Eat Pip-Life

What We Ate (And Drank) On Christmas Day…

December 29, 2015

 

Christmas Day food is my favourite, but I really like eating it on Boxing Day, rather than Christmas Day, if that makes sense.

While I like the pomp and ceremony of the 25th, I love the 26th. It is my favourite festive day. I love the feeling that the pressure is off, that you can just slug about, that you don’t have to do anything for anyone. Perhaps you do too?

This year Boxing Day brought the rain, so we woke up to a much cooler day and the comfort of rainy day sounds and smells. Nice, right?

Another thing I love about Boxing Day is eating leftovers. Everything tastes better when it’s had some time for the flavours to develop. And everything tastes better when you can wear your pyjamas all day and be a bit messy and slow things right down. AND you can have everything wodged atop a bit of toast. PERF.

Our Christmas food was really yummy this year. Here is what we made…

christmas starters christmas lunch

 

Starters
Flash fried squid with homemade hot sauce and homemade aioli
Bruschetta  with two toppings – 1) garlicky white bean puree and 2) tomato and basil

Main – served buffet style
Herby and smoked paprika-y roasted eye fillet – recipe here
Braised, spatchcocked turkey – recipe here
Ham with many mustards

Grilled vegetables with herb vinaigrette and goats cheese
Garlicky potato salad – recipe here
Red salad of beetroot and red cabbage – recipe here

Dessert
Homemade orange sorbet – recipe here
Homemade raspberry sorbet
Homemade nougat ice cream
White chocolate sauce

Drinks
Margaritas
Asahi
Champagne
Soft drink

Pretty plates
The lunch ones are by Nathalie Lete (not sure you can get them anymore) and the dessert ones are these.

plate up dessert

christmas dessert

 

The dessert was inspired by a dish that Stephanie Alexander used to make. Her version was exquisite – a white chocolate half egg shape, filled with nougat ice cream and a cumquat sorbet ‘yolk’. Amazing.

OUR dessert was super delicious too – obviously not in the Stephanie’s realm – but amazingly good! I improvised the nougat ice cream and raspberry sorbet. I will make those again and share the recipes here FOR SURE.

We loved the bruschetta and it was a great way to start. Rin made those. I could eat them every day. Even the pickiest eaters loved the white bean version, so that was a total win.

The salads were REALLY good. I am making those again. Yum. I loved them.

The turkey (it was on the smallish side, granted) took just an hour to cook because it was roasted flat on a bed of vegetables (lots of fennel, apple, cider and carrots). It was good, but maybe a bit too aniseed-y for me. Maybe less fennel if you don’t fancy that flavour – or no fennel, even? That’d work too.

We rarely (if ever) have eye fillet, but Rin loves it, so we thought we’d give it a go. It was delicious. Max said it tasted like burritos, but he meant it in a good way. I think he’s used to chewing his meat. Eye fillet is not like the other meats.

Right now there is a little bit of ham left and a couple of spoonfuls of sorbet. I sent half the leftovers home with the kids who are not living here – and some with a friend who dropped by on Boxing Day – the rest we have pretty much eaten. Well. We did give some turkey and ham to the cat we are cat-sitting, but apart from that we pretty much polished everything off.

I think this means we made the right things and the right amount of things. Phew.

What did you eat on Christmas Day? Do you love Boxing Day THE MOST?!

pip signature

PS: Rin is my eldest kid and she’s nearly 28 (sometimes people tell me I should explain these things, so I am!)

8 Comments

  • Reply Lauren Blakeney August 3, 2017 at 9:03 PM

    I love those plates! But they don’t sell Nathalie Lette plates like that anymore 🙁 But please do post cute plate finds – I need some pretty plates (plain white = boring).

  • Reply Shan@FortyUp January 2, 2016 at 12:25 AM

    Super impressed you got pics of your food!! At our place it’s no sooner on the table than its being consumed!! 😉

  • Reply Madeline January 1, 2016 at 9:21 PM

    Yummy looking food, (and I have serious plate envy!)
    I am a bit of a fan of Boxing Day and the post Christmas slow down. Don’t get me wrong I like all the Christmas prep but it can get a bit crazy.
    We have our main Christmas feast on Christmas Eve, so no cookathon on Christmas Day, but a relaxed get together with friends on the evening
    xx

  • Reply Katie Rainbird December 30, 2015 at 11:56 PM

    I totally dig non-traditional fare at Christmas. It’s both easier and much yummier in my opinion. I’m up for Christmas Burritos, sure – why not?
    This year was a bit sucky, but I’m trying not to let it get me down because I know why it was sucky and none of it is because I suck. HA! Next year we are already dreaming of taking our little family of four out for a fancy pants beachfront restaurant lunch and just doing small catch ups either side. NICE.

  • Reply Carly Findlay December 29, 2015 at 8:36 PM

    This feast looks delicious.
    Yum! Thank you for sharing.
    We had a community Christmas lunch – enjoying the meal cooked by the TAFE chef – the volunteers’ table was cheery. And then at home, I made buttered mushrooms. Beans and feta. Rachel Khoo’s cauli and bacon salad, and we had these things with Hammond chicken.

  • Reply Kizzy December 29, 2015 at 7:03 PM

    This all sounds delicious, we had the usually British Christmas dinner of roast turkey and veg but always have a picky meal for the next few days. Wil bookmark this for future reference for the recipes

  • Reply PatrickC December 29, 2015 at 3:21 PM

    That looks fantastic Pip. The one thing that looked extra appetising to me was the salad with what looks like eggplant. I love eggplant. My kids came for a visit in the morning so this year I had my first solo Christmas lunch and afternoon. I roasted a piece of pork forequarter and some vegies and a small salad. just enough to not be overfilling. Then I spent the day just trying to stay cool in the stifling heat, keeping my dogs cool and looking forward to boxing day. The 2am storm and rain was most welcome. I woke and opened up all the house and let the cleaning smell of the rain and the breezes cool the house. I sat on my back verandah for an hour or so to just feel the fresh air and reassure my older dog who doesn’t like storms. All in it was an okay day.

  • Reply Jane @ Shady Baker December 29, 2015 at 10:52 AM

    This all looks incredibly bright, fresh and delicious Pip! Love your photos and your menu. For lunch we ate Kylie Kwong inspired duck with citrus sauce, a Thai prawn salad and a potato, tomato and basil bake. For dinner we ate oysters with Tabasco and lemon juice on the bank of a dam while we watched the full moon rise. I love Boxing Day too…especially with a cheeky glass of wine at lunch time and a piece of smoked salmon on toast x

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