Christmas Food & Recipes

If you are spending Christmas on the Costa del Sol but still want to enjoy a Christmas lunch on the 25th in a hotel or restaurant, in a typically British or other European style of cooking, this will not be too difficult. But if you are in a small village inland or in one of the towns or cities back from the coast, you will be able to enjoy the local specialities of the season, often including game, lamb and other dishes. Many traditional Andalusian restaurants and bars may be closed on the 25th, so it would be best to find out and book up in advance for a Christmas Eve dinner. It is also important to be aware that the prices charged on this special day of the year for eating out are usually much higher than normal, so if you are on a budget, it is best to check on the expected price while booking.

As regards Christmas decorations, the Nativity Scene is the centre of the Andalusian home, school, church and many commercial establishments - rather than the Christmas tree that many of us are used to from colder countries. However, real and artificial trees are becoming more in evidence now, showing the northern influence once again. Main Andalusian cities, such as Malaga now set up a huge Christmas tree in the main square, the Plaza de la Constitución, where locals and visitors enjoy the festive atmosphere while out shopping and socialising.

On the lead up to Christmas in the shops and supermarkets you will see many of the traditional seasonal foods on display. Particularly popular in the range of packaged sweets are polvorones and mantecados (small sweets/biscuits), marzipan and many different types of turrón (nougat). Normally you will see this on sale in pastlerías (cake shops) as well as in supermarkets and smaller and specialist food shops. The village of Estepa is renoun for the best polvorones.

Most of the polvorones and mantecados are manufactured the village of Estepa, about 100 kilometres from Seville. Although many years ago, these would be made at home, most people now buy them in large boxes of individually wrapped sweets. Traditionally the main ingredients are lard, sugar and flour. From this basic recipe are added different flavours, such as anise, cinnamon and sometimes wine. They are very popular and very much a part of Christmas, but certainly not a particularly good bet for the weight watchers.

The marzipan comes in tempting and dangerously delicious bite-size pieces, in regular and sometimes in moulded shapes for variety. The wonderful turron, or nougat, is another of the representative foods of Christmas and, like the other sweets, it is often placed as the central display of shops and supermarkets on the lead up to the 24th and also right up to King's day on the 6th January, after which you will have to hunt for them or go to special shops to seek them out later in the year. Turron has a fairly long shelf life, so if you really love it, buy some and keep it to enjoy well into the New Year.

If you want to enjoy a typically Andalusian Christmas, you may be able to have your turkey and eat it, so to speak. The main dish in many Andalusian homes is usually'Pavo Navideño' (Christmas Turkey). Although it may not be quite like the roast turkey you make at home, there are many variations on the way it is prepared in Andalusia. Below is just one of the many recipes used.

about of Christmas Food

• A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.
• An old wives' tale says that bread baked on Christmas Eve will never go mouldy.
• At Christmas, Ukrainians prepare a traditional twelve-course meal. A family's youngest child watches through the window for the evening star to appear, a signal that the feast can begin.
• At lavish Christmas feasts in the Middle Ages, swans and peacocks were sometimes served "endored." This meant the flesh was painted with saffron dissolved in melted butter. In addition to their painted flesh, endored birds were served wrapped in their own skin and feathers, which had been removed and set aside prior to roasting.
• Christmas pudding - This was originally a type of porridge called frumenty, but more and more ingredients got added through the years.
• Christmas pudding should be stirred from east to west.
• Christmas pudding was first made as a kind of soup with raisins and wine in it.
• If travelling in France during the Christmas season, it is interesting to note that different dishes and dining traditions reign in popularity in different parts of the country. In south France, for instance, a Christmas loaf (pain calendeau) is cut crosswise and is eaten only after the first part has been given to a poor person. In Brittany, buckwheat cakes and sour cream is the most popular main dish. In Alsace, a roasted goose is the preferred entrée. In Burgundy, turkey and chestnuts are favored. In the Paris region, oysters are the favorite holiday dish, followed by a cake shaped like a Yule log.
• In Armenia, the traditional Christmas Eve meal consists of fried fish, lettuce, and spinach. The meal is traditionally eaten after the Christmas Eve service, in commemoration of the supper eaten by Mary on the evening before Christ's birth.
• In Britain, eating mince pies at Christmas dates back to the 16th century. It is still believed that to eat a mince pie on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas will bring 12 happy months in the year to follow.
• In Victorian England, turkeys were popular for Christmas dinners. Some of the birds were raised in Norfolk, and taken to market in London. To get them to London, the turkeys were supplied with boots made of sacking or leather. The turkeys were walked to market. The boots protected their feet from the frozen mud of the road. Boots were not used for geese: instead, their feet were protected with a covering of tar.
• It is estimated that approximately 400,000 people become sick each year from eating tainted Christmas leftovers.
• It was the custom to eat goose at Christmas until Henry VIII decided to tuck into a turkey. 93 per cent of the population in the UK will eat turkey on Christmas Day; this means 11million turkeys being cooked!
• Mince pies - You should eat mince pies in silence, and make a wish with each one.
• The Christmas turkey first appeared on English tables in the 16th century, but didn't immediately replace the traditional fare of goose, beef or boar's head in the rich households.
• The Christmas turkey was imported to France by the Jesuits and it is still known in some French dialects as a 'Jesuite'.

Christmas Food & Drink

Food and drink have always been part of the Christmas celebrations, as well as the Winter Solstice festivals. One of the oldest traditions at Christmas time is the "wassail bowl". Wassail is a toast comes from the Saxon phrase "wes hal" meaning good health or be whole. It was not uncommon for the wassail bowl to be as big as a cauldron. It was filled with a mixture of cider, brandy, ale, spices and drunk hot. In fact the wassail bowl was hung over a burning Yule log and the contents kept warm in this way. An age-old brew of the wassail bowl is a punch called "Lambswool", made of ale, roasted apples, sugar or honey, eggs cream and pieces of toasted bread. These days our choice of alcohol is wide and varied. Some Christmas favourites are mulled wine and egg nog.

Today the traditional Christmas meal is varied and may include amongst others Roast Ham, Roast Beef, Roast Pork and of course the very popular Roast Turkey. Turkey is a newcomer to the Christmas table and only made their way to Europe from North America in about 1650. Prior to turkey, traditional Christmas fare included roast swan,goose, capons, pheasants and peacocks. Considered a special treat was a roast boar's head decorated with holly and a fruit, usually an apple stuck in its mouth!

Today these roasted meats are usually served with seasonal vegetables and a variety of fruit sauces ranging from apple, prunes and apricots to cranberries however until about 100 years ago one of the best-known Christmas dishes, which accompanied roasted meat was frumenty. Frumenty was a made with grains of wheat, boiled up into a broth added to which were crushed almonds, milk and egg yolks. It was sometimes eaten with honey on Christmas morning but usually as sauce served with mutton or venison. Plum porridge or plum pottage is derived from frumenty and was essentially a thick soup made by boiling up portions of beef or mutton with dried prunes or plums, raisins, currants, bread crumbs and seasoned with spices and wine.

Today's traditional Christmas pudding is derived from frumenty and plum pudding. Christmas pudding (also called plum pudding, although it contains no plums at all) is another Christmas menu newcomer. It is steam-cooked in a cloth, giving it a large round shape. Christmas pudding is traditionally made on "Stir-up Sunday" at the beginning of Advent. To be made correctly the pudding should be stirred from east to west in honour of the three wise men. Each family member should give the pudding a stir and make a secret wish. Traditional mince pies were made with minced meat and were shaped like a crib and were decorated with a tiny pastry baby Jesus. Today mince pies contain a sweet fruit filling.