1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Hi everyone, welcome to pot luck food talks. 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:10,000 Today we're going to talk about Christmas. 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:13,000 The shottiest time of the year. Are you a Christmas guy? Do you like Christmas? 4 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:21,000 I'm not a super crazy Christmas person, but I mean, for sure I like Christmas Eve dinner. 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,000 I think it's something really special. 6 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:27,000 There are many things that only make sense to eat at that time of the year. 7 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:35,000 Yeah, for sure. There are certain things that I only eat once a year, I think, and that's usually around Christmas. 8 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:41,000 What's it for you guys? What does your family do usually? 9 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:47,000 Okay, my family. Well, traditionally in Venezuela there is this thing called ayacas, 10 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:53,000 which are like tamales and plain pained leaves with pork stew. 11 00:00:53,000 --> 00:01:00,000 It's usually pork, but it could be something else, and it also has raisins and pickles and different things. 12 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,000 So it's quite a thing, and you only eat that for Christmas. 13 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:07,000 And we would have that for sure. That was the standard. 14 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,000 And then always like a big piece of meat. 15 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:22,000 It could be a pork leg or lamb or a turkey or a suckling pig, you know, like these kind of things. Goose, duck, you know. 16 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:28,000 That sounds really nice. The tamal sounds really nice with like braised pork and like the raisins and stuff. 17 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,000 Yeah. It sounds delicious. It's kind of like a sweet, savory sort of like mix, no? 18 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:34,000 Yeah, it's called ayaca. Ayaca. 19 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:40,000 Yeah, actually there is a lot of people that hate the raisins and the pickles inside of it, but I actually love it, man. 20 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:49,000 And it's something for me, it's really something that brings me to my childhood and something Venezuelans living abroad always crave for Christmas. 21 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:54,000 There's always in any city someone who cooks them because it's very laborious to do. 22 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:58,000 It takes two days to do the whole process. 23 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:05,000 So you usually make very large batches and you exchange it with other families. 24 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,000 That's pretty cool. I love that idea. 25 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:13,000 So like, but now when you are celebrating Christmas by yourself, what do you usually do? 26 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:23,000 It's usually like a big piece of some kind of meat in my case. I think that the people here in San Sebastian tend to eat fish for Christmas. 27 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:32,000 Like a whole piece of a nice fish. I know this because the fishmonger is just under my apartment. 28 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:41,000 And if you want to get some fish during Christmas days, it's impossible. It's all pre-ordered and sold out weeks before. 29 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:54,000 But I mean, usually the way it goes is, for instance, when I'm with my family, they drop me in any large supermarket or market or something and say, get whatever you want. 30 00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:03,000 So I will always go to the meat section and look for something interesting, you know, like a goat or a sheep or something like that. 31 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:18,000 And I will just, you know, braise it classic style with some fruits and braise it in red wine. Maybe use what is known as Christmas spices, you know, like cinnamon star anise cardamom, those kind of things. 32 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,000 Ginger and something like that in that direction. 33 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,000 Yeah, that sounds really nice. 34 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:25,000 What about you? 35 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:36,000 My family, there's like two parts to Christmas, right? There's Christmas, like there's Christmas Eve, which is like the main one that we kind of celebrate on the 24th. 36 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:51,000 And then there's the 25th, which is Christmas Day. And so on Christmas Eve, we have the general rule that we have something very simple because we don't really want somebody to be in the kitchen all day, like while everybody else is like around the tree and stuff. 37 00:03:51,000 --> 00:04:02,000 It's like a tradition in Germany that like on, I mean, in some parts anyway, some families that you have something super similar, like as simple as like sausages, like just some boiled sausages in a potato salad. 38 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:04,000 That's it, you know. 39 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:22,000 Also though, that comes from like very like very strict Christian customs in Germany, you know, where like in Germany, the Christian belief like went very into the sort of like, oh, everything very reproduced and only this and only that and only bread for dinner and what not. 40 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:27,000 But it's kind of nice. And then usually we do like, we'll probably do like a raclette, you know. 41 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:28,000 Oh, nice. 42 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:34,000 Yeah, we have that like little table grill with like where you know these ones where you have the little pans. 43 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:35,000 Yeah, yeah. 44 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:36,000 Yeah. 45 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:43,000 And so we'll have like potatoes and pickles and ham and like little pickle pearl onions and stuff like that. 46 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:50,000 Like it's just like a big mix. And we get like nice raclette cheese and then everybody just sits around. It's like very easy to prepare. 47 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:56,000 And everybody sits around. It's very like super fun and interactive and dynamic. 48 00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:00,000 Yeah. Exactly. And like a simple salad with it and that's it. 49 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:07,000 And then but then also there you have like a proper Christmas dinner, which usually is either duck or goose. 50 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:13,000 Yeah, I've had that and the times I've been in like in German family Christmas. 51 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:29,000 Like duck or goose with this blue cabbage cooked like an apple and also some clove, right. And then this knutle, which is like this bread dumplings next to it with a sauce, something like that. 52 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:37,000 Yeah, exactly. So yeah, the red cabbage, like which is just red cabbage. And it's like people get really like particular how to make it. 53 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:44,000 For example, my dad has like a recipe where he like marinades the cabbage for like two days before he even cooks it and stuff like that. 54 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:55,000 But yeah, it's like it's like red cabbage, red wine, grated apple, like bay leaf and like juniper and stuff like that. 55 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:58,000 You're talking about the marinade, right? The marinade of the red cabbage. 56 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:05,000 No, like when you cook it, you know, you basically cook it in. It's basically like a savory cabbage jam. 57 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:09,000 Like it's almost cooked down until it's like almost like a jam. 58 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:15,000 Yeah, it usually has like this exactly like apples and sweet components to it. 59 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:19,000 Yeah, it's like sweet and sour. It's sweet and sour. Yeah, and savory. 60 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:25,000 Exactly. Yeah, it's something for me. For me, that's as German as it gets in my perception. 61 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:31,000 Yeah, yeah, for me too. But it's like something that you only eat at Christmas, you know, like really. 62 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:39,000 I mean, and then the dumplings that you talked about, they're called Servettenknudel, which means napkin dumplings, right? 63 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:46,000 Because it's made from leftover bread. And then you make the mixture, you soak the bread in milk and you add some like sauteed onions and some eggs and stuff. 64 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:59,000 You make this mixture like a stuffing. And then traditionally you would take linen napkins and put the mix in and as like a big sausage and roll it up and make like a torsion and then put it in the napkin. 65 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:03,000 And then once it's done, take it out, take it out of the napkin and slice it. 66 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:10,000 Yeah, as you said, like bread, right? And you can you could even after the grill it to add it some some crust and butter, right? 67 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:16,000 Oh, yeah. So that's usually the thing that people do. They make like a little bit too much Servettenknudel. 68 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:23,000 And then you have it one day just like poached. And then the next day, all the leftover slices, you fry it in butter until it's really crispy. 69 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:31,000 It's like a super nice to have like a Christmas fry up where you just like have a big pan, you add like pieces of this like bread stuffing dumpling. 70 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:41,000 And then you just crack eggs and potatoes in it. Stuff and just make like a big like what in South Germany you would call it like a Geröschtl, you know, like just roast everything together, you know. 71 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,000 And it's like it's super, super nice. 72 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:52,000 Do you have any like memorable like a memorable elaboration you've done for for a Christmas night or or an anecdote or something? 73 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:59,000 I mean, I'm always like, like every Christmas is kind of the same. 74 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:05,000 Like my family, like carefully approaches me and says, I'm sure you don't want to cook a Christmas, right? 75 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:10,000 You cook like all year round. So you don't really want to cook, do you? 76 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:14,000 And I'm like, no, I can cook. That's OK. And they're like, oh, yeah, well, great. Here's the kitchen. 77 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:21,000 There's 15 people coming. And and and yeah, it's like pretty much always the same. 78 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,000 I always like go in. It's very nice. 79 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:27,000 Like when I either I spent a Christmas in Tenerife with my mom, which is very nice. 80 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:35,000 Or I'm like in like southwest Germany where there's like lots of medieval towns and lots of markets. 81 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:37,000 And it's like a very cozy mood. 82 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:41,000 So I go and like just just like go to markets and buy stuff. Right. 83 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:45,000 But when I go to Tenerife, it's a little bit different because in Tenerife, you don't. 84 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:48,000 My family is German, but it's very hard to get like certain products there. 85 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:55,000 So, for example, that this year, my mom, you know, like the first thing I wrote, hey, I've bought my tickets. 86 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:58,000 I'm coming this and this day. And she was like, oh, great. 87 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:01,000 I'm super happy that you're coming. And then like five minutes later, she sent me a message. 88 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:06,000 She was like, you think there's any way that you could fit a whole goose in your suitcase? 89 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:09,000 And I was like, I was like, how is that supposed to work? 90 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:13,000 And she's like, I don't know. But like this asking. Yeah, just asking. 91 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:17,000 And I was like, well, you know, like, you know, I'm always up for these sorts of shenanigans. 92 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:21,000 You know, like I can see what I can do. And she was like, why is it illegal? 93 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:27,000 And I was like, it's definitely illegal to transport meat on a plane from one country. 94 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:30,000 She was like, oh, then maybe then maybe you shouldn't do it. 95 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:36,000 And then 10 minutes later, she wrote and she was like, maybe you can just buy like the thighs and just get those and like backseal them. 96 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:45,000 But that's funny. Well, I have a memory of it was just before Colby 2020. 97 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:51,000 That Christmas or 2019, I was visiting my sister that lives in Philadelphia. 98 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:57,000 So they dropped me. It was also my brother, my sister-in-law. 99 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:04,000 Like it was like a nice group. So they dropped me in Whole Foods, like by whatever you need. 100 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:12,000 So and I think the interesting this that I did on that occasion was a roasted pumpkin salad. 101 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:17,000 So I found like a really nice pumpkin. I cut it into cubes and roasted it. 102 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:22,000 And I remember I had lots of stuff to that salad. 103 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:32,000 There was like this caramelized pecan nuts that you could buy already like the rapinyalas, you know, with this fine sugar coat around. 104 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:43,000 And my sister had in her basement a thousand year old Moroccan lemons, you know, like this, the salt cured lemons. 105 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:48,000 And these were like really nice that they had to be there like for many years. 106 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:54,000 So like those julienned, there were also like candied cherries. 107 00:10:54,000 --> 00:11:00,000 I remember the dressing was something with yogurt and maple syrup. 108 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:06,000 You know, it was like all these Christmas flavors around a roasted pumpkin salad. 109 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:11,000 And I remember that one. Everybody was like, what is this? You know, it was super, super good. 110 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:18,000 But besides that, as I said, mostly is a nice piece of meat properly braised with a nice sauce. 111 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:26,000 And there's not much more to it, you know, like some potatoes, some butter, nice wine. And that's it. 112 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:31,000 Well, also something that I think is really special are what I call Christmas spices. 113 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:42,000 For example, the mixture for Lebkuchen in Germany or for pumpkin pie in America, you know, like it's usually cinnamon, 114 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:52,000 Jamaica pepper, you know, like this different sweet spices, which is not exactly correct to call them sweet, but you know what I mean? 115 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:56,000 And yeah, I think that's also something very Christmasy. Yeah, for sure. 116 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:04,000 Like I always look forward to like also being like cooking with these spices, you know, like putting a cinnamon stick in something that's amazing, you know. 117 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:11,000 And like I love I think autumn and winter is like especially autumn is my favorite time to cook. Yeah, I agree. 118 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:16,000 Oven braised stuff and you know, like I love the mushroom season. Yeah. 119 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:27,000 My grandma used to make something really crazy. My grandma is an amazing cook and she used to have this recipe that always everybody always 120 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:32,000 actually she has two recipes that people always ask her for. One is a Christmas salad. 121 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:39,000 It's just called Christmas salad because she makes it a Christmas. It's like a beetroot salad with like smoked mackerel and horseradish and stuff like that. 122 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:46,000 And loads of dill with like a cream fresh dressing. It's just like very nice Eastern German style, you know. 123 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:57,000 But she used to make this thing that she would call Indian stuffed duck. So like Indian as in India, not, you know, Native Americans, obviously. 124 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:07,000 And I don't think it's very Indian at all. Like the Indian parts of it are like the spices and the fact that into the stuffing that she puts in the duck, 125 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:15,000 she puts hard boiled eggs that get chopped up. Oh, nice. Which sounds really weird, you know, but actually like Parsi cooking and stuff like that. 126 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:20,000 You know, they use a lot of hard boiled eggs. I've seen that a lot actually. Yeah. Yeah. 127 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:28,000 And she would put also raisins in the mixture and like sultanas and I need to look at the recipe, but I think like orange zest also. 128 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:33,000 And it's like a very elaborate recipe and she stuffs this duck and then roasts the whole duck. 129 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:40,000 So the duck gets flavored with all these things and then you eat the stuffing and the duck like, you know, on the same plate separately. 130 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:48,000 And it's like a super crazy recipe that like when you read it, it's like like the first time I read it, I was like, this what is this? 131 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:53,000 You know, like what the hell is going on? But then you eat like she makes it and you're like, man, this is absolutely delicious. 132 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:58,000 Like that's super crazy, man. You just reminded me like the sister I have in Philadelphia. 133 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:06,000 She has like all the family treasures because my grandmother used to live in Philadelphia for a long time, my German grandmother. 134 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:11,000 So she has all these old books and pictures and these kind of things. 135 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:19,000 And like my grand, grand, grandmother, they were they lived in India because they were like Lutheran missionaries. 136 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:26,000 And there was this recipe book with Indian recipes from my grand, grand, grandmother, like chutneys and things. 137 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:30,000 Super interesting, man. All hard written. Yeah, man. 138 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:35,000 That meant those things that they really are treasures, you know, like they're really, really are treasures. 139 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:38,000 And if you have something like that, you know, like keep it and treasure it. 140 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:45,000 That's it for this week's episode of potluck food talks. 141 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:50,000 If you like what we're doing, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. 142 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:54,000 You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok as potluck food talks. 143 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,000 The show airs every Monday.