During Christmas, you often want to pull out all the stops when serving a festive menu. Guests are coming over for dinner and you want to spend as much time as possible with them around the table. Light the charcoal in the Big Green Egg and impress them with a delicious Christmas dinner. Make it easy on yourself using these tips and tricks to serve a wonderful Christmas menu made on your kamado.
Planning your Christmas menu
Ever had trouble finding all your Christmas dinner ingredients at the supermarket? Or have you missed half of your own Christmas dinner because you were busy cooking while your guests enjoyed themselves around the table? Good preparation is half the battle. In other words, start planning in good time and don’t overcomplicate things. That way, you’ll have a lovely, stress-free Christmas lunch or dinner with friends and family.
Decide on your menu
Planning your Christmas menu starts with deciding on your dishes. How many courses do you want to serve? Do you want to make them all on the Big Green Egg? How many guests are you expecting? When devising the menu, keep in mind that it’s quicker to heat up the Big Green Egg than it is to cool it down. This is because heat stores in the ceramic, so it takes a while for the temperature to drop. So, it’s better to plan dishes according to temperature, starting with those requiring a lower temperature and building up, or choose dishes that you can cook or reheat at the same temperature. Think about what you like to eat, which recipes you can prepare a lot in advance and feel free to make dishes you have put on the menu before that have gone down well. Make sure you ask your guests well in advance if they have any dietary restrictions. With this information, you can create a menu that is sure to please everyone.
Make ahead of time
Many dishes can be prepared ahead of time — partially or even completely. An appetiser like crab salad with grilled avocado and crostini, for example, is very easy to make entirely in advance. All you have to do is assemble the dish shortly before serving. It can be good to choose side dishes that you can also make well in advance. Then you can focus all your attention on your main courses during dinner. Some great side dishes include stewed red cabbage, candied salsify, poached pears, creamy potatoes and/or tutti frutti. These are delicious dishes that you just need to heat up last minute. You don’t even need to use the Big Green Egg for reheating, as the dish already acquires its distinctive flavour while cooking.
Check the recipes
The same goes for dessert. Cakes are generally baked in advance and just need to be plated up. Want to bake something in your kamado that you can serve with coffee? How about pastéis de nata? These delicious sweet Portuguese pastries are guaranteed to go down a treat! You can also make your dressings and vinaigrettes well in advance, as well as soups and sauces. You can even freeze most soups and sauces. Put them in the fridge to defrost the day before Christmas dinner and simply reheat prior to serving. Some dishes can’t be made entirely in advance, but there is always something you can prepare. Check out the recipes to see what you can do in advance. This reduces stress and allows you to spend more time with your guests.
Test cooking
If you are only making old favourites for Christmas, then you can skip this paragraph. But if you’re making Christmas dishes in the Big Green Egg that you’ve never made before, you’d be wise to test them out in advance. This way, you’ll find out what you can prepare and you won’t encounter any unpleasant surprises. You will know exactly which kitchen equipment and Big Green Egg accessories are needed and you can purchase anything that’s missing.
Order your ingredients
Make your shopping lists a few weeks in advance. You can divide them into purchases that are best ordered in advance, such as fish, meat, poultry and/or game, ingredients with a long best-before date, drinks and fresh produce, such as vegetables and herbs. Cross off the groceries you have already picked up, so you stay organised and know that you have all the ingredients you need. Be sure to check that you still have enough charcoal. You don’t want to find out you’ve run out right when you go to light your Big Green Egg before Christmas dinner.
Menu planning
Make a checklist for yourself of everything you can prepare in advance, a schedule and list of last-minute preparations. Don’t forget to note down details like what time you need to take an item out of the freezer to defrost it in the fridge. For the dinner itself, don’t just list the last-minute preparations, write them down in the correct order. This way, you can be sure that your dinner will go exactly to plan, and that you and your guests can enjoy all your delicious dishes around the table together.
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