Christmas Food Suggestions

[VladimirsPooTin]

Does anyone have any interesting Christmas recipes or foolproof meals they have made at Christmas? Share here if you would- I'm struggling! I've never done a 'traditional Turkey dinner'. I think this year for a main I'll do duck (never cooked it before!) with some nice vegetables. No ideas yet for starter and dessert. I am trying to get away from my usual sort of cuisine, which usually ends up being fish/seafood. But I'd love to hear about anything that works for others involving any ingredients. The worst Christmas dinner I have ever made was a Russian/Korean fusion. I liked it. Everyone else was polite. I can cook and can make authentic dishes from scratch BUT I do get carried away.

I havd always just done bog standard turkey dinners.

We did once get a goose - surprisingly little meat on one of those babies though - luckily it was in addition to the turkey.

Starters are something which is already prepped - i,e homemade chicken liver pate, or a soup (made the day before)

Main -Turkey, roastpots, parsnips, Loads of veggies, home made yorkshirepuds ( made the day before and briefly reheated), loads of home madegravy, stuffing etc.

DH likes to make cranberry sauce, I do a bread sauce.

Dessert -Xmas pudding, choc cake for those who don't like xmas pudding. both served with custard with a glug of brandy in it :)

This year will be slightly different, as me (90%) and DS (110%!) have gone veggie - so will have to find an alternative to serve up also.

Generally cater for 12-16 ! which is why I do a lot of the prep the day before. There would be just too much to do on the day.

i do turkey as its easy and also good for leftovers. have you cooked duck before as its lots of bones and not much meat - we would need about 4 for our christmas dinner

I do turkey too! Often though I'll do different stuff with the butter to put in between the skin, and find alternative sides to add - my Christmas food bibles are nigella and delia, worth having a look at them?

I think duck is quite an unusual choice. I've done Ham, goose, beef, pork, turkey and nut roast - but not duck.
Red cabbage goes lovely with duck and goose - I've made Rachel aliens roast duck with red cabbage here www.google.co.uk/amp/m.rte.ie/amp/744180/

And I make this delia red cabbage every year with turkey
www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/british/traditional-braised-red-cabbage-with-apples

agree red cabbage is lovely for christmas.

is your oven going to be big enough to do all these ducks?

my foolproof turkey is....shove an onion or lemon in its cavity and dawb skin with butter/marg , place turkey on large sheets of foil - you might need 3, pull ends of foil up and bring together at the top (so there are no gaps). it then steams for most of the time and you take foil off top for last 30 mins and baste. makes it moist with very little effort.

I'll only be doing one duck as its for three people!

Just making Delias red cabbage as we speak, which I'll freeze. It smells absolutely delicious, very Christmassy.

We do something different every year, this year it'll be rib of sirloin. Last year it was a Roast Chicken Masala with a few different veg curries and bombay potatoes, We've even done pasta with tomato sauce one year - it was the dc's favourite meal so we thought, why not? Only did a Turkey once by mistake, dh was supposed to buy a chicken but then had a change of heart - which we all regretted. Dcs are in charge of starters and puddings and dh is responsible for the cheese board.

My dessert this year is going to be filled pannacotta. Coconut pannacotta with a mango and lime coulis inside served with crispy coconut biscuits . Can be all done day before quite easy but look impressive when the filling oozes out. (Can you tell I'm a dessert person!) Will probably do soup starter and traditional turkey main.