German Christmas meals ?

Cat72

Hiya
We have decided to have a slightly different christmas this year and havea traditional German on to cheer ourselves up as its been a hard year.
We have probably decided to have Goose on christmas day- and Lidl seem to sell these cheap.
Some ideas we have at the moment are for xmas day- goose, brussels sprouts & carrots in beer, red cabbabge and maybe potatoes with horseradish. With yummy apple strudel for desert ( my idea for that one !).

Any suggestions at all would be really welcome as we are very open to ideas.
Other thing is Im a vegetarian so dont have a clue what to have for my mains !! Also we heard that in germany they have a chritmas eve called Heiligabend buffet of cold meats .Any suggestions for this to would be great.
Many thanks x

Tealady_2

What about Stollen, this is like a german christmas cake with maripan in it. They also sell it a Lidl for less than £2. My OH loves it and would eat the whole thing himself.

When I went to germany in the winter we were served Gluewein everywhere we went which is a little bit like mulled wine. I'm sure they sell this in Lidl as well. Its nice if you add a shot of brandy to the wine mix.

Molly41

My friend is german and celebrates christmas on the 24th not the 25th. Are you?

davetrousers

Look in Aldi and Lidl.

Lebkuchen are ginger biscuits, very nice. Aldi did a very nice dessert wine for about £3.99 (last few years) Beerenauslese (I think) in a tall slender bottle.

Bigcammy

If someone isn't a goose fan then try making them beef roulade, maybe not a normal Christmas choice but it's very traditional and very tasty.

For the Gluhwein, add brandy or Calvados to give it a kick.

Gers

Tealady wrote: »

What about Stollen, this is like a german christmas cake with maripan in it. They also sell it a Lidl for less than £2. My OH loves it and would eat the whole thing himself.

Proper Stollen doesn't have marzipan in it. The very best ones always used to be the East German (DDR) ones, I miss them.

Cold meats include salami, teewurst, mettwurst and so on - best if you read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cuisine and then browse somewhere like
http://www.rudisbutchery.com.au/products_smallgoods.html

Fried Leberkase is my all time favourite.

Germans do have present opening and so on on Christmas Eve. Also have something called Bunte Teller - basically a plate filled with Christmas biscuits, cakes and fruits, nougat (not the white chewy stuff but a praline like sweet) and marzipans - see something about it here http://www.christmasiscoming.co.uk/A_European_Christmas.html
Lidl do the best selection of German Christmas biscuits - almost forgot dominosteine, perfect little squares of jelly, marzipan and cakey stuff wrapped in chocolate!! http://www.inmagine.com/wse057/wse057002-photo

My mother is German and we all still try to have a traditional German Christmas despite being too old for Bunte Tellers, though it doesnt' stop it happening.

lickylonglips

goose with braised red cabbage with potato dumplings served with a cranberry and orange sauce

liz545

German food often features mushrooms, so how about a creamy mushroom stroganoff for your main course, or a mushroom or quorn goulash?

vivw_2

Many many years ago I knew a German woman who gave me this recipe for stollen. It doesn't have the marzipan middle that we usually think of with stollen, but it has become a family favourite. My son even asked me to send him the recipe. Thought I might share it with you:
500g S.R.Flour
200g Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
1/2 tsp Almond Essence
1/2 tsp Rum Essence
1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp Cinnamon
2 Eggs
175g Melted Butter
250g Quark
375g Mixed Dried Fruit
150g Ground Almonds
100g Mixed Glaced Fruit or the multicoloured glace cherries

Mix all the ingredients together into a dough like consistency. Shape into two stollen. Cook gas mark 2 for 40 - 50 minutes. Immediately after taking out of oven brush with melted butter and liberally coat with icing sugar.
[FONT=&quot]Stollen keeps well but has a tendency to dry out. Always keep wrapped in foil.[/FONT]

Cat72

Wow thanks for all your great ideas !
Some really good stuff there. I agree Lidl do seem to have a good range- I need to travel to one but am going to pop down on wednesday.
They have a frozen goose at moment -although I dont have a clue how to cook it but the red cabbage sounds a winner for sides.

Also love the mushroom stroganoff idea- Im the veggie so like something nice to tuck into . That sounds yum.

BitterAndTwisted

Don't forget the caraway seeds in your red cabbage and keep an eye out for Speculatius biscuits in Lidl, they're lovely. Also Lebkuchen and the best shop-bought potato-salad available.