Traditional Christmas meals in your country?

djordjem87

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I was always curious about this. I have been abroad for two years. I lived in Malta and i found out they only copy British stuff for Christmas. I guess they have few original ones but still too many of English traditional recipes. I would like to hear about original recipes from other countries. I will star with my country.
Traditionally we make old Serbian dishes apart from roasted pork and BBQ.
We make cabbage rolls and spinach rolls, various salads that are prepared in autumn. Usually brine and pickled stuff. Salads are sour cabbage (brine), same goes with bell peppers,etc. We also have traditional pies. Cheese pie and spinach pie are the most popular. And for dessert a cake and some small cookies. We usually drink whatever we have or just what each of us like.
 
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I'm living in Japan right now although not originally from here - and their Christmas tradition is KFC! Truly! Kentucky Fried Chicken is huge here on Christmas Eve, courtesy of some excellent marketing campaign some years back...and now, everyone here just associates Christmas with KFC!
 
I'm living in Japan right now although not originally from here - and their Christmas tradition is KFC! Truly! Kentucky Fried Chicken is huge here on Christmas Eve, courtesy of some excellent marketing campaign some years back...and now, everyone here just associates Christmas with KFC!
Bonkers!
 
I'm living in Japan right now although not originally from here - and their Christmas tradition is KFC! Truly! Kentucky Fried Chicken is huge here on Christmas Eve, courtesy of some excellent marketing campaign some years back...and now, everyone here just associates Christmas with KFC!

Good business for KFC I guess but really a bit odd. It is funny how all these little traditions start. I have never been a fan of KFC so I don't get it. I know around here people for New Year's Eve a lot of people eat Chinese food. Seafood chowder is also popular during the holidays.
 

KFC-Christmas-Tradition.jpg


This is the kind of thing you get - and you even get a collectors plate with a lot of the combo family type meals like this.

I proudly have my 2013 KFC Japan collectors plate... :laugh: I'm not even kidding, I got sucked up in the KFC Christmas hype the first year I was here!
 
That is hilarious...KFC in Japan for Christmas. I don't know anyone who eats KFC for Christmas here, but I suppose there could be some. Ham is tradtional for Christmas in the US,and delicous, but other dishes like Prime Rib, or Brisket...even a Lamb Roast, Pork Roast or Crown of Lamb may be used...Lamb is generally an Easter thing here,,but when I was in the grocery store yesterday looking at the meats...I noticed a Large lamb roast being sold and it was expensive! people just serve whatever side dishes they want with Christmas dinner usually casseroles and such..
 
Ham, turkey, jug jug, Bajan great cake, rice and peas, pork, some sort of stew, macaroni pie, several salad, loads of alcohol, plain cake, sorrel drink and stuffing (and stuff people naturally) to mention a few things that make it the lavish spread.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I am not into the tradition, so maybe the KFC would work for me.
 
We have what we had for Thanksgiving. I'm going to my in-laws and it's all just the same. Ham, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, maybe stuffing, all that good stuff.
 
I like cabbage in cabbage rolls which I think dates back to Polish traditions. I haven't made them for a long time, but they are also called pigs in a blanket here...it is usually a hamburger, and rice mixture wrapped in cabbage and put in a bath of tomato sauce. It is cooked in the oven for about an hour until the cabbage leaves are tender and the beef is cooked. I have not heard of a cabbage pie, but I bet it is good.
 
I like cabbage in cabbage rolls which I think dates back to Polish traditions. I haven't made them for a long time, but they are also called pigs in a blanket here...it is usually a hamburger, and rice mixture wrapped in cabbage and put in a bath of tomato sauce. It is cooked in the oven for about an hour until the cabbage leaves are tender and the beef is cooked. I have not heard of a cabbage pie, but I bet it is good.
I love the sound of this @kgord. Stuffed cabbage leaves...I used to make something like this years back and had forgotten all about it. Post a recipe if you can! And please can you add where you are to underneath your picture! You will drive me mad as I can never remember whether you are in America, Europe or somewhere else and you keep posting fascinating things about the food where you are! :happy: Just follow the link. Its easy! How to add your location to below your avatar.
 
In the Philippines, the Christmas meal is a merry mix of different dishes, from Chinese to Spanish to American. But the native soup is always there which is a mix of pork and chicken sauteed with spices and added is the pasta or macaroni or elbow pasta (I do not know the name). Also in the list is fruit salad with young coconut shreddings plus sweetened palm fruit. That is the usual dessert instead of ice cream. For the main dish, we have the Chinese ham or native dishes like menudo.
 
Can you post the recipe forSerbian Cabbage Pie? P.S. You can add your location under your picture so we all know where you are. Just follow the link How to add your location to below your avatar.
Hey dear,
I would gladly give you the recipe, but I would love to add photos, too, because they would help you with making the pie in the exact same way as well do. Therefore, since our Christmas Eve is on January 6th, I would take some photos and post them here then, along with the recipe.
I can briefly tell you the recipe now though, but the thing is there is a special way to fold the pie crust that you have to stretch beforehand using the rolling pin.

Ok, so in a plastic bowl, put 0.5kg of flour, add some pinch of salt, and mix that. Keep adding some lukewarm water while mixing it with your hands. If the pastry gets stuck to your hands, use the other side of the knife to get it off.
Then you pour the mixture on the table - make sure you have some flour underneath. Pour flour on it while kneading it with your hands, making it in a ball.
Then you cut small pieces from this big piece, usually in the size of a baby fist.

You would need 13 balls:
5 of those for the first crust that will go under the whole pie in a casserole.
2 for the first middle crust
2 for the second middle crust
4 for the main crust that will be put on top of the whole pie.

The mixture for the inside of the pie:
One middle size cabbage head (sour)
One leek
Oil
Process: you cut the cabbage in small pieces with a knife, leek too, place both in a pan with oil in it, and fry until it is well fried. Leave it on the side to cool off a bit while you are making the crusts.

Make sure you cut some leaves of sour cabbage in really small pieces, you will need maybe half of the cabbage head. You put
Each of these pieces you have to knead with your hands, making them in a circle and arranging them on the table accordingly.
Then, for the first crust, you need to stretch it using a rolling pin and make circles in the size of adult palm, a bit bigger perhaps. After you stretch each of the five, you need to put one on top of the other, making sure you use some oil in between them - you 'glue' them together with oil. Put some oil on the last one (less than on the others) and sprinkle some flour on top of oil. Leave it to rest while you make the other circles.
For the first middle crust, you have to do the same process, but instead of 'gluing' 5 circles, this time you glue only two. Leave to rest.
For the second middle crust, the same as for the first middle crust.
For the last man crust, you 'glue' the 4 circles.

Then, you take the pile of 5 for the first crust, sprinkle some flour on it, and using the rolling pin, you stretch it as much as you can, so that you have some extra crust that goes over the edges of the casserole when you place it in it. You sprinkle some oil on the curst, and add some of the mixture of cabbage and leek with your fingers, put a little bit over the crust, not too much or not too little, depending how much you want to taste it once it is done.
Then, you take a pile of 2 and you do the same. When you make the crust, in the size of the inside of the casserole, you put it on top of the first crust but try to put it unevenly like wrinkled skin, make wrinkles. Do the same with oil and cabbage.
Then, take another pile of 2 and repeat everything, with the wrinkles, oil and cabbage, but this time, make sure you don't put the cabbage and leek all over the crust,but only on the outside circle, because you will use the first crust that has some ends going over the edges of the casserole, to cover the outer places of the last crust. It should look more like a flower, with its middle in the shape of the circle with no cabbage there. Cabbage and leek mixture should be only on the outer sides of the last crust, which would be covered with the crust that was put first in the casserole, actually with the edges ( I hope you understand this, I wish we made it now so I could put some photos).

Then, you put it in the oven on 200 degrees and you wait until it bakes (check the colour of the final crust - should be brownish).
Cut in smaller pieces as you wish (like a pica or in squares). Enjoy.

P.S, Make sure your casserole is bigger, not those small American ones, but bigger like maybe 2 or 3 times those. Then It would look like a real Serbian cabbage pie.
I hope I made it understandable..
 
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