Have you ever wondered why we have to have Turkey – which can be a little tasteless – mash potatoes, roast parsnips and the kids-nightmare, Brussel sprouts, as our Christmas dinner? Who came up with this idea this dinner combination and is it really the best meal a family can have to celebrate Christmas?
Traditionalists might think we are crossing the line here, but what if this year you decided to spice up your dinner with a little something different, say, skip the sprouts for something the kids will love and ask for more?
Personally the Answers Team are looking forward to cooking something totally new to make this Christmas special for our palates. So we’ve gathered loads of inventive ideas and jaw dropping recipes that we thought you might want to give a go to this year:
- Make a chocolate fountain for desert (Sabs!!!:-);
- Time Traveller is going to have homemade lasagna and roast, with lemon, some garlic and rosemary;
- diabolikka23 will be eating cannelloni – pasta with grinded macinato sauce and polpettone of meat and potatoes;
- And why not borrowing this year’s dinner from our Canadian cousins over the Atlantic? For Christmas, they do a seasonal meat pie apparently, and mickymo shared his recipe with us, looks delicious!
- Or as Bored. recommended, you could also make this Christmas special for all the poultry this year and go for a meat free Christmas dinner – thanks for the links and it will certainly please some of those vegetarians out there who each year have to cope with the smell of greasy Turkey.
If you feel like sticking with the traditions once again, here are some tips to add a little twist to your Christmas Turkey, traditional trimmings and deserts:
- “I hate sprouts, however chopping them up with a touch of cream, some chopped bacon and freshly ground black pepper makes them taste really good, so they are transformed into a nice treat at Christmas dinner
” (Han);
- Jackym40 is treating her family with prawn cocktails appetizers;
- Jools will be cooking a traditional nut roast made with fresh veg, seeds and fresh herbs, garlic and onions and along veggie gravy, brussels and roast potatoes;
- Beatnick recommends to go for local game birds: “All game is better than farmyard meat because it has hardly any fat in it. In fact, pheasants are so lacking in fat they have to be covered in slices of bacon during roasting, usually.” So if you wish to spice up the traditional, do like Le Petit Mort and order a local fresh Pheasant instead of Turkey, stuffed with a special sausage meat stuffing, sage butter under the skin and latticed with streaky bacon;
- Bobbo has a variation of a Danish dish called Flaeskestej (fleskersteye) to stuff his pork loin that seems just delicious;
- “Try a Quorn joint. It’s tasty and low in fat and meat free! Save the life of a turkey this year” (Jo);
- Thanks susie927 for sharing your Great Grandmother’s stuffing/forcemeat recipe which “can be eaten with virtually anything, but particularly good with the usual goose/duck/chicken/turkey”;
- Kittysue2000 will be cooking a wild mushroom risotto “instead of boring stuffing”;
- spoon5385 ordered his ‘quail in a goose in a turkey’ from his local farm shop;
- debbiecat is cooking scallops marinated in lime, wrapped in Parma ham and served on a broad bean puree as starters and for desert, miniature Christmas puddings with Cointreau cream;
- And finally, one we thought you’ll all going to love. kendra23ukAC is sharing her secret boozy desert recipe: a chocolate fudge cake with Jack Daniels added to the sponge, icing and filling.
We certainly need to try this one 
But remember what ever you cook, it’s the thought that counts and being with those you care about. And if that’s any consolation “my family says that one of the best bits about Christmas dinner is the Bubble and Squeak the next day with any cold meat that is left over.” (Yummyhen3)
Merry Christmas to all!
Cooking something else this year or have a special tips to share to get this Turkey just the crust it needs? Share it with us!
Loading ...
Subscribe
