Recipes
BySam
I’ve just got back from two weeks of worktravel to Kenya and it’s kind of thrown me off my Christmas planning course. I feel quite disconnected from it all and haven’t even been into any shops let alone heard one Christmas carol. I also need to get on top of my festive baking for the holidays, so this week is going to be pretty busy. I’ve been in this blogging business for nine years now so have a few really nice recipes in my archives and I wanted to round up a few of my favourites in case you are like me and are still in the planning stage of it all.
For starters, for a big feast, it’s best to keep things quite light or fishy. Here are a few ideas:
Tuna tartare with togarashi dressing
Smoked salmon potato cakes with herbed cream and pink peppercorns
Raw Norwegian salmon salad with goat cheese
Salmon tartare
Tuna gravadlax with dill on butternut rosti
For nibbly things around drinks, my best-ever chicken liver pate recipe is excellent. I like to serve it with something sweet, like orange marmalade & melba toast.
Serve these as a festive snack with drinks or alongside your roast turkey.
Last year I made the amazing Franck Dangereaux Christmas feast from Ucook and if you are looking for an excellent duck à l’Orange recipe, this is a good one for you to try. Franck is French so it’s classic and easier to make than you might think. There is even an instruction video if you follow through with all the links.
I recently made confit duck legs with cherry sauce in my Instant Pot and this was a delicious recipe.
If you want a simpler Christmas-style dish that involves poultry but doesn’t require you to cook a whole bird, then my chicken breasts stuffed with pork, apple and sage might be the ticket for you:
In terms of gammon, the recipe I posted last week for gammon cooked with ginger beer & rooibos tea is now my go-to. I made a deliciousglaze from the cooking broth (which is out of this world) and added honey and mustard to spice & sweeten it up.
The best slow-roasted lamb shoulder with harissa and garlic
A delicious lamb that roasts for four hours without so much as a look-in.
A Christmas feast requires a lot of side dishes, so I have an ongoing post that includes a plethora of side dishes to choose from. Whether you are in the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern, you will find a few ideas there.
- Honey and Hasselback butternut
- Peas with salsa verde
- Hasselback potatoes with chipotle butter
- Roasted smashed new potatoes with Parmesan
- Ottolenghi’s roasted pumpkin with chilli yoghurt and coriander dressing
I wouldn’tcontemplate a Christmas without duck fat roast potatoes, and I feel Ihave the best recipe. This year I am going to try and roast them with a few smashed cloves of garlic and fresh rosemary stalks to see if that could add some flavour, but otherwise,they are perfect the way they are.
Dessert is very important so here are a few ideas from the classic to the less so:
Summer berry Eton mess with pistachios
Amarula Tiramisu
Classic Christmas pudding
Jamie Oliver‘sChristmas pudding strudel with chocolate
Pink swirl meringues with pomegranatesyrup
Christmassy baked apples with brandy-soaked fruit
Cherries preserved in spiced port syrup
Festive baking recipes
The best deep-filled mince pies
As much as I adore a good homemade mince pie, my go-to recipe is now myThey are kind of like a shortbread jam bar and a mince pie hybrid with a crunchy flaky almond topping. They are less finicky to make and quite frankly who wants to stress at this time of year?
- Frangipane mince pies with orange pastry
- Christmas mince-pie frangipane tart (I love this large mine pie rendition because I love Christmas mince so damn much.
- Easy stout fruit cake – If I’m not making , I make this easy recipe which I’ve adapted from my maternal grandmother’s recipe.
The best fruit cupcakes with spiced vanilla buttercream
For a festive co*cktail to kick things off, my pomegranate and ginger spritzer is one of my most popular co*cktails on the blog. You can keep it virginal or add a splash of your favourite booze. I think tequila Bianco, rum or vodka works well here.
I hope you have a very happy Christmas and holiday, and thanks for following along Drizzleanddip. I love to have you visit.
See you on the flip side.
