Christmas Recipes Please?

Thanks for this idea as I am planning my first ever Christmas dinner at home (and I am nearly 40!). I have never spent Christmas in the place I was living in my whole liffe and I have never cooked a Christmas dinner either so I am following all the Chrimbo threads with great interest!

I have for several years made homemade Christmas pud taken from Delia Smith's Christmas book we have a family get together and stirring of the pudding with silver coins! I have adapted the recipe slightly as overall my family decided that they didn't like the nuts in it plus after following it exactly to begin with I now buy Sainsburys luxury fruit mix as it has been bogof the last couple of years and it saves money as I don't buy all the individual packs of dried fruit!

Anyway enough waffle and I look forward to following this thread with great interest!

I've copied & pasted this from the other thread, becuase I couldn't be bothered to re-type it!

My favourite Xmas Pud recipe is one my Dad adapted. It's completely veggie and very very easy...

Sieve 50g plain flour with a pinch of salt, half a level tsp of mixed spice, a quarter tsp each of nutmeg & ground cinnamon.

Then stir in 50g of fresh breadcrumbs - I get the kids to crumble some crusts up for me

Add 100g of stoned raisins, 100g sultanas, 100g currants and some glace cherries if you like them and/or mixed peel and stir together then add 100g soft margarine and 100g brown sugar,

Add 50g carrots which have been peeled & grated, a small apple (cooking or eating, doesn't seem to matter) peeled & cored, 1 tablespoon of marmalade, 1 beaten egg and the grated rind and juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange.

As you add each ingredient, give the bowl a stir. By this point, it looks like a brown gloopy mess - it's perfect!

Now the fun: the recipe says 2 tablespoons of rum or brandy. I add both in larger quantities . Grease your pudding basin (we use old Tesco ones from the days when we bought them after Xmas in the sale!) and add the mixture. It will look very wet, but that's fine. Cover with greaseproof paper and a tight fitting lid, or foil tied on with string.

Leave it to stand overnight at room temperature so the fruit can absorb some of the alcohol. Then cook it either by boiling for 6 hours, or boiling in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes, then steaming for 1 3/4 hours.

On Christmas Day, heat it either in the microwave, or boil again.

I normally make mine in the October half term holidays, cook them and leave them in the back of the fridge. DH and MiL say they have never tasted one as good.

Hope it helps someone - must start thinking about this again soon :eek:

Thanks WM can I just ask are the cranberries fresh or dried??
Sounds yummy and very christmassy thank you!

furrypig wrote:

Thanks WM can I just ask are the cranberries fresh or dried??
Sounds yummy and very christmassy thank you!

Definitely fresh cranberries. I have bought some frozen ones though, and I'm planning to try those before the fresh ones are available.

Very, very, yummy - the taste of the orange juice and nuts - lovely with a glass of mulled wine or hot port when the kids have gone off to bed.

WM

Every Christmas I make sausage stuffing to go with the turkey. It's nothing fancy but it is one of the things which makes Christmas dinner so special and different to the rest of the year's roast dinners. You just get 2lb of sausages and skin them (or buy sausagemeat) and mix it with a made up large box of Paxo sage and onion stuffing. It MUST be Paxo and MUST be sage and onion or it never tastes right!. You stuff the turkey with it and bake any left over mix in a loaf tin.