Russian Christmas Food

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Russian Christmas Food

Ever wondered in a Russian restaurant and got amazed by the amount of calories that each dish contained? Or, maybe, thought why do these Russians eat that vegetable soup with meat, then pasta with meat and then have that sugar-rich drink with plenty of fruit? Read on, for we are about to tell you where the Russian food is coming from and, most importantly, why is it this way.

For starters, let's remember that Russia, aside from being a land of Tsars, Bolsheviks, Revolution, Perestroika and Sputnik is a vast amounts of land. It's so big it takes almost 1/6th of total surface of all land on Earth. Apparently, the climate there isn't always friendly. In fact, most of the Russia's land experiences cold weather approximately 7 - 8 months in a year. Which doesn't leave much for warm-loving crops, animals and other growing or running food that one can procure.

russian christmas food

Such conditions required that prepared food has to be easily preserved and provided enough energy for people to survive during long cold months when procurement of food was hard or not possible. This has led to dishes like "borsh" - heavy vegetable soup with cabbage, beet and, in some recipes, small pieces of meat, "okroshka" - another heavy soup based on kvas or kefir with (varying from recipe to recipe) pre-boiled eggs, cucumbers, potato, small cubes of meat, onions and a number of additional ingredients or ever famous "pelmeni" (aka ravioli) - a nice little pack of meat (proteins) and dough (carbs, fiber) that is very easy to prepare and consume.

Russian Christmas Food

It has also created a number of dry snacks, that are well preserved and usually consumed together with some sort of alcoholic drink (beer, vodka, "samogon") as those too provide high energy boost and produce sense of warmness, necessary during cold times.

Most of traditional Russian meals are not spicy. However, being such a vast land, Russia inevitably happen to be the place where East and West would cross their paths. Roads from Asia lead to Europe - all the way through Russian spaces. Apparently, getting spices and other condiments, not custom to original Russian foods, was much easier business for cooks in Russia, than it was for Europeans. The fact that this land had been a place of many crossroads also explains why Russian food has meals similar to those in many different countries. For example, Russian vareniki or pelmeni are very similar to ravioli from the West and dumplings from East.

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German Christmas Food

German Christmas Food

German Christmas Food

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German Christmas Food

My son, then 8 years old, became fast friends with the neighborhood baker, even though neither one of them spoke each other's language. It was a time that we'll never forget, and during holiday time especially, we miss the lifestyle that only life in a small German village offers.

There are a couple of favorite German Christmas Recipes that I make sure to add to our celebrations every year, and I've included variations of them here for you and your family to enjoy this holiday season.

Traditional German Christmas Punch

1 cup water

2/3 cup sugar or Splenda

Couple pinches of ground cloves

1 cinnamon stick

3 cups apple juice

1 lemon, sliced

In a 3 quart saucepan, bring water, sugar, cloves and cinnamon to boil. Stir in juice and heat through. Do not boil. Take spices out and pour over lemon slices in serving bowl. Serve warm. Makes 1-1/2 quarts.

German Christmas Stollen

1-1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup sugar or Splenda

3/4 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

5-2/3 cups flour

1 ounce active dry yeast

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup candied citrus peel

1/2 cup candied cherries

Scald milk. Add sugar, butter, and salt, and cool to lukewarm. Add 2 whole eggs, and 2 yolks. Mix and Add to 3 cups flour and yeast in food processor. Process and let double. Add raisins, citron, and cherries, and rest of flour. Process and put on floured board and knead. Let rise in greased bowl. Once raised, cut into 3-4 pieces. Roll each into an oval, butter, and fold in half lengthwise. Put on greased baking sheet, cover, and double. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Cool and frost with white butter frosting and decorate with candied cherry halves and sprinkle with colored sugar.

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Traditional Mexican Christmas Recipes

Traditional Mexican Christmas Recipes

mexican food at christmas

mexican christmas food

Christmas in Mexico is all about hospitality and making traditional Mexican Christmas food recipes to share with friends, family and neighbors. There are some Mexican Christmas recipes, which are made only at Christmas, and others, which are made throughout the year, for various occasions. Tamales, for example, are enjoyed all year in Mexico but sweet tamales are for birthdays, christenings and Christmas parties.

There are also traditional Mexican drinks, including atole, which is a thick, cinnamon-flavored drink, and ponche, which is a fruit punch. Ponche can be made with or without alcohol.

Atole - A Traditional Mexican Beverage

This recipe serves four people and it is warming and delicious. Atole is meant to be served thick but if it thickens too much, you can add a little extra milk to thin it down a bit.

What you will need:

• 3 cups milk
• 3 cups water
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 7 oz white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 oz masa dough
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

How to make it:

Dissolve the masa in the water, then strain this liquid and add the cinnamon sticks. Bring it to a boil, and then stir in the sugar, cornstarch, vanilla and milk. Keep boiling the atole until it is thick. Take out the cinnamon and serve hot.

Traditional Mexican Bunuelos

This easy recipe for bunuelos serves ten people and everyone will enjoy these festive Mexican cookies. They are served broken into pieces with a hot anisette-flavored syrup poured over them. Bunuelos are popular with adults and kids and they are popular at Christmas but made for other occasions too.

What you will need:

mexican christmas food

• 2 eggs
• 9 oz piloncillo (raw sugar)
• 9 oz lard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons anisette
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 lb flour
• 2 cups water

How to make them:

Boil half the anisette in half the water and let it cool. Sift the salt with the flour. Add the eggs and egg yolk, as well as the water and anisette mixture. Knead the dough until it is stiff, and then form small balls. Roll them out thinly, and then fry them one at a time in the lard. Heat the piloncillo in the remaining water with the rest of the anisette. Strain the mixture once it is thick, then break the fried bunuelos into pieces and serve them with the syrup poured over the top.

mexican christmas food
Mexican Christmas Salad

This salad serves ten people and is a combination of fruit with a tangy dressing. This is a colorful and healthy Mexican Christmas food recipe and it is easy to make. Chill it for a couple of hours before you serve it, to let the flavors combine and to ensure it is very cold.

What you will need:

• 2 peeled, diced, cooked beets
• 1/2 cup unsalted pecans or almonds
• 1 diced banana
• 1 peeled, diced apple
• 1/4 fresh peeled, diced pineapple
• 1 peeled, chopped orange
• 1 diced cooked carrot
• Seeds for 1/2 pomegranate
• 3 tablespoons salad oil
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar

How to make it:

Put the lime juice, salad oil, salt and sugar in a screw-top jar and shake until well blended. Combine the fruits then pour the dressing over the top and stir well. Garnish the salad with the pomegranate seeds and nuts and chill it in the refrigerator before serving.

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Christmas Gift Food

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Varieties of gift selections are seen in many shopping malls, Christmas gift food is one of the most popular Christmas gifts. Creative souvenir items are at stake, as a lot of people are traveling during Christmas holidays. Tourist will certainly buy souvenir items to make their trips more memorable. Souvenir items can be given also as simple gifts for your friends. These souvenirs can be food items with creative packages.

Food items for Christmas include candies, cake, chocolates, fruits, and other varieties of food. Wines are also popular Christmas gift items, because many families will celebrate Christmas with wines on their tables. Giving food items is nice, because many people will surely like this kind of gifts. They can enjoy these gifts during the Christmas Eve, while they are celebrating this meaningful event with their love ones. It is certainly great to open gifts packages with food items inside. Food gifts may symbolize prosperity and joy. This means that the givers wish you prosperity and happiness as you celebrate Christmas Eve with your love ones.

When you give food items, you can give a great amount of happiness to your receivers. The impact of food gifts differs from material gifts. The more memorable food gifts are when they are wrapped with creative and unique packages.

There are many food items that are available with cute wrappers and packages. Sweet foods are more enjoyable, as these are happy foods. These foods can increase happy hormones in the body. Food gift items are simple gifts, but the impact of these gifts to your receivers is remarkable. These gifts are also not too expensive. You can buy foods with cute packages by just having a small amount of budget.

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Jamaican Cookbooks

Jamaica is an island nation located in the Caribbean Sea, to the south of Cuba and west of the island of Hispaniola (which contains Haiti and the Dominican Republic). The island nation was a British colony from 1655 (when General Robert Venables seized the island from the Spanish) until 1962, and is today the most populous English-speaking island in the Caribbean. Jamaica is well known for its culture especially popular music and literature, and also has developed a highly distinctive (and tasty!) style of cuisine.

Jamaican cuisine is perhaps known for its use of spices. In particular, pimento (also known as "pimenta", "allspice" or "Jamaica pepper"), and annatto (a spice that tastes like pepper with a hint of nutmeg and comes from pulp surrounding the fruit of achiote trees), play an important part in many dishes.

Another unusual ingredient in Jamaican cuisine is ackee (also sometimes spelled "akee" or "achee") which is a kind of fruit, which is boiled and then sautéed with salted fish (cod), tomatoes, onions and peppers. Great care must be taken to prepare ackee properly, because if this is not done correctly there is actually a risk of poisoning!

There are a great variety of other interesting Jamaican recipes, some of which you may have heard of, including:

- Jerk dishes for example are meats prepared in by rubbing with a spicy marinade and then cooked over a grill or in an oven (traditionally they were smoked by nowadays this is less common that it once was).

- Curried goat is goat meat cooked in a spicy sauce.

- Rice and peas consists of rice cooked with coconut milk, herbs and flavorings and mixed with legumes such as kidney beans.

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Jamaican Jerk Pork Recipe

The island of Jamaica is known for its many interesting dishes such as saltfish and ackee, curried goat, fried plantains, and of course jerk dishes. In particular, jerk dishes are well known by many people in the United States of America, Canada and Great Britain - as such dishes have become quite popular not just among people of Jamaican descent, but also among the wider community. Outside of Jamaica, perhaps the best known of jerk dishes is jerk chicken, however in Jamaica itself the traditional meats for jerk are either pork or goat.

All jerk dishes are however prepared basically the same way:-

1. The meat is cut into chunks. If making jerk pork, you might want to consider using pork shoulder.

2. Jamaican jerk spice or marinade is applied to the meat. You should rub the jerk spice into the meat, including making some shallow cuts into the meat and rubbing the spice into this. I would also suggest leaving the meat in the marinade over night.

3. The meat is then cooked. Ideally the cooking should be done over a charcoal grill, and if possible some pimento wood or berries placed on the hot coals, but if this is not possible, reasonable results can be achieved by simply cooking the meat in a normal kitchen oven.

Preparing meat in this ways result in a spicy and rather fiery dish. Of course, I won't pretend that this is necessarily going to be everyone's taste, but if you do like spicy food, why not give it a go?

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