Christmas 2010 Menus

[Raw/Cooked]

Wow - there are some great sounding menus here! I did all the cooking for Christmas Eve and day this year, so no time to post till now.

For Christmas Eve we did the traditional Italian fish dinner. My maternal grandparents were from the Lazio region and many of the dishes I made this year were things that my grandmother used to make and that I grew up eating:

Baccala salad with potatoes, roasted peppers and boquerones

Stuffed baby squid (stuffed with the tentacles, spinach, pecorino and bread crumbs)

Spicy braised cuttlefish

Baccala stewed with tomaotes, onions, and raisins

Mussels with wine, garlic and parsley

Fried flounder (leftovers are now pickling in wine vinegar, wine, onion, and bay leaves)

Fruit, nuts, espresso, and grappa for dessert

Christmas Day I prepared a meal that could have come out of my paternal grandmother's kitchen:

Roasted leg of lamb with mint sauce

Roasted potatoes (English style: boiled first then roasted in the drippings from the lamb)

Cauliflower braised in wine

Salad

Plum Pudding with hard sauce (thanks to Jackal10 for the recipe)

Thankfully we're having a bunch of friends over tonight to help with the leftovers!

[Chris Amirault]

That Xmas eve dinner sounds fantastic. How did you prepare the squid?

[Raw/Cooked]

The squid are really simple. I was able to get some very small squid (@ 2" long) at a local Korean market. The stuffing consisted of the chopped tentacles, cooked spinach (squeezed dry), garlic, fresh basil, bread crumbs, eggs and pecorino. After stuffing, thread a toothpick through the body cavity opening to hold the stuffing in. These got simmered in a tomato sauce that had a good hit of anchovy and white wine for @ 30 minutes. Thanks for the kind words and the great holiday blog Chris!

Edited December 26, 2010 by Raw/Cooked (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Everything looks great. Chris, what potsticker recipe did you use from Dunlop?

The Pot-sticker dumplings with chicken stock (ji zhi guo tie, 鸡汁锅贴), on page. 112.

[Big Mike]

It's always so inspiring to come on the boards here and see what everyone else does. Well, inspiring and intimidating really . My family has always done a huge Christmas Eve party that my Nana used to host. Now that's she's approaching 90 we've taken it over since we have the only house with enough room to house everyone (we had around 60 people this year).

Christmas Eve with the Fishes

Salmon Bruschetta with roasted garlic and red pepper

Mixed seafood salad (lobster, scallops, shrimp, langostinos, mussels, and clams on a bed of romaine with a light vinaigrette)

Calamari Fra Diavolo

Smoked Salmon with boursin and capers on pumpernickel

Baccala Frito (salt cod fried in a batter made with white wine and limoncello)

Stewed clams with sausage and potatoes

Orecchiette in a mushroom meat sauce (for all those non-fish eating party poopers)

also...

this crazy braided sun dried tomato, pesto and tapenade bread

candied orange slices dipped in dark chocolate

biscotti

almond cake with dried fruit

about 600 miscellaneous cookies

Brie en croute with raspberry

limoncello

fennel digestif

Christmas Dinner

Fennel cured salmon

Orange glazed ham (orange syrup left over from the candied orange project)

Asparagus with hollandaise sauce

Cheesy potato casserole

Spinach and Ricotta strata (sauted spinach mixed w ricotta and layered in sheets of puffed pastry)

Mincemeat pie

Apple Pie

[nakji]

Those birds look killer! Just curious though, I've always removed that pop up thermometer since it pops at such a high temperature, are you relying on the little popper?

I used a thermometer to check the temperature. I think my popper popped early because I was roasting this in a tabletop oven, and it was about a centimetre away from the top element. I pulled the bird when the breast meat was done; let it rest and carved it off and held it in foil, then put the legs and thighs back into the oven to finish. I didn't have a bird centerpiece, but nobody complained.