No Turkey Harmed.

This festive holiday we decided to go with a sea food feast and sourced shell fish for a plate-de-mare French style.

The plate-de-mare.

We had Atlantic red prawns. (We do get confused by the US desire to call these shrimp. To us shrimp are tiny brown things served with spiced butter and called potted shrimp.) There were local Dublin Bay Prawns –Langoustine, a small Canadian lobster with a thermador type sauce, 6 oysters, crab claws, cockles and clams, rosé prawns and salmon caviar.

The spread.

We had a modest bottle of French Champagne. Bread rolls I made with sun-dried tomato and another batch with black olive and rosemary. Not shown here since we were waiting for them to finish in the oven. Dips of shallots in vinegar and a creamy thermador style sauce were served.

We followed with a sherry trifle made with frozen red berries and tinned cherry. Real home made custard, whipped cream and topped with glacé cherries. The feast was a very successful change from the usual turkey dinner. The trifle will be attacked again today, Boxing day. Or Saint Stephan’s Day here in Ireland.

Sherry trifle, already attacked, yum.

The Feasting.

Pleasing work.

It’s been a fair few years since Brigitte and I spent a Christmas day alone and at home. This year we decided to focus on having a great meal and fine wines. When there are but two of us to please, we can do that without compromise. Inspiration for the main course meal came from a TV program presented by Tom Kerridge. This is unusual for me since I don’t usually follow recipes. In this case, I followed his broad strokes but added a few of my own variations.