Christmas 2010 Menus

[Corinna]

I wasn't being sweet. I want to eat both meals.

Are you stuffing the prunes? And is this the 101cookbooks recipe for the kale salad? That looks excellent....

You're certainly welcome!

We've never stuffed the prunes. My mom has made them all my life, and the combination of flavors just tastes like a party to me. I couldn't mess with it.

Yes, that's the kale salad. It is excellent, and simple! I think it's on the menu to humor me, but I know it will win them over.

Prep today-- marinated mushrooms, carrot quick pickle and the base for the Fish house Punch. I did a version of the punch last year, and am excited to have a real peach brandy (and local to boot!) to use in it this year!

[angevin]

Corinna - I was also considering Yorkshire Pudding, but I'd never made it before and it seemed so cumbersome to squeeze in after the roast comes out of the oven; maybe when I have a smaller guest list. Do you do individual tart-like servings? Or one large souffle in the roasting pan?

The Fabrice Gasnier La Cravantineis is an estate-bottling from the Loire made from cab franc with the traditional champagne method. It's a rosé, quite dry but with a fruity (strawberry) mineral nose. It's not champagne of course, but at $22 it's a lovely elegant alternative (Had to pay for the prime rib!).

Wow - these menus are sounding fabulous! Alex - the roasted vegetables in grapevine sounds really intriguing.

[Corinna]

Corinna - I was also considering Yorkshire Pudding, but I'd never made it before and it seemed so cumbersome to squeeze in after the roast comes out of the oven; maybe when I have a smaller guest list. Do you do individual tart-like servings? Or one large souffle in the roasting pan?

The Fabrice Gasnier La Cravantineis is an estate-bottling from the Loire made from cab franc with the traditional champagne method. It's a rosé, quite dry but with a fruity (strawberry) mineral nose. It's not champagne of course, but at $22 it's a lovely elegant alternative (Had to pay for the prime rib!).

I won't be making the Yorkshire puds myself, but I've always had them in the individual ones. I'm looking forward to helping with the preparation and learning more. I will report back.

Thanks for the tip on the Cab Franc! It sounds wonderful. I'm going to try to track it down.

Merry Christmas!

[LindaK]

The cod & potato bake is something my aunt is bring for our vegetarian cousins. I suspect it's an Italian/Feast of the Fishes thing.

Do you make it with fresh or salted cod? If the latter, it sounds like like a Portuguese dish I've had before--fabulous.

The Fabrice Gasnier La Cravantineis is an estate-bottling from the Loire made from cab franc with the traditional champagne method. It's a rosé, quite dry but with a fruity (strawberry) mineral nose. It's not champagne of course, but at $22 it's a lovely elegant alternative (Had to pay for the prime rib!).

I've tried a couple of these recently, and have been really impressed. The cab franc grape is more assertive than the traditional rosé champagne using pinot noir but it's a great match with food and an excellent value. I will look for that label, thanks for the recommendation.

[Pierogi]

The cookies and candies are all done and tucked away in their air-tight storage bins. The pierogies, after a MONUMENTAL battle with the dough yesterday due to the incredible amount of moisture in the air due to Soggy SoCal's historic rain event (the words of the TV weather weenies....), are stuffed, sealed, boiled and waiting for their date with the frying pan and butter.

Final menu for Christmas Eve is:

Brie & crackers for app

Rosemary roasted salmon

Yukon Gold & sweet potato gratin with gruyere

Mushroom & sauerkraut pierogies

Carrots & green beans with bread crumb topping

Buttery dinner rolls

Cookies, candies and Bishop's Bread for dessert

*mental note* don't try to make a pasta-type dough for the pierogi wrappers in a monsoon ! It stuck, it tore, it wouldn't seal, it was a mess. I've been making these things for 30 years, and I don't think I had that much trouble when I was a neophyte. I hope they taste good, I fear I ended up overworking the dough because I had to handle it so much...ah well, they'll still be better than Mrs. T's !!!

[harrysnapperorgans]

My mum brought a turkey, but it's not large and there are a fair few people coming (20+), so I'm planning on getting a leg of lamb as well. Both meats will be roasted, with appropriate herbs, nothing fancy.

I'll also do roast potatoes, a salad of roast vegetables, a green salad, and some really nice fresh bread.

Obviously, it's high summer here in New Zealand, and we will be eating at the family beach house, so if it was up to me, I'd be doing seafood - mussels, scallops wrapped in bacon, and maybe some snapper on the BBQ. But the family want something more traditional.

For dessert, my own invention, 'Moufle', Pavalova, and Christmasy cherry icecream.

This year, I'm taking charge of cooking, and my 13 year old sister will be sous chef. I'm looking forward to it.

[nakji]

Amazing menus here!

My prep starts tonight with some vegetable cleaning and chopping (celery and broccoli); cauliflower pickles; and turkey defrosting. I don't have enough room in my fridge, but fortunately we're going to get a cold snap tomorrow, and I don't have indoor heating, so I'm hoping that'll make for a slow and steady thaw.

Christmas Eve is my work party - we're going out for hotpot, which should be quite merry - lots of stabbing into bubbling red pots; I can't think of anything more Christmassy. When I come home I have to bake my pre-prepared mince pies and tourtiere.

*mental note* don't try to make a pasta-type dough for the pierogi wrappers in a monsoon !

I feel your pain! My battles for Christmas prep have been less elemental, though. In the last week both my oven and my fridge have crapped out on me: my kitchen blew a fuse on Wednesday; fortunately the lack of indoor heat came in handy and kept everything cold. I'm a little more worried about my oven - the element has been finicky - it stopped working on the weekend after an hour of baking, but then worked later. Fortunately if it goes Christmas Day, the shops will be open and I can pick up another one cheap.

And, of course, there's always the Asian Christmas Plan B: KFC.

[JAZ]

I'm doing Christmas Eve dinner; it'll be simple since there are just two of us. Salad of beets and oranges topped with pistachios to start, followed by a dish modeled on one out of Think Like a Chef by Tom Colicchio. His dish is spiced roasted lobster with pea ravioli; mine will be seared sea scallops and shrimp with pea ravioli. I'm aiming for a lighter, brothy sauce than he uses as well.

[gfweb]

Xmas Lunch (with too many kids to get creative)- Roast turkey and roast goose,sage dressing, gravy, braised spiced red cabbage, greens, au gratin potatoes, pumpkin pie

Dinner- filet mignon, au gratin potatoes, chipotle smoked mashed sweet potato in broiled acorn squash rings, sauteed brussels sprouts w cream and bacon (and a few other things), greens, boiled persimmon pudding with creme anglaise.

[mrsadm]

I'm doing very simple stuff this year, as it is just my husband and myself celebrating.

French Onion Soup

Braised mixed vegetables

Grilled Porterhouse Steak with onion and balsamic sauce

Potato gratin with leeks, mushrooms and Gruyere

Dessert by Wegmans (still to buy)

Merry Christmas everyone!

[ermintrude]

Original menu was for 4

Sous vide Torcheron of Foie Gras with Perigod Truffles

Taster of smoked scallop with avruga

Slow roast fore rib of beef with all the trimmings.

Hestons hidden orange Christmas pudding plus brandy sauce (Roux based)

But now due to the weather and now feeding 8 and could expand (max 12)

Due black/white truffle mix up courses changed and now:-

Start with rissoto, only a one or two spoons each but full on white truffle.

Trio of sliced smoked scallop and teaspoon of avruga on top.

Torcheron of foie with toasted brioche with(Cognac or Sauternes jelly)

(The above is very rich so thinking maybe better to serve all at once as a first course, and each just a taster)

Slow roast fore rib of beef with all the trimmings.

estons hidden orange Christmas pudding plus brandy sauce (Roux based or egg not sure)

Cheese - loads of. Insert when needed

Edited December 24, 2010 by ermintrude (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

My mum is taking care of Christmas day but tonight will be the second of my Christmas dinners

The first:

• Roast turkey
  
• Roast potatoes (using duck fat, of course)
  
• Sauteed mushrooms
  
• Dessert: biscuits and etc, store bought
  

Tonight:

• Loin of pork with pineapple and apple
  
• Duck fat roast potatoes
  
• Mushroom salad
  
• Chocolate chantilly--if it works
  
• Leckerli biscuits
  
• Beer
  
• Cider
  
• Armagnac
  

[Chris Hennes]

My Christmas menu evolves on the fly based on whether I feel like cooking Christmas morning or not. This morning the plan had actually been to hit McDonalds for some bacon, egg and cheese biscuits, but we slept well beyond McDonalds breakfast/lunch switchover. So, still craving BE&C Biscuits, I made some. I gotta say, homemade bacon and good cheddar definitely balanced out my lackluster biscuit skills, these were mighty fine...

[robirdstx]

Just the two of us for Christmas dinner, so nothing fancy and since I already have a turkey and lots of bread ends in the freezer:

Roast stuffed* turkey

*Bread stuffing with onion, celery and mushrooms

Giblet gravy (lots of it)

Garlic mashed potatoes

Green peas

Homemade dinner rolls

Cranberry sauce

And lots of leftovers for the week until New Years.

Our only tweak will be steamed asparagus, in place of the green peas. The turkey has been in the oven for two hours and I'm getting ready to start on the dinner rolls.

[ScottyBoy]

Our super traditional family menu of roasted "beast" (9# Marin Sun farms aged rib roast this year), yams, green beans with pumpkin seeds and Yorkshire pudding.

[Chris Hennes]

Round two: my wife loves potstickers, and I got Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty for Christmas, so we had a few rounds of potstickers for lunch/snack/dinner:

Wow, these were the best potstickers I have ever made, hands down, both in terms of flavor and texture. I cheated and used packaged wonton wrappers rather than making my own potsticker wrappers as specified in the recipe, and that was probably for the better. I tend to prefer the more Westernized versions with thinner wrappers and crispier sides.

[robirdstx]

The turkey came out really moist and tender. Lots of leftovers for sandwiches, pot pie, etc...

[Chris Hennes]

Man, that bird is gorgeous.

[vice]

Late to the party, but better late than never. Here's what we had today:

Breakfast:

Christmas 'omelet' (basically a crustless quiche with a mix of diced cured meats and Italian cheeses)

a simple yellow bundt cake with chocolate swirl and crumb topping

Lunch:

Pichet Ong's gougeres (you've been over to Chris A's foodblog, right?)

crab-stuffed mushrooms

Malghetta di Capra, Twig Farm washed rind, Lincolnshire Poacher, Stichelton

jamon serrano, Calabria Pork Store's sweet and hot soppressata, spicy soppressata and salame Toscana (from Cooking by Hand), Spanish chorizo

fig and almond cake, olives, cornichons, rye crostini

Dinner:

pork shoulder roast braised in milk, with white wine, sage, and thyme

puree of root vegetables: turnip, parsnip, and celery root roasted with butter, passed through a sieve, and folded with mascarpone

glazed carrots and shallots with parsley

watercress salad

Dessert:

cheesecake with raspberry coulis

Oddly enough, the only dishes that remain constant through the years are those that bookend the day. Everything else changes according to our whim. Perhaps not coincidentally, my mother prepares the standards and I'm responsible for the rest.

Edited December 26, 2010 by vice (log)

[robirdstx]

Man, that bird is gorgeous.

Thanks Chris. I'll trade you some turkey for some of your potstickers. We like the crispier ones too.

[nakji]

Round two: my wife loves potstickers, and I got Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty for Christmas, so we had a few rounds of potstickers for lunch/snack/dinner:

W00T! Let's go do some cooking over in that topic.

My Christmas menu came out flawlessly. There were a few dicey moments. First, my oven kept tripping the breaker on the (scary) wiring in my flat. So I had to move my oven to the living room to roast the turkey, because the wiring is better in there to handle the space heater. Then, the weight of the turkey actually bowed the wire rack to about 1 mm above the element - but it held, and roasted a perfect 5 kilo turkey in 1&1/2 hour. Star! I thought it was going to give out, but it held to do the pans of stuffing and roast my broccoli as well. Christmas miracle, I guess.

Instead of vinegar, I put maple and chili on the pumpkin, and used some aged balsamic vinegar that was a gift from my husband on the broccoli. I switched the roast potatoes to mashed in deference to my sad oven and the small jar of black truffle salt I gave to my husband for Christmas, to accolades from all my diners. The gravy was a wash because I didn't get a good fond on the turkey pan, but I took a page from Julia's book and didn't apologize.

The sweets came out nicely, too, with the shortbread, mince pies, fruitcake, and World Peace cookies all getting their due. At one point, I found my husband smearing spoons of brandy butter onto the shortbread. Next year, I'll ice them. A friend brought three more kinds of cookies, so everyone left with a tray. We had a savouries round about three hours after Christmas lunch which consisted of hummus and bread, and bacon-wrapped sausages and bacon-wrapped shiitakes. People protested, but they still ate.

A very successful year alogether. I feel quite chuffed, although I have only just now finished the dishes.

[Chris Amirault]

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

[ScottyBoy]

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?

[ScottyBoy]

Roasted a beast

[robirdstx]

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?

Thank you. I was not relying on the popper but it did pop up at about the four hour mark. When I checked the thigh it was at 180F and the stuffing was at 160F, so out it came to rest.