What's special about your Christmas Dinner?

[ODFOx]

What do you have that makes it special for your family?
I am pretty much a traditionalist, but I do add a lot of trimmings: 3 stuffings, pigs in blankets with full size chipolatas, cranberry and bread sauce. But the touches we have that most folk don't: devils on horseback alongside the pigs in blankets (a revelation that I wouldn't get away without adding now) and an American style green bean casserole made with green beans in a creamy sauce topped with crunchy fried onions.

What additions do you recommend?

@mumonthehill

Nigellas gingerbread stuffing it was a revelation and now made every Christmas!

Oh wow, I'm intrigued. Gonna give this a go.

I did not expect green bean casserole on this thread, that's amazing : )
It's usually a Thanksgiving thing in the US but why not for Xmas too.

Our Xmas dinner is usually just us and a few friends (DH works through the season and family all abroad) so we don't do a huge roast dinner.

DH usually makes scallops with leeks in champagne sauce, we have a posh cheese board and splurge on wine

Ohhh yes I’m going to make nigellas gingerbread stuffing this year too!

This thread is making my mouth water. I love Christmas dinner with all the trimmings and a cheese board with a variety of smelly gooey cheeses.

I love green bean casserole. It makes a change from the usual sides.
I make thyme glazed carrots and roasted sprouts with squash and red onions.

Duck spring rolls and Mincemeat Cheesecake. My side of the family grew up having Christmas at Chinese restaurants as we’re Jewish and with Hanukkah faking often at the same time all the mums had done so much cooking this was seen as the day they get off.

We do the big traditional Christmas dinner now but always have some spring rolls on the table, my sister makes excellent ones from scratch just for the occasion but I buy mine in!

Also always have canapés and out cocktail of the year, then because we really are the worst Jews ever, a seafood starter and the cheesecake for afters.

@tupperwaretowers

To make the gin I use 2 1L Kilner bottles

•   400g fresh cranberries
  

•   1 orange and 1 lemon
  

•   400g caster sugar
  

•   1L of supermarket gin
  

Prick the cranberries to allow the juice to escape. Divide between 2 x 1L sterilised bottles.
Peel thin strips of zest from the orange and lemon then divide between the bottles.
Mix together the caster sugar and gin, stir until sugar dissolves then divide between the bottles. Leave a 2-3cm (3⁄4-1 1⁄4in) gap at the top of each bottle.
Store bottles in a dark place for at least one month shaking them every few days. I make it in the October holidays and it is BBF end June the following year.

To make the cocktails I shake 100ml of cranberry gin with 50ml of lemon juice and one egg white. Then I add ice and shake again. Sieve into four champagne saucers and top with Prosecco and a twist of lemon or orange.

They are absolutely delicious and a real treat.

The only special thing about my Christmas dinner is that it's the only day jts acceptable for me to be pissed by the time I serve it!

Vegan here, last year I had one of the Pieminister vegan pies (there's a chicken style one I adore!) and non vegan husband has a beef pieminister. Then we do roast carrots and veggies, pigs in blankets (his 'real', mine not), nut roast or stuffing, red cabbage, roast sprouts, and roast potatoes. I must find a vegan bread sauce recipe!

@SkunkButRug - it's a local delicacy, you buy it from the butcher already spiced. Here's a little blurb from my butcher: -

"Spiced beef is a Cork tradition that goes back centuries when the merchant ships would cure the meat for longevity. The curing of beef in salt and spices meant that by keeping the joints in a cool larder room the would be edible for weeks. Often associated with Christmas time, the dish is firm favourite on the festive dinner plates across the county. Now of course it is available year round and the spiced method is done purely for it’s great taste.

For those who haven’t experienced this slice of heaven, spiced beef is a prime cut, marinated in a spice cure for anything up to two months. Recipes for the cure vary and are often handed down through families and kept as closely guarded secrets. Tom’s recipe is adapted from Jim Kidney’s butcher shop whom he worked for when a young boy. A secret blend of salt and spices. The success is that the joints are marinated in the cure for a month, preferably two and stirred every day to ensure the marinade infuses right through. Tom chooses the eye of the round, which is the cut next to the top side.

At Christmas, over six tonnes of Durcan's spiced beef goes across the counter into the hands of happy festive shoppers. And Tom’s own personal favourite way of enjoying it is served cold and sliced, with caramelised Spanish onions, on crusty buttered white bread. Simple."

This is a link for a DIY recipe if you are feeling adventurous, it's possibly lacking a secret ingredient or two, you'd want to be starting with a really great piece of beef: -

supervalu.ie/real-food/recipes/traditional-spiced-beef?ref=meal_planner

We always have pork as no one likes turkey and DS2 doesn't like lamb or beef.

@Jumpingintosummer your gin sounds delicious. Have you tried freezing and defrosting the cranberries to break the skin instead of pricking them?

Cauliflower cheese is essential for me

@Jumpingintosummer

I normally host Christmas and we are pretty traditional but it’s not Christmas dinner without the following… Being handed cranberry gin fizz cocktail on arrival to have as we exchange gifts (homemade cranberry gin). Delias braised cabbage without the cinnamon but with a glug of port! My grandmother’s secret recipe Sherry trifle. Cheeseboard from J Mellis in Glasgow served with un-iced slices of homemade Christmas cake served with vintage port at 8pm.

This post makes us sound like alcoholics . We truly aren’t!

This gin sounds amazing!!

I am very tempted by both devils on horseback and gingerbread stuffing..... I may have to look into incorporating them this year.

Our food tradition is the boxing day sandwiches. Any leftover from the roast (turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, whatever) chopped up reasonably small and served hot with just enough gravy to bind it together on buttered rolls. Cranberry sauce optional but it's my favourite meal of the year.

My home.mwde Christmas pudding that has been maturing for a year.

My chestnut, pork, apricot and herb stuffing.

Oh and a large ham boiled in cider and then over roasted with mustard, honey and cloves.

Delia's bread sauce, cranberry sauce and Christmas pudding with brandy butter are the elements we'd never have the rest of the year. Last year, we kicked off with a White Lady cocktail and that made the rest of the cooking much more fun, so keen to have that as an annual tradition going forward - not this year though as I'll be 6m pregnant!

Big fry up for DP & DSS in the morning! Big forerib of beef and turkey. Served with Brussels, lemon carrots, broccoli, purée of garlic celeriac & potato, honey roast parsnips, roasties, red cabbage & Yorkshire's. I will make bread sauce, cranberry sauce. I will always do Delia's 18th century chestnut stuffing even if we have goose. Pigs in brackets and devils on horseback. I'll make my own stock and proper gravy. I'm into Nigel Slaters Christmas pudding at the moment which I think sits better with cream. My DSS tend to migrate back to ours for flaming the pudding. If I do Delia's I'll make the brandy sauce. Cheese board with Bath Oliver's. It'll be bedtime by the time it's all finished. It's chaotic and we get lovely visitors and the timing goes to pot! Lots of wine! Every year I think I'll make it easier on myself & we will go out for Xmas dinner next year...

Cheesy leeks (leeks baked in cheese sauce), and red cabbage braised in mulled wine 🍷

Mashed Swede and carrot (needs lots of boiling first), add some butter and salt.

Homemade gravy really makes a meat joint special. Once turkey lifted out of baking tray, start spooning the juices around, add some boiling water to help scrape crispy bits from sides of the tray (probably best to use silicone or wood spoon so you don't scrape off any non stick coating). Add a dessert spoon of red currant jelly and a generous dash of browning sauce and a dessert spoon or two of corn flour and create a paste, keep adding boiling water gradually until you have a thick gravy. Then season. OXO good grips do a fantastic fat separating jug if you want to remove some of the oil. I pour the gravy into this and wait for the fat to rise, then empty into another jug. Can re-heat once required. I use this gravy for lamb and beef as well, but usually then add a generous dash of red wine too.

@Jumpingintosummer excellent, Thank you for the gin recipe, I’ll give it a whirl. X

Yes @Jumpingintosummer (time for a seasonal namechange?🎄🎄🎄), thank you for that recipe and the cocktail, I’m definitely going to make a Christmas gin this year!

For us the turkey is basically a container for making stuffing. The recipe is my great grandmother’s and is, for me, the taste of Christmas. I always make extra outside the bird for sandwiches but it’s very much second class stuffing.

We also follow dh’s gm’s recipe for trifle and that is his taste of Christmas.

And for the dc it’s all about my chocolate orange biscuit pudding.

Everything thing else, turkey and sides, while delicious, are just there to make a respectable meal out of those three things.

Only thing different for ours is stuffing gravy, it’s a recipe started by my great great grandmother, basically it’s like a stuffing soup with gravy, we pour it all over our Xmas dinner.

The day after Boxing Day we have turkey broth with the remaining turkey and carcass, with curry powder, sweet corn and potatoes, it’s great if any of us have got a cold as it gets rid of it