The 2018 Christmas Dinner thread!!

Gloomtastic!

31 days to the big meal so it’s about time we got this year’s thread up and running!

Everyone (my family) coming to us this year. We’ll have a practice run the week before for the In-laws. It’s Nevan’s Buttermilk-brined Turkey Crown and Boned and Rolled Legs again. https://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/recipes/2013/1209/744077-buttermilk-brined-roast-crown-of-turkey/

But the very best bit is my long-time vegan sister is back eating meat again!

Ok foodies, whatcha cooking, where are you cooking it, who for and how’s it going?

Graces7

as a solo on a small remote island.... very quietly... Whether or not it is turkey depends literally on the weather as we can get cut off at this season.

Just defrosting and clearing the freezer and next time I get to eg LIDL or Dunne's will get a small frozen turkey.

With 5 cats now ....

So will defrost enough to joint and set the breastmeat still frozen back in the freezer.

I have most of the simple trimmings in stock. Will get sprouts and after that other thread chestnuts next time I am out and have stuffing and cranberry in stock

I sandwich stuffing and cranberry, chestnuts etc in between breasts, foil wrap and roast with roast potatoes ( home grown this year) and roast roots.

Not well enough to make puddings or cake etc, and still seeking mince pies with no palm oil in them... At a pinch can assemble mincemeat here but need to be off my feet more and more.

Just a simple solo meal and if no turkey no disaster

A quiet time here for me and blessedly so.

Corvo

I'll be commencing Operation Watchtower, where I will seek to watch every step my father makes during the dinner so as to ensure no overcooking of the turkey (half a chance and he will incinerate it), adequate seasoning (salt and pepper do not exist to him at times), proper resting times for the meat (instead of oven to plate in less than 60 seconds) and of course, the gravy situation...

I joke of course (kind of).

We'll be up early, and I'll prep the vegetables, potatoes and stuffing. I usually do my own for myself with sausage meat, herbs and chilli in it (I know, hardly traditional). Usually brussel sprouts and roasted root veg (parsnip and carrot). I usually avoid mash, because roast potato > mash all day long. I'll scatter veg under the turkey with a bulb of garlic and rosemary which will form the base of my gravy. I somehow convinced the father to invest in a meat thermometer, so we are already half way to victory. Roast glazed ham will partner the turkey up front in the Christmas strike force.

What do people do around extra prep for the turkey? I've never been one for putting butter under the skin, or using a brine, I usually just season it and keep it simple. But would consider something different this year.

Graces7

Corvo wrote: »

I'll be commencing Operation Watchtower, where I will seek to watch every step my father makes during the dinner so as to ensure no overcooking of the turkey (half a chance and he will incinerate it), adequate seasoning (salt and pepper do not exist to him at times), proper resting times for the meat (instead of oven to plate in less than 60 seconds) and of course, the gravy situation...

I joke of course (kind of).

We'll be up early, and I'll prep the vegetables, potatoes and stuffing. I usually do my own for myself with sausage meat, herbs and chilli in it (I know, hardly traditional). Usually brussel sprouts and roasted root veg (parsnip and carrot). I usually avoid mash, because roast potato > mash all day long. I'll scatter veg under the turkey with a bulb of garlic and rosemary which will form the base of my gravy. I somehow convinced the father to invest in a meat thermometer, so we are already half way to victory. Roast glazed ham will partner the turkey up front in the Christmas strike force.

What do people do around extra prep for the turkey? I've never been one for putting butter under the skin, or using a brine, I usually just season it and keep it simple. But would consider something different this year.

When cooking a whole turkey, we used to roast it half the time upside down to keep it moist , then right side up. Worked a treat

Dizzyblonde

After last year's success we'll be having Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve again. Daughter number one and her husband will be abroad because of his job, so there will be Mr. Dizzy, myself, daughter number two and her partner and new baby son.

I'll be brining the turkey crown in buttermilk again because it's just so delicious, and baking a whole ham (with wholegrain mustard and brown sugar glaze) because we have extended family for a buffet on Christmas night. We'll have roasties and mash, sprouts - and I saw mention of a root vegetable gratin in the General Chat thread so I fancy that too. Dessert is yet to be decided.

Breakfast on Christmas morning, and every morning until the ham is all gone, will be slices of cold ham with fried eggs, toast and tea.

Graces7

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

After last year's success we'll be having Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve again. Daughter number one and her husband will be abroad because of his job, so there will be Mr. Dizzy, myself, daughter number two and her partner and new baby son.

I'll be brining the turkey crown in buttermilk again because it's just so delicious, and baking a whole ham (with wholegrain mustard and brown sugar glaze) because we have extended family for a buffet on Christmas night. We'll have roasties and mash, sprouts - and I saw mention of a root vegetable gratin in the General Chat thread so I fancy that too. Dessert is yet to be decided.

Breakfast on Christmas morning, and every morning until the ham is all gone, will be slices of cold ham with fried eggs, toast and tea.

sound s lovely!

looking for ward to more on this thread.... thank you !

Loire

Graces7 wrote: »

With 5 cats now ....

So will defrost enough to joint and set the breastmeat still frozen back in the freezer.

Cat for Christmas dinner?

Yes...it's kinda time to get started alright me thinks. No Xmas cake made yet so I'll have to right that wrong this weekend.

Last year I broke from the norm and went with turkey boned&rolled and it was fab. Coca Cola ham too and then the usual half a dozen variety of spuds and anything else that'll fit onto the plate.

Loire.

The Black Oil

Used the buttermilk brine approach last year, will be using it again. Ham will be honey, mustard, cloves and whiskey. Bazmo's stuffing balls recipe will be used too. Looking forward to it all.

goat2

At the moment collecting supervalue tokens for the half priced turkeys, had them last yr, they were great

igCorcaigh

Nutroast for me; not vegetarian so much, but hate turkey!

Stargazer7

Normally it's myself and my mum joining forces every year and mostly sticking with tradition....Turkey (have tried buttered and brined....though I think I may have overdone the brined last year), boiled and glazed ham, maple roasted root veg, bread and potato stuffing, mash and roasties and sprouts (al dente for me and mush for everyone else as I don't make them "done enough" :pac:).

I'm obsessed with bread sauce and despite making it from scratch before, I find the schwartz packet to be more flavourful, although I read recently that maybe that was because I used regular white loaf instead of something with a bit more flavour e.g. leftover sourdough. Might give it another go this year.

I make my own cranberry sauce with orange zest and juice, a cinnamon stick and plenty of port

This year more than ever I'm feeling torn between the niceness of keeping things the same and just playing around with things a bit more...like doing roast onions stuff with sausage meat as a side dish etc.....but when cooking for family there is an element of not rocking the boat too much so we shall see!

I had an idea of making a giant frangipane mince pie tart for dessert - will need to see if I'm allowed :pac:

Keep the lovely recipes and traditions coming guys....also, regarding serving time - I presume you all go for the 2 - 4 pm window? Actually a rarity for us but one year we were hungover on Christmas day so we had a fry at 12 and proper dinner at 6. I loved it. But we're back to the earlier time since I just find the afternoon a bit too early to enjoy such a lovely feed!

Dizzyblonde

Stargazer7 wrote: »

Keep the lovely recipes and traditions coming guys....also, regarding serving time - I presume you all go for the 2 - 4 pm window? Actually a rarity for us but one year we were hungover on Christmas day so we had a fry at 12 and proper dinner at 6. I loved it. But we're back to the earlier time since I just find the afternoon a bit too early to enjoy such a lovely feed!

For 34 years we had dinner at 2pm, then had to clean up and either go out to visit or in recent years have a gang here for the evening. That's why we moved it to Christmas Eve last year. It was our first leisurely Christmas dinner ever. So while Christmas is a very traditional celebration, slight changes can be good

shortcircuitie

OK, this is the first year I am doing the entire thing myself. I have some points I could do with help on the following points:

-Can anyone suggest a tasty seafood canapé that isn't smoked salmon.
-What is the difference that brining makes to a turkey compared to un-brined?
-I have seen the famous Neven recipe for a brined turkey crown. Is there any reason not to brine the entire bird, if you so wish
- Does brining not make the meat salty?

Gloomtastic!

shortcircuitie wrote: »

OK, this is the first year I am doing the entire thing myself. I have some points I could do with help on the following points:

-Can anyone suggest a tasty seafood canapé that isn't smoked salmon.
-What is the difference that brining makes to a turkey compared to un-brined?
-I have seen the famous Neven recipe for a brined turkey crown. Is there any reason not to brine the entire bird, if you so wish
- Does brining not make the meat salty?

Prawn cocktail with bilinis?

The brining is something to do with osmosis I believe. The buttermilk is being absorbed into the turkey flesh and the acid in the buttermilk is tenderising the meat. It also takes on the citrus flavour from the oranges. It doesn’t get salty at all.

You probably could do the whole bird but the leg is tougher meat so takes a different amount of time to cook than the breast. Plus the leg is full of really tough sinews so by boning and rolling it you get to remove them.

Good luck with the meal. Prepare/cook as much as you can beforehand - Ham, Turkey legs, stuffing (balls), gravy, starter etc. Just leave the turkey crown and the veg to Christmas Day. Again, prepare all the veg the day before - sprouts, for example, take ages to prep so you don’t want to do that on the day.

If you have any questions, just ask!

shortcircuitie

So the reasons for separating the legs from the crown are the well-established reasons due to the disparity in cooking time, not specific to brining.

Wife abhors mayonnaise, so prawn cocktail might be out. But you're onto something with blinis. Perhaps little piles of crab meat.
Yes I'll do all the veg prep on Christmas Eve.

The gravy will be made and frozen well in advance: the Jamie Oliver get ahead gravy which is a complete game changer, it really cuts down on messing on Christmas day. All you have to do is defrost it and then add in the resting juices from the Turkey before you serve.

Graces7

Being challenged physically I have learned the art of doing as much as I can on Christmas Eve so I can enjoy cooking.

So I parboil the potatoes and root vegetables, prepare the sprouts, make the turkey breast "sandwich " and foil it to let the flavours gently spread....eetc

All I really need to do then is the actual cooking. Main course sorted.....

Shenshen

I'm not sure - usually, I'd make a version of a nut roast to go with the roast tatties, sprouts and carrots (carrots for the husband, sprouts for me).

But I'm thinking I'd want to do something different this year. Possibly something Wellington-y, with mushrooms. I got some Vital Wheat Gluten last week, so I might try and make a Seitan loaf containing mushroomy flavours.
Has anyone tried something like this before? Any advise on what I definitely should avoid doing?

Minnie Snuggles

On the 23rd I normally soak my ham. On Christmas eve, I boil the ham leave it cool in the cooking liquor, make the chicken soup and brown bread (I have been told "it's not Christmas without it), make the stuffing, prep the veg and make the desserts.

Christmas day we start early, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law visit after mass on Christmas morning so we have the chicken soup and bread at about 11am. Dinner turkey, ham, stuffing, roast potatoes, creamed potatoes, carrots in white sauce and gravy at about 2pm. At about 5 or 6pm we have the dessert (after we have woken up after the dinner :D).

The only that changes from year to year are the desserts, so I am always on the look out for something light. Last year I made panna cotta and jelly and chocolate mousse and panna cotta. If anyone has any ideas I would be very grateful.

RiceCrispy

Minnie Snuggles wrote: »

On the 23rd I normally soak my ham. On Christmas eve, I boil the ham leave it cool in the cooking liquor, make the chicken soup and brown bread (I have been told "it's not Christmas without it), make the stuffing, prep the veg and make the desserts.

Christmas day we start early, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law visit after mass on Christmas morning so we have the chicken soup and bread at about 11am. Dinner turkey, ham, stuffing, roast potatoes, creamed potatoes, carrots in white sauce and gravy at about 2pm. At about 5 or 6pm we have the dessert (after we have woken up after the dinner :D).

The only that changes from year to year are the desserts, so I am always on the look out for something light. Last year I made panna cotta and jelly and chocolate mousse and panna cotta. If anyone has any ideas I would be very grateful.

Pavlova is always a favourite in our house, nice and light after the big feed. Made in the shape of a Christmas tree or a Snowman, topped with whipped cream and well placed chocolate buttons and berries for decoration, cinnamon spiked fruit salad to serve.

Graces7

RiceCrispy wrote: »

Pavlova is always a favourite in our house, nice and light after the big feed. Made in the shape of a Christmas tree or a Snowman, topped with whipped cream and well placed chocolate buttons and berries for decoration, cinnamon spiked fruit salad to serve.

tantalising! Will see what the big shops have nearer the day! LOVE Pavlova.....

phormium

Graces7 wrote: »

still seeking mince pies with no palm oil in them... .

Is there any Iceland store near you? They are priding themselves now on having no palm oil in their products, I was in there today and checked the mince pies out of curiosity and sure enough it only says rapeseed oil.

I know there isn't too many Iceland stores, do you have a good postal service and I'll post you a box

RiceCrispy

Graces7 wrote: »

tantalising! Will see what the big shops have nearer the day! LOVE Pavlova.....

If you can get your hands on some anytime from now Double cream freezes well (just pour some out to allow for expansion) and frozen berries/ frozen fruit salad, all you'll need to get closer to the day is eggs & sugar so.

Graces7

phormium wrote: »

Is there any Iceland store near you? They are priding themselves now on having no palm oil in their products, I was in there today and checked the mince pies out of curiosity and sure enough it only says rapeseed oil.

I know there isn't too many Iceland stores, do you have a good postal service and I'll post you a box

Your kindness brings tears! No stores within an hour but an excellent postal service when weather allows



pm....

Neyite

Any ideas for a nice but easy St.Stephens day roast?

I'm doing turkey & ham on Christmas Eve, Venison on the day itself but there will be 8 adults and a couple of kids on the 26th so I'd like to do something interesting, but also something that I can bung in the oven and spend time with my guests.

Faith

Neyite wrote: »

Any ideas for a nice but easy St.Stephens day roast?

I'm doing turkey & ham on Christmas Eve, Venison on the day itself but there will be 8 adults and a couple of kids on the 26th so I'd like to do something interesting, but also something that I can bung in the oven and spend time with my guests.

I'd be inclined towards a buffet-style approach, as people will likely be stuffed to the gills already. Maybe cold cuts and salads? Or even a hearty soup with crusty bread.

Neyite

I was thinking about a buffet, Faith. It's possible they may stay until late so a buffet supper would be nice and a smaller afternoon lunch could work as well.

Corvo

My family never have a starter on the day, but as we are having dinner a little later this year (about 15:30) I might knock up a quick seafood starter for myself and my father.

What do people suggest? I was thinking about mussels with some crusty bread. Can be done quite quickly.

tickingclock

Faith wrote: »

I'd be inclined towards a buffet-style approach, as people will likely be stuffed to the gills already. Maybe cold cuts and salads? Or even a hearty soup with crusty bread.

Completely agree with this. Also you will have worked hard in the kitchen on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Could you make soup now and freeze it? Have soup and cold meat salads? Maybe even buy some salads just to make your life easier

Stargazer7

Neyite wrote: »

I was thinking about a buffet, Faith. It's possible they may stay until late so a buffet supper would be nice and a smaller afternoon lunch could work as well.

Usually after a few days of Christmassy fayre people would be open to something a bit different, as you say. I think a selection of nice cheeses (or keep this for afters), cold cuts as suggested with some nice relishes and breads would be lovely. Since you may have some potatoes left over a Spanish tortilla as a centrepiece could be nice. And you could make it ahead and just warm it in the oven before serving?

Edit: If you wanted to do things quite a bit different you could do a Christmas twist on Spanish tapas / sharing plates.

Crybabygeeks

Corvo wrote: »

My family never have a starter on the day, but as we are having dinner a little later this year (about 15:30) I might knock up a quick seafood starter for myself and my father.

What do people suggest? I was thinking about mussels with some crusty bread. Can be done quite quickly.

This is what I'll be doing this year before a curried squash soup and traditional roast dinner.

An absolute winner of a recipe, if not strictly traditional. Sauce could be made Xmas Eve too just requiring heating up and toss in the prawns. Delicious served with crusty bread.

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.greatitalianchefs.com/recipes/gamberi-alla-busara-recipe/amp

Minnie Snuggles

Sorry wrong thread.