Hot Climate Holiday Seasonal Menus 2011

[Snadra]

There were seven pages of topics that came up when I did a search on the eGullet forums, but I could only find one that specifically refers to Christmas cooking in a hot climate.

We are likely having a quiet Christmas this year, with just the two of us, and since I left work earlier this year I will no longer have the long-loved Christmas Ham my employers always provided so we are thinking of going in a slightly different direction this year. Plus this Christmas will be the last we spend in this house (we moved in on December 22, 1999) as my new career will take us to some yet-undetermined location in NSW at the end of January, making it a bit special.

Some ideas I have so far:

Breakfast: Breakfast is my favourite meal! We almost always manage a special breakfast (sometimes we entice friends over as well). It works because it's low stress and the house isn't hot yet (usually...). This year I am thinking:

• fresh fruit plate
  
• eggs - either scrambled with ham, or as eggs benedict on homemade muffins
  
• sweet bread - I made a cardamom braid a few years ago that was lovely
  

Lunch: I don't really enjoy having lunch as the main meal, probably because it comes too soon after breakfast for me!

• Option 1: salad plate (I will make a few to have over the next few days anyway - potato, lentil, cucumber, etc)
  
• Option 2: cold soup, adjusting my family's traditional lunch to this climate. Possibly gazpacho, or maybe a cold corn soup. I'm open to suggestions and recipes!
  
• Option 3: turkish pide or afghan bread and dips (hummus, beetroot and eggplant...)
  

Dinner: I came across an old Vogue Entertaining + Travel that had a recipe for sashimi with fresh coconut dressing, and it seemed perfect, plus it includes instructions for making the coconut milk (I assume I will be able to find some fresh coconuts around). Probably I should make it a course in a meal of small plates, but what those other plates should be I'm not too sure. As far as getting the sashimi, if my local place can't order it in, I may just have to make a journey to the fishmarket on the 24th (noooooooooooooo).

Dessert: Besides a nice breakfast, our other tradition for the last 8-10 years has been to get an assortment of lebanese pastries. Last year I got them from Abla's in Granville, but there's a place in Greenacre that I think is even better. Besides that, I would like to make something frozen, possibly the rhubarb semi-freddo I made last year. Alternatively, maybe a take on an eton mess, with tropical fruits.

As far as the other days go, I'm at a loss at the moment. I do love turkey, so I may try to get a turkey breast and we could have it cold over a few days. There will no doubt be a lot of salads as well. And if I see decent sweet corn again there will be some meals made of that.

There are a few of us on the board who do live through the swelter-season, and we do eat, so if you live in a warm climate, what are you planning on eating and drinking over the period? Keeping old traditions or making new ones? And if you live in a cold climate, what would you do if you were in our shoes?

[Margaret Pilgrim]

You have suggested some lovely menus. When should we arrive?

Some treatment of crepes might be a light breakfast course, maybe with local fresh fruit or preserves and (goat or sheep) cheese?

re cold soup, a personal favorite is a cold beet soup: pureed cooked beets, beef/veal broth, sour cream. Whir in a blender and serve with a swirl of heavy cream and shower of fresh dill. Of course, season to taste with S & P.

re the need to visit the fishmonger on Dec 24, many experts recommend freezing for at least 24 hours any fish you plan to eat raw. Problem solved.

re turkey, how about turkey tonnato, thin sliced cold turkey breast topped with a cold tuna sauce, garnished with capers, cherry tomatoes or bits of your best local seasonal produce.

re dessert, there is nothing I love more than Etan mess, particularly when adapted for local and season.

Again, when and where and what can we bring?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Here at the equator, it may just be four of us, or it may expand to 10 or so - we're not sure yet. Hence I'm trying to keep the planned menu flexible.

Breakfast - normally we breakfast heartily on holidays. It's still cool in the morning.

• Cold plum oat crisp, using the black plums that will be ripe on my trees by that time.
  
• Fruit salad - white pineapple, Reina mango, starfruit, red papaya, black and red grapes, strawberries, uvilla, mora, and at least two different kinds of banana
  
• Sweet shortcakes with fresh whipped cream (to accompany the fruit salad)
  

Lunch - we generally skip this step in favour of an early dinner. Besides which, it's normally so hot by this time that nobody wants to eat. Hence:

• Helados de paila, flavours to be determined.
  

Dinner - hopefully we'll be moved into the new house by then, which has a wood-fired dome oven in the backyard. We most likely will be eating a plena aire up on the roof rather than indoors, since evenings are deliciously warm and the volcanoes are normally visible. If it rains, we'll be indoors. The menu below is based on the idea of having the wood oven.

• Full turkey, stuffed and roasted. Stuffing to be pumpernickel sage mushroom. Turkey TBD, I'm thinking drunken but I may do the 2-day brining prep that's normally reserved for whole suckling pigs.
  
• Mashed golden potatoes
  
• Steamed romanesco, asparagus, and garden beans
  
• A huge green salad
  
• Cheese and yogurt quick biscuits
  
• Gravy, of course.
  

Dessert - traditional all the way, because everybody knows that dessert at a baker's house is always faboo.

• Pumpkin tarts with brandy cream
  
• Peach tartine
  
• Nova Scotia Black Fruitcake
  
• Piles of fresh strawberries
  

[Jaymes]

We've lived in tropical climates where it's still definitely hot on Thanksgiving/Christmas. We are Americans, though, so we felt the need to incorporate our traditional turkey into our tropical holiday meals.

We found that smoking a turkey and a ham out in the backyard was way preferable to heating up the kitchen with a hot oven roasting a turkey or ham all day.

With our smoked turkey and/or ham, I always served a cold cranberry and apple salad:

Cranberry Salad

2 3-oz pkgs Black Raspberry Jell-O (or other berry flavor)

1 1/2 C boiling water

1 1-lb can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 8 3/4-oz can crushed pineapple (do not drain)

1 red apple, chopped

1/2 C chopped pecans

1/2 C fresh orange juice

zest of 1 orange

Optional garnish: Miracle Whip or Mayo & grated cheddar cheese

Dissolve 2 packages of Jell-O in boiling water. Chill just until the gelatin has thickened enough to "heap." Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into 5-cup mold & chill. When firm, spread thin layer of Miracle Whip or mayo over, and sprinkle with cheese.

[Snadra]

You have suggested some lovely menus. When should we arrive?

Some treatment of crepes might be a light breakfast course, maybe with local fresh fruit or preserves and (goat or sheep) cheese?

re cold soup, a personal favorite is a cold beet soup: pureed cooked beets, beef/veal broth, sour cream. Whir in a blender and serve with a swirl of heavy cream and shower of fresh dill. Of course, season to taste with S & P.

re the need to visit the fishmonger on Dec 24, many experts recommend freezing for at least 24 hours any fish you plan to eat raw. Problem solved.

re turkey, how about turkey tonnato, thin sliced cold turkey breast topped with a cold tuna sauce, garnished with capers, cherry tomatoes or bits of your best local seasonal produce.

re dessert, there is nothing I love more than Etan mess, particularly when adapted for local and season.

Again, when and where and what can we bring?

Margaret, we are always happy to have a few more guests to swelter along with us!

Your suggestions sound great, and some kind of pancake dish might be just the treat for Boxing Day morning.

I've only come to enjoy beets the last few years - a pureed beet soup might be over the top, but it does remind me that they go very nicely roasted and thinly sliced on a bed of thick yoghurts to be eaten with pide.

Thankfully, the sushi-quality fish I get at the fish market should be ready-to-eat, no additional freezing necessary. And it might be kind of fun to brave the fishmarket during its 36 hour marathon.

[Snadra]

Here at the equator, it may just be four of us, or it may expand to 10 or so - we're not sure yet. Hence I'm trying to keep the planned menu flexible.

Breakfast - normally we breakfast heartily on holidays. It's still cool in the morning.

• Cold plum oat crisp, using the black plums that will be ripe on my trees by that time.
  
• Fruit salad - white pineapple, Reina mango, starfruit, red papaya, black and red grapes, strawberries, uvilla, mora, and at least two different kinds of banana
  
• Sweet shortcakes with fresh whipped cream (to accompany the fruit salad)
  

Lunch - we generally skip this step in favour of an early dinner. Besides which, it's normally so hot by this time that nobody wants to eat. Hence:

• Helados de paila, flavours to be determined.
  

Dinner - hopefully we'll be moved into the new house by then, which has a wood-fired dome oven in the backyard. We most likely will be eating a plena aire up on the roof rather than indoors, since evenings are deliciously warm and the volcanoes are normally visible. If it rains, we'll be indoors. The menu below is based on the idea of having the wood oven.

• Full turkey, stuffed and roasted. Stuffing to be pumpernickel sage mushroom. Turkey TBD, I'm thinking drunken but I may do the 2-day brining prep that's normally reserved for whole suckling pigs.
  
• Mashed golden potatoes
  
• Steamed romanesco, asparagus, and garden beans
  
• A huge green salad
  
• Cheese and yogurt quick biscuits
  
• Gravy, of course.
  

Dessert - traditional all the way, because everybody knows that dessert at a baker's house is always faboo.

• Pumpkin tarts with brandy cream
  
• Peach tartine
  
• Nova Scotia Black Fruitcake
  
• Piles of fresh strawberries
  

I'm guessing it cools down quite a bit in the evening then? Your menu looks delicious, and a great mix of old and new favourites. I've never had Nova Scotia Black Fruitcake. What's it like? Do you have a recipe you are willing to share?

[Snadra]

We've lived in tropical climates where it's still definitely hot on Thanksgiving/Christmas. We are Americans, though, so we felt the need to incorporate our traditional turkey into our tropical holiday meals.

We found that smoking a turkey and a ham out in the backyard was way preferable to heating up the kitchen with a hot oven roasting a turkey or ham all day.

With our smoked turkey and/or ham, I always served a cold cranberry and apple salad:

Cranberry Salad

2 3-oz pkgs Black Raspberry Jell-O (or other berry flavor)

1 1/2 C boiling water

1 1-lb can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 8 3/4-oz can crushed pineapple (do not drain)

1 red apple, chopped

1/2 C chopped pecans

1/2 C fresh orange juice

zest of 1 orange

Optional garnish: Miracle Whip or Mayo & grated cheddar cheese

Dissolve 2 packages of Jell-O in boiling water. Chill just until the gelatin has thickened enough to "heap." Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into 5-cup mold & chill. When firm, spread thin layer of Miracle Whip or mayo over, and sprinkle with cheese.

Isn't it funny how it isn't 'the holiday' without at least some reference to what you identify with? I've lived here for over 15 years, and I still don't feel Christmassy unless we eat certain foods. And I always mourn our lack of a backyard icerink with compulsory bonfire....

That salad is exactly like what my mother never made, but which I often enjoyed at neighbours' houses growing up, sans mayo or cheese because I was a fussy brat. Actually, I have a vague memory of happily eating a bright green jello salad with carrots and celery in it while my mother watched in horrified fascination. There's no tradition of jello (aka jelly) salads in Australia that I'm aware of, but I think it might actually go over quite well here to accompany the traditional-style cold ham spread.

[Jenni]

Well I totally failed to find out how Thanksgiving was prepare for and carried out by the few Americans I know here in Allahabad, beyone some basic things. They all used chicken, as this is a small town with not enough expats for there to be turkey! I think one person said they pot roasted their chickens (large extended American-Indian family so they had like 4 chickens) because they are either ovenless or have a really tiny oven.

My favourite thing about Thanksgiving was that even though I did not celebrate it and frankly did not really know much about it at all (but now I am slightly jealous as it seems Americans get two Christmases!), I still got to partake in some of the food, in a roundabout way. You see, one family made WAY too much mashed potato and thus it got given to the cook at the school who used it to make aloo tikkiya (er, I guess you would call them pan fried patties made from seasoned mashed potato) which she served with coriander-garlic chutney for mid-class break! Can Thanksgiving be a weekly thing please?

(Note: I'll also admit that Allahabad would not be classed as hot climate right now. In the day it is like a warm and sunny Summer day in the UK but it is chilly at night)

Edited November 26, 2011 by Jenni (log)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I'm guessing it cools down quite a bit in the evening then? Your menu looks delicious, and a great mix of old and new favourites. I've never had Nova Scotia Black Fruitcake. What's it like? Do you have a recipe you are willing to share?

I'm in what is basically one of the world's highest deserts. If it's not cloudy, it cools down to about 15 C at night (if it's cloudy, it stays about 5 degrees warmer.) However, this menu is predicated on an outdoor wood oven. If I'm not there by then, it will likely be quite different, simply to avoid roasting ourselves along with the meal.

I do have a recipe for the fruitcake - and now's the time to start it, too. Let me rummage around - I think I posted it around here somewhere.....

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Okeedokee, here's the recipe - clicky linky! It was in the Traditional Foods of Nova Scotia thread, of all places.

NS Black Fruitcakes are more candied fruit and nuts than they are batter (at least, done properly that's the way they are), and they're aged at least 3 weeks in the booze of your choice. My gran swore that it sould be black rum; I believe in brandy de Jerez. I have clients that want their cakes soaked in whiskey, and another who has specifically ordered and pre-paid for cognac. So long as it's a clear spirit, I'd say it's fair game, although I have my doubts about sake, arrack, and cachaca.

The flavour comes across as sweet, caramelly, and with the character of both the fruit and the sugars that you use in the making. I always make this the setpiece of the dessert menu, because to serve it properly you really ought to dim the lights back to just the table candles, then pour a shot of your preferred liquor over the cake and light it on fire. I've done this often enough that I can light the liquor in the snifter, then pour liquid flames over the cake - a bit of theatre with dinner! Burning the surface this way also does this nifty caramelization thing with the crust, which I am quite fond of.

This is what the cake looks like.

[Jaymes]

My favourite thing about Thanksgiving was that even though I did not celebrate it and frankly did not really know much about it at all (but now I am slightly jealous as it seems Americans get two Christmases!), I still got to partake in some of the food, in a roundabout way. You see, one family made WAY too much mashed potato and thus it got given to the cook at the school who used it to make aloo tikkiya (er, I guess you would call them pan fried patties made from seasoned mashed potato) which she served with coriander-garlic chutney for mid-class break! Can Thanksgiving be a weekly thing please?

To many American men, Thanksgiving seems to be even a better-loved holiday than Christmas because, as my former husband put it, "you" (and by that he meant himself) don't have to "do" anything. You don't have to buy presents and worry about wrapping them attractively. You don't have to wander through cold Christmas-tree lots until your wife finally makes up her mind. You don't have to haul home a big ungainly and prickly tree and then lie under it making adjustments while the whole family supervises. You don't have to crawl around on the roof or in the bushes installing lights and plugging in an inflatable Santa Claus complete with sleigh and all the reindeer that you first had to retrieve from somewhere in the attic along with dozens of other heavy Christmas boxes. You don't have to go to church. You don't have to fight the traffic to go sit out in a hot field somewhere and watch fireworks and then fight the traffic again to get home. You don't have to buy any stupid corny heart cards or flowers or candy or jewelry. In fact, you don't have to spend any money at all on anybody else. "All you have to do," he would say, "is to get up and have a really, really great meal and then fall asleep on the floor while you're watching football on TV."

This, of course, completely overlooks the fact that, in many homes (and certainly in ours), Thanksgiving is a two-day (at least) marathon cook-in for the womenfolk. And that doesn't even take into consideration the clean-up of the house in preparation for guests, the laundering and ironing of the good linens, the getting-out and washing of the china, crystal and silver and the reverse process afterwards, and the apres-cooking scrubbing of those gargantuan pots and pans, among many other Thanksgiving-related obligations, duties and chores.

Interesting about the patties made from leftover mashed potatoes. Many of my Mexican friends do something similar. They season the cold potatoes, roll them into balls, poke a hole in the ball, push in a chunk of queso fresco or other favorite cheese, seal it up, flatten the patties somewhat for easier frying, dredge them in a little flour, and fry them.

Delicious.

Edited November 26, 2011 by Jaymes (log)

[Jenni]

Interesting...so there are no other traditions associated with Thanksgiving other than eating a huge meal? Must admit, I had presumed people were exchanging gifts, decorating, setting off crackers, or something in their own homes along with the making and eating a meal. Well I'm going to go on Wikipedia now and find out more!

As for the tikkiya, they are a very common street snack in North India so you could argue that they are nothing to be excited about. But this time they were free! And I was practically forced to eat them because stuff needed to be used up! And they came with the deliciously delicious garlic-coriander chutney that I could literally drink! *Ahem* Basically, I was definitely thankful.

[Jaymes]

Interesting...so there are no other traditions associated with Thanksgiving other than eating a huge meal?

Not for those folks not involved in all the preparations for the cooking and serving and cleanup of the meal. All they have to do is to come up with a prayer delineating those things for which they are thankful.

And that's about it.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Interesting...so there are no other traditions associated with Thanksgiving other than eating a huge meal? Must admit, I had presumed people were exchanging gifts, decorating, setting off crackers, or something in their own homes along with the making and eating a meal. Well I'm going to go on Wikipedia now and find out more!

In Canada, there's only the tradition of giving thanks for a good harvest and a summer that didn't kill off the crops (which happens more that we'd like to admit, especially on the prairies where tornadoes and windstorms are common, along with flooding). And of course the huge meal - which we eat almost a full month earlier than the Americans, in fact two weeks before Hallowe'en. The timing has to do with Canada's shorter growing season, since Thanksgiving up north is a harvest festival (the American one, I think, also celebrates the fact that the natives saved the settlers from starvation; Canada has no such founding stories attached to its celebration.)

In my family there are specific things that are served in the meal, but that's a personal thing rather than a cultural one. I don't consider it to be T-day without stuffed bird of some sort (usually a big chicken), roasted winter squash, and pumpkin pie for dessert. It also doesn't feel quite right unless there are waffles for breakfast.

[JeanneCake]

Actually, I have a vague memory of happily eating a bright green jello salad with carrots and celery in it while my mother watched in horrified fascination. There's no tradition of jello (aka jelly) salads in Australia that I'm aware of, but I think it might actually go over quite well here to accompany the traditional-style cold ham spread.

Yes!

My mother made this when I was a child; in the summer I think; and used orange jello, with grated carrot shreds and chopped walnuts. I could not get enough of this stuff. It didn't have any cheese or mayo or anything, I just remember the orange jello color, and the crunch of the nuts and carrots. It probably did have celery in it, I don't recall.

Now I need to go out and buy some orange jello. Thank you for the memory!

[Jaymes]

We've lived in tropical climates where it's still definitely hot on Thanksgiving/Christmas. We are Americans, though, so we felt the need to incorporate our traditional turkey into our tropical holiday meals.

We found that smoking a turkey and a ham out in the backyard was way preferable to heating up the kitchen with a hot oven roasting a turkey or ham all day.

With our smoked turkey and/or ham, I always served a cold cranberry and apple salad:

Cranberry Salad

2 3-oz pkgs Black Raspberry Jell-O (or other berry flavor)

1 1/2 C boiling water

1 1-lb can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 8 3/4-oz can crushed pineapple (do not drain)

1 red apple, chopped

1/2 C chopped pecans

1/2 C fresh orange juice

zest of 1 orange

Optional garnish: Miracle Whip or Mayo & grated cheddar cheese

Dissolve 2 packages of Jell-O in boiling water. Chill just until the gelatin has thickened enough to "heap." Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into 5-cup mold & chill. When firm, spread thin layer of Miracle Whip or mayo over, and sprinkle with cheese.

Isn't it funny how it isn't 'the holiday' without at least some reference to what you identify with? I've lived here for over 15 years, and I still don't feel Christmassy unless we eat certain foods. And I always mourn our lack of a backyard icerink with compulsory bonfire....

That salad is exactly like what my mother never made, but which I often enjoyed at neighbours' houses growing up, sans mayo or cheese because I was a fussy brat. Actually, I have a vague memory of happily eating a bright green jello salad with carrots and celery in it while my mother watched in horrified fascination. There's no tradition of jello (aka jelly) salads in Australia that I'm aware of, but I think it might actually go over quite well here to accompany the traditional-style cold ham spread.

A funny story, at least to me, about that salad...

We think it's really good, and doesn't have a lot about it of those qualities that make some people dislike "all Jello salads." At first, I would just stall friends that asked for the recipe, not wishing to admit the pedestrian middlebrow ingredients. But then, years ago, at a work-related holiday potluck to which I had taken it, there was another congealed cranberry salad. I inspected it closely to see if it was the identical recipe, and was just deciding it wasn't when the other salad-maker saw me and approached.

"Oh my," I said. "It looks like we've brought almost the same thing."

"Well," she said, "I think that's going to be fine, since it's so good, it will probably go quickly. It's a lot of work," she continued, "but I think it's worth it."

A lot of work? I puzzled over this. And finally asked for the recipe. It turned out that she had bought fresh cranberries, cooked them, added the orange peel, ground it all in a food mill, added some other ingredients and combined it all with unflavored gelatin.

I was much younger then and unsure of myself and hadn't really worked out what matters and what doesn't. So... "Me, too!" I lied.

But here's the kicker. Mine, made with the shortcut Jello and a can of cranberry sauce turned out to be much more popular, and was quickly gone. She took most of hers home.

I just think that so often, if you don't confess your "tacky" ingredients, the food snobs will inhale bucket-loads of whatever it is.

But the minute you fess up, you and your dish are treated like you just hitched a ride in from a trailer park somewhere.

(Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Edited November 26, 2011 by Jaymes (log)

[Viktoria]

Thanksgiving in America is evocative of a harvest festival. We tie it to a meal described in accounts of early settlers. I believe that some form of harvest celebration has been held since, but I think Abraham Lincoln made it an official holiday.

Activity-wise, the only constant is that copious amounts of food are made and eaten. Many families have some additional traditions. Growing up in my family, we watched the Thanksgiving day parade in the morning, and the men would gather after to watch football. In my family now, when I host, I cook and the men-folk clean up. (how's that!) but no sports to speak of.

Mostly, though, I think the important thing about the holiday is family and friends. Friends who are alone on the holiday are often invited to join into family celebrations. For me, it doesn't matter what other activity might occur, but that the family gathers for a meal and enjoys and gives thanks for each other.