Spanish Christmas food recipes will help you celebrate Christmas in a traditional Spanish style.
La Noche Buena
Christmas eve in Spain is called La Noche Buena and it is a night of feasting with friends and family. Dinner usually starts as late as ten o'clock and includes everything from tapas to sweet desserts and fruits. Gifts are not exchanged on this night. Instead, they are given on the Epiphany (January 6th), which is traditionally believed to be the day the wise men arrived at the manger.
Spanish Christmas Food Recipes
If you are planning a traditional Spanish Christmas dinner you will need Spanish Christmas food recipes for each course.
Chorizo Stuffed Dates
I made this Spanish tapa in my international class at the Cordon Bleu. This is not only a great Spanish Christmas food recipe but they are easy to make, can be made well ahead of time, and are fast to cook so you can make a bunch of them and still have fun at your party.
Ingredients
- 2 ounces of imported Spanish Chorizo sausage
- 12 pitted Medjool dates
- 6 slices of bacon
- 1 beaten egg
- 1 cup of breadcrumbs
- 1 cup of flour
- Toothpicks
- Vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Peel the skin off of the chorizo sausage and slice the sausage in half.
- Slice the sausage halves into ¼ inch slices.
- Slice one side of the date lengthwise.
- Fit one slice of the chorizo sausage inside each date.
- Close the date the best you can around the sausage bit.
- Do this for each of the twelve dates.
- Cut each slice of bacon in half.
- Wrap the bacon around the date.
- Pin the bacon onto the date with a toothpick.
- Dust the dates with flour.
- Dip each date in the egg mixture and coat it with breadcrumbs.
- At this point, you can cover the dates with plastic wrap and store them overnight in your refrigerator.
- When you are ready to cook the dates, pour about 1 ½ inch of oil into a pan.
- Heat the oil over a medium flame until it reaches at least 350 degrees. If you do not have a deep fry thermometer, just wait until you can feel the heat coming off the oil by holding your hand over, not in, the oil.
- Drop one date in the oil. If it starts to fry right away, you know your oil is ready.
- Fry the dates three or four at a time.
- Let them drain on a rack that has been placed in a sheet pan.
- Eat while still warm.
Churros
Churros are a very tasty dessert treat. If you have the oil hot for the dates, you might as well drop in some churros and take care of dessert while you are eating the tapas.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups of flour
- ¼ teaspoon of table salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 cup of water
- ¼ cup of vegetable oil
- 1 beaten egg
- ½ cup of sugar mixed with *4 tablespoons of cinnamon or more to taste
- Vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Sift the flour, salt, and 2 tablespoons of sugar together.
- Heat water with the ¼ cup of oil together in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil.
- Add the flour mixture to the water and oil and mix together until it becomes a thick paste.
- Let the paste cool for two minutes.
- Mix in the beaten egg.
- Pour the sugar and cinnamon mixture onto a plate or sheet pan.
- Spoon the paste into a large pastry bag that has been fitted with a large star tip. You can also use a plain tip if you like.
- Place a sheet of parchment paper onto a sheet pan or cookie sheet.
- Pipe a coil of paste onto the parchment about 3-4 inches across.
- Pour enough vegetable oil into a pan to cover 1 1/2 inches. Heat the oil to 340-350 degrees.
- Carefully drop the coils of paste into the oil.
- When the churros are golden brown, about two minutes, remove from the oil.
- Drain briefly on a rack that has been placed on a half sheet pan or a cookie sheet.
- Once cooled, dredge the churros in the sugar and cinnamon mixture.
- Eat while warm.
