It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! December’s here and the romantic, magical scene of falling flakes of snow are starting to lighten the heart of youngsters and big kids alike. It’s sparking the anticipation of fun, good times, and the prospect of some of the most flavoursome foods straining tables across the world. Festive foods have long been a staple of the season, a time of going overboard with taste sensations, calorie high, flavour rich starters, desserts and mains – a real treat to stave off the worst the weather can throw at us.

But are we really challenging our taste buds at Christmas, In Greenland for Xmas the delicacy is auk that has been buried in the ice inside a hollowed out seal carcass. The birds are left in the ice for seven months to ferment, and are said to smell very similar to strong cheese when the seal carcass is opened.

Source

In the UK we have a traditional menu of what makes a Christmastime dinner but, with a few tweaks here and there, this choice can be expanded with just a little ingenuity and a lot of Christmas spirit into something really rather original. Prepare yourself to tuck into some weird and wonderful Christmas foods.

Xmas Morning Snack

Christmas Breakfast Muffins Vs Silk Worms

The excitement of Christmas morning, particularly for children, often dampens the appetite. Placing a plate of these muffins on a nearby table should reverse this, with their aromas and visual appeal. They’ll give your kids enough energy to last until dinnertime. You could how ever try the kids out with a bowl of Korean silk worms, the worms are battered, crumbed and fried in a light oil to bring out the flavour. You could consider adding sugar or honey to make them more like a popcorn snack on Xmas morning.

Worm Source
Muffin Source
Read Recipe

Xmas Dinner Starter

Pumpkin soup Vs Ambuyat

One for the veggies, pumpkin soup is a light and warming traditional Xmas starter and won’t fill the family up before the main course. The Bruneian starter also veggie is made from the interior of the Sago palm tree. This is a famous delicacy in Brunei and is prized by the people of Sabah, the dish is typically eaten with a bamboo fork, rolled around the fork and dipped in a sour sauce to taste.

 
Pumpkin Soup Recipe
Ambuyat Image

Side Dish

Christmas Coleslaw Vs Escamoles

Not something you would often associate with Christmas, this version is heavy on the red cabbage and dried cranberries and tastes amazing. For the best results, soak the cranberries in a fruity tea overnight to make them really juicy. For a different side dish you could look to Mexcio and try some Escamoles, yum. This is the larve of large poisionous ants and harvesting the eggs can be a tricky business as this particular ant has an extreamly painful bite. The larve is considered a delicacy much like caviar and is said to have a pleasent buttery consistancy and nutty flavour.

 

Source
Read Recipe

Main

Christmas Turkey with Tropical Flavours Vs Lutefisk

The Christmas dinner now puts the turkey at centre stage. It’s only been in recent decades that the turkey has become affordable for most families and replaced the goose as traditional fayre. This recipe brings a touch of the tropical to your table but before you consider this, make sure your guests are up for turkey in a banana sauce!

If any of your guests are not keen on banana, perhaps you could try a main of Lutefisk, this a traditional dish in Nordic countries. Lutefisk is made from air-dried or dried and salted whitefish and soda lye. The name means Lye Fish, whic describes how the fish is prepared in caustic lye soda, not totally sure what this will do to your insides, but its not known to kill. Cooking the dish for too long will cause the fish to actually turn into soap, which is cool for a few last minute Xmas gifts. The Lutefisk is served with bacon, gravy, new potatos, white sauce and goats cheese.

 

Source
Read Recipe
Lutefisk Source

And finally…

At the end of the day when you’re in a contented mood and keen to relax, why not sink into the embrace of your comfy seat with a mug of your favourite brew and some tasty biscuits with  frogs fallopian tubes?

Mincemeat Bon Bons Vs Hasma

I love sweet mince pies but there is more that you can do with this versatile filling. With this simple recipe, filo pastry made into little mincemeat Christmas crackers a novel, toothsome treat.

Too much, you could try Hasma, its eaten in China and is considered to be a desert, it is made up of the fallopian tubes of frogs, which are bought in a dried form and which swell up to 15 times their size when added to water. It is boiled in rock sugar to give the dish its sweetness, and is it said to have a slightly glutinous and chewy texture very much like our Tapioca sweet.

 

Source
Read Recipe
Hasma Source

But for those of you who are still hungry why not try a lovely cheese plate and a warming coffee.. we saved the best for last enjoy

Casu marzu

In Sardinia this is considered illegal, its name loosely (very) translated means maggot cheese and even though at first sight the cheese looks normal, when you find out how it is prepared it may change your mind. Made from sheep milk the cheese is prepared by being deliberately infected with the Piophila casei or “cheese fly. Only when the cheese is in a major state of decomposition caused by fly larve is it ready to eat.

But, it gets worse, the fly larvae can jump 6 inches from the cheese and do so in an attempt to enter the eaters eyes, the taste of the cheese can actually burn your tongue and the larvae can survive long enough to breed and bore holes in the cheese lovers intestines. So maybe in this case I’d recommend sticking to the coleslaw.

Casu Marzu

For many, Christmas is a time of feasting, of large, tasty meals guaranteed to swell the girth, strain the belts and put a rosy, contented glow on the face.  A hefty turkey complete with trimmings piled high is synonymous with the season. For vegetarians the romance of the dishes is somewhat lacking in popular imagery but not in terms of the variety of mouth-watering toothsome Christmas meals.

Source

Sometimes coming up with interesting meals takes a bit of doing if you are not a vegetarian yourself and are simply catering for one during Christmas Day. If this is you and you need a bit of inspiration then read on for a selection of five menus comprising starters, mains and desserts. Remember you are not just looking for a meat substitute but a complete, rounded dish.

Starters

Christmas Eve Bread
This is a delicious and simple, traditional starter. Add a bit of sugar to the mix for the sweet toothed or spread a little jam on it. There are no eggs or fat involved in this otherwise low calorie bread.

Source
Try it yourself.

Truffled parsnip and Parmesan bruschetta
Looking for something a bit more upmarket? Then this starter using scented truffle oil and fresh Parmesan cheese could be just what you need. If your guests are a bit unsure of the strong taste of parsnip, this is a great way of re-acquainting them with that lovely root vegetable.

Source
Try it yourself.

Celeriac fritters with rosemary aioli
Continuing the high dining theme is this little fritters and dip combo. Celeriac is an underused vegetable which is a real shame as it has a rich, strong flavour and its versatility makes it good for soups too.

Source
Try it yourself.

Fig with Blue Cheese, Honey and Thyme
If more meat eaters were served starters as tasty and exciting as this flavoursome blend then you would really influence them to consider vegetarianism as a real alternative. After assembling this starter, the dish really comes alive with an optional few minutes grilling.

Source
Try it yourself.

Roast Tomato Soup with Haricot Beans & Basil and St Helen’s Farm Goats’ Cheese Croutons

This next recipe gets it flavour from the roasting of the tomatos on a baking tray before making the soup, the tomatos are drizzled in balsamic and roasted in garlic and chilli for 30 minutes until they are brown. The tomatos and all their juices are then simmered with haricot beans and basil to make a tasty and filling soup, so perhaps small portions would be advised. The final touch to this warming starter comes in the form of goats cheese croutons and a swirl of goats cheese to finish off the dish.

Source
Try it yourself.

Mains

With your guests’ appetites well and truly whetted you have time to continue your culinary onslaught with the main meal. The starter also gives the prospective chef some valuable time to get on with the next course, not leaving the guests hungry.

Mushroom Wellington

This dish can be time-consuming to prepare and bake but, if you are prepared, it can be made in advance then frozen and finished off in a hot oven. Shop bought vegetarian puff pastry is a suitable alternative to making your own if time is a factor or if you are less than convinced at your pastry-making ability. Eat straight from the oven when risen and golden to appreciate the full wow factor.

Source
Try this yourself.

Fresh Savoy, red onion and Egg Pie
The key to getting this pie just perfect is in making sure the pastry seal is tight. It keeps the eggs on the soft side and maintains just the right level of moisture and best texture. It may sound like an unusual combination of ingredients but, for a Christmas-time treat, it takes a lot to beat.

Source
Try it yourself.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagne

Lasagne isn’t the first meal that may come to mind when thinking about Christmassy food but, couple it with roast vegetables and you’re onto a winner. Roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots are delicious and undeniably the tastiest way to cook your veg. Added to a cheesy lasagne and you’ll win anyone over. The turkey survives to make ‘gobble gobble’ sounds another day.

Source
Try this yourself.

Leek and Goats’ Cheese Pie

I’m not a big fan of goats’ cheese and only some of my vegetarian friends enjoy by it. Oddly, the pungent taste is toned down by the leeks and, once baked, I have to admit to reluctantly liking this dish. The ingredients also include spinach – another opinion-dividing vegetable but it works exceptionally well as part of this non-meat medley.

Source
Try this yourself.

Christmas Veggie Nut Roast

With a complex mix of walnuts, hazelnuts, walnuts and roasted cashews this classic nut roast is high in taste and very filling. My preference is for including as many nut types as possible rather than opting for just one or two. The Christmas Nut Roast gives you the perfect opportunity to go wild with seeds and spices and make it a main to remember.

Source
Try it yourself.

Desserts

Now you’re talking my language. The perfect way to round off the meal is with a scrumptious dessert. Well it’s either that or Charades. Or both, if you like that kind of thing.

Apple Cinnamon Toastie

Taking the recipe of cinnamon-swirl bread and adding a hefty dollop of apple then toasting and you get this amazingly moreish dessert. It’s one of those afters you just have to leave room for. If you’re up for an even bigger taste sensation than smear on some hazelnut or chocolate spread.

Source
Try it yourself.

Traditional French Vegan Yule Log

The Chocolate Yule log is naturally vegetarian but with a few minor ingredient changes you can make this dessert Vegan friendly. A soya milk product, known as cooking cream, is ideal towards preparing a ganache. Thick ‘non-dairy’ butter icing made with organic 70% cocoa solids is drag-forked to give the bark effect. A beautiful, perfect pudding if ever there was one.

Source
Try it yourself.

Vegetarian Sherry Trifle

Never one to follow the trend, I still serve a boozy trifle or sherry trifle at Christmas. It’s traditional after all. The poor sherry trifle is regularly scorned by television chefs for being a kitsch thing of the 1970s and 80s but what do they know? Lashings of a good medium sherry are ideal and using a non-gelatine based setting agent for the jelly allows you to serve it to all your guests with aplomb.

Source
Try it yourself.

Dark Gingerbread Pear Cake with Homemade Cinnamon Whipped Cream
Gingerbread is typically seasonal and often used as a snack with a steaming cup of hot coffee. For a dessert, the following tweaks make it lip smackingly gorgeous. Adding ripe pear to the mix prior to cooking then adding a dash of cinnamon to some whipped cream, combine to deliver a new vibrancy to an old favourite.

Source
Try it yourself.

And finally…

Vegetarian Christmas Pudding
The archetypal seasonal dessert is of course the Christmas Pudding. This stomach filling, briefly disabling afters is often used to round off the meal. Using vegetable suet makes it ideal for those avoiding meaty produce and also helps to lower the amount of saturated fat present. Not that many people will be watching their waistline or calorie counting on the day of course!

Source
Try it yourself.