Favorite Holiday Foods/Dishes/Preparations

[EagerBeaver]

So I am invited to a pot luck Christmas dinner in which all invited guests have to bring a dish of their own creation, or else of somebody else's own creation. I am once again bringing my own special hot crab and horseradish dip, which will be served with Melba Toasts. My dip is quite famous within the small circle of friends and family who have been privileged to try it; I have been asked to market it to local retailers, but I don't have the time plus I am not in the culinary business and don't want to compete with those who are. I might let my cousin in law who is in the biz run with my recipe if he agrees to share profits, but that is a conversation still to be had.

What are your favorite holiday dishes to prepare/eat?

 

[hungry101]

I like to stuff a turkey. I am quite good at it. I can share the details if you like. Comes out nice and moist and savory. Sorry about all the innuendos but I am serious and I do this twice a year. Yes, it is sort of like going to Montreal but I am talking about cuisine. Girls, PM me for my recipe. LOL...guys too. Really, I am talking about stuffing a turkey and making a tender bird using a roasting pan and a greased paper bag. Want to know more?

 

[EagerBeaver]

Do you use a mushroom or sausage stuffing? I prefer one or the other.

 

[hungry101]

No....more traditional. The secret is I brine the turkey overnight in Salt water. Useabout a 1/3 of those big Morton Salt containers in a 5-gallon bucket. Disperse the salt and then add the thawed turkey the night before. I let it soak in that water over night and then pad it dry (make sure you remove the neck and cleaned out the cavity prior to brining. Also, use cold water and keep the turkey cold.) After removing from the brine, I carefully pull back the skin just enough so that I can spread a mixture of olive oil and fresh spices and seasoning over the bird. Then I do the same on the outside of the bird.

Meanwhile, I cut up a quality Italian bread. I use olive oil and real butter in a pan and saute about a half a bunch of celery and a half onion with a little garlic. I use salt and pepper and all the same poultry spices in the saute. I add this to the bowl with one diced loaf of bread and then I mix it all together. I add a little chicken broth so that I don't have to use so much butter.

Next I take a brown paper grocery bag and I cut out the side. I grease the inside and outside of the bag with cooking oil (you can use any edible oil such as corn oil ) until the bag is imbibed in the oil. I maneuver the turkey in the bag and make sure the turkey is completely covered. Cook at 325F and do not cook too long. I put a thermometer in the turkey through the bird when we are close to finishing time. Pull it out when it is about 160F and let it stand inside the bag for 30 minutes before you cut it. It will cook some on the table. Last time I pulled it out at 165F as is recommended by all CYA articles and it was a little less moist than usual.

 

[westwoody]

My dip is quite famous

Beaver Juice mmmmm!

I love Nanaimo bars.

 

[EagerBeaver]

No....more traditional. The secret is I brine the turkey overnight in Salt water. Useabout a 1/3 of those big Morton Salt containers in a 5-gallon bucket. Disperse the salt and then add the thawed turkey the night before. I let it soak in that water over night and then pad it dry (make sure you remove the neck and cleaned out the cavity prior to brining. Also, use cold water and keep the turkey cold.) After removing from the brine, I carefully pull back the skin just enough so that I can spread a mixture of olive oil and fresh spices and seasoning over the bird. Then I do the same on the outside of the bird.

Meanwhile, I cut up a quality Italian bread. I use olive oil and real butter in a pan and saute about a half a bunch of celery and a half onion with a little garlic. I use salt and pepper and all the same poultry spices in the saute. I add this to the bowl with one diced loaf of bread and then I mix it all together. I add a little chicken broth so that I don't have to use so much butter.

Next I take a brown paper grocery bag and I cut out the side. I grease the inside and outside of the bag with cooking oil (you can use any edible oil such as corn oil ) until the bag is imbibed in the oil. I maneuver the turkey in the bag and make sure the turkey is completely covered. Cook at 325F and do not cook too long. I put a thermometer in the turkey through the bird when we are close to finishing time. Pull it out when it is about 160F and let it stand inside the bag for 30 minutes before you cut it. It will cook some on the table. Last time I pulled it out at 165F as is recommended by all CYA articles and it was a little less moist than usual.

That sounds really good. I personally like the taste of turkey, but my father does not. He prefers to stuff and bake a chicken on Christmas. He only eats Turkey on Thanksgiving.

The pot luck dinner I am going to may or may not involve turkey. The plan is for the 6 invitees to each prepare their own specialty side dish or appetizer and then we will order takeout. This is done by a democratic vote. Right now we have 2 votes for takeout Chinese and 1 for takeout Turkey and the other 3 votes are not in yet. There are restaurants open in our area to accommodate. About 5 years ago with this same group we did a Chinese Italian Christmas consisting of a tray of baked lasagna and then a variety of Chinese takeout which included Szechuan Dumplings, General Tso'a chicken, Double Cooked Pork and Dried Spicy Szechuan Beef. It was all very good.

 

[jalimon]

Cooked my first Turkey last year. Will read your post back Hungry as it's sound you have a great technique there.

For pot luck I always bring this dip: https://www.ricardocuisine.com/en/recipes/4399-warm-artichoke-dip (to wich you can also add crab).

If I need to bring something more fancy I will usually bring a fish and seafood soup. That is the easiest meal on earth to do, and so tasty! I have my own recipe, in my head Could write it down if someone interested.

Cheers,

p.s. The girls reading this post about a bunch of guys sharing recipe must be thinking why in hell we are still single

 

[EagerBeaver]

Jalimon,

When I was a younger guy and I ate more indiscriminately than I do now, I cooked many wonderful things including tomato sauce with Meatballs for pasta. I now watch what I eat pretty carefully except around the holidays. I used to consume large amounts of pastas and other processed carbs, but processed carbs these days have mostly disappeared from my diet.

Another thing I always ate around the holidays, because my now long deceased Grandma cooked them, were Bourbon Balls. She made these balls out of chopped nuts, some kind of batter and Bourbon. I don't think she cooked them she just formed them into small balls less than an inch in diameter and they were stored in cookie tins. I asked around with the girls in the office but nobody knows anyone who makes Bourbon Balls. I loved my Grandma's Bourbon Balls.

My father is of Eastern European descent and he always adhered to the traditions of making poppyseed and prune pastries. I liked the prune more than the poppyseed.

Another tradition at Christmas Eve was Sledz. The Eastern Europeans here will know what I mean. This is a dish that has pickled herring mixed with sour cream and onions and other ingredients. It looks like a soup. My Grandpa would pick up a big bowl of Sledz with both hands and drink up the juice. I never liked Sledz and it grossed me out to watch Grandpa do that. He was not a cultured or educated man but was a good and hard working guy. Probably had the best work ethic of anyone in the family.

 

[jalimon]

EB I think I would have like that soup Sledz. I love traditionnal food. In all my travel I always eat local food. I too watch out on what I eat. I do eat much less and often skip meals. So say it's bad but it works fine for me.

Cheers,

 

[jalimon]

While talking about Turkey...

You anglophone should find interesting that in french we say "fourrer la dinde", which literaly means "stuff the turkey". But we also use the word "fourrer" as to "fuck". So "fuck a girl" can be said as "fourrer une fille".

But it's not over because we also called a "dinde" a stupid girl. As in "quel dinde cette fille", which means "what a stupid girl". So basically it's possible for us frenchman to "fourrer la dinde" (stuff the turkey) without even going to the grocery store

Cheers,

 

[EagerBeaver]

EB I think I would have like that soup Sledz. I love traditionnal food. In all my travel I always eat local food. I too watch out on what I eat. I do eat much less and often skip meals. So say it's bad but it works fine for me.

Cheers,

It looked like a soup with white creamy broth but wasn't. Sledz is basically a Polish style pickled herring. My Grandfather ate it as though it were a soup but others at the dinner table ate the fish (cut up in chunks with skin and bones still on) and not the brine. My Grandfather would eat the fish and then drink the brine two handed with bowl raised to his mouth. I personally don't like Sledz and I don't like other types of pickled herring.

There is a Polish restaurant in Old Montreal called Stash Cafe which has Sledz on their menu.

It is pronounced SLEDGE-AH

 

[ssj3]

Anyone ever tried deep fried turkey? I really want to try it some day..heard it's quite delicious

 

[jalimon]

It looked like a soup with white creamy broth but wasn't. Sledz is basically a Polish style pickled herring. My Grandfather ate it as though it were a soup but others at the dinner table ate the fish (cut up in chunks with skin and bones still on) and not the brine. My Grandfather would eat the fish and then drink the brine two handed with bowl raised to his mouth. I personally don't like Sledz and I don't like other types of pickled herring.

There is a Polish restaurant in Old Montreal called Stash Cafe which has Sledz on their menu.

It is pronounced SLEDGE-AH

One of my employee is Polish. I just asked her what it was and her face went "Pouach!" But she did say it's a tradition to eat it around Christmas, and that her father like it

Cheers,

 

[EagerBeaver]

Attached is a recipe for Kentucky Bourbon Balls which I think are fairly close to what I remember Grandma making:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/176961/kentucky-bourbon-balls/

 

[EagerBeaver]

Anyone ever tried deep fried turkey? I really want to try it some day..heard it's quite delicious

I never tried it either but my cousin has made them, says they are very good and they can be cooked more quickly.

 

[talkinghead]

No....more traditional. The secret is I brine the turkey overnight in Salt water. Useabout a 1/3 of those big Morton Salt containers in a 5-gallon bucket. Disperse the salt and then add the thawed turkey the night before. I let it soak in that water over night and then pad it dry (make sure you remove the neck and cleaned out the cavity prior to brining. Also, use cold water and keep the turkey cold.) After removing from the brine, I carefully pull back the skin just enough so that I can spread a mixture of olive oil and fresh spices and seasoning over the bird. Then I do the same on the outside of the bird.

Meanwhile, I cut up a quality Italian bread. I use olive oil and real butter in a pan and saute about a half a bunch of celery and a half onion with a little garlic. I use salt and pepper and all the same poultry spices in the saute. I add this to the bowl with one diced loaf of bread and then I mix it all together. I add a little chicken broth so that I don't have to use so much butter.

Next I take a brown paper grocery bag and I cut out the side. I grease the inside and outside of the bag with cooking oil (you can use any edible oil such as corn oil ) until the bag is imbibed in the oil. I maneuver the turkey in the bag and make sure the turkey is completely covered. Cook at 325F and do not cook too long. I put a thermometer in the turkey through the bird when we are close to finishing time. Pull it out when it is about 160F and let it stand inside the bag for 30 minutes before you cut it. It will cook some on the table. Last time I pulled it out at 165F as is recommended by all CYA articles and it was a little less moist than usual.

That sounds delicious. I do bbq (low and slow) and I've read about brining poultry but I've never tried it. What does it do? Does it affect the texture of the skin? Does it act as a marinade or, with the salt, bring out the flavor of the bird?

 

[EagerBeaver]

That sounds delicious. I do bbq (low and slow) and I've read about brining poultry but I've never tried it. What does it do? Does it affect the texture of the skin? Does it act as a marinade or, with the salt, bring out the flavor of the bird?

Yes, it adds flavor and makes the meat tender and moist, more on that here:

http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/cooking-tips/article/how-to-brine-chicken

I strongly recommend brining pork chops before cooking them as well, it really tenderizes them.

 

[blkone]

Would you be interested in some vegan ideas? Or...

Would you be interested in a trade agreement with England? (some people may get that one).

 

[peacemaker88]

Being from a big Chinese family, we would hit an an old school Chinese restaurant on Christmas eve. The restaurant would be packed with other like minded Chinese families. My parents would order full three course peking duck, steamed whole fish, Cantonese lobster, salt and pepper seafood, sauteed snowpea leaves in garlic and other delicious succulent Chinese dishes. I really miss those meals and moments with my parents passing.

 

[EagerBeaver]

I love Peking Duck, although hard to find a restaurant to cook one as it should be.