It’s that time of the year to start planning your Christmas meal and, happily, this year the entertaining trend is all about friends, family and fun – the décor and formalities are strictly secondary!
Karen Short, the food and style guru who founded By Word of Mouth Caterers, says there’s a world-wide trend towards less formal dining and entertaining and this translates into a focus on family and creating memorable moments that include everyone.
“We used to live in a world where adults and children ate separately. Christmas dinner meant adults at one, beautifully decorated, table and children at another – with crackers and party hats the only decoration.
“Christmas 2013 is the year to mix it up – put everyone together at the same, gorgeous table for an unforgettable feast and remember that for the lucky ones amongst us, family is what the festive season is all about.”
It’s also important to introduce your children to the various Christmas flavours at an early age, and not fob them off with a lesser meal until their taste buds have developed.
“If you don’t want your children to live on a diet of chicken nuggets and fish fingers, then allow them to eat with you from an early age – and that starts at the Christmas table!”
Karen, who attends several catering conferences around the world each year, says that Christmas décor never changes.
“Red, green and gold will always be the favourites but in South Africa we will always find a way to interpret this for our climate and lifestyle. This year I’m going to be focusing on berries on my Christmas table – we have such abundant fruit in this country and a table decorated with red berries gives a lovely festive feel.”
Add your own style with either contemporary or classic table ware and don’t forget the crackers, toys and sweet snacks to keep the young children entertained.
Karen suggests two menus for Christmas this year, depending on whether you are celebrating on Christmas eve or Christmas day. And while the preparation of these menus sounds brutal, half the fun is in the cooking. Prepare as much as possible before hand then get friends and family involved in the final touches. You’ll find that putting Christmas dinner together may very well become more fun than the meal itself.
Go traditional on Christmas eve:
For starters: Kick off the evening with a champagne cocktail accompanied by a handful of warm spiced nuts, followed by a Christmas tomato or beetroot tart topped with a micro leaf salad and served with a balsamic, cranberry reduction
For mains: Follow this with a warm aromatic gammon, a roasted stuffed turkey, cranberry and bread sauce and rich gravy. For sides, serve bacon-wrapped chipolatas, maple roasted vegetables with chestnuts plus decadent roasted potatoes and butternut in goose fat.
Dessert: To top it all, end off with homemade mince pies and brandy butter
chocolate Christams yule logs filled with white chocolate mousse and a Christmas ice cream bomb served with eggnog cream.
Keep it light on Christmas day:
For starters: a beetroot, apple, gorgonzola salad stack served with cinnamon caramelized pecans and rocket
For mains: A decadent buffet consisting of a glazed Christmas gammon with a kumquat preserve and sweet mustard, a rolled turkey galantine, a prawn and papaya salad, a strawberry and peanut brittle salad, a chilli lime sweet potato salad and a roasted butternut and avo salad
Dessert: floretines, red and white macaroons, christamas pannacotta, Christamas cup cakes for the kids, brownie towers , strawberry snowmen and large Christmas sundaes
And finally, some fun ideas for entertaining the kids at the Christmas table:
Cookie fun: Make noughts and crosses cookies and the kids can play and snack at the same time.
Last minute letters: For those who’ve forgotten to write to Father Christmas, create fun letters for the kids to fill in or colour in at the table. You can even build a post box at the door for them to post the letters before they go to bed.
Puzzles: Be prepared and source some mini Christmas jigsaw puzzles to place in front of the children. A prize for the one who completes their puzzle first.
Puppet show: Make or source Christmas finger puppets. At some time during your Christmas meal, ask the kids to do a puppet show for the adults.
Put powder at the end of athe passage so that the kids can see Father Christmas’s footprints, remember to put out a snack for father Christmas as well as the reindeers.
For more information, go to www.bywordofmouth.co.za, visit their facebook page or call 011-553-7600
