Christmas table can be more impressive than ever. 2 Chefs & 1 Sommelier give ideas that will lift off flavors for an unforgettable evening.
Holidays are finally here, Christmas, New Year, carols! Joyful days filled with love.
The festive atmosphere dominates in every corner of the adorned house, in which the stunning tree and Christmas décor stand out!
Everything is ready to welcome the people we love, to share beautiful moments and to welcome New Year!
We will give you recipes and ideas for the Christmas table and the delicacies you can offer impressing your guests.
We will create a tasteful link, which will unite all guests and will be the very beginning of a wonderful Christmas evening.
On a special occasion as such, our Christmas table needs to be festive and filled with warmth.
Flavors that will inject enthusiasm and bring happy memories in every single bite.
We will combine tradition and modern gastronomy and break away from the time-honored “family style”, with food in the middle of the table and same wine for the entire dinner.
We will create a whole new “served” menu for a Christmas table, with single and individual dishes.
Everything will be combined with refined wines or distillations. We will lift off every single dish individually, accompanied with the respective wine.
We start with a cold or warm appetizer. For instance a hot soup is what’s best for such a day, with enriched taste and smooth texture, a wonderful beginning, to whet our appetite for and a pleasant suspense for the main Christmas course.
Our suggestion for an impressive Christmas table
Creamy potato soup with crispy smoked pork and chives
Ingredients
For the soup
- 1 kg potatoes
- 1 leek cut in thin slices
- 1 dry onion cut in thick pieces
- 1 clove of garlic finely chopped
- 1 shot glass of white wine
- 800 ml of vegetables broth or chicken
- 100 ml of sour cream
- 2 teaspoons of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of butter
- 1 teaspoon of chopped chives
- Salt and pepper
For the smoked pork
- 150 gr smoked cured pork in cubes
- 1 teaspoon of corn flour
- Fresh – grained pepper
- Fresh thyme
- Corn oil for frying
Cooking Preparation
- Wash and clean the potatoes and cut them in large pieces.
- Keep them in cold water until we cook them.
- In a casserole heat up the olive oil and saute onion, leek and garlic for 5-6 minutes in medium heat, taking care not to be colored.
- Pour the wine and add potatoes.
- Cover with the broth and boil in medium heat for about 30 minutes until potatoes are soft.
- Remove from heat and add soup in a hand blender, if the soup is thick add some more broth.
- Add sour cream and boil in low heat.
- Adjust taste with salt and pepper and finish up with fresh butter.
- For the smoked pork meat, dip the cubes in the corn flour and fry in hot oil until crisp.
- Place in cooking paper and add fresh-grained pepper and thyme.
- Serve the soup in a bowl with the smoked pork on the top and freshly cut chives.
Soups whet our appetite and we are ready for the evening’s main course.
Turkey with a yummy filling and mouthwatering honey sauce.
You can impress your guests by selecting several garnished choices.
Along with the main dish we can serve a fresh green salad, with a sweet and sour vinaigrette, pomegranate and walnuts which will perfectly blend in with turkey.
Green leaves and walnuts refer to an adorned tree and pomegranate’s red fruit to bright lanterns.
Sommelier suggests:
In this recipe there is greasiness coming from sour cream, olive oil and butter ,while a mild taste of vegetativeness is evident in leek and chives.
Apaki smoked cut adds up an “animal” note, keeping the balances towards potato and the rest of the ingredients.
A white dry wine with vivid acidity, cool flavors of citrus, medium body, and low alcohol will be splendidely combined with this dish.
I therefore suggest a Roditi from Aigialeia’s slopes whose crispy acidity and freshness, will tame the greasiness and texture’s density while its barely noticeable metallicity will exceptionally adjoin the recipe’s character.
Evening’s main course
Stuffed turkey fillet with mushrooms, dry nuts and honey sauce
Ingredients
- 1 kg turkey breast
- 10 mushrooms
- 2 teaspoons of walnuts
- 1 teaspoon of pine cone
- 1 dry onion
- 4 slices of bacon
- 1 teaspoon of sweet estragon
- 1 teaspoon of cognac
- 150 ml demi glace sauce
- 2 teaspoons of thyme honey
Cooking preparation
- Open up the turkey fillets using a knive as thin as possible or we can ask for our butcher to open them up for stuffed rolls.
- Add salt and pepper and sprinkle with paprika.
- Cook the onion we have first chopped, along with the bacon until they’re tender.
- Add mushrooms and sauté for another 5 minutes.
- Pour the cognac and add dry nuts and tarragon.
- Fill the fillets with the stuffing and roll them over in rolls, attach them with string or with aluminium foil and bake them for about 1 hour in 150 degrees.
- Slightly boil our sauce with honey and thyme until thickens.
- Cut the rolls, pour over with the sauce and serve.
Tips
The recipe is for 4 portions. We can use chicken instead.
We can accompany the rolls with grilled sweeit potatoesor puree, pumpkin or even sautéed chestnuts in butter.
Τhe salad, which will accompany the main dish.
Green salad with talagani, walnuts, pomegranate and pomegranate vinaigrette
Ingredients:
For the salad
- Several Mixed greens (rocket salad, spinach, radish, valeriana, lettuce, lola)
- 1 pomegranate (seeds only)
- 50 gr of walnuts
- 50 gr of roasted almonds
- Salt and pepper
- 50 gr sugar
- 100 gr of grilled Talagani
For the dressing
- 2 teaspoons of pomegranate juice
- ½ teaspoon of grenadine syrup
- 1 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar
- 3 teaspoons of olive oil
- ½ teaspoon of mustard
- Salt-pepper
Cooking preparation
- Wash well the vegetables, dry them well and cut them by hand into large pieces.
- Mix up all the ingredients for the dressing in a multi and store them in the fridge before we serve.
- Warm up a saucepan in medium heat and add sugar, with a few drops of water stirring constantly until sugar gets darkened.
- Add walnuts, stir well and remove from fire, placing them on a cooking paper to cool.
- Serve the salad on the last minute, after it’s being mixed up with the dressing, decorating it with pomegranate pearls, cheese, walnuts and almonds.
- We can optionally add some roasted sesame.
Matches ideally with:
The recipe includes white meat but also bacon, umami taste coming from mushrooms, dry nuts, but also sweeteness notes from honey and paprika.
We need a light dry red wine with fruity character, with botanical profile, satisfactory acidity and low tanins.
I would recommend a Liatiko from Crete (PDO Dafnes) with mature, dry red fruits and flowers essences.
Its medium volume mouth and soft tanines will highlight its complexity without supressing it.
The apparent acidity will deal with mastery the demi glass sauce and generous alcohol will blend it harmonically with the sweet ingredients of the recipe.
Sweet suggestion
For a dessert, a Yule log with chestnut mousse, or a chilled lemon tart with red fruits, will be a must once served with a sweet wine or a distillation for a beautiful and special festive evening.
Sommelier’s Corner:
For the dessert a good idea would be to choose the same variety by selecting sweet wine by Liatiko so as its adjustment on the mouth would have to do with the sweetness level and not its character.
For liqueurs ‘ enthusiasts I would recommend aged tsipouro.
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