Boxing Day Breakfast
Seriously. We wore the paper hats.
The BBC Roasts the Spuds
Page three?
Traditional Fare
It used to be Boxing Day, anyway--that's probably a politically incorrect name for it, now, as it refers to the day after another holiday we shouldn't name (which celebrates the birth of someone who was born at a completely different time of year and whose mother was mistakenly translated as being a virgin instead of simply a young woman ) when the master of the house gave the servants their "Christmas boxes" with money, or with lengths of material supplied by the mistress. Incidentally, the Irish are much more pragmatic about the whole holiday, and call it St. Stephen's Day (and as far as I know, nobody minds).
But on the day after the day we can't name, or the Winter Solstice if you don't mind me being Pagan, we traditionally cook a meal that is called "Boxing Day Breakfast" and that comprises an interesting blend of choice viands retrieved from the refrigerator, the viands being succulent leftovers that are taken from their varied and multicolored plastic receptacles and then mucked around in a frying pan. Haute cuisine at its haute st.
Of course, in order to get the full impact of this event, you really need to know what was on the menu the day before.
Our Christmas is Your Thanksgiving
(Or should that be your Thanksgiving is our Christmas?) When it comes to food, we have the full turkey dinner on that-day-I-wasn't-supposed-to-mention, with roast potatoes (parboiled and dunked into about three-quarters of an inch of cooking oil, then shoved into the oven wherever there's room), burnt cocktail sausages (it's no good if they aren't at least partly carbonized), and brussels sprouts.
Stuffing is serious. Sage and onion--none of that fancy oyster and roast chestnut stuff the colonials in the Americas like to consume. Ham, baked, sliced; turkey, roasted in oven, sliced; carrots--ok, parsnip--ok, corn--nope ; stuffed bacon rolls--ok, gravy--buckets of it; oh, and did I mention the stuffing? It's serious.
So the leftovers are specifically designed to meld into each other in meticulous meshing of flavors guaranteed to complement each other, and compliment the cook.
But if you don't have enough gravy, beat a raw egg or two into the gravy boat (you didn't bother decanting the gravy into another container), pour liberally over as much of the aforementioned conglomeration of comestibles as you have been able to cram into the frying pan, and sizzle it over a dangerously high flame.
The point is that if you can get it to dry out at the bottom, you get a lovely clumping mass of food that you can slide out of the pan and turn over, for a little more heat (not too much, now; you don't want to dry it all out completely). Turn it out onto as many plates as there are people left over from yesterday, and repeat the process.
Serve with cups of tea, glasses of Guinness, or any other hair of the dog that appeals to your sense of decorum.
Christmas. Crackers.
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Mighty. I'm looking forward to next Festivus already.
Rated funny and up! And do you know, I think I'll start following you.
Hey Rochell! Back atcha; good to see you again.
Jeff -- thanks for coming by and staying to read. It's much appreciated, indeed.
Yummy!!!
To be honest, I don't really like thinking about Christmas at this time of the year, but I have no problem naming it. :) :)
Sounds like a great family time Teresa, I was wondering about the potatoes and the 3/4 inch of oil--does the oil go into the oven with the potatoes or are they just dipped first and put into another pan? Thank you for a festive and fun article.
I found it fascinating to learn about the various tradition.
I just read another hub on leftovers...who knew they could be so appetising. Drool.
As Boxing Day (!?) is my birthday, can I come along to your place for breakfast? It sounds too yummy for words.
Thanks for a very entertaining and useful Hub.
Love and peace
Tony
Well Love and Peace Indeed, Tony!
great day to have a birthday, eh? Bet you hated it when you were a kid; how may cheap relations bought you one gift for Christmas/birthday?
Thanks, as always, for stopping by.
T.
Most, in fact. And one aunt used to give an identical pair of socks each year - I swore she had bought a gross of them on the cheap!
Love and peace to you too!
Tony
Aye, a peek into the other lane and the festivities. I thank you for telling of the good food you enjoy. I must hook up with some Irish so I can partake of a grand meal, as I do not think Christmas is even close to right in the name of my Father and his Son, but enough of that, as it now lasts from August 'til next year over greed, that's all how much more pagan than that can it get? I ask.
A good meal with loved ones is a great idea all on it's own! Now I'm wondering about dipping things in pure grease and baking them, sounds good. Love and Peace as well from here, 50
Hi we never have boxing day in India but all i know about the boxing day is it falls on 26th december and there is always a cricket test match that starts in Australia and they call it Boxing day test match and from there i came to know about boxing day.
Hi Teresa it's called bubble and squeak in England and was the usual fare every monday after the traditional sunday roast. That's if we were lucky of course, as usually we would have to settle for bread and scrape. That's the fat left over in the roasting pan for the uninitiated. Oh no! I've given it away. I am a lower class peasant after all. Cheers
Hey there attemptedhumor--I've been enjoying all your comments, thank you for reading. I loved what you said about Australia on another Hub (about the class system).
Pleased to meet ya!
Coming from Belfast I thought your breakfast would be an ulster fry LOL.
There,s an idea for you what is the best ulster fry?
The best Ulster fry is one I don't have to eat! I never could stomach fried food in the morning, and that made me a bit unpopular around the breakfast table.
Ms. McGurk - your version of stuffing is the same I was raised on - probably because my gran and great gran were of Irish tastes/descent. Corn is often served - and (tho it may have been fresh at one point in its life) probably from a can (which I have an aversion to unless starving).
The rest of the feast is insanely wonderful - whatever the 'not to be mentioned holiday' it follows. I prefer the holiday referred to as 'Sunday'...
Rochelle Frank 22 months ago
Lovely fare for the hungry, those who know how to celebrate seriously, and those that deserve the hautest, steeped in tradition and fat.
Glad to see you around and about again.