When I said we were Dickensian about Christmas, that definitely includes the food! Christmas Eve dinner is an extended family affair, with everyone bringing something for the table, so that no one host has to bear the whole cost. Being Australians, it is always outdoors and there is always a BBQ being fired up. We leave the chop and sausage buring to the menfolk – they do love it so!
With everyone contributing, the cost is kept down, but when it comes to preparation, some things are best left to the experts. Lana’s potato salad, Mags’ rum truffles and my old fashioned figgy pudding are never interfered with. One year, when Mags and her family couldn’t attend, I tried my hand at rum truffles. The groans of disappointment were stifled to spare my feelings, but I still heard them. Never again. From now on, if the cook isn’t present, we go without the dish.
Like presents, we do some planning ahead, by buying and storing pickled, canned and packaged items when they are on special throughout the year. Some of our family have joined those Christmas schmes where you pay a small installment through the year and receive cartons of food and presents at Christmas. They swear by them, even though it seems to me that you end up paying more. But the girls say it is worth it because they don’t have to face the expense of buying Christmas food at the last minute.
In Ausralia, turkey isn’t as popular or essential as a large smoked ham. Because of the heat, we prefer lighter meals. But we do have roast chicken, lamb or pork as the main meal on Christmas day. It is quicker and easier to cook than a turkey, and can be cooked ahead and eaten cold if the weather is really steamy. Salads form the bulk of the vegetables, although roast potato and pumpkin are never refused for the main meal.
Those of use who grow vegetables always have something for the table on Christmas day. Even in colder climes, vegetables can be grown indoors in pots, or in a greenhouse, so it is worth considering wherever you are. We have grown vegetables on tiny balconies. I’m a strong believer in doing away with the water wasteful suburban lawn and replacing it with vegetable garden beds. These still require watering, of course, but it is less wasteful, and the rest of the garden should be planted with plants native to the area, so they can pretty much be ignored.
Once upon a time it was common for householders to grow their own vegetables, and contribute to their own table. My English grandmother regularly saved leftovers for the local pigman to feed to his pigs and those who contributed in this way always got a flitch of bacon for Christmas.
Today we can use vegetable waste for compost, recycle bottles to make our own ginger beer and lemonade, and jars to make our own preserves when there is a fruit glut. Country people in my area still do this – at the charity shop, we hand out clean used jars to those preserving their own fruits and vegetables.
Here are a couple of our Christmas recipes:
My Figgy Pudding
Ingredients:
2 cups chopped dried dates
2 cups chopped dried figs
Thinly pared rind of one large lemon and one large orange, plus the squeezed juices
A handful glace cherries
1 tablespoon mixed spice (not allspice)
2 cups self raising flour
3 eggs
1/2 cup treacle (molasses)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup melted butter.
Mix fruits, juices and peel with treacle and leave stand while you prepare the dry ingredients. Mix flour. mixed spice (as much as you want, I like lots!) and sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the center. Crack in the eggs, add cream and melted butter. Beat the ingredients in the center of the mixture, working in the flour, spice and sugar until it is well blended. Add the fruits and treacle and stir well together. You can add silver coins and charms at this stage.
Turn the mixture into a well greased pudding bowl, cover the dish with foil, and place in a steamer or large saucepan with water coming halfway up the side of the pudding bowl. Cover and steam for about 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the the pudding through the foil comes out clean. Serve with brandy custard or cream.
You can also bake this as a cake for about 45 minutes in a moderate oven. Make sure the cake dish is lined to prevent burning. I like to use a bundt ring cake pan so I can decorate the cake like a Christmas wreath.
“We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a happy New Year!”
Ginger Beer
First of all you have to create your ginger beer `plant’. Use a crockpot, jug or jar. Into it put one of those 15g packets of dried yeast, a teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of dried ginger powder and two cups water.
Keep it in a cupboard in the kitchen and every day for a week, feed the plant with 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1 teaspooon ginger.
At the end of the week, strain the mixture and put the liquid into a large clean new five litre plastic bucket. Dissolve three and a quarter cups of white sugar in five cups of boiling water and pour over the ginger liquid in the bucket. Add the juice of a large lemon. Add three litres of cold water and bottle. Store in a very cool place (we use under the house) like a cellar and leave for at least a week. You may get one or two explosions!
The strained leftover stuff from the plant can be divided in half, and used to start two new plants. Ginger beer is the perfect recycling drink!
