Wrapped up (both literally and metaphorically) as we are in our wintry vision of Christmas, we tend to forget that for some parts of the world Christmas happens in the blazing sun. The hardy people of Barbados still do wear Christmas hats in the air-conditioned supermarkets, and they listen to familiar ditties about the snow and robins, but that's not the reality they're seeing out on the veranda.
Mexico of course is also nice and warm in December, and here the emphasis is on family get-togethers. It's not surprising their Christmas traditional food is good for sharing.
Meanwhile in Eastern Europe there's a lot more religious symbolism around than most of us go in for in the UK. A typical Christmas Festive Dinner in the Ukraine (held on January 7th) should have 12 dishes to represent the 12 disciples of Jesus. In Provence they go one better: with 13 desserts to represent Christ and the 12 apostles. This can include 2 kinds of nougat, representing good and evil, and the wonderfully named biscuit Casse-dents d'Allauch (the teeth-breakers of Allauch). But it also includes fruit and nuts, each variety counting separately, so it's not like 13 Christmas puddings. And you don't all have to eat all of them.
But it is in the picturesque snowy landscape of Scandinavia we begin, with the saffron bun known as Lussekatter.
As with all my favourite historical foods, Lussekatter come with some confusing history and symbolism. Saint Lucy/Lucia's Day is on 13th December, once thought to be the shortest day of the year, and St Lucia is the patron saint of light. Although these buns are tradition on 13th itself, they've now spread into a good Sunday morning family breakfast in Advent sort of thing.
The shape is also interesting. Curled up into an S, with raisins in both end curlicues, it's suggested that Lucia morphed into Lucifer, and these are devilish cats, with raisins for eyes (at both ends?!) though Lucia was also the patron saint of blindness, having had her eyes gouged out as part of her martyrdom. So perhaps the dark raisins in the bright yellow bun symbolise blindness and brightness, Lucia's two sides. At any rate she was a generous saint and her commemmorative bun is still extremely popular, whatever the origins of its distinctive twist.
They key thing to avoid here is dryness. Some recipes swear by Quark, others that this is a trick by the Quark makers who have hoodwinked Sweden. Others suggest soaking the raisins in rum or vodka, others that it makes a big difference to start with whole saffron threads, soak them, and grind them yourself. Other than that this is pretty classic breadmaking.
Lussekatter
This recipe is based on John Duxbury's melted butter recipe, on www.swedishfood.com.
1 tsp saffron threads
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tbsp vodka or rum
32 raisins (or 48 raisins if you're making smaller buns eg for a nibbles sort of party) + a few spares
hot water
250ml milk
75g unsalted butter or dairy-free margarine
450g strong bread flour or gluten-free bread flour
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
65g caster sugar
1tsp baking powder
Optional egg if you're making a gluten-free dough and want some extra oomph to hold it together
Optional 60g Quark to replace 70ml milk and 20g butter (makes it lower in fat but still light and airy)
7g fast action dried yeast (that's 1 packet, or 1.5 tsp)
1 egg to glaze
Grind the saffron threads with the salt using a pestle and mortar, add the vodka/rum and leave to stand for at least 30 mins.
Place the raisins in a bowl with hot water to cover, and leave them until needed. This is a key part of keeping your buns moist. (You could use rum or vodka here instead of the water if you like.)
Heat the milk to 35-40 degrees C. Melt the butter separately, leave to cool slightly and mix into the milk. (This makes it much easier to mix the dough together if you don't have a kitchen mixer.)
Sift the flour in a big bowl. Add sugar, baking powder, and cardamom if using. Mix. Add the yeast and mix again.
Stir in first the saffron, salt and vodka mixture, then the milk and butter mixture. (Add the egg or Quark if you're using these.) Bring together to form a dough.
Knead the dough on a floured surface for 5-10 mins until smooth and elastic. Put back in bowl and cover with clingfilm or a shower cap, and leave in a warm place until doubled in size. This should take about an hour, or longer for gluten-free dough, which may not double. For gluten-free dough you might prefer to tip the mixture into a breadmaker pan and use the dough setting.
Tip the dough out on a floured surface and punch once or twice to knock back (normal dough only). Divide into about 16 pieces (65g each) for bigger breakfast buns or 24 pieces (40g each) for smaller nibbly buns.
Roll each out to a 30cm long sausage as thick as your finger, and curl into a tight S shape. Put on a greased lined baking sheet. Cover loosely and leave until doubled in size again (around half an hour). Meanwhile heat the oven to 220C / gas 7.
Brush the buns with beaten egg and add a raisin to the centre of each coil (two per bun). Bake 8-12 mins. As soon as they are a lovely golden colour take them out, transfer to a wire rack and cover with a cloth to stop them drying out.
Eat while warm.
Because they're best fresh out of the oven you can prepare the dough the night before and leave in the fridge overnight ready to cook for breakfast. Or wait until the buns are fully cooled and freeze immediately, defrosting only what you need when you need it.
If you don't want to make these yourself, you may find them available at www.swedishfoodshop.com. This is also the place to go if you need moose-shaped gingerbread cutters, or jigsaws of Dalas.
When I was about 2, my grandparents moved to Switzerland. My grandfather, a scientist, had been appointed to the University of Lausanne, although he was in his 70s, and so my grandmother set about making a new life and home in a new country. They settled in a village where no-one ever locked their doors, and there were commercial cherry orchards. Being Switzerland, there was a whole mixture of French and German traditions even if the region was french-speaking. And so we were introduced to various delights including moulded gingerbread (one year Granny sent us a gingerbread cat, but so it didn't break in the post she glued it onto cardboard backing) and, my favourite, Pfeffernusse.
Pfeffernusse is a sort of dry cakey biscuit, iced, more like lebkuchen than gingerbread. It calls for Lebkuchengewurz (lebkuchen spice) which is a heady mix of lots of spices, not the plain ginger powder that so many English recipes require. Nor does it have the same texture as any of our UK meanings of gingerbread, not parkin, cake or hard biscuits. It's probably more than 30 years since I last had Pfeffernusse but I remember them vividly. (These days you can buy them in Waitrose of course, but let's pretend for a second that's impossible, and we'll all just have to venture on this culinary voyage of discovery.) Incidentally, since you don't seem to be able to buy a spice blend specifically for lebkuchen, this might make a lovely Christmas present in itself.
Lebkuchengewurz (lebkuchen and pfeffernusse spice blend)
Using ready ground spices:
2.5 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground green cardamom
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground star anise
1/4 tsp ground mace
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Makes 4 tbsp.
The longer you keep any ground spices the less strong they'll be. For a more vivid flavour you can use whole spices and grind your own mix:
15 3inch cinnamon sticks
8 cloves
6 allspice berries
scant 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
6 green cardamom pods, dehusked, just the black seeds
2 tbsp fresh chopped ginger root
1 whole star anise
1/2 whole blade of mace
1/8 nutmeg
Again, makes 4tbsp
Very gently heat the spices to release their flavour, then grind.
This doesn't keep very long, but is rich and fragrant when fresh.
Various Asian supermarkets along Cowley Road sell all of these spices, both fresh and ground, in a variety of quantities. If you get through a lot of spices this is a much cheaper option than tiny supermarket glass jars! We particularly like Eastern Continental, opposite Union Street (corner door, green window frames). They stock a lot of Jamaican foods and flavours as well as Indian and Asian ones.
Lebkuchengewurz can be used in pumpkin pies, apple pies, fruit cakes, spiced lattes etc as well as Lebkuchen and similar baked goods themselves.
This is one of those recipes where every household probably has their own blend. Don't be afraid to increase or decrease quantities if you like one spice more than another!
Pfeffernusse
This recipe comes from Kemberly Killebrew at www.daringgourmet.com
Dry ingredients
2.25 cups plain flour (or gluten-free flour)
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
1/4 tsp salt
2-3 tsp lebkuchengewurz (see above)
1/4 tsp white pepper, finely ground
1/4 cup ground almonds
Wet ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup runny honey or golden syrup
5 tbsp unsalted butter (or dairy free margarine)
3 tbsp double cream (or dairy free coconut yoghurt or cashew cream)
1 large egg
Glaze
2.5 cups icing sugar
3-4 tbsp hot water
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
Add wet ingredients to a saucepan and melt together. The sugar should be dissolved. Do not boil!
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Once the floury mix is all incorporated, mix in the egg thoroughly. The dough should be glossy and sticky.
Wrap the dough tightly in cling film and refrigerate from 2 hours to 2 days, depending on your patience.
When you're ready to shape and bake the nusse, preheat the oven to 180C / gas 4.
Remove the dough from the cling film and immediately roll into two strands, 3/4 inch thick. Slice the rolls into 3/4 inch thick rounds and roll each into a ball. They should be about the size of a walnut. You need to work quickly while the dough is cool, so if you have a marble slab for pastry/pasta making do use that.
Place the formed nusse on a lined baking tray and cook for 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove, place on a wire rack and let cool completely.
Mix the glaze ingredients. Place the wire rack over a baking tray to catch the drips, and either pour the glaze over the nusse or dip each one in it. The glaze is important not only for sweetness but also as a hard crust which means the pfeffernusse keep well.
Store in an airtight container in a cool place. They should keep for at least two weeks, the flavour intensifying and getting better as they wait.
Makes around 50 little round nusse.
Pozole is a Mexican stew made of hominy (sweetcorn grains that have been mixed with alkali), pork and tomato. It's filling and warming but has a lovely fresh theatrical element you add at table. We recommend for big family occasions, perhaps Christmas or New Year's Eve (or indeed Day of the Dead). This is our authentically Mexican friend Lorena's recipe.
Hominy can be a bit hard to buy. If all else fails it's available from the excellent Mex Grocer online.
You can buy hominy dried or tinned. As with most beans, tinned is easier and quicker as it doesn't require precooking.
You cannot substitute ordinary tinned sweetcorn - hominy has been treated with lime (the chemical not the fruit) in the same way that masa harina (tortilla flour) is treated and is not the same as cornmeal or polenta. The effect is to make the skins of the kernels become digestible, and it turns the grains into an almost doughy lump - they're munchy like giant couscous, and much more nutritious than untreated kernels (it's the secret to how the ancient peoples of mesoamerica flourished on a diet of maize).
These quantities serve 5 hungry adults and a toddler amply.
For the stew:
1tbsp oil
800g pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes (if it comes with a bone, keep that to enrich the stew)
1 medium onion
1 large green bell pepper
2 400g tins of hominy
1 tin of tomatoes
1 whole head of garlic with the loose skin removed and the head cut off so the cloves are able to let their juice out
1/4 tsp cumin
3 bay leaves
1 tsp dried oregano
For the garnish:
a dessert bowl of radishes chopped into small pieces
a big bowl of iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced and cut into pieces so it's spoonable
a big bowl of lightly salted tortilla chips
a dessert bowl of lime quarters
a dessert bowl of fresh cilantro (coriander leaf)
a dessert bowl of finely chopped onion
a small bowl of chilli powder
a small bowl of dried oregano (Mex Grocer will sell you Mexican oregano which is supposed to be sweeter and milder, but european oregano will do fine).
To make the stew, heat the oil, and brown the pork. Add the bone if you have one, the onion, pepper, hominy, tomatoes, garlic and cumin. Bring to a boil, reduce heat an, cover and simmer slowly for 1.5-2 hours until the meat is tender. Stir occasionally to check it's not sticking. (You could also do this in a low oven or a slow cooker, or pressure cook it for half an hour if you're pressed for time.)
Add the herbs, and season with salt and black pepper to taste, and simmer covered for 30 more minutes. Go easy on the salt - your guests can always add more, and they'll be eating it with salty tortilla chips.
While all of the cooking is going on, prepare your garnishes, which is just a question of some chopping and finding a lot of bowls. Because a lot of your garnishes are cold, it's worth serving the pozole in warm bowls. Remember to remove the head of garlic and possibly also the bay leaves once it's done.
At table, serve each guest with their pozole and hand all the garnishes around, so people can find their perfect balance of fresh, crunchy, salty, crispy, hot and fragrant. Customisable to suit all palates!
The season of giving
For those looking to spread their festive cheer a little further, here's our charitable suggestion of the day:
Welcome to Daily Info’s 2024 Advent Calendar – 24 days of events to celebrate the festive period and get ready to ring in the New Year!
This year's calendar offers a mix of Christmas activities - pantos, comedy shows, carol concerts etc, taking in traditions in Oxford and the wider area, as well as free diversions in December and some of the best happenings to book ahead for in 2025.
