thé de Noël | GOURMANDE in OSAKA

A few ideas for holiday menus. Japan has a month to celebrate the end of the year with Bonenkai (funerals of the old year) parties. In other places, Yule, Noël, Xmas and New Year in many places. Add, yours…
I like trying different dishes and meal styles.

Take a hot cup of thé de Noël and enjoy :

Rétro Christmas, candlelight and rustic.

Simple appetizers.
Jambon en croute aux marrons (chestnut ham pie)
Provence’s style : 13 desserts of Christmas night
Nougat glacé (iced nougat)

Kani Nabe (crab hot pot)
Winter Japanese home parties are often nabe (hot-pots)
Japanese hot pot with Winter crab
Other nabe (hot pots) :
Nikomi Udon
Duck and veggie nabe
sukiyaki

Noël blanc
Everything white, and French flavors…
Full Menu White French Christmas
Boudin blanc (white pudding sausage was little people’s Xmas treat, DIY)
Blanc-Manger (Middle-Age style, not a dessert)
Canard aux airelles (duck with cranberry sauce)
Gateau Mont-Blanc (coconut Antilles’ whiteness)

A Japanese Christmas menu
chicken and sesame cooking class
marmalade and sesame wings
chicken slices with wine sesame sauce
tofu with wine sesame sauce
decorative potato sarada. (pote sarada)
sesame fruit cake

Mexican Navidad, Tamales
pickles and chicken tamales
yellow grits tamales
tamale pie

Islands
Christmas ham, from the Antilles (French Caribbean islands).
Petit jambon antillais (pineapple baked ham)
féroce d’avocat (cod fish spicy guacamole)

Classic French
potage Choisy
Le poulet de Gaston – Dijon chicken (mustard sauce)
bûche aux marrons glacés
Douceurs de beurre et marrons…

Osechi Ryori, a feast of good luck dishes for Japanese New Year, with the recipes. Click here.

Alsace influence. French and light.
Full Menu
Blinis with smoked salmon
Choucroute de la mer (seafood Sauerkraut)
Bûche forêt noire Blackforest log Yule cake
Bredele (season cookies)

Petit Jésus en brioche…
About this one, posts showing up soon :
Colorful first dish
Saucisson en brioche au safran (salami saffron pie)
Red wine red cabbage in rice cooker. The same in cocotte.
Chestnutty no-bake croquettes
Flocon de neige (streusel flocken-sahne). Berry Flockensahne.
Black sugar Nonnettes Kaki nonnettes. Mandarin nonnettes.

Thé de Noël, Christmas tea is a must in this season. You can buy it, and be very happy of your purchase, surely. But the quality ranges from absolutely abominably artificial to very good and you can’t always try before buying. Then the price is rarely a bargain.

It’s possible to make yours “like the shop” buy pouring essential essences on cheap tea leaves, but for a small quantity buying the essences is not a good deal. So try the old-fashioned way. You can custom it at your tastes.

Grandma’s Christmas Tea :

You need only this : spices, citrus, a piece of bean of vanilla (not on the photo, I went to get it later), tea.
A stick of cinnamon and 1 or 2 cloves, most people have already in their kitchen. The citrus are in season and you need only the rind.

You don’t want top grade famous plantation tea to make fancy spice mix… or I no longer talk to you. A decent CTC black tea is perfect. CTC means crushed leaves, as you can sea on the photo. That’s already much better than the dust you get in 99% of teabags. This one is a pack from the supermarket, a mix of Ceylon and Indian teas. That was written on the package “not very tannic, very mild” and that’s true. Perfect for flavoring.

Be careful to choose fruits without preservatives sprayed on the skin. For me, it’s easier to find natural limes and mandarin oranges than other oranges and lemons.
Grate the zest of the citrus with a peeler. Let them dry one day on paper.