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by The Team
A complete family is the best idea for Christmas or New Year’s Eve.
Holiday feasts in Australia are all about seafood, barbecues and outdoor parties. And because there are tons of recipes to choose from, it can be hard to pick just a few. Whether you’re hosting a big barbecue or bringing a dish for a potluck, you’ve come to the right place.
In this article, we’ll show you what a perfect Aussie Christmas or NYE looks like by listing down a few holiday favourites to help you curate your spread.
It’s not an Australian Christmas lunch or dinner without seafood. And what better way to start your Christmas feast than with a prawn cocktail? It’s a fresh and simple appetiser served in a fancy wine glass which will add a touch of class to a NYE celebration too!.
A typical serving of prawn cocktail consists of lettuce, shrimp and a mouthwatering sauce drizzled over the whole concoction. To prepare the sauce, mix tomatoes, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice.
A good prawn cocktail calls for Giant King prawns.
Charcuterie boards are proven crowd-pleasers that always deserve a spot on your table, whether for Christmas or NYE. One good thing about meat and cheese boards is that you only have to assemble everything on a board and make it look pretty—no cooking required!
To ensure your charcuterie board doesn’t look flat and boring, choose meats and cheeses of various shapes, colours, flavours and textures. For your cold cuts, you can use prosciutto, mortadella, salami, chorizo, ham and turkey. As for your cheeses, see to it that there are both soft and hard cheeses in the mix.
Remember, the key to making your board balanced is to place your cheeses on different areas of the board. The same goes for your cold cuts, crackers, fruits and pickles.
Probably the best part about having Christmas and NYE in the summer is the abundance of fresh and crisp salads you can have as sides.
You can never go wrong with a classic potato salad or coleslaw. But if you want to take it up a notch, why not go for seasonal salads like the watermelon salad? Toss watermelon cubes, cherry tomatoes and Shishito peppers in a bowl, sprinkle with basil and mint leaves and drizzle with olive oil to seal the flavour.
Another refreshing salad bowl to impress your guests with is a roasted cauliflower salad with avocado. Just combine roasted cauliflower, some greens, chickpeas, quinoa and creamy avocado dressing to create the perfect vegetarian-friendly and summery salad.
Potatoes are some of the most versatile ingredients you can have at your Christmas lunch or dinner feast. For this one, we will bake them to create a mouthwatering potato gratin. It’s typically a side to a hearty barbecue or filling seafood dish. But honestly, it can pass off as an entree too.
Potato gratin typically consists of thinly sliced potatoes, thickened cream, garlic and milk sauce, and of course, a generous amount of grated cheese. Bake in the oven and enjoy!
Seafood tastes fantastic all year-round, but seafood appetisers taste even better during the holidays, don’t you think? For another seafood option for your starters, try ginger and lemongrass scallops.
Create a lemongrass mixture using ginger, red chilli, sesame oil, mirin, fish sauce and lime juice. On a preheated grill, barbecue the scallops and let them absorb all the juices of the mixture. Don’t forget to top it off with fresh coriander!
Look at those beautiful Tasmanian scallops.
Caprese may be an Italian staple, but the ingredients perfectly complement Australia’s sunny Christmas and NYE atmosphere. To tailor it for the Holidays, why not assemble the ingredients to resemble a wreath?
Prepare all salad ingredients on a round plate, wreath style: bocconcini (mozzarella cheese balls), tomatoes and basil. So as not to make the centre too bare, place the oil and balsamic vinegar dressing in a small bowl at the centre of the wreath.
Whether as a side or as a meal in itself, chorizo and sweet potato salad should grace your NYE or Christmas table. It should! Pre-roasting your sweet potatoes as you make the savoury dressing should fill your kitchen air with an inviting aroma too.
Want that perfect added zing on your roast potatoes? Add some bright citrus flavour to this simple recipe by baking them with lemon. You can make these gluten-free easily, too.
Is it even an Australian Christmas feast without a seafood platter? Aussies love seafood, and especially so during Christmas. The best part about a seafood platter is you just need to steam or grill your seafood; no complicated steps required.
Gather all of your favourite seafood and combine in a platter. Crowd favourites include fresh oysters, scallops, barramundi, lobster and king prawns. Feel free to add more as your guests wish. Don’t forget to drizzle the seafood in lemon garlic sauce!
Seafood platters can be categorised as mains or appetisers. Either way, Christmas lunch ideas like these will definitely endear you to your guests.
Seafood platters, anyone?
Just like in many parts of the world, Australia enjoys maple-glazed ham on Christmas Eve. However, unlike other parts of the world, we like our ham cold. Aussie-style ham is cooked several days before the event, kept in the fridge and served cool.
There are many ways to prepare the good old Christmas ham. Apart from maple, you can go with classic glazes, such as honey and mustard or pineapple juice. Other must-try glazes include cranberry and blackcurrant, ginger marmalade, bourbon and honey ginger.
To bring out the flavours, we recommend sides like asparagus salad, warm potato and celery salad, pomegranate and fennel salad, and mango and chilli salsa.
Although snow and ice are nice, sun and smoke are a special kind of fun. Australia is lucky to enjoy great weather during the holidays. This means more time spent outdoors with family and friends over good food—like a barbecue!
If it’s your turn to host a barbecue party for the holidays, you won’t run out of seafood and meat options. For the seafood: fresh prawns, scallops, cod and salmon all look and smell amazing on the grill.
For your meats, lamb, sausage, chicken, turkey and ham will surely keep your guests satiated. Skewered zucchini also adds dimension to your set of grilled goodies!
Got some carnivores on your guest list? Don’t forget to add turkey to your NYE or Christmas lunch or dinner spread. As with Christmas ham, turkey is usually pre-cooked and served cold.
There are countless ways to serve your turkey. One standout recipe is turkey rolls with cherry and almond stuffing. You can also try to serve turkey with marsala gravy, cornbread sauce or apple cider gravy. Use different greens and herbs like sage, rosemary and watercress sprigs to really bring out the aroma and flavour of the dish.
Who doesn’t love salmon? Christmas Day or not, salmon is a superstar. One recipe that certainly won’t disappoint is herbed salmon with capers and fennel remoulade. You only need your fish, oven and a few key aromatics, and you’re good to go. It’s excellent for NYE, too!
Bake the salmon, sprinkle herb mixture on it and serve with a remoulade made with mustard, mayonnaise, lemon juice, tarragon and fennel.
You can also try this lemon herb-crusted salmon with Greek salad from Manettas.
Add lobster with lemon and tarragon butter to your list of NYE and Christmas lunch ideas and watch it steal the show. There’s nothing quite like impressing your guests with a big, fat lobster dish waiting to be devoured.
First, have the lobster halved and cleaned. Once it’s ready, scoop a generous amount of butter, lemon zest, lemon juice and tarragon mix into the shell. Feeling like you’re overdoing it? No worries. With lobster, extra is a regular thing.
The quintessential Australian Christmas and NYE spread includes pavlova, and for good reason. This cloud-like dessert will end any holiday gastronomic affair on a high note.
Pavlova is a meringue-based dessert made with fresh cream, a generous helping of berries and passionfruit pulp. You can shape it like a traditional cake or transform it into a wreath or even a Christmas tree!
The festive celebrations wouldn’t be complete without Christmas pudding on the table. This British influence is a dessert bursting with dried fruits, nuts and spices covered in rum or brandy and served with creamy vanilla custard.
Take note, though, that this can be a little too rich for some, especially during the hot Australian holidays. You can stick to the traditional British recipe or make it lighter.
Tasked to bring dessert for the potluck? This quick cake is one of the easiest to make.
Ingredients include Arnott’s famous Choc Ripple biscuits, whipped cream, chocolate bars and fresh berries. Imagine a no-bake cake done in 15 minutes getting people to line up for seconds.
The classic Christmas trifle looks good as a centrepiece without even trying. It features layers of custard, jelly, cake, whipped cream anglaise and fruits, such as raspberries and poached pears—all in a trifle dish or glass bowl.
The good news is you can survive with store-bought pound cake and custard and nobody will be able to taste the difference. However, take the time to prepare the jelly using real cranberry juice to give this dessert just the right level of sweetness.
Australia may not have the white Christmas other parts of the world enjoy, but we have our own version in bite-size pieces. White Christmas is an old-fashioned dessert slice, featuring rice bubbles, glace cherries, desiccated coconut and sultanas, coconut oil and dried fruit.
This dessert requires zero baking skills and can be stored in the freezer for serving later. It’s a fun, easy dessert to make with the kids. Consider preparing some for the dessert table and a separate batch as giveaways or Christmas presents.
Give the traditional coffee-based Italian affogato a little twist by playing with different flavours. You can try using chocolate gelato for New Year’s Eve. Or, keep the vanilla ice cream and pour a generous serving of melted dark chocolate flakes on it. Either way, we guarantee it’s the perfect finale for an intimate night with friends or family.
Australia has the Brits to thank for traditional fruit mince pies. During the middle ages, it was believed that eating a pie every day for the 12 days leading to Christmas would bring good luck. Since then, it has become a tradition to include mince pies on the Aussie Christmas menu.
Fruit mince pies consist of pastry with sultanas, apple, almonds, mixed spices and brandy as filling. Traditionally, the filling wasn’t too sugary, as the original mince pie was filled with meat! With such evolution, the entire family can now enjoy its sweet goodness!
All the finest and latest recipes mean nothing when you aren’t with your family or best buds.
With Christmas and NYE fast approaching, planning a feast to serve your family and guests can be quite a challenge. You don’t want to serve the same old set of food every year, but don’t want to go too far away from tradition either.
With this guide, you’ll be able to include NYE and Christmas lunch and dinner mainstays in the menu, all while making them extra exciting for this particular year.
