Winter Holiday Dinners, 2008

I was poking around, and realized I didn't see a thread for this. I've got at least two to make: Christmas and Boxing Day.

For Christmas, I used the very handy new file feature on Epicurious and created the following menu, with a few additions:
Appetizers:

assorted cheeses
HB Quail eggs with toasted-sesame salt
chips and dips

Mains:

Rib Roast (Alton Brown's method) with Roasted-Garlic Thyme sauce
Potato and Kale Galette
Roasted Assorted Cauliflowers with Mustard-Lemon butter
Green Beans with Sweet and Sour Red Onions
Yorkshire Pudding with Bacon and Sage
Homemade challah or brioche

Desserts:

Chocolate Stout Cake
Home-canned Apple and kumquat upside-down cake
(hopefully - I don't really have a recipe yet, but am looking to adapt several)

Assorted Christmas Cookies (right now, that means pistachio biscotti thins (been through 2 batches already) shortbread, lavendar shortbread, and filbert coins - maybe more will get added as today progresses)

For Boxing Day, I'm going to take my own advice and make Cioppino - anybody got a recipe they recommend? I posted one from Epicurious earlier, has anybody tried it? And then just plain homemade bread. Maybe dandelion greens, too, who knows.

I've got a few displaced foreigners and secular Jews coming over to celebrate Christmas dinner. Cooking is already underway. The menu is an ecclectic hodgepodge including a couple of holiday classics. Here it is with a few cooking notes:

- potato latkes with creme fraiche and caviar:
(grate onion, grate potatoes, squeeze like a MFer in a kitchen towel to dry, season, add egg and little flour, fry. Top with purchased creme fraiche and American sturgeon eggs)

- orange dusted seared scallops with chestnut cream and bacon
(zest orange rind with a microplane and dry in low oven for 2 hours, then mortar and pestle it to a powder. Season scallops with orange powder and salt and sear. Rehydrate dried chestnuts and puree with cream. Serve scallops atop chestnut cream with crumbled bacon.

- pear-lemon sorbet-
(peel pears, cook with a little water, sugar, and a lemon cut in half. Remove lemon and squeeze any remaining juice. Puree in blender, cool, and churn in ice cream machine)

salmon poached in rendered salmon fat, served with buerre rouge, mushroom-noodle kugel and garlicky green beans
(save salmon scraps forever and freeze them. Render the fat over very low heat and use that plus some olive oil as a poaching liquid. Poach the fish. Cook egg noodles, and add mushrooms that have been sauteed in butter and thyme, a couple of beaten eggs, and some marscapone. Place in well buttered baking dish and top with brioche breadcrumbs before baking.). Make buerre rouge and green beans).

- arugula salad with clementine vinaigrette and pine nuts
(make salad)

- buche de noel with chestnut cream and chocolate ganache
(buy from Floriole bakery. Bring AAA card for when you get stuck in a nasty ice/snow bank when picking up the cake from the very nice bakers on a messy side street Logan Square)

Xmas 2008

Turkey cooked in Romertopf

"Smashed" small yukon potatoes and carrots (cooked with turkey in Romertopf and then mashed up a bit)

Brussels sprouts braised in cream (from ATK The New Best Recipe cookbook)

Corn (microwaved )

Cranberry sauce (canned--can't get over my love for the canned sauce)

Sweet potato "souffle" with marshmallows (from Southern Cooking from Mary Mac's Tearoom)

Lemon Buttermilk Chess pie (from The South: The Beautiful cookbook)

This is probably contrary to the spirit of this thread but after hosting Thanksgiving and a large holiday party, I really don't feel like spending Christmas or Christmas Eve in the kitchen. So for Christmas, I opted to cook a dry-aged, prime rib roast from Zier's Prime Meats in Wilmette, which should be pretty effortless . . .

Beyond that, the cooking will be minimal. I'm making my favorite brown rice in the rice cooker, mom's bringing some salads, one friend is bringing some form of brussels sprouts, sister is bringing latkes (I'm skeptical that they will travel well but we shall see), another friend is bringing his awesome chocolate cookies and we've got pecan and pumpkin pies from Prairie Grass Cafe.

Tonight, we'll be heading over to my step-mom's for our annual Christmas Eve gathering. She'll be serving the usual: beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, corn (probably canned), broccoli casserole and salad. She is an awesome baker, so the dessert selection will be excellent and vast.

Happy holidays, everyone!

=R=

Kennyz wrote:...Jews coming over to celebrate Christmas dinner...

- orange dusted seared scallops with chestnut cream and bacon

As both the founder and only active member of the "Jews for Shellfish" coalition, I can get behind that entree!

Stagger wrote:

Kennyz wrote:...Jews coming over to celebrate Christmas dinner...

- orange dusted seared scallops with chestnut cream and bacon

As both the founder and only active member of the "Jews for Shellfish" coalition, I can get behind that entree!

I might fry the latkes in lard too, if it'll earn methat second membership slot

Stagger wrote:As both the founder and only active member of the "Jews for Shellfish" coalition, I can get behind that entree!

How does one get involved?

Yes we clam

Kennyz wrote:I might fry the latkes in lard too, if it'll earn methat second membership slot

It may not be pork, but I can highly recommend frying latkes in duck fat. Yum.

Kennyz wrote:- potato latkes with creme fraiche and caviar:
(grate onion, grate potatoes, squeeze like a MFer in a kitchen towel to dry, season, add egg and little flour, fry. Top with purchased creme fraiche and American sturgeon eggs)

My hands were hurting Sunday after squeezing out 5 lbs. plus of potatoes. I don't use flour at all. I squeeze the grated potatoes and onion over a bowl and let the liquid sit a few minutes. Then drain off the liquid and you have the starch which I add back into the latke mix (potatoes, onion, and beaten egg). I think this makes for a crispier latke, which is what I prefer.

At my brother's Hanukkah party, we just used sour cream and applesauce to top my latkes. Maybe next year I can get him to spring for caviar...

Your whole menu sounds fantastic. Enjoy!

EvA wrote:

Kennyz wrote:- potato latkes with creme fraiche and caviar:
(grate onion, grate potatoes, squeeze like a MFer in a kitchen towel to dry, season, add egg and little flour, fry. Top with purchased creme fraiche and American sturgeon eggs)

My hands were hurting Sunday after squeezing out 5 lbs. plus of potatoes. I don't use flour at all. I squeeze the grated potatoes and onion over a bowl and let the liquid sit a few minutes. Then drain off the liquid and you have the starch which I add back into the latke mix (potatoes, onion, and beaten egg). I think this makes for a crispier latke, which is what I prefer.

At my brother's Hanukkah party, we just used sour cream and applesauce to top my latkes. Maybe next year I can get him to spring for caviar...

Your whole menu sounds fantastic. Enjoy!

Eva,

Thanks for the menu compliment. I have tried the latke method you described, and agree that it produces a terrific result. However, I just find it to be a little too big a pain in the butt when company is over. I almost never make anything like latkes for company anyway, because I much prefer stress-free foods that require little to no last minute prep, and allow me to drink as much wine as I want while cooking . This year, between the beurre rouge, poached salmon, and the latkes, I'm at maximum capacity for a la minute dishes and sobriety, so I'll be skimping on the superior add-potato-starch-back-in method.

Kenny

I understand your situation completely, Kenny. I'm sure your meal will be terrific.

Evy

For dinner on the 5th night of Chanukah (or Christmas night to many others), it was just me and Cookie and the boys. They had their usual mush and formula, but we had a nice, hearty winter meal:



Foreground is potato latkes (no onion) of the "hash brown style". I am firmly in the "batter style" school of latkes, but my wife prefers this style. To me, they're not latkes, but damn good hash browns. Served with crema.

Background is a simple pot roast, braised for four hours in wine, aromatics, and stock. Served on a bed of arugula with reduced braising liquid and horseradish.

Happy Holidays!

Best,
Michael

edit: The latkes were not burnt, as they may appear here. The photo was taken flash-free in moderate light.

Christmas Eve: Shrimp dumplings with Vietnamese dipping sauce (kudos Arrows restaurant in Maine - wonderful cookbook), Chicken breasts stuffed with mushrooms and cilantro, and bulgar wheat pilaf.

Christmas Day: porcini mushrom soup, short Ribs braised in Chimay with onions, roasted potatoes, and a delicious bottle of St. Emilion Grand Cru (Clos Fourtet '03).

Walker Shortbread cookies.

And now I sleep.

LTH,

Family holiday party at the G Wiv's, I was in charge of the meat, my strong suit. Fired up the WSM 22" in direct mode (no waterpan) and did a lightly brined halved turkey and 12-lbs of beef tenderloin.* Turkey was tasty, beef tenderloin hit the spot-on mark and then some.**

Fun in the sun







At one point tensions ran high, it was a family party after all, and I almost stabbed my three-year-old niece for crinkling her Christmas present paper.



Happy Holidays all!

Enjoy,
Gary

*Purchased from Costco
*Turkey went on an hour before tenderloin. I used lump charcoal w/apple wood.

I had my good friends in town for Christmas. Here's what we ended up having washed down with a 1/2 cs of Amarone

Xmas Eve ‘08

Pata Negra, Chicken Mousse, Sardine Mousse
7 Asst Cheeses, Olives with Orange and Lemon Zest,
Garlic and Balsamic and Walnut Currant Bread

le Oeufs Truffe (overnited from Perigord)
with Potato Trio

Serared Foie Gras
Brandied Cherries, Brioche Crouton, Fleur de Sel

Roasted Beet Napoleon
Honey Goat Cheese, Walnuts,
Baby Arugula and Frisse
Pomagrante Viniagrette

Sliced Filet Mignon
Shiitake-Rosemary Demi Glace
accompanied by:

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon,Chestnuts,
Dijon Mustard and Caroway

Roasted Root Vegetable Gratin
Parsnips, Rutabaga, Fennel, Celeriac,
Onion, Sweet Potato

Grannys’ Banana Pudding Rum Flambe

Christmas Eve: Moon Palace -- better than it has been lately, and absolutely packed.

Christmas Day: El Mayor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Open until 1am tonight! The almost completely untouched shawerma was bliss, with crispy caramelized exterior and succulent interior. With french fries dipped in toum, just a great meal. Our second year in a row going here for Christmas dinner.

eatchicago wrote:For dinner on the 5th night of Chanukah (or Christmas night to many others), it was just me and Cookie and the boys. They had their usual mush and formula, but we had a nice, hearty winter meal:



Foreground is potato latkes (no onion) of the "hash brown style". I am firmly in the "batter style" school of latkes, but my wife prefers this style. To me, they're not latkes, but damn good hash browns. Served with crema.

Background is a simple pot roast, braised for four hours in wine, aromatics, and stock. Served on a bed of arugula with reduced braising liquid and horseradish.

Happy Holidays!

Best,
Michael

edit: The latkes were not burnt, as they may appear here. The photo was taken flash-free in moderate light.

They don't look burnt to me. They look awesome.

I made silver-dollar size hash brown style latkes myself last night, and everyone said they were terrific. I liked them too, but thought they were a tad undercooked. Nice and crisp on the outside and dark like yours, but maybe I left a couple of them too thick, because the inside tasted on the raw side to me. I'm not sure why, but for some reason, this time I was able to keep the batter for over an hour before frying without it turning color at all. This is the first time I didn't peel the potatoes before grating - I wonder if that was the reason.

Kennyz wrote:

eatchicago wrote:For dinner on the 5th night of Chanukah (or Christmas night to many others), it was just me and Cookie and the boys. They had their usual mush and formula, but we had a nice, hearty winter meal:



Foreground is potato latkes (no onion) of the "hash brown style". I am firmly in the "batter style" school of latkes, but my wife prefers this style. To me, they're not latkes, but damn good hash browns. Served with crema.

Background is a simple pot roast, braised for four hours in wine, aromatics, and stock. Served on a bed of arugula with reduced braising liquid and horseradish.

Happy Holidays!

Best,
Michael

edit: The latkes were not burnt, as they may appear here. The photo was taken flash-free in moderate light.

They don't look burnt to me. They look awesome.

I made silver-dollar size hash brown style latkes myself last night, and everyone said they were terrific. I liked them too, but thought they were a tad undercooked. Nice and crisp on the outside and dark like yours, but maybe I left a couple of them too thick, because the inside tasted on the raw side to me. I'm not sure why, but for some reason, this time I was able to keep the batter for over an hour before frying without it turning color at all. This is the first time I didn't peel the potatoes before grating - I wonder if that was the reason.

Thanks, Kenny. I had to hold my potatoes for a little bit before frying too. This was the first time that I used the "vitamin c" trick. I dissolved a vitamin c tablet in a little bit of hot water and then tossed the shredded potatoes in the water. When it was time to go, i squeezed everything out in cheesecloth and made my batter. Not a shred turned even slightly brown.

eatchicago wrote:I had to hold my potatoes for a little bit before frying too. This was the first time that I used the "vitamin c" trick. I dissolved a vitamin c tablet in a little bit of hot water and then tossed the shredded potatoes in the water. When it was time to go, i squeezed everything out in cheesecloth and made my batter. Not a shred turned even slightly brown.

I the industrial food biz, they say "ascorbic acid used as a processing aid."

A squeeze of lemon juice will generally achieve the same result, although it might also impart some undesired lemon flavor into the latkes.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:A squeeze of lemon juice will generally achieve the same result, although it might also impart some undesired lemon flavor into the latkes.

Yep. I really wanted to avoid an acidic flavor.

eatchicago wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:A squeeze of lemon juice will generally achieve the same result, although it might also impart some undesired lemon flavor into the latkes.

Yep. I really wanted to avoid an acidic flavor.

Well, they look absolutely delicious. Our latkes were brought by my sister, who bought them at Garden Fresh Market. For store bought, they were decent but nothing like the glory of homemade latkes. I think I'll try to address that unrequited latke love sometime over the next 3 nights.

=R=

I cooked three holiday meals-Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas brunch and Christmas dinner. I roasted a duck for Xmas eve dinner-with sides of stuffing ( fresh-frozen from Turkey Day)roasted Yukon golds, over-steamed some broccoli and served a salad. The meal was topped with a homemade cherry pie with Homer's ice cream. Simple, but it seemed I was still doing dishes as we prepared for Santa's arrival long into the night. (The duck pan was a bitch to clean!) The brunch consisted of bacon, sausage, eggs, cinnamon toast, Mimosa's, and O&H Kringle. As the last brunch dish was put away it was time to eat dinner. Dinner was a 5 cheese/two sauce lasagna, garlic bread, again-oversteamed broccoli and fresh salad with pecans, dried cherries and blue cheese. A homemade 5 apple pie was served for dessert. The best food items were the calamari salad from Riveria Deli and Brandy Alexanders with chocolate ice cream and fresh ground nutmeg. I can't wait to get home from work today and have left over lasagna and more of those Brandy Alexanders.... in peace.

I don't have a standard repertoire for Christmas day, as opposed to Thanksgiving, so I was scrambling by about Tuesday morning to compose a menu. I knew I was going to do a rib roast (I promise I'll try goose sometime, but I was out of time and mental energy to experiment) and I knew there'd be my new hit, pocketbook rolls from The Glory of Southern Cooking:



but I was a bit thrown otherwise so I went looking around, without a great deal of hope, at the food mag websites.

Luckily, at Food & Wine some chef named Fabio Trabocchi had some awfully nice looking Italian stuff that played right into my Blackbird-Mado-inspired taste for Italian-inflected American bistro food and my Mado-Vie-inspired atste for preserved and cured fruits and veggies, so I did a couple of his dishes and a few other things I found poking around the site. Here goes:

Smoked trout dip: although you can pretty throw something like this together on the fly, I followed this recipe but substituted smoked trout (which could have been more smoky, frankly) from Whole Foods, and it turned out first-rate.

Warm spinach salad: I followed this Jose Garces recipe (but not F&W's shortcut), using my own bacon, substituting my pear aigre-doux for the plums, and shaving a blue-veined cheese I found in the fridge which I honestly don't remember what it was, but it worked fine. I had some of the Costco jamon iberico (who'd have guessed that could become a phrase?) but I decided that with bacon fat and bacon in it, this didn't really need ham too. It didn't, it turned out great. By the way, we drank Aschie30's Obama Sparkling Wine which I won in the holiday party raffle with this course (entirely decent) and the kids got an Izze soda in a champagne flute and got to toast, which they were thrilled to do.

I roasted my Costco choice roast per the Wiviott.com instructions, though in the end I thought the meat was a little tough; maybe I just don't buy this kind of meat often enough to be able to judge it better, and I need to spend the price of a serious butcher for a once a year meal. Anyway, one thing that really helped was that I made these lemon-balsamic infused onions, which were fantastic, I highly recommend these any time you need a little accompaniment to roast meat which is relatively simple to make ahead, and packs an amazing flavor punch.

For sides I made this fennel gratin, which was blander than I'd hoped but seemed to go over all right, and (for something I knew the kids would like) the cheesy turnip green, ham and grits souffle from The Glory of Southern Cooking. Wine was a Casa Lapostolle 1998 reaching the end of its predicted 10 year cellaring potential, though it still had plenty of fruit left by my reckoning.

For dessert, a maple-black walnut tart, filled with black walnuts from Oriana and smashed with a hammer by me personally. Merry (WHAM!) Christmas! Happy (KRAAAACK!) Holidays!

Funny - the 'spouse's Christmas tradition is to make filbert coins from whole unshelled hazelnuts, shelled with a hammer - I almost broke his heart when all I could come up with were unshelled ones, but Jewel finally had bags of whole hazelnuts and the happy Christmas hammering began with the second batch.

Meal above generally turned out very well - two notable misses: the potato galette - the first time I'd made it I ignored the directions and just sauteed the kale lightly with garlic. Do this - otherwise it gets overcooked and bitter from being cooked 3 times. Also, to make enough, I did it in my large nonstick skillet, it had come out better in cast iron. The other miss was that I tried to make cloverleaf rolls with the bread dough I had on hand and got little crusty knobs that were tough and unpleasant - I should have stuck with plain bread. Oh - and my biggest gaff - as I rarely drink it myself (except on Christmas,) I forgot entirely about drinking wine . I had a whole case of two-buck Chuck in the basement which had been excellent for cooking but wasn't very good to drink (horrible sweet start, but at least it did have a nice finish.)

Otherwise, though, the meal was spectacular - I can highly recommend Ed & Irv's, here's a shot of the beauty cooked (yes, steve, it came out perfect, but did scare me in the first two hours. Thanks for the reassurance - sorry I don't have a better shot...) The meat itself was buttery, smooth and very, very meaty; a huge step up from the select stuff we're used to, and well worth the price upgrade.

The sweet table also turned out well: the chocolate-stout cake with stout creme anglaise (bottom L) was excellent: a chocolatey version of plum pudding. Adults might want to moisten the cake with straight guinness, but it was fine without. The upside-down cake (C) turned out fine: 1 can of home-canned apples, drained and mixed with sliced seeded kumquats and 3/4 cup brown sugar on the bottom of a greased parchment-lined cake pan, topped with a butter cake recipe with the canning liquid replacing part of the milk. Then there were assorted cookies and coffee, and my niece and nephew proudly made and brought pretzel-ring-hershey-kiss-M&M bites, which were very hard to stop eating.

eatchicago wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:A squeeze of lemon juice will generally achieve the same result, although it might also impart some undesired lemon flavor into the latkes.

Yep. I really wanted to avoid an acidic flavor.

I tend to try for more of a hassidic flavor.

Assorted olives, cheeses, nuts and flatbreads
Chopped herring (no kichel) and whole grain pumpernickle
James Beard's "Cheddar Chili cheese spread" with homemade cracked wheat melba toast

Caesar salad

Freshly baked Parker House rolls

Roasted dry aged prime strip loin (Allen Bros.) with madiera mushroom sauce
Twice baked potatoes
Steamed asparagus

Raspberry creme brulee (The Mansion on Turtle Creek recipe)

Mike G wrote:By the way, we drank Aschie30's Obama Sparkling Wine which I won in the holiday party raffle with this course (entirely decent)

I'm very happy and flattered that my little contribution to the raffle made it into your holiday feast (and that it was entirely decent)! Friends of mine who gave me that bottle kept muttering "it's sweet!," "drink it now," but I could see it going with the salad course that you described.

Due to a myriad of travel debacles resulting in guests who couldn't come into town or those who came late, I ended up fusing my celebration with some dear friends, so we ended up having, by default, a very olde English/Frenchy multi-course feast, including two meat courses (!):

Amuse/starter: Cheese plate with champagne
First: Smoked Salmon Chowder (or "chowda'" where I'm from)
Second: Roasted Lamb with fig & cranberry compote and roasted root veggies with Chateau Margaux
Third: Roasted Beef Tenderloin with porcini mushroom sauce and scalloped potatoes (this was my contribution) with some type of Bordeaux
Fourth: Salad with balsamic viniagrette and pomegranate seeds (Because a guest was late coming to the table, we rearranged the salad course to come after dinner. It was a palate cleanser, I guess!) No wine pairing, we were still working through the reds.
Fifth: Flourless chocolate cake with sauternes (We all agreed later that cognac would have been better, but at that point, we didn't care, and the sauternes was refreshingly sweet after the heavy reds.)

It was a wonderful, belly-busting, drunken feast with people who are very dear.

I was actually able to create a dinner that my 4 11/12 (as he tells me) was willing to eat - with of course some modifications.

Christmas Eve

Blini with Paddlefish Caviar & Creme Fraiche
Wafers of Stravecchio

Tomato Consomme with Lobster Ravioli

Dakota Farms Rib Roast with Madeira Jus
Chive Yorkshire Pudding
Mashed Potatoes
Spinach, Mushroom & Leek Gratin

Eggnog Flan with Caramelized Cherry Sauce

Christmas Brunch

Potato Pancakes with Smoked Sockeye Salmon & Dilled Creme Fraiche
Blood Orange-Lavender Mimosas
Stollen

Christmas Dinner

Lobster Gratin
Ham with Mustard-Lime Marmalade Glaze
Potato-Celery Root Gratin
Braised Kale
Christmas Cookies: Wheatmeal Shortbread (a recipe for which can be found http://www.thelocalbeet.com/?page_id=912), Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies, Almond-Anise Biscotti, Chocolate Sugar "Pinecones", Peanut Butter Balls, Melting Moments Filled with Lime Curd and Espresso Shortbread.