Christmas Meal Suggestions?

[Slothsloths]

Everyone here has such great traditions and I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for us.

We have decided not to have a traditional Christmas dinner anymore so I was wondering if anyone had an idea for a new tradition. We don’t have any traditional meals for Christmas Eve either so taking suggestions for that as well. New Year’s tends to be party food so not eager to do that for Christmas.

It is just the two of us and a baby so we don’t need to worry about guests or anything either. I’d like to still set the table and have a nice meal, but not sure what!

Are you more fishy or meaty? What's your absolute favourite flavour?

We were just talking about this at lunchtime. We're going to do a posh risotto probably, either with scallops or truffle, special Champagne, nice cheeses, dessert from our favourite patisserie, possibly smoked salmon for starters. Should be relatively stress-free too

If/when there are just the two of us for Christmas lunch we will have the best steak money can buy with mushroom cream sauce and home fried (thrice!) chips.
We will be 5 adults and two children this year - we will be having a huge rib of beef. (i don't particularly like turkey.)

For Christmas Eve we always have soup, baguette and brie with cranberry sauce. Then a nice dessert.

Christmas day - Nut roast and traditional sides

Boxing day - cheese board, crackers, chutneys and pickles, salad, crisps, stollen, lebkutchen.

@SquirtleSquad

Are you more fishy or meaty? What's your absolute favourite flavour?

We both like food with a bit of spice, like Indian food, but don’t necessarily need this for Christmas. I would say we are more into meat but don’t always need a lot of it and would appreciate something like the steak someone else mentioned.

Also we live in the UK but are not both British so don’t feel compelled to have any “traditional” foods (though we are open to them).

I’d go for a really good piece of steak with some move sides

*nice

Christmas Eve needs something easy and quick to prepare, perhaps salmon fillets in foil parcel with Japanese style seasonings, served with a stir fry of vegetables, use pre prepared veg packs for convenience.

Christmas Day for two adults, I'd do something like a venison casserole cooked a day or two previously, that could just be put in the oven to heat through. Serve with Boulagerie potatoes (similar to dauphinoise but uses stock) oven cooked at the same time as the venison is warming, and your favourite green vegetable.
Easy to prepare on the day, so you're not slaving over a hot stove, but still something a bit different. You could add dumplings or Yorkshire puddings if you wanted something more complicated!

If you feel that Christmas needs a roast, rack of lamb is a good option for two.

We're having Fajitas this year, cannot wait! It's our favourite family meal.

On Christmas Eve we have hot roast pork and stuffing rolls with coleslaw, then a fire pit and make Christmas s’mores with gingerbread, marshmallows and segments of chocolate orange.

On Boxing Day we usually have a cheese fondue with a couple of different melted cheeses and lots of things to dip: dough balls, crackers, breadsticks, ham, potato wedges, cherry tomatoes, apple slices, cauliflower etc...
Sometimes we have a chocolate fondue too, with two or three pots of melted chocolate and a selection of Christmassy things to dip such as brioche, Turkish delight, glacé cherries, crystallised ginger, marshmallows and marzipan balls.

You could have a big cheese/antipasti board with fancy breads, crackers, pate, chutneys, relishes, pickles, grapes, cold meats etc...

We hate cooking on Christmas eve so our tradition has always been a Chinese take out and snowballs. We watch a christmas special like the snowman or stickman while eating.

Depends if you enjoy cooking or don't want the faff.

I'd do a single rib of beef from the butcher's with chips and a nice sauce, roasted toms etc.

Xmas Eve we always have ham with salad and crusty bread, leftover ham is feasted on over the next few days. I've also done a slow cooked type thing like tagine with cous cous

If you can get it ostrich steaks, they're sort of half way between chicken and venison. They're be great with wedges and red cabbage. One year we did Peking duck, it's a lot easier than it sounds, we bought the pancakes from a take away. Something else that tastes like it is dead hard but isn't is confit duck legs. You poach them in goose fat before hand, then on the day you dig them out of the jar and scrape the day off. Then you roast them until crispy skins. You can use the flavoured fat for the roasties.

Scrape the fat off.

Fish is traditional in some European countries for Christmas. In the UK, before turkey was popularised, it was more common to have beef or goose or ham.

You could still do a roast meat but mix up the spicing - I've done both lamb and chicken (separately) with different middle eastern spice combinations.

You could order a takeaway from your nearest fancy Indian restaurant?

If you like spice then Lamb Raan is fabulous for a special occasion.

This is a good version and its easy to do.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spiced-roast-lamb#commentsFeed

@Fivemoreminutes1 your Christmas Eve sounds amazing

Thanks for all the suggestions! There is a good variety here and I can't wait to try some of these ideas out.

Roast pork and stuffing baguettes/rolls on Christmas Eve here too. If we weren't going to have a turkey dinner, I think I would make salmon en croute, using shop bought pastry then it's very quick.

Delicious steak 🥩, perhaps beef Wellington or Christmas theme afternoon tea?