Christmas Meal Ideas – It’s time #Blog

Stephen Wundke
22nd November 2018

With Christmas just a month away it’s time to start planning how you can make this not just a special time for presents but a special time for food as well. We have put up some food provoking ideas for dishes you may not have thought about and how you can produce the wow factor both on a budget and as a real treat. So here are just a few of the dishes that might inspire you to think differently about Christmas and entertaining this year.

In our house, Christmas starts on Christmas Eve with family getting together and after the fabulous Carol service at around 4.00pm its time to open the first bottle of fizz and prepare for the winter warmer. Whilst many house champagnes are quite good and there are always deals, don’t be snobbish. The Cooperative do a fabulous own brand Pink Cava at £6.50 that drinks brilliantly and Lidl have a Seaview sparkling made in Australia from all the right grapes, very biscuity and deep of flavour and at just over £6 a real bargain. I defy anyone to pick it against any house champagnes. It’s wonderful. You may well have your own favourite but if budget isn’t an issue then either Pol Roger, Winston Churchill’s drink of choice or Bollinger NV, James Bond’s, are something very special and if you have struck lucky then treat yourself to a bottle of Krug – they don’t do Vintage because Remi Krug says every bottle he makes is vintage. Everyone should have a bottle just once in their life.

On to the food. How about a little canapes or two with the bubbly, of prawns in a spicy marie rose sauce in baby gem lettuce cups, or a bit fancier, some tempura battered mussels on croutons with lettuce, just to get the taste buds tingling. Sharing plates for families are fun and we can create an inexpensive dish that looks great, uses a pack of chicken thighs and drumsticks, which are super value; mix these in with baby gem lettuce, smoked streaky bacon, cherry tomatoes and a sour cream, chive and lemon dressing and you have a great tasting, great value family sharing platter that also decorates the centre of the table in style. Serve it with some crusty warm farmhouse bread and it’s a cracker.  If you have teenage children, again you can create a great plate at very little cost  with slow roast ribs in a thick, sweet, sticky sauce, sweet corn, homemade southern fried chicken and potato skins stuffed with bacon, spring onions and melted cheese on top. This costs a quarter of that which is supplied by the man with the silver beard and has less than half the fat as well. Perfect with the day ahead.

If you want to bring in some South East Asian flavours then a Chicken and Prawn laksa is an absolute winner; coconut, lime, chilli and udon noodles with prawns and chicken, served in a large wok with all the flavours and smells drifting out across the table. Make yourself some Special Fried Rice with egg, prawns, and pork and you can feed a family of 6 for less than £20 when the Chinese take away would cost double that price.

All of these are terrific sharing plates and mean you can bring it all together and serve whilst enjoying the meal with the family. A great way of eating.

If you want to impress with a plated meal then the  value is definitely belly pork with that crispy crunchy, crackling, slow cooked, with a sauce made of red wine, cranberry juice, cherry jam and de-frosted, frozen cherries, serve it with some crispy small, quartered roast potatoes and some asparagus or broccoli, depending on season and again you have a great tasting, good looking, inexpensive meal

The family favourite is definitely one of three. The first is a sharing plate and that’s shredded duck legs in a warm salad of butternut squash with a dressing of spring onions, chilli, sesame oil, lime, soy, garlic, coriander and mint. You then carve the pink cooked duck breasts on top of the salad. It has a real wow factor and tastes even better. If it’s really cold and snowy outside the 4 hour, slow cooked ox tail in a think unctuous sauce of onions, ginger, red wine, cinnamon, star anaise, beef stock and tamarind, cooked until thick and gooey, served with spinach and celeriac dauphinoise is a real winner. Or perhaps the fish goujons with a Smoked haddock and cheese bake and slamon scotch eggs.

These all set you up for a great Christmas day ahead and keeps you looking forward to that all important lunch.

We tried out a budget Christmas lunch last night and it was fabulous. Turkey legs are just £2.50 each (watch them go up when some fool puts them on a TV cooking show) and two of them fed four of us really well. We did it with butternut squash, parsnips, pigs in blankets, carrots, baby brussel sprouts (revelation) and roast potatoes, with a gravy made with madeira and the cooking juices and it was heavenly – we worked out it cost just £4 a serve and wasn’t missing anything. Great flavour and great value.

If you decide you want to do a two course meal and push the boat out but want to avoid the traditional turkey, then why not look at a scallop starter set on roundels of black pudding, cauliflower puree with apple and pea shoots and a deep thick apple cider and apple juice reduction. Maybe follow that with Pork loin wrapped in pancetta on squashed roast potatoes with a cider cream sauce and veg to taste. We love this and it doesn’t require a lot of cooking.

Our other favourite is to go down the fish route with a plated meal and get monkfish wrapped in parma ham, with prawns and mussels and a creamy white wine and onion sauce with mange tout, asparagus or broccoli. Not cheap but special.

We have two show stoppers. The first is Beef wellington which when brought to the table and carved, makes for a very special meal and the second and probably my favourite is the entire seafood experience. Scallops, smoked salmon, poached salmon, lobster, shrimps, tiger prawns both cold and battered with home made mayonnaise, normal and Dijon and anchovy flavoured, home made chips and a salad of seared tuna loin. Extravagant but exceptional.

Or you could do what they do in Australian and just get the barbie out (cooking utensil – not doll) and serve up the fillet, rib-eye, prawns, and anything else you fancy on the BBQ.

Either way its always your choice but just think outside the box. I wrote this just to excite, entice and stimulate the taste buds and mind. If you want any of the recipes for the dishes you see then just email or message us and we will send them, or if you just want some ideas then ask. We love talking about, thinking about and most of all preparing and eating great food and that is what makes Christmas even more special. It’s here to enjoy so lets do it right and indulge.