Traditional Irish Christmas Dinner - easy version pls

booksale

4 of us are going to have dinner at my place.
Just myself preparing the dinner.
And I am not Irish.
And I am not good at cooking.
What should I do?

Starter: Garlic bread and soup (... what soup?)

Main Course:
Fried potatoes (I am very good at this one) +
Spiced beef (can I buy this in butcher and just put it into the oven for some time or so? honestly I have not even tried it before) +
vegetables (boiled brocoli, carrots, peas)

Desert:
Traditional Irish Christmas cake (where can I buy one? what is the name of it??)

neuro-praxis

Hi Booksale. A traditional Irish Christmas dinner would look more like this:

Starter: Leek and potato soup (available in a carton from Marks & Spencer) topped with a little cream, and served with fresh rolls (buy some part-baked ones and put them in the oven as people arrive), with butter. Alternatively, you could serve melon or something similarly easy.

Main course: Roast turkey and ham. I suggest to you that you go to Marks & Spencer again and buy a piece of each, already prepared for the oven, to serve 4 people. This is extremely simple - just follow the instructions on the packets. Make some gravy to go with the meat. Serve with roast potatoes, and a good selection of vegetables - brussells sprouts, carrots, broccoli, roast parsnips.

Dessert: Whatever you like! Christmas pudding with brandy cream, or mince pies with brandy cream. Christmas cake isn't really particularly popular. Ice cream or cheesecake will go down just as well.

For snacking, having a tin of Cadbury's Roses around is always appreciated, and plenty of vino. Good luck!

booksale

neuro-praxis, millions tks.

So, I took your advice. And I had:

Starter: Leek and Pototoes soup.

Not the one from M&S. I made my own with the recipe from the internet. My version was quite watery (well, I myself hadn't tasted any before, did not have a clue how it should taste and look like). My Irish friend then helped me out putting more potatoes to make it thicker and milk to make it more creamy. None of my Irish friends heard about melon with the soup. So, the two melons from Tesco which cost me E1 are still sitting in the dinning room now.


Main dish: Turkey and ham.

Well, again, I did not buy the ready to eat one. I bought the turkey (not the whole one, just boned and cut) from Dunnes, and ham from Tesco. Again, my Irish friend told me just boiled the smoked ham. And for the turkey, I put some ginger, honey, butter, salt, pepper and herbs on it the night before and put into oven for 1.5 hours. Turned the temperature up to 220 for the last 10 minutes or so.

They were great.

And then I fried the potatoes, streamed the brussel sprouts, carrots and broccoli. Also fried tomatoes and onions.

For the gravy, I bought the packet from the Tesco. Again, my Irish friend made it more tasty by using the source from the turkey. It's great.


Desert: Maran (dont know how to spell) with Strawberries and cream.

Very easy one. Just bought the maran in Dunnes, and cut each of them into 4 pieces, put the cream, strawberries, blueberries and the marans into the glass in layers. Looked nice and tasted good. But at that time, we were all full.

I was happy with the cooking result. Instead, it was not very difficult, just time consuming to prepare.

THANKS for the advice. We all enjoyed it and one of the Irish friends said it tasted like mummy's... well, I took it as a compliment. :rolleyes:

the beer revolu

Well done!
See, cooking isn't as hard as you imagine.

blinding

Whats a maran ?

Rulmeq

blinding wrote: »

Whats a maran ?

Possibly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meringue

Also, the suggestion was Melon instead of soup