What's on the Menu? - Xmas 2003

Traditional roast turkey, with roast potatoes, roast parsnips, roast onions, stuffing, bacon-wrapped sausages, brussels, peas, yorkshire pudding (because I love that with every roast), gravy, bread sauce, cranberry sauce

Christmas pudding, with brandy butter and/or thick cream and/or ice cream

Mince pies, with brandy butter and/or thick cream and/or ice cream

If anyone is still peckish at tea time, there'll be turkey sandwiches or some of my famous trifle which has so much sherry in it that it'll make you fall over.

CJ- wotta feast!!

Have you got any tips for trying something different?

Because my mom is one of them Eye-talians, we eat fish (which I don't like) and pasta, preceeded by a hundred courses of salad and what is called antipaste or something. I usually sneak into the kitchen and eat a coupla bowls of Frosted Flakes.

CJ, definitely go for the stuffing thing because it makes the turkey more moist. Also doing the stuffing separately just creates so much space you could use on a whole other course.

My stuffing contains (work out yr. own measurements but use these proportions):

rice/wild rice mix (1/3)
sausage meat (1/3)
sauteed onions and garlic
breadcrumbs
leftover mashed celeriac (if you have some, whack it in, better texture than celery, which I omit)
relevant fresh herbs
Cruella de Vil levels of pepper (1/3)

Then add mugful of room temp chicken stock or mushroom stock to mix, get right in there and mix together with clean hands. If you're feeling really posh, add some slivered almonds and cubed ham but only about a handful of each in turkey stuffing. Then stuff the cavity and especially load up at the head of the bird where you can situate a huge bulge of stuffing under the skin flap a la haggis.

about 3 cups bread crumbs

about 3 cups cornbread crumbs (real cast-iron frying pan cornbread, not that honey and butter poofy cakey stuff that passes as cornbread these days)

about 2 cups of fresh chicken gizzards (secret ingredient--boil, drain and mince very finely)

Finely chopped parsnips (about 2)

Chopped celery (2 or 3)

Chopped shallots (2 or 3)

Finely minced garlic (just a bit, may two cloves)

Fresh rosemary, finely minced

Dried cherries, finely minced (about 1/2 cup)

Pecans, finely chopped, a handful

Chicken stock, enough to properly moisten

Dried sage

Dried parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

The process:

Put your rectangular pan on the gas burner and turn up the heat. Melt half butter half olive oil, just enough to coat your pan.

Throw in the garlic and sweat until it releases its aroma. Don't let it brown.

Put celery, parsnips, shallots in, sweat the veggies till they release their aroma.

Add gizzards and stir around till it smells good. Add a little chicken stock, just enough to keep things from browning. Add dried cherries until they plump a bit.

Add bread crumbs in small batches, turning over and over to moisten with the juices.

Add dried herbs and continue adding bread crumbs

Add the rosemary, pecans, and enough chicken stock to properly moisten it.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven around 375 fahrenheit

Uncover for the last 10 minutes of baking.

Using a turkey baster, freshen the top if it starts to dry out, with juices from the turkey.

Thar 'tis.

I think it's roast pork for dinner though with all the trimmings, I don't like turkey (booooooring) so I've persuaded Mum to do a pork loin.

All you need for stuffing = stale bread, onions, parsley & sage, a bit of oil and salt and pepper. Boil the slices of onion til soft then drain completely. mix with the rest of the stuff (bread = torn into pieces) Place in a roasting pan (under the meat if poss) and leave it to go crisp on top and gooey underneath. Absolutely gorgeous. I won't eat stuffing from the cavity, plus it doesn't help the cooking, just a lemon and an onion, maybe a couple of garlic cloves in there, you need to let the air circulate.

I really can't be doing with Turkey.

For christmas eve I am making a french canadian pork tourtiere, with a cranberry-tomato sauce (just for a change...) and some nice baby veg & greens in herb butter.

For pudding, I figured we'd just want something small to nibble on with coffee, so I'm going for butter cookies sandwiched with homemade lemon curd.

I'll be getting a traditional roast when we're visiting the bf's family on xmas day, so I wanted to do something different for the night before.

I'll be bringing my own cranberry sauce though (brits don't really eat much of it, so I usually have to make my own) and a couple of pecan pies as an alternative to fruit cake.

ed, i saw that parsnip trick on delia's early 80s xmas on uk food yesterday ;)

it was quite a mad programme actually, "so on xmas day, get up at 7.45am to stuff the turkey" etcetc... "or your xmas will be RUINED" was the subtext.

i must say delia's turkey cooking method has never let me down so far (i don't do the cavity stuffing thing though, and 6 oz of butter on the skin is a *little* excessive perhaps).

ah, chris, hit me with it bogboy :)

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I'm wondering whether to try brining my turkey this year. Never tried it before, so not sure what to expect. Looking online seems evenly split between those who swear by it and those who think it adds nothing, or even makes it worse. Anyone tried it or got any suggestions?

Got a couple pounds of salmon in the fridge. (My sister doesn't eat meat or poultry. Her idea of Christmas dinner is crab cakes.) Think that's enough for three people?

Not nearly enough if one of the people is a grizzly bear. Should cover you for most non-ursines.

salmon for today sounds great. My spouse made me a lasagna and I made him like 70 vegan DUMPLINGS! for today. fuck a turkey.

We ate more of the salmon than I expected! Most years I'm responsible for the family Thanksgiving, which means more people and a turkey, which means much more last-minute stuff. This was so much easier.