”New” New Year’s Dinner Menu - Yellow rice, baked chicken, carrot curls, tomato slices, avocado balls, orange slices and blueberries, potato salad and sorrel drink.
Happy New Year ReggaeJahmmers and fellow hivers.
In this post I’m sharing with you my first dinner in 2023. For many Jamaicans, the home dinner menu for New Year’ Day is similar to that of Christmas’. Christmas dinner often includes at least two kinds of meat and or poultry. There’s often a chicken dish, a beef dish, ham or turkey (I think most people have ham)and for some, fish. There are usually salads (vegetable and potato salad especially) and rice with peas.
For dessert, there’s usually a rich fruit cake and there’s usually sorrel drink among other beverages. We had a typical Jamaican Christmas Dinner but also had friends over twice for dinner. I hadn’t realized that we really needed to restock. The family went out on New Year’s Eve. We were tired when we got back. For New Year’s dinner, we decided to just use the food stuff we had to create a meal. It wasn’t our typical dish but we enjoyed it.
Christmas Dinner- usually New Year’s Dinner is similar for us but this wasn’t the case this year.
New Year’s Dinner Menu
Tumeric rice
To the rice, we added tumeric, chicken stock, coconut milk a bit of butter and garlic. It was flavorful. We made enough rice for two or three meals.
Potato Salad
This salad was a mix of carrot and Irish potatoes. We added grated onion and garlic as well as mayonnaise.
Orange and a few berries
We had just one orange left so we sliced it in four so each family member could get a piece. There weren’t enough berries for each person to get two, so each person got just one. 😆
Carrot, Tomato and Avocado 🥑
We still had many carrots in stock. We had already used some in the potato salad but still added a curl to each plate. We had just two tomatoes left in stock. We used one and got eight wedges. My boys are not fans of avocados but it was the only kind of “greens” we had in the refrigerator. 😆Each family member got a ball of it dressed with lime juice.
Sorrel Drink and Fruit Cake
Luckily we had enough sorrel drink and cake.
Jamaican-style Christmas Fruit Cake
Sorrel drink- sorrel is a kind of hibiscus. It’s added to boiling water with grated ginger and cloves. It has a deep red color. When cooled, it’s sweetened with sugar. Sometimes rum and or wine is added for a rich flavor.
We hadn’t intended on starting the new year with an almost empty fridge but that’s what happened. We were however happy that we had enough to come up with a meal. We are grateful and the meal was delicious.
What was your first meal or dinner of the new year? Please share photos in the comment box below.
Have a great day. 😃🎶