What do you gobble up when you’re tired of turkey? Christmas might be the jolliest time of the year, but let’s be honest- it’s also one of the most predictable. While turkey with all the trimmings is a well-loved tradition, there’s no reason you can’t spice your Christmas up with something different this year.
After all, what fun is slaving over a big family meal if you can’t give it a twist of you own? This year, if you’ve had it up to the eyeballs with turkey and Brussels sprouts, you can always veer off onto the path less travelled and try something a little new.
For starters, the Victorians might give us a couple of ideas, despite their apparent turkey-fancying ways. If you can get your hands on it, you might try your hand at a nice roast goose. Smaller than a turkey by far, a medium-sized goose (around 4.5 kilos) will serve six to eight people, making it ideal for anyone not expecting scores of relatives around for lunch. Aside from being a favourite from the past, goose is actually the poultry of choice at many Christmas tables around the world. Anyone who finds turkey to be a little bit on the dull side is bound to be pleasantly surprised by goose too- the bird’s dark meat is more similar in taste to duck, and far juicier than your average turkey.
If you want to steer clear of poultry all together, but don’t want to break the bank by feeding your finest cut of beef to your truckloads of hungry relatives, another great option for you might be pork. Aside from being fatty, juicy and all-round delicious, a nice roast gammon can take up far less time than turkey to prepare, and is easier to carve up when it’s time to eat.
To really bring out the flavour, a honey glaze is generally preferred, along with whole cloves, which should be studded across the top of the joint before roasting. As an alternative to gammon, pork belly is also very popular, and the resulting decadent pork crackling is bound to put a smile on your guests’ faces (albeit at the cost of their waistlines).
Thanks to some deft marketing by KFC in the 1970s, fried chicken became a popular food for the Japanese on December 25
Of course, Christmas traditions are not the same the whole world over. In Malta, many of our traditions bear a distinctly British influence, for obvious reasons. In the most northern reaches of Europe, fish is just as popular a main course for Christmas lunch as turkey is for us. While your family might not be quite ready for the full Swedish pickled herring experience, what better place could there be for a delicious fish dinner than the very heart of the Mediterranean?
Italian-Americans have also adopted a similar culinary tradition on Christmas Eve, celebrating the Feast of the Seven Fishes by serving multiple seafood dishes such as salt cod, octopus salad, eel, and even our beloved lampuki (more commonly known as mahi-mahi or dolphin fish across the pond).
Is fish a little bit too ordinary for you? Alright then, if Christmas is your opportunity to show off your gastronomical repertoire, you can always try something a little more challenging.
Take a leaf out of Gordon Ramsay’s book and prepare a mouth-watering beef wellington (just try to keep the expletives to a minimum when you’re walking in the famous chef’s footsteps). It’s no mean feat to produce a truly delicious wellington, but if you pull it off, this dish will definitely be on your guests’ minds for many years to come. Don’t forget that you’ll need a quality cut of beef fillet to make this delicate dish, so it’s one to avoid for inexperienced cooks, as well as anyone on a strict budget.
But what do you do if everything fails? Don’t worry, you can still have an international Christmas feast for all the family by indulging the Japanese way… order some fried chicken. With less than a 1 per cent Christian population, you can probably guess that Christmas is just not that big a deal in Japan, but thanks to some deft marketing by KFC in the 1970s, fried chicken became a popular food for the Japanese on December 25 and remains so to this day.
And there you have it, you can have the varied Christmas dinner you’ve always dreamed about- so give the turkey a rest this year and see what else you can do.