Every Christmas Brits eat about four million Brussels sprouts, ten million turkeys and 25 million Christmas puddings. It's no surprise, then, that some like to try something a little bit different when the time comes to cook the Christmas feast.
Luckily, there are lots of websites and online groups, such as the
Schwartz cooking club, that feature lots of ideas for an exciting, different menu this year.
Seafood
Most traditional Christmas dinners in the UK feature fowl, vegetables and game, but they do not include much seafood. This is somewhat unfortunate, since the UK has access to some of the richest reserves of fish in the seas. Moreover, many seafood dishes can be simple to prepare.
Some Christmas dinners in France feature an oyster starter, where the oysters are eaten on rye bread with lemon juice or shallot vinegar. This is not a complicated dish, since the constituent parts of the dish can be bought ready to eat.
Oysters can be somewhat controversial, however, so you might prefer to serve smoked salmon on blinis. Again, the parts of this dish can be bought ready to eat, meaning you can simply assemble when ready to serve.
As an alternative to a meat main course, you might consider serving fresh lobster. Simply steamed and served with melted butter, lobster is a unique and impressive alternative to turkey.
International cuisine
You may prefer to look further abroad for inspiration. Many people like to make things like egg rolls to serve with Christmas dinner. Egg rolls might seem a bit intimidating to make by hand, but it isn't as hard as it looks. After cooking the filling of your choice and letting it cool, you spoon a small amount into an egg roll wrap, roll it up and seal it with a corn starch glue. You then deep fry the rolls in a wok and serve.
Green bean casserole is a feature of many American Christmas dinners. The main ingredients are cooked green beans, cream of mushroom soup and a fried onion topping. It may seem a bit unusual, but it is a real crowd pleaser.
For a main dish, you can try tourtière, a French Canadian meat pie. There is no one authentic recipe, as each family make their tourtière slightly differently, but on the plus side it can be made in advance, which takes some of the stress out of the preparation of Christmas dinner.
Traditional with a Twist
If those ideas seem a little too different, you could consider making traditional dishes with a slight twist. For example, you could make a coffee chipotle sauce to go with your roast, whether it's lamb, turkey or beef. The sauce is inspired by a South American mole, and its spiciness and slight sweetness complement almost every variety of meat.
You could also try serving a less traditional meat. Game hens and venison are both popular Christmas dishes in France. Game hens are small fowl that can be cooked like goose or turkey, though one hen serves one person, so you will have to adjust temperatures and cooking times when cooking several at once.
Venison, meanwhile, can be handled and cooked like beef or lamb, but boasts a distinctly gamey taste. It should be cooked simply to allow the distinctive flavour to shine, and clubs like the
Schwartz cooking club have many recipes and ideas for beef and lamb that can be modified for venison.
For pudding, you might consider rainbow jelly. You can find recipes for different flavours of jelly online, or you could use food colouring to make the rainbow colours. The most difficult thing about this recipe is the time it takes: you have to make the bottom colour first and allow it to set in your refrigerator for four hours before adding the next layer. This can take more than two days, depending on how many coloured layers you want to have. It takes a long time, but the results are amazingly impressive, especially if you are entertaining children on Christmas day.
These new recipe ideas should inspire you to try something different, but there are more
Christmas Recipes online. With so many options, there really is no reason not to try something new this year.