My 2013 Holiday Party - with a Monty Python theme

This year went particularly well: all the food was popular (almost too much so, I'd have liked leftovers of a few more things).
Our time management was a bit off: we were just starting to put the last dish together (the crab strudel) when the first people arrived.

This year's theme was Monty Python. Some of the links are pretty tenuous, but it's inspiration, not literalism.
We thought of other items, but SueF kept vetoing Crunchy Frog, and we wanted no reference at all to Mr. Creosote. We forgot to take pictures at the start, so it's not our best photos, and some items are already getting decimated.

Here's the menu, with more details below. This was taken when several items had already run out.
HolidayParty2013 Menu


The Cheese Board was inspired by the Cheese Shop sketch. We'd considered providing no cheese, but where's the fun of that. The cheeses included an Irish Smoked Grubbeen (cut in half, foreground) that we'd picked up in Dublin. We'd tried to find some Portuguese cheese, but didn't have any luck at Mariano's. Instead, we had a Black River Blue (some of which also went into the dressing for the hot wings, below), a 5-year cheddar I got at Trader Joe's, and a french double cream with an orange rind whose name escapes me. Oh, and buttered scones (from the Lumberjack song), made about 1 1/4" with an Alton Brown recipe. Accompaniments include pistachios and a port jelly also found in Dublin.
HolidayParty2013 Cheese and Scones


Rabbit Flautas were one of our first inspirations, from the line "That rabbit's dynamite" in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." The shape is a stick of dynamite, the filling rabbit, from a recipe I found online by searching for Mexican Braised Rabbit. Braised with herbs and white wine, this is the dish I'd mentioned in an earlier thread of producing awesome broth. The online recipe's red pipian is quite tasty -- I thinned it a little less than specified, so that it would be more of a dipping sauce. The execution of this caused us some trouble: The mini Atotonilco tortillas I'd picked up earlier in the week proved too fragile to be used as wraps unless we pre-fried them, and looked like they'd fall apart if deep fried, so they were painstakingly pan fried. The ones in the picture were a different set of normal-sized tortillas, cut in half after frying, after we ran out of the minis.
HolidayParty2013 Rabbit Taquitos with Red Pipian


The Fruit and Edamame Salad was inspired by "Defense Against Fresh Fruit." We wanted something cold, something vegetarian -- I didn't want grilled skewered fruits (although that would incorporate pointed sticks), and eventually stumbled on an internet recipe for a salad with edamame, and a miso-ginger dressing. I substituted black plums for the recipe's peaches, which didn't look good at the store, and added some canned rambutan, just because. I didn't have agave so just used a little sugar, and used Chinese black vinegar instead of the umeboshi vinegar. This came out very good, but my least favorite part was the edamame. I might try something based on a grain such as barley instead.
HolidayParty2013 Fruit and Edamame Salad


I always do a deviled egg, and this was another no-brainer: Spam. I'd seem some suggestions of mashing the spam into the egg... and some with the same done to baked beans, but those seemed vile. I fried slices of spam -- and made a sort of baked bean latke or falafel with half the can of beans, an egg white left from another process, and some bread crumbs. The yolks were flavored with salt, pepper, a pinch of Chimayo red pepper, mayo, lemon juice and Dijon (pretty standard), garnished with strips of fried spam (on the left in the pic) or bean latke (on the right, for the vegetarians), some grilled pineapple, a couple more baked beans and scallions. As always, they disappeared early.
HolidayParty2013 Spam and Baked Beans Deviled Eggs


Mongolian Beef Steamed Buns were from one line: "And now, Atilla the Bun." For the filling I used the Mongolian Lamb recipe from Complete Chinese cooking, with a little hoisin and chile bean sauce as recommended by Martin Yan's Chinatown Cooking, but didn't pre-cook the scallion and carrot, just stirred the cooked beef into them. The dough and process come from Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen, and while a little thin-skinned and dumpling-like, were absolutely wonderful. These were only about two inches across, and disappeared almost as fast as the eggs.
HolidayParty2013 Atilla the Bun


Chopped Liver was one of the few items not completely devoured -- too many of my guests don't know of its wonders, but those that do adored it. I used a version David Lebovitz provided online from Ruhlmann's "Schmaltz" (and it has a lot), but with the alcohol left out (didn't seem right, but the dash of vinegar did help round out the flavors). It's topped with gribenes, and accompanied by a salt shaker, finely chopped onions and small squares of pumpernickel. The inspiration for this is the unwilling liver donor from "The Meaning of Life." Note: I'd asked my aunt for the family recipe, which was similar, but didn't have all that schmaltz stirred in.
HolidayParty2013 Chopped Liver


A 'blue' Buffalo wing was another early inspiration, based on the Parrot sketch. I made a hot sauce from dried ghost chiles, long hot red chiles, garlic, ginger, salt, allspice, cider vinegar and blueberries. Again, Alton Brown to the rescue: steaming then baking the wings made them come out wonderfully crisp even when tossed in the hot sauce/butter/salt mix. The sauce was deceptively hot: the long hots gave an initial reasonable punch, then the ghost chiles hit on the swallow. Blue cheese dressing from the Gourmet cookbook.
HolidayParty2013 Hot Chicken Wings


Lamb and Guinness Pot Pies were another easy one: we started with the recipe, based on our experiences in Ireland, and one of my favorite bits about sheep in the wainscoting. I'd meant to cut mouse holes in the crust, but forgot. Nicely rich, this was another online recipe, calling for small quantities of a large number of different root veg: I could probably have just used one or two.
HolidayParty2013 Lamb and Guinness Pie


The tomato focaccia inspiration was a bit of a stretch, using the "Cycling through South Cornwall" shtick about self-ejecting tomatoes. Two half sheet pans: one with basil/pine nut pesto, the other with sage (homegrown -- I love being able to pick fresh sage leaves in December)/walnut, and cherry tomatoes on top. I don't know which of Sue's dozen bread books this came out of, but it was a soft, rich dough, delicious.
HolidayParty2013 Tomato Focaccia


Bacon-wrapped dates were a dish Sue'd been wanting to do for a while, and are Spanish, so "Spanish Inquisition" it is (perhaps they're the "Soft Pillow?"). Half filled with hard chorizo, half with goat cheese, and wrapped with bacon -- some of the cheese ones with a veggie bacon (and segregated), which wasn't half bad. Again, painstaking pan frying contributed to our lateness.
HolidayParty2013 Bacon-Wrapped Dates


Coconuts were another easy inspiration, and we like to do a meatball, so a Thai coconut meatball seemed just right. The meatballs were pork, a little egg, breadcrumbs, garlic, ginger, and cilantro in the mix. The curry is from David Thompson, red with pork ribs and bamboo shoots, to which I added more frozen shredded coconut. It came out very tasty and fragrant with Thai basil and kaffir lime (from my own tree).
HolidayParty2013 Thai Coconut Curry with Meatballs


The last dish is a Curried Crab Strudel, an Ina Garten recipe, that fit perfectly with "9 out of 10 British women can't tell Wizzo Butter from a dead crab." The only change to the recipe is the addition of some toasted slivered almonds for texture. This is one of the few dishes with some left, but we made three pounds of crab's worth (30 sheets of phyllo).
HolidayParty2013 Curried Crab Strudel


Somehow we never got pictures of the sweet trays, but they included Pastel de Nata (Portuguese egg-custard tarts inspired by our Lisbon trip), shortbread-fudge bars, salted nut bars, pecan pie bars, pinwheels, pistachio cookies, peppermint cookies with chocolate centers, chewy spice cookies, pecan crescents, kolaches, and chocolate crinkle cookies.

Wow. Impressive. And what a fun idea -- however tenuous some of the connections might be. There are enough that are obvious that it makes a MP fan smile. (And the photos make a foodie's heart palpitate.)

Thanks for sharing that. Really glorious.

Of course, the list of ideas should be hilarious:

Salmon Mousse (obv)

The entire list of stuff from the Holy Hand-Grenade of Antioch

Hamster with elderberries could have been some kind of riff inducing thang.

Blancmange

And definitely...Moose Bytes.

Great idea.

Regarding elderberry... we made a batch of Part and Parcel with elderflower syrup, and and Angry Orchard variety pack including the very same flavor.

Clever, so clever . . . I always look forward to your post-party post and the food looks terrific. And what a great way to have fun cooking together. I'm just so impressed.

Did you have some bouzouki music playing for the cheese course?

JoelF wrote:and we wanted no reference at all to Mr. Creosote.

Not even an after dinner mint? They're wafer-thin!

Dave148 wrote:Did you have some bouzouki music playing for the cheese course?

They probably shut that bloody bouzouki off.

Joel, The dishes look fantastic! Very fun.