Advent: Day 3
Let's talk about festive food! I'll go first.
As I know I've mentioned in the past, what with Christmas Day always being a scorcher, weather-wise, in my family we stick to cold food. Usually we start the day with a champagne breakfast with fruit and maybe eggs or muffins if anyone can be bothered to cook. The main meal is a late lunch of cold chicken and ham, and lots of salads: green, Caesar, pasta, potato, coleslaw, and more exotic variants like tomato and bocconcini or sweet potato and spinach. If it's cold and has some vegies in it, we eat it. For dessert, some brave souls go for steamed pudding, but it's not my thing. Nor is trifle, even though all the elements -- jelly, custard, cake, fruit -- are so good on their own. But when you put it all in a bowl and it looks like vomit (apparently my family hasn't mastered the layering effect)? I'm not interested. For my money, the best dessert for Christmas Day is a pavlova, especially Nigella Lawson's raspberry chocolate pavlova. And then, of course, there are nibblies like nuts and cheese and bickies, rum balls and scorched almonds, and whatever else you can squeeze in. It's really about eating what you feel like when you feel like, and grazing throughout the day instead of having a huge meal. In the evening you eat more of the same, but it's permissible to put your chicken and ham in a sandwich.
When I spent Christmas in England last year the whole day had such a different tone. There was no champagne breakfast, but only because the head of the house was off saying Mass. We had hot appetisers before the meal, which was a sit-down affair. We had a cold starter but hot main, of course, a big meaty dish with lots of vegetables. And then the full-on flaming pudding for dessert, with bitter brandy sauce, and then after that an endless parade of port and dessert wine and liqueurs and nuts and nibbles. Although a lengthy meal, and stodgy, it wasn't languorous the way Christmas is in Australia. And obviously the main differences were all down to the different season. I loved the day, and it really was the best Christmas I could have had without being with family, but naturally I craved what I'd grown up with. Although perhaps it's a shame we can't have that sense of formality and luxury that a sit-down hot dinner provides, but a lazy grazing cold meal is just as delicious, after all. And both ways provide ample opportunities for getting drunk.
As I've grown older I've really come to enjoy having some part in the Christmas meal. I love being able to contribute. This year I'll be helping with the salads and making both sweet and savoury nibblies. I'm thinking spiced nuts, cheese biscuits, candied pecans and apricot balls and rumballs. A few years ago I shared some of my recipes in a similarly themed LJ post. Last year I made rumballs for Christmas, which were well-received by the English people I spent the day with. It's not Christmas if you don't have rumballs, and if someone doesn't make a batch with way too much alcohol in them. I used this recipe from Exclusively Food, minus the sultanas (the devil's fruit), but I found they were a bit too soft. My mother's recipe uses crushed Weetbix, so I think I will go back to that one this year. By the way, I didn't have a food processor in Leeds, so I had to crush the biscuits in a bag using a tin of beans. Go, me! I think I'll make apricot balls as well, for a contrast in colour and flavour. I don't know what else we'll be eating for dessert at Christmas, except that without fail there will be trifle and pudding, and that I won't eat it.
So, what are some of your favourite holiday foods? And "holiday" doesn't have to mean Christmas. I'd love to hear about any of your traditions. What you remember eating as a child, the foods you love to make these days, the dishes that you must have on your table or it won't feel like a festive occasion.
As I know I've mentioned in the past, what with Christmas Day always being a scorcher, weather-wise, in my family we stick to cold food. Usually we start the day with a champagne breakfast with fruit and maybe eggs or muffins if anyone can be bothered to cook. The main meal is a late lunch of cold chicken and ham, and lots of salads: green, Caesar, pasta, potato, coleslaw, and more exotic variants like tomato and bocconcini or sweet potato and spinach. If it's cold and has some vegies in it, we eat it. For dessert, some brave souls go for steamed pudding, but it's not my thing. Nor is trifle, even though all the elements -- jelly, custard, cake, fruit -- are so good on their own. But when you put it all in a bowl and it looks like vomit (apparently my family hasn't mastered the layering effect)? I'm not interested. For my money, the best dessert for Christmas Day is a pavlova, especially Nigella Lawson's raspberry chocolate pavlova. And then, of course, there are nibblies like nuts and cheese and bickies, rum balls and scorched almonds, and whatever else you can squeeze in. It's really about eating what you feel like when you feel like, and grazing throughout the day instead of having a huge meal. In the evening you eat more of the same, but it's permissible to put your chicken and ham in a sandwich.
When I spent Christmas in England last year the whole day had such a different tone. There was no champagne breakfast, but only because the head of the house was off saying Mass. We had hot appetisers before the meal, which was a sit-down affair. We had a cold starter but hot main, of course, a big meaty dish with lots of vegetables. And then the full-on flaming pudding for dessert, with bitter brandy sauce, and then after that an endless parade of port and dessert wine and liqueurs and nuts and nibbles. Although a lengthy meal, and stodgy, it wasn't languorous the way Christmas is in Australia. And obviously the main differences were all down to the different season. I loved the day, and it really was the best Christmas I could have had without being with family, but naturally I craved what I'd grown up with. Although perhaps it's a shame we can't have that sense of formality and luxury that a sit-down hot dinner provides, but a lazy grazing cold meal is just as delicious, after all. And both ways provide ample opportunities for getting drunk.
As I've grown older I've really come to enjoy having some part in the Christmas meal. I love being able to contribute. This year I'll be helping with the salads and making both sweet and savoury nibblies. I'm thinking spiced nuts, cheese biscuits, candied pecans and apricot balls and rumballs. A few years ago I shared some of my recipes in a similarly themed LJ post. Last year I made rumballs for Christmas, which were well-received by the English people I spent the day with. It's not Christmas if you don't have rumballs, and if someone doesn't make a batch with way too much alcohol in them. I used this recipe from Exclusively Food, minus the sultanas (the devil's fruit), but I found they were a bit too soft. My mother's recipe uses crushed Weetbix, so I think I will go back to that one this year. By the way, I didn't have a food processor in Leeds, so I had to crush the biscuits in a bag using a tin of beans. Go, me! I think I'll make apricot balls as well, for a contrast in colour and flavour. I don't know what else we'll be eating for dessert at Christmas, except that without fail there will be trifle and pudding, and that I won't eat it.
So, what are some of your favourite holiday foods? And "holiday" doesn't have to mean Christmas. I'd love to hear about any of your traditions. What you remember eating as a child, the foods you love to make these days, the dishes that you must have on your table or it won't feel like a festive occasion.