starters, duck with figs for the main with loads of little dishes of different veg and potatoes, 7 different cheeses and flambéed something for dessert then chocolate with the coffee. I always eat too much hence the cold buffet Christmas day!
Port and stilton. A gout cure as my pressie!