Christmas in Clare’s kitchen

Breakfast

A great light breakfast for Christmas day is the sweet potato and tropical fruit salad (page 62) – cook the sweet potato the night before.  The sweet potato makes it substantial enough to keep you going, but not too much given the onslaught that usually happens at lunch time!

Lunch

As a pre-lunch drink, how about trying crystals (page 89) which is an easy drink to make if you’ve made the kaffir lime syrup a day or two beforehand, or perhaps the gin gin (page 95).

Is ham a standard part of your Christmas?  If so, then try the ham with mango salsa on page 180.  If you want to try another type of salsa, check one the other three salsas listed on page 76.  This makes a great starter.

Instructions for cooking a Christmas turkey are one recipe that hit the edit room floor in the fight for space in tropical cuisine, so I suggest referring to Stephanie Alexander’s instructions in The Cooks Companion if you have it.  I have a lovely recipe for white sweet potato stuffing (page 100) to fill your turkey (or bake separately for vegetarian diners), and my Davidson’s plum sauce (page 27) is a great alternative to cranberry sauce.

Or are you thinking seafood for Christmas day?  If so, look at the recipes for barbecued squid with sichuan salt (page 142), scallops in turmeric glaze (page 156), baharat or garlic prawns (page 154), barramundi in wild pepper and cordyline leaves (page 138) or whole baked tropical snapper with triple citrus beurre blanc (page 130).  If you decide to cook your seafood plain, then all the sauces on pages 34 and 35 are brilliant with seafood, and can be offered for guests to sample as they please.

For vegetarians, these sauces are also great on barbecued tofu and vegetables (such as the pineapple and plantain kebabs on page 319).

Whether you’re having turkey, seafood or going completely vegetarian, Christmas day is a great one to have a range of salads to help keep things diverse but light.  For small serve or starter salads, try the daikon, jicama and mango salad and tropical waldorf salad on page 81 or the broccoli, cashew and chevre salad or carrot, black sesame and mandarin salad (substitute orange at this time of year) on page 78.  For bigger salads, go for the crispy noodle salad and Vietnamese coleslaw on page 82, or the longans and shitake mushrooms with soba noodles on page 111.

As a palate refresher and digestive, how about making the papaya sorbet (page 211)?  Great for digestion, and very easy – serve it between main and dessert.

For a light dessert, check out the meringue baskets (page 220) or lychee jelly (page 221), both based around seasonal tropical fruits.  If you want traditional, go for the delicious tropical sago pudding on page 204 and add the rum hard sauce (page 207) as well.  If you are feeding an enormous crowd at any point over Christmas, then check out the tropicana trifle (page 228) which will feed about 20 people – make sure you are prepared as you need to start a day or two prior.

And can I say for those of you who haven’t tried them, that the local cheeses made by Mungalli Dairy, Gallo Dairy and Vanella Cheese make for a great cheese platter to dip into in the days following when no one wants to cook!

Dinner

Wow, do you eat dinner on Christmas day!  We’ve always overindulged too much at lunch, but if you keep your main meal until evening then just follow some of the lunch suggestions.

Boxing Day

The joy of eating scraps – easy, minimal fuss compared to the day before, mostly straight out of the fridge.  If you want to make something to put under or wrap around your scraps of meat, seafood and salads, try the rice paper rolls (page 70) or coconut and tapioca pancakes (page 61) which are great with either sweet or savoury fillings.  Coconut flour can be bought online or from food co-ops or health food stores.

I hope that gives you some ideas to work with in your planning, either for Christmas day or the remaining days of the Christmas period.