It was always a tradition in our house to have a joint of ham on Christmas eve. Used to love the process of boiling, glazing it and studding it with cloves. Always felt special, and just served with baby jacket potatoes and home made coleslaw on the side.
For complicated reasons re family dietary preferences, things that are now off the cards are
- No to all farmed meat (so no pork, chicken, beef, duck etc)
- No dairy (so cheese is out, although there are decent non dairy subs for milk/cream/creme fraiche/butter and yoghurt, so those could still be included and would just use substitutes).
- Fish and shellfish okay.
- Game like venison/pheasant is okay (although I think Pheasant is too much like turkey to be having on Christmas Eve).
Has anyone got any suggestions of something lovely I could make that would tick the boxes of
- not being too much like Christmas dinner
- tasty and a bit special (so not something we would have every day)
- comforting but not so filling that it puts you off your Christmas dinner the next day
- not involving lots of complex ingredients and hours of fiddly prep
I love to cook and I don't mind at all the idea of making something different, would live to try out some lovely new veggie or fish recipes, but I think I'm so stuck in the rut of ham on Christmas eve I can't think beyond meat and potatoes for this one.
I had thought of just swapping out the ham for a piece of salmon, but it just doesn't seem as special. I also previously tried a "fake" ham joint from Sainsbury's - was horrible, more like a cheap sausage than a joint of ham, so a meat sub is not on the cards.