What to do when homesickness catches you away from home at Christmas? Well, get creative and adapt our Christmas dishes to what you can find. Here's some ideas.
About ten years ago I was in Denmark, where my husband hails from, and we were going to spend the holiday season with his family. With a full schedule of eating and more eating ahead, I had the "brilliant" idea of treating everybody to an "authentic" traditional Dominican Christmas.
Finding the ingredients
We were not even in the capital, where finding the right ingredients for my authentic Dominican Christmas recipes had a slightly better chance than a snowball in hell, instead we were in a small tourist town away from any major city. This idea of mine proved to be quite the challenge.
Even under these conditions, I was still able to procure yuca and platanos in a nearby city, and with considerable diligence, a raw leg of ham.
It's easy to forget that what is common to the point of being unremarkable in our country, is not really so abroad. For a country that consumes a heck of a lot of pork, finding a pernil in Denmark proved to be quite the feat. Since my in-laws own a hotel and restaurants, they have a good relationship with the town's butcher, who got us one after a couple of days of waiting.
Whatever ingredients I couldn't find I adapted, and substituted. No whole-grain bulgur? I made kipes with peeled bulgur and added a bit of flour to help with the consistency. No yautia or ñame? I made pasteles en hoja with yuca and platanos and added a grated potato to add more starch. Since finding plantain leaves would be impossible in Denmark, I wrapped them in parchment paper.
The most difficult part proved to be guandules (pigeon peas) for a moro de guandules. Nobody had ever heard of them. So, I found some dry beans that looked a bit like guandules and decided to try them. Left in water overnight it only took 15 mins. for them to cook soft. The taste is similar to the "ashy", nutty taste of guandules. It turned out not a lot, unlike the real thing. The beans in question are mung beans, a name that Aunt Ilana dug up for me as the bag had a Danish name that my husband wasn't able to translate.
And since finding batatas (Dominican sweet potatoes) in cold Denmark would be akin to finding rødgrød med fløde being served in the Dominican Republic, I used the more common sweet potatoes (the ones with the orangey flesh) and some corn starch (they have less starch than batatas).
You can read our article on how to get Dominican ingredients abroad.
Even though the dinner would not pass quality inspection in a Dominican home, we all enjoyed it, and I was proud of the result.
If you too are far from home, we have some recipes that you can perfectly make in almost any country, and whose ingredients will be easy to find almost anywhere. Here are a few:
- Arroz navideño (Christmas rice)
- Pollo asado navideño (Christmas chicken)
- Croquetas de pollo (chicken croquettes)
- Pastelón de papa (potato casserole)
- Empanadas y pastelitos (savory pasties)
- Ensalada rusa (potato salad)
- Ensalada de coditos (pasta salad)
- Ponche de ron (Christmas eggnog)
- Té de jengibre (ginger tea)
Your Christmas feast can have a Dominican touch wherever you are. And that's what's important. Homesickness, it turns out, is the best seasoning.
