The Garden on the Hilltop

Christmas is getting closer so I thought that i´ll continue my story about my Christmas or Jul as we call it in Danish - closely related to Yule.
Christmas Eve is the big party evening here.
In the afternoon many people attend church-basically it is the only time the church is full - but that is very typically Danish.
After church people gather for Christmas dinner eaten somewhere between 17 and 19.
Traditionally we have roast pork, or roast goose - but today roast duck is most normal, served with brown gravy, sweet/sour hot red cabbage, potatoes,and caramelised potatoes. For dessert there is a special rice pudding - with a hidden whole almond in- the one who gets the almonds gets a small present.

My family do not eat duck or pork but turkey - it is a combination of having an american step father and the fact that most of us are not crazy about roast duck or goose.
So we have a roast turkey-breast on the bone, with butter/maple sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, with creamy gravy, a green apple/green grape/walnut salad with honey/lemon-juice dressing. Cranberriesauce and everybody is happy and not at all so full as if we ate the trad. dinner.
More room for the traditional pudding called ris a la mande.
Basically it is a rice porridge that you cool down - mix with lots of cream a little bit of sugar and some almonds.
You serve it very cold with sour cherries cooked with sugar and maybe a bit of rum.

Ris a la mande (for 6-8 people)

125 gram pudding rice ( brown can be used be white is more traditional
200 ml cream
1000 ml water
1 vanilla bean
1 small tsp salt

Cook rice water, cream , the whole vanilla bean( opened and de-seeded) in a heavy pot until rice is tender and creamy - stir often or it burns. Takes aprox 1 hour.

50-75 gram almonds without skin, chopped fine (- maybe leave one whole)
Add to hot rice with 1-2 tbl sugar
Spread rice on a large plate so it gets cold and stiff quickly.
Beat 500 ml cream to whipped cream

When rice is very cold, mix cream and rice - and cool down again.
I don´t always use all the cream but that is a personal matter- some like their pudding more creamy than other.

Cherry sauce
500 grams sour cherries
250 gram sugar
maybe rum/ kirsch or port

De-pit the cherries and add to a pot with the sugar let it stand a few hours so juice runs out- cook carefully for aprox 5 min.
If you think it is too runny, use a little bit of corn starch or or arrowroot- but it should be runny.
You can add a little bit of alcohol… but it is fine with out.

Oranges and ris a la mande is nice as well. :-)
After this dinner it is time for the tree and presents.
First we (and most Danes) sing some carols and hymns- we take each others hands while we sing and dance around the Christmas tree.
Then it is time for presents. In our family it is one of the children that distributes gifts, and everybody watch while one opens the gifts.
Around 21-22 we are done and we have some home-made sweets, a drink or 2 before bed.
Next 2-3 days ( December 25-27) everything is closed in Denmark and people spent their days with families having Christmas lunches in different places.

A Danish Christmas lunch is based around rye-bread - a sourdough 100 % rye-bread - sliced thin.

First there are several fish dishes:
Marinated herrings with different toppings
smoked and graved lax ( salt/sugar marinated salmon)
Prawn-salad ( based on mayonnaise, prawns, maybe asparagus)

some eat smoked eel and scramble egg as well.

Then there is the hot dishes:
Danish meatballs with more red cabbage,
maybe home-made sausages
ham and salami
fried pork/bacon with fried apples and onions
maybe some mayonnaise salads like chicken-salad.

Then cheese and dry fruits maybe grapes.

All this is served with plenty of beer and snaps ( aquavit )
and around 17 everybody is full
and after a while it is time for coffee and cookies and sweets
so no wonder most people just have breakfast and lunch these days.

You must remember the days are very short this time of the year - sun rise around 9 and sets around 15 so if one want to see a bit of Christmas sun you need to get out in the morning before lunch :-) and then the table are full of food, happy people and candle lights lots of candle lights.

After these christmas days there are a few normal week days- were people prepare for New Years Eve and more lunches, before January hits with darkness, too many pounds on body and too few money ….

My family don´t overdo it - first of all I´m not crazy about all the Christmas food, secondly I don´t want to put more weight on… so I eat wise- little but good quality and then take the dog for long walks before lunch :-D

About the Author...

I am a 35 year old woman who lives with my teendaughter in an old wooden house on a hilltop in Denmark. I have got a BA in prehistoric archeology and got a teacherdegree as well. I love books, plants, animals, kids and nourishing food.