Any ideas for christmas season meals that aren't christmas dinner ?

[maryfarquhar]

Although we don't have to host christmas dinner this year we have ended up offering several christmassy dinners - a substitute christmas with the in laws. Christmas eve with relatives overseas and another subsitute christmas with my brother and his family.

We do have a lovely house for christmas (if I say so myself!) so I am really looking forward to it but my cooking skills don't quite match the backdrop!

So what kind of meals would you serve for subsitute christmas so everyone feels suitably festive..

I think I would serve casseroles for the main,maybe venision? Its a bit different but just as easy to chuck in the oven.For dessert maybe a Christmas pud icecream or a apricot and mincemeat strudel.Decorate the table as you would for Christmas day though.

Pheasant?

Ooh like the venison casserole idea and mincemeat strudel perfect....do you have any good recipes ? If not I'll google. Am ok cook if I have a recipe..and also am trying to a meal plan now.

Pheasant's interesting.

Any other ideas ?

a game pie- there is a recipe on www.bbcgoodfood.com IIRC

We always have fish pie on Christmas Eve but that may not be Xmassy enough

Duck with port and cherry sauce

Goose?

Pork loin wuith spiced apple stuffing/lamb with spiced apricot stuffing?

Beef wellington

or just buy Bbcgoodfoodmagazine for December, there are tons of Christmassy recipes in there and loads of dessert ones.

Venison and Juniper stew... mmmm

How about a really spectacular seafood platter? Especially if you have a good fishmonger near you. Serve up oysters, prawns, salmon, crab etc on huge platter of crushed ice with masses of lemon and bread/butter. Looks amazing and festive and no cooking involved. If you serve with a good bubbly even better or a nice Meursault.....mmmmmmmm......

Pheasant is pretty cheap too - pheasant and chestnut casserole? Venison is great done as a casserole or as a pie.

Apple and mincemeat crumble is a lovely festive pud. Or I like to make chelsea buns but substitute dried or fresh cranberries for the raisins. Or do a cranberry sorbet? Or a cranberry upside down cake (think it is a nigella recipe)

Am really loving these different casseroles. Pheasant and chestnut sounds wonderful as does Apple and mincemeat crumble - shall be googling but would be great if you could point me in the right direction! Am thinking this could easily be made and frozen.

Would love seafood platter but think I may run out of fridge space as will be entertaining alot.

I have a fabulous recipe for stuffed pork fillet I've done for dinner with friends. Its very autumnal/wintery, stuffed with pancetta, spinach, chestnuts and prunes. Can post recipe if you are interested.

I served it with dauphinoise pots and greens.

You can make the stuffing ahead and cook dauph and keep warm in a low oven or reheat.

Trifle is a bit of a Christmas tradition here - this winter berry one is lovely, very easy and can be made ahead.

Duck confit. You can make it in advance, so look really organised. (In fact, I am only just finshing off the duck confit I made last year ). Delia serves it with pommes boulangeres and red cabbage. Can give you the recipes if you like. :)

Pheasant, as someone else suggested, is a good idea. In fact, it is what dh, ds and I have on Christmas Day. It's nice and wuick to roast - plus cheap if you buy the pheasant from your local fishmonger/game dealer. I roast mine (IIRC, for 40 minutes then a further 20 minutes minus the bacon and the shallots) with some bacon on top, on top of peeled shallots, garlic cloves, chopped carrots, a couple of chopped tomatoes and some spriges of thyme. While the pheasant is resting, strain the stock, add some wine and some redcurrant jelly and boil for a bit. The add some cranberries (makes it nice and festive) and heat until the cranberries are soft.start bursting. Servie with roasted potatoes, braised savoy cabbage (can be done in the microwave: thinly sliced with some butter and a wee touch of nutmeg) with the bacon from the roasting pheasant which has been cut into small pieces. I also serve it with mashed parsnips with coarsely chopped chestnuts mixed through them, and the shallots that the pheasant was cooked with.

Delia's Christmas books (the original one and the new one which came out last year) have some very good recipes. One thing I made last year from her new book was the prune and armagnac ice cream (which obviously you can make ahead and keep in the freezer). Also there was a turkey roulades with pork, sage and onion stuffing recipe. This used turkey escalopes, but I did it with chicken breats and it worked well. Quite festive, but you can prepare it in advance and bung in oven. In fact there is a whole chapter in that book devoted to "last minute" Christmas recipes, which are not too complicated.

taffetacat I'd LOVE that recipe, if and when you have the time

Afraid I don't have a recipe for the crumble or the casserole! Crumble is just an apple crumble but substitute about a third of the apples for the mincemeat. You could add more if you liked, it's very much a matter of personal taste. Casserole is just the usual - start with onions or shallots, garlic, mushrooms, add pheasant, brown, add bacon bits, brown, add alcohol, stock then bubble away and add chestnuts - one of those casseroles that you just do really. I usually put some herbs in and sometimes carrots.

Some really lovely ideas here - thanks all. Am absolutely starving reading these and its not even 10am!

Have just ordered the Delia book.

We often have baked salmon for Christmas Day, and then make the remains into fishcakes. There is a lovely cream and herb sauce in Jane Grigson's Fish Cookery. I make it with tarragon and parsley.

lilolil-

Chestnut stuffed pork fillet - from Sarah Raven's Garden cookbook

For 4:

1 pork fillet
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
150g pancetta
several garlic cloves, finely chopped
225g spinach, chopped
freshly grated nutmeg
bunch of sage leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon breadcrumbs
salt and black pepper
15 prunes, stoned and roughly chopeed
15-20 chestnuts
6 full slices of prosciutto for wrapping fillet
8-10 baby onions or shallots
2 glasses white wine
1 tablespoon redcurrant jelly
2 tablespoons good creme fraiche

Preheat oven Gas 4/180C. Make a cut along length of pork fillet, without cutting it in two, and open it out. Put it between 2 sheets of cling film and beat it out until its twice the size ( I got the butcher to do all this for me ).

Chop the onion and saute it in the olive oil with the pancetta and garlic for a few mins until onion softened. Add spinach, nutmeg, sage and enough breadcrumbs to absorb any liquid given off by the spinach. Season and take off heat. Stuff the length of the pork fillet with this mixture. Add the prunes and chestnuts, scattered through, and roll it up. Wrap the roll with the prosciutto and tie at intervals with string. Brown for a couple of mins all over in the pan in which the stuffing was made and then put it in a shallow ovenproof dish ( I used a roasting tin as you need to deglaze later on the hob ) with the baby onions or shallots, whole if small, cut in half if larger and cover with the white wine. Roast in the oven for 40 mins then remove the meat and keep warm. Scrape up the juices from the tin, add wine or stock and allow to bubble up and reduce a little before adding redcurrant jelly and creme fraiche. You can add more chestnuts at this stage. Pour this sauce over the meat.

thanks taffetacat, think that might be my New Years Eve main course! Sounds lovely. Thanks again xx

How about ham? I did the Nigella ham cooked in coca cola for DS birthday party and it went down very well so doing it for boxing day too - looks festive too when studded with cloves! Can have cold or hot with lovely bread, chutney, pickles etc, and you can make in advance if you have people over.

Crumblequeen - am definately going to do a ham for one of the days over christmas, probably for a buffet type thing.

Is the diet coke recipe failsafe ? ie if I don't do a dry run - will it just WORK!

Ham in coke recipe is failsafe.
Hve made it before and it always turns out beautifully.
Never tried it with diet coke, not sure it would work with no sugar.

Thanks blametheparents - I meant normal Fat Coke (have a minor addiction to diet coke hence the slip up - perhaps not as minor as I thought!).

Sounds good though ? Do you glaze it ?

It's effectivelythe coke that does the glazing. :)

I do a similar recipe (over 30 years old from my mumwhich in turn was from a friend who was a butcher, so is known as "Bill's way of doing ham"). It involves boiling the ham for ages (bringing to the boil once, discarding the water, covering with the water again and bringing to a gently simmer and boiling for a few hours), then cutting off the fat, leaving a thin layer, scoring the fat, rubbing it with a mixtoure of mustard podwer and soft brown sugar, studding with cloves, pouring coke over and baking for about an hour, basting with the coke every so often.

Yummy :)

It's time consuming but easy. The most difficult thing is getting hold of a green ham/bacon on the bone (looks/tastes better) - and finding a pot big enough to boil it in.

(I'm writing this from memory hence the lack of precise times)

The Nigella ham in cherry coke recipe is here it is lovely. I have it saved in my favourites and will be doing it for boxing day when we have people round.

I usually do two every year: one for us (we have Open House on Boxing Day) and one for my Mum & Dad.

When I was working full time, it meant a couple of late nights in the run up to Christmas to get cooked as I couldn't cook them at the same time.

I did the Nigella ham in cherry coke recipe last year 8 days after having a baby by ELCS so it must be easy

I often cook ham in coke. You can also do lemonade, apple juice or cider...they all give a nice sweet balance to the salty meat.

And if you boil the ham the day before to serve cold or to heat in the oven, use the left over liquid to cook red cabbage - delish.

Offer some sort of tatty - roast, dauphenoise, new...and you're there.