First of all, let me say that Danes have kept a lot more traditions than any other nationality I have ever met. And Christmas is no exception. December is always full packed with "Christmas lunches" (in Danish: Julefrokost; Jule = Christmas; frokost = lunch). We have those at work, with friends, families, etc. But don't be fooled by the name because usually these are not "lunches" but dinners. And they continue until the wee hours of the morning.... and they usually involve a lot of snaps.... eeerrr alcohol that it!
The Julefrokost food is traditionally served as a buffet and doesn't vary much. It usually looks something like this:
Image from Hotel Klithjem (source)
Starters: Breaded fish filets with a sweet/sour dressing ("remoulade"), different types of marinated herring, warm paté with crispy bacon and sautéed mushrooms, all served on very dark and slightly sour rye bread ("rugbrød"). Depending on the size of the buffet, you can also enjoy smoked salmon, cooked shrimps with mayo and eggs on white bread.
Entrée: a selection of pork filet in a mushroom and onion brown sauce, a special pork roast ("flæskesteg"), pork meat balls ("frikadeller") together with "white" (cooked) potatoes, "brown" potatoes (which are caramelized cooked potatoes) and sweet cooked red cabbage. And let's not forget the brown sauce!
Dessert (my favorite!): riz à l'amande - sweet milk rice with vanilla, chopped peeled almonds and whipped cream, served with a cherry sauce. Despite its elegant French name, it has nothing to do with French desserts, but it's delicious nonetheless IF made well. There is also a funny game following the dessert: a whole almond is hidden in the bowl of riz à l'amande and the one who gets the almond wins a gift. Cute, right?
I have received lots of compliments on my riz à l'amande and I take great pride in making one of the best known to Danes, and being a foreigner and all, that must mean that I'm pretty well integrated, don't you think ;)
Now for Christmas Eve, the menu is the following:
Roasted duck or pork (or both) served with white and brown potatoes, cooked sweet red cabbage and brown sauce. Riz à l'amande for dessert.
A lot of the traditional Christmas food is quite sweet, which I am still struggling with at times (I usually only have sweet food at breakfast or as dessert). Also, being a vegetarian now, all these meat-based feasts are quite challenging. I do eat fish occasionally, which is fine for the Christmas lunches, but on Christmas Eve, I don't have much of a choice. To my great surprise, my FI's family prepared some delicious salads for me this year, so that I wouldn't have to feast on potatoes and red cabbage alone, yeahy! Oh, and another few funny Danish Christmas traditions are to dance around the Christmas tree while singing Christmas carols and decorating with cute little Christmas hobbits ("Nisser") like these:
Ljungström nisser (source)
Do you have a specific Christmas dinner tradition in your country/family?
Happy holidays everyone!
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