Christmas Eve Dinner

As I said in my earlier post, Carlos and I decided to make a special dinner for Christmas Eve, which is the more important day here in France. Partly because there are just the two of us here and partly because we wanted to make the meal our own way, we did a semi-traditional dinner on the 24th.

Table ready for the big meal

In the south-west of France, seafood is a big part of the traditional Christmas Eve meal, with many people having oysters and smoked salmon as appetizers along with the traditional foie gras. But because of my dietary restrictions we had to forgo all of those more traditional appetizers in favour of shrimp, which I marinated in a mixture of herbs and olive oil before frying them briefly on the stove.

Gambas just about ready to eat

The main dish in France is usually some kind of poultry, though the turkey they eat here is much smaller than the typical North American bird and is usually stuffed with chestnuts. Guinea fowl (pintade in French), capon (chapon), duck and goose are the other possibilities for poultry, not to mention chicken, though it is not generally 'special' enough for the Christmas Eve meal. Because it was just the two of us, I bought a 'turkey roast', which is similar to a pork roast, but the one I bought was cut into individual pieces. These I also marinated, but in my special turkey herb rub that I found at Thanksgiving and is a big hit at our house.

The meal is ready!

 We completed the meal with steamed carrots and broccoli (which are not at all traditional but I think they're yummy!) green beans sautéed with garlic and onions and pommes dauphine (both very normal at a Christmas Eve dinner), which you can see at the bottom in the centre of the photo below. Pommes dauphine, which may be called dauphine potatoes in English, are potato puffs made with mashed potatoes and choux pastry (water, flour, eggs and butter).

Everything looks so delicious... and it was!

And finally, we had the ultimate traditional French Christmas dessert: a Bûche de Noël (Yule log). It is typically made with sponge cake and flavoured buttercream frosting. Carlos' favourite flavour is Grand Marnier and I like the Moka cake, so we each bought individual ones... and unfortunately were so excited about eating them that I didn't get a picture! But here is an example of a traditional bûche decorated to look like a log, and of one where you can really see the rolled pastry.

And there you have it! Hope you all had a Christmas meal that was just as delicious!