Cook Christmas dinner for five people for under €25
My niece was born on Christmas Day. I know this because it was the first time I cooked Christmas dinner and her arrival (at slightly more than half the weight of the turkey) rather stole the show. It also stole most of the dinner guests and when we finally sat down it was just my mother, my younger sister and her boyfriend visiting from Germany. There was enough food to feed the German army and Fritz thought we were savages. He told me as I carved the turkey that he was, in general, vegetarian. Not today buddy, not today.
My niece will be 21 this Christmas day, Fritz is long gone, and I have learned a lot about cooking Christmas dinner. In the meantime I have also become parsimonious and hate wasting food or money. I take pride in cooking the best food for my family for as little money as possible. I wade through the supermarket hype of loyalty cards and bonus points and two for one offers to find what really is good value and what is a load of horseradish. And Christmas is surely the most confusing time of all. Well relax, pour yourself a sherry, turn up ‘Oh Holy Night’ and I’m going to tell you how to cook a traditional Christmas dinner for 5 people for slightly under €25.
A seafood starter has always been essential in our house and we flip flop between prawns and smoked salmon. Cheap prawns are always bad and good big prawns fall a bit outside our budget here, so this year it’s smoked salmon. The Good Fish company, with outlets all around Cork, have a special offer of 300g of Irish Organic Smoked Salmon for only €5— that really is very hard to beat.
You can serve it very simply on some thin brown soda bread with some lemon wedges, or you can get a bit more creative and serve little rosettes of salmon on potato galettes with a little creamed horseradish. It depends on how much time you have and how creative you feel.
For a number of years I chased after the idea of the perfect turkey. I brined turkeys, I deep fried turkeys, I bought organic Bronze turkeys that came from happy homes and do you know what? They all tasted like turkey. It seems too obvious to advise you not to let it get too dry.
This year a good sized fresh farm bird will cost you anything up to €60, a frozen supermarket bird costs a bit over a tenner. I know they are not the same but at those prices there are no arguments.
All the shops have an omerta on the price of their fresh turkeys until mid December but, at best, the price of a fresh bird will be about €5 a kilo. Different offers – like Supervalu’s half price offer will bring it down to less than €4 a kilo but this is linked to collecting points on a loyalty card so make your own mind up about the value there. I’m confident there will be frozen turkeys across the supermarkets before Christmas for €10. Buy one.
Defrosting the turkey will take a couple of days in the fridge so allow time for that. Each year brings a new way that you ‘must’ cook your turkey. I mentioned brining and deep frying earlier and this year’s model is the slow roast. I’ve even read one about a long slow cook overnight. But nothing tastes much better than just rub it down with salt and pop it in the oven. I promise. Do this.
Mix the following and rub it all over the turkey.
Put the whole lot into a large plastic bag. Add any fresh herbs you may have and about 12 smashed cloves of garlic. Tie up the bag to seal and leave in the fridge for two days. . If you want to be technical, it’s called a dry brine. Turn it a few times if you think of it. Twelve hours before cooking, take it out of the bag, pat it dry and leave it in the fridge uncovered. This dries the skin and makes it lovely and crisp later. Take it out of the fridge an hour before cooking, paint on some olive oil and cook as normal. It will be a lot better than most turkeys that cost five times the price.
Ham prices are more consistent and transparent but again watch the size — 200g a head is loads for the dinner and a sandwich on St Stephen’s day. Dunnes have a kilo of Gammon for €4.69 and it will be pretty hard to beat that.
Spend time making good giblet gravy, spend time making a good stuffing (or two). These cost so little and make such a difference to the meal.
Fresh cranberries make a lovely sauce but 250g is costing nearly €4 wherever I have seen them — which, by the kilo, is more than three times the price of the ham! Here is a good tip. Both Lidl and Aldi sell jars of cranberry sauce for 75c. Empty it all into a small pot and warm it up so it is more sauce and less jam. Add a tablespoon of lemon juice and a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Pretend you made it from scratch.
There will be a price war again this year for the vegetables but avoid the two for one deals on things you won’t use. Supervalu have a 5kg bag of potatoes for €3. We need 1.5kg for dinner so that’s 90c. I’m adding Brussel Sprouts in at 99c for 500g , Carrots at 50c and Parsnips at 50c. And that’s the main course done.
I love Christmas pudding but think it’s just too heavy after dinner. I prefer it in the days following Christmas. I like something chocolaty and not quite so heavy after dinner. Here is a great (if a bit weird looking) recipe for chocolate mousse. Add whiskey or brandy (or cointreau?) if you like but I have three kids and I like to keep them sober.
Separate the eggs into two bowls. Whisk whites until stiff, add half the sugar and whisk in. Whisk yolks and other half of the sugar until creamy. In a jug, microwave the chocolate and oil for a couple of minutes – add whiskey to this now if you want to. Fold all together (in the whites bowl) and then pour into wine glasses or coffee cups. Put in fridge until ready. Serves five generously.
I made it today in about 10 minutes and it cost less than €3. And no, it doesn’t taste oily!
So, the final tally, for a three course Christmas dinner for 5 people is…
Smoked Salmon €5
Turkey €10
Ham €4.69
Potatoes 90c
Sprouts 500g 99c
Carrots 50c
Parsnips 50c
Herbs €2
Bread €1
Cranberry Sauce 75c
Chocolate Mousse €3
Which is €24.33. And for that, you will eat like a king.
