Poll: Best Christmas Side Dish

[Yeshuasdaughter]

What is your favorite Christmas Side Dish?

 

[Outdated]

Except for the devilled eggs and string beans you won't see any of the above at an Aussie Christmas Lunch.

Here people generally go in one of two directions. They either do a traditional roast of they'll do a barbecue lunch.
If they decide to have a barbecue outside then all the side dishes and salads will be the highlight of the meal as there's not many ways you can make barbecued meat look fancy.

If they decide to do a traditional roast then it's going to be an elaborate spread with all the traditional trimmings. This does not include sweet sugary sauces. It also doesn't include turkey, in fact I have never met anyone that has ever cooked a turkey, I have only ever seen it precooked in shops. A traditional roast means Chicken, Pork, or Beef.

A proper roast comes with all the roasted vegetables including roasted potatoes, never mashed. And a thick gravy is made from all the juices in the bottom of the roasting pans to go over the meat and vegetables. And of course Yorkshire Puddings if the roast is beef.

The lunch is a 3 course meal, often starting with Prawn Cocktails as an appetizer, that's almost a tradition here now. The sauce used in a Prawn Cocktail is a mixture of Tomato Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce and Mayonnaise.

And desert is usually a choice between the traditional English Christmas Pudding or a Pavlova. The outer shell of a Pavlova is baked Meringue, this is filled with whipped cream and then topped with fruit and fruit syrups. Note - real cream that has been whipped is used here, never that ridiculously sugary fake cream.

 

[Mary Terry]

I chose dressing and gravy as my favorite side dish for a traditional Christmas turkey dinner. And I selected "other" because my favorite side dish varies with what the main dish is. This year, I made a big pot of Tex-Mex chili and one of my daughters made a big pot of chicken and sausage gumbo with rice for our noon meal. That's not traditional but everyone wanted simplicity and fewer dishes to wash!

@Outdated - FYI - turkeys are native to the Americas so turkeys often are the main dish of choice for Americans. Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the official national bird of the US but others outvoted him in favor of the bald eagle. That Aussie dinner spread looks divine.

 

[Mary Terry]

I always give the wild birds some treats for Christmas. Their favorite side dish is popcorn and fresh cranberry garlands to go with their sunflower seeds.

 

[Judge]

My mother used to make a creamed onion dish with some kind of cheese sauce. We all loved it, and she always served them with a turkey dinner. But I also loved dinner rolls with butter. Something I still buy on some occasions just to recall earlier times.

 

[Mary Terry]

My mother used to make a creamed onion dish with some kind of cheese sauce. We all loved it, and she always served them with a turkey dinner. But I also loved dinner rolls with butter. Something I still buy on some occasions

just to recall earlier times.

I think I know about the creamed onion gratin dish. Did she use frozen Bird's Eye tiny little whole onions to make it? I've had that dish or something very similar that is delicious.

 

[Judge]

I think I know about the creamed onion gratin dish. Did she use frozen Bird's Eye tiny little whole onions to make it? I've had that dish or something very similar that is delicious.

She always used the little, but whole onions. Sort of like the size of cherry tomatoes.