Pescatarian for Christmas dinner - Gravy?

[IvyHollyberry]

This is taking up too much room in my head.

I’ve asked and they said they will eat around not to make a fuss just for them!

I’m going to have to make a little fuss otherwise they’ll be having a very dry plate of veggies and stuffing balls.

Will practice doing roast potatoes in olive oil and ditch the animal fat ones so we’ll all have those, no fuss.

Gravy needs to be special just for them - do I make this using fish stock, I’m not convinced it goes with sage & onion and cranberry sauce. I know the guest loves my homemade cranberry. Would veggie stock be better? Am overseas so can’t guarantee I can get a tub of pescatarian suitable ready made gravy.

Then I feel bad our guest will be eating only side dishes. Poaching or pan frying a fillet of fish is no trouble really. Not sure it will go with gravy thinking a herb or wine sauce may be better? Fish encroute could go only the guest dislikes pastry so that’s out.

Then I think I should add other vegetable sides that better go with fish? We usually have roast potatoes, honey roast parsnips, roast onions, carrot swede mash, boiled sprouts, carrots, baby potatoes, sage &onion stuffing balls and cranberry sauce. Also tempeh but guest dislikes texture so won’t have.

Then I think our guest will be uncomfortable that we’ve made too much fuss even though it’s not really a fuss and I should stick with olive oil roasted spuds and a pescatarian suitable gravy.

And around it goes in my head. Please make it stop, someone tell me what to do and then I don’t need to think about it until nearer the time.

In think a good cauliflower cheese and nut roast are enough to make a plate a treat but I am very partial to cauliflower cheese 😁😁😁

I am pescatarian and I do roast salmon pieces, and everything else the same as my pre pescatarian days other than veg oil.

I either make a rich red wine sauce, or plain old bisto veg gravy, with vegetable water. I have stuffing and yorkshire puddings. I buy nice quality salmon pieces. Surprisingly surprisingly good!

I think ny red wine sauce is from a Rick stein book. I also sometimes put the salmon pieces on a bed of green lentils that have been cooked with onion, cloves, and a bit of spice. I enjoy this as much as I did turkey and it definitely is like Christmas dinner!

The other thing would be to make a salmon pithiver/wellington type thing.

Serve the pan-fried fish with a lemon wedge. Don't go to the trouble of making separate gravy. Keep it simple.

Have one of the side dishes be something creamy - either a cauliflower cheese or a gratin of some kind. Bake a piece of fish in foil with a slice of lemon and some fresh herbs, and serve it on a bed of the creamy veg dish, allowing the guest to decide for themself which other veggies from those you do for the meateaters will best go with the rest.

The trouble with doing salmon alongside meat plus everything else is that it’s tricky timing - it needs doing just at the absolute peak time of everything happening. Though I suppose it could go into the oven after you take the meat out to rest, and I guess it’s also fairly forgiving as a cooking task. I stand by a full Christmas plate of potatoes, veggies, sauces and other things being perfect. I tend to see the red cabbage as my personal centrepiece anyway (I don’t do cauliflower cheese for Christmas).

The OP has already said the guest doesn’t like pastry so no en croute.

Salmon with a creamy sauce?

I’d buy her a salmon en croute - Waitrose, Sainsbury’s or Charlie Bigham all do them.

Someone eating fish does not need gravy, but if she wants it for her vegetables just buy some vegetable gravy you can buy it in most supermarkets.

Stay away from Bisto, it’s vile.

Would it not be better to make a delicious vegetarian main, which will go with all of the side dishes, and not do fish at all. Then do a vegetarian gravy. Half of my family are vegetarian/pescatarian, so we always have a veggie main in addition to a turkey.
good options are: butternut squash wellington, vegetable and chestnut pie, or a good old nut roast. You can also do delicious vegetarian stuffings.

Ah no pastry… just wondering if you could do something easy like a big mushroom skewer. You could prep and marinade it in advance. I had one recently and it was so delicious… and might go better with the rest of the veg than fish.

I wouldn't serve gravy with fish unless you know it's a combination the guest likes. As PPs have suggested, either serve something like veggie sausages and do veggie bisto for everyone. Alternatively, serve fish but with a butter based or parsley sauce.

This thread has made me chuckle a bit, sorry OP.

Pescatarian means they are vegetarian but eat fish. So the only thing they eat with a face, is seafood.

I don't think this means that they want, or need, fish flavoured everything for xmas dinner.
Maybe ask them what they're expecting.

As others have said...a lot of gravy mixes are vegetarian anyway. But if you're doing salmon, maybe find an alternative as gravy and salmon sounds funky.

Pescatarian means they will eat fish, it doesn't mean they have to eat fish. So putting fish stock in gravy is totally unnecessary and sounds revolting. If you serve them gravy, then just make it vegetarian such a Bisto granules and don't add meat juices. I think your best bet is to do a bit of salmon in a white sauce, buy a nut roast or make a cauliflower cheese.

Thank you everyone for lots of great suggestions.

They are newly pescatarian I think they are quite strict, I do like them honestly.

Very good point about them feeling obliged to eat whatever I make I hadn’t thought of that.

I’m not going to do a separate fish main. I’m going to go with a vegetarian centrepiece. A nut roast everyone can share (and can replace the tempeh we have as a side dish as well) can’t believe I didn’t think of that it’s perfect and I know the meat eaters will have some so absolutely no fuss made just for the pescatarian as they wish.

I didn’t realise bistro was vegan, I will have a look if I can get it over here. For sure I will stay away from fish stock and make the gravy with veg stock lol and try sunflower oil and a mix of oils for the roast potatoes.

And they are also mutually exclusive...

Does no one read the OP? She is overseas and no guarantee she can get the products or ready made options that people are suggesting. The guest also doesn’t like pastry!

Simplest thing to do is a homemade make in advance veggie gravy, and do the potatoes in oil. The guest has said they are happy with that.

We're a vegetarian family, we use Bisto

But that doesn’t deal with the issue. The OP is not looking for a different main course because the person she’s talking about has said she will just eat whatever everybody else is eating, minus the meat, which is perfectly reasonable.

Her question is about gravy to go with this because, apparently, everybody else is getting a meat based gravy and the OP can’t work out how to do a non-meat based gravy or sauce. Personally I would get a low salt yeast extract, like the one Meridian do and just make a normal gravy using that, but apparently it’s a massive cause of anxiety so 🤷‍♀️

I still think that getting a sachet of Marks & Spencer red onion gravy is the answer. .

You’ve got caught up on the fish. Treat them as a vegetarian instead. Get a little ready made nut roast for one to put in the oven with everything else. They can eat all the sides and a vegetarian gravy and it’s no extra hassle and they’re not stuck eating some random fish dish of completely different flavour palette, alongside their sprouts.

if you can’t buy a nut roast you could make one and freeze it ready to defrost for Christmas, so it’s not extra hassle when you’re already busy around Christmas. The ingredients are pretty typical, obviously I don’t know where you are in the world but it’s mainly lentils and nuts and eggs.

You have been distracted by their eating fish.

The trad Christmas dinner does not go with fish. Just get a nice veggie main that goes - a nut loaf, a veg and chestnut tarte, whatever, loads available in any supermarket, and serve veggie gravy and make some of your sides veggie where appropriate- as you say, roasties in oil.

I read both her posts and missed those details.

If she’s in France I might do a galette de Sarrasin with mushrooms and chestnuts. Elsewhere I’d do a sea bass fillet or scallops with herb butter.

I don’t personally like nut roasts.

I’m pescetarian and I’ve had many people assume it means I always eat fish instead of meat but what it actually means for me is that I eat a mainly vegetarian diet plus fish. For Christmas dinner I’d expect a vegetarian
main dinner (but eat the smoked salmon starter if there was one hypothetically).

As others have said, use Bisto gravy or similar veggie granules, perhaps a ready made nut roast or meat free tart or veggie sausages instead of the meat, and double check any pre-made shop bought desserts for gelatine. It sounds like the guest isn’t particularly demanding so you’ll be absolutely fine!

Unnecessary because the guest is content to eat with everybody else is eating, minus the meat. Personally I always preferred the side dishes to the meat and that was true before I became vegan.

The question is purely about a non-meat based gravy.

I take the point about not being in the UK but a non-meat based gravy or sauce is, in my view, fairly basic cooking.

This is a far more articulate way of putting what I wanted to say.

People say that to be polite. I’d still make her a dedicated main as it’s Christmas.

If she’s not English she won’t care about gravy. Even if she is she may not. A good bread sauce, Delia’s cranberry relish and some vegetarian stuffing would be more important to me, personally.