Christmas cooking 2013

[rotuts]

Chris Amirault

how do you plan to deal with the ham? My sister used to send me one from time to time and I found them delicious.

She sent me a different one this year : from Benton's

Im hoping to SV it in chunks but not for Christmas

(BTW: Edwards Smoked sausage is to die for, the finest sausage Ive ever had.

http://www.edwardsvaham.com/category/sausage )

[ahpadt]

Christmas Eve:

- Brined turkey breast, SV @ 59c for ~2h, then roasted

- Confit-style turkey thighs, SV @ 70c for ~8h, then roasted

- Crispy turkey skin

- Sauce made from 'double' brown turkey stock, madeira and cream

- Sprouts cooked in a simple butter emulsion

- Stewed red cabbage

- Boiled potatoes

- Dessert of chocolate ganache, orange jelly and some crumble (in a glass)

The turkey is done by a fairly modern preparation but the rest is fairly traditional (aside from me refusing to boil sprouts - they'll be lightly cooked in the emulsion).

Edited December 19, 2013 by ahpadt (log)

[SylviaLovegren]

Christmas Eve:(aside from me refusing to boil sprouts - they'll be lightly cooked in the emulsion).

Yes? How do you do that? Details please?

[ahpadt]

Christmas Eve:(aside from me refusing to boil sprouts - they'll be lightly cooked in the emulsion).

Yes? How do you do that? Details please?

Bring up butter and water (roughly 2:1 water to butter) to a simmer so it forms an emulsion, then cook halved sprouts in it for 1-2 minutes. They won't be swimming in it. Just the bottom of the pan covered. Quite classic, french in a way, I guess.

[Porthos]

...t the rest is fairly traditional (aside from me refusing to boil sprouts - they'll be lightly cooked in the emulsion).

Boiled sprouts will never, I repeat, never be on my table. My personal choice is halved, tossed in EVOO, salt and pepper and oven-roasted. Don't have enough oven time available to add them to this year's menu.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Porthos (log)

[rotuts]

never boil a sprout.

maybe a zillion people ate them this way ....

times change the Sprout Changes for the better non-boiled.

[Pierogi]

Shopping day is tomorrow (Friday) for everything but the fish and desserts, so I'd damn well better be sure of the menus at this point !

Wiglia (Christmas Eve in Polish)

Fish

"Warsaw" salad (in lieu of the cucumbers in sour cream)....this is cukes, radishes and apples sliced on a mandolin, in a lemon juice/sour cream dressing

Creamed mushrooms (the Poles LOVE mushrooms), made with both dried & fresh 'shrooms

Noodles with poppy seeds, raisins and honey (another traditional Wiglia dish)

Pierogies

Dessert (tbd)

Christmas

Small rib roast with horseradish sauce

Potatoes dauphenoise

Pearl onion and chestnut compote (from a recipe in the November "Saveur" by Mary Sue Milliken.....looks decadent)

More pierogies

Green veg (likely asparagus, or Brussels sprouts, or haricot verts, depends)

Dessert (tbd)

Egg Nog and cookies

I'm still feeling good, been a baking fool, but the computer, she is dying.....y'all may get updates/photos or maybe not.....depends on the status of the machine and or the replacement.

In any event, in case I don't get back before *the day*, "Wesołych Świąt" to everyone !

Edited December 20, 2013 by Pierogi (log)

[annabelle]

I hope Santa brings you a new computer, Peirogi, so we can see all your hard work.

[ahpadt]

Christmas Eve:

- Brined turkey breast, SV @ 59c for ~2h, then roasted

The turkey breasts turned out amazing. Brined in a 7% salt, 2.5% sugar, peppercorns, coriander and dried thyme for 6 hours. Bathed at 59c for a couple of hours with duckfat in the bag, then seared well in duckfat. Highly recommended. Didn't use the thighs, which was good because even with just the breasts we had leftovers. And the leftover turkey is still quite delish...

Edited December 26, 2013 by ahpadt (log)

[kayb]

A seven-pound tenderloin (cooked too long; the fam wants medium!, but still good). Mashed potatoes. Sweet potato casserole (Southern holiday requirement) with streusel topping. Cranberry salad (another Southern holiday requirement). Coriander carrots. Yeast bread that did NOT do well, not that anyone missed it. Baked pears with blue cheese and balsamic vinegar. And the piece de resistance -- a white chocolate cherry cheesecake, which, if I do say so myself, knocked it out of the park.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

8 lb turkey, oven roasted with our family's traditional savoury bread stuffing.

Mashed potatoes

Romanesco and Carrots

Mushroom Gravy

Pumpkin (well, squash) pies with rum whipped cream.

We're traditionalists at our house.

[chileheadmike]

Turkey was a total bust.

I've done this several times before with great success.

I bone out a whole turkey breast and the lay on traditional stuffing, the poached rib meat, and more stuffing. The whoe thing is rubbed with salt, pepper, paprika, and sage. It's then cooked on the Weber kettle at a fairly high temp, leading to crispy skin and moist meat with the smoke complementing the stuffing. Slices look very nice.

I sliced into it and it was medium rare. Crap. I pulled the pie out of the oven and put the turkey in. Crap, I turned the oven up to 400F for the pie. It was done alright. And dry. Everything else came out great.

I should not cook when I'm sick, but no one else in the family does.

[robirdstx]

...What will you cook this year to celebrate Christmas? How many will you be? What are your traditions, and what will you do new?

We had a small turkey this year, roasted in the oven, with our usual sides. I have always stuffed the bird, but this year I baked the dressing in a separate pan and basted the bird with duck fat. Both turned out great! With just the two of us, we have lots of leftovers!

Edited December 26, 2013 by robirdstx (log)

[gfweb]

Xmas eve at Sicilian friend's house- She did the Sunday sauce/meats/pasta and tortoni for dessert. We brought the 7 fishes for the app (smoked whitefish, smoked oysters, shrimp w/remoulade, crab dip, lox, pulpo, tuna rolls). Very nice but too much food. Thankfully, she kept the raisins out of the meatballs.

Xmas lunch- Smoked/SV turkey breast salad (with pimenton, quartered red grapes, crumbled candied pecans and pickled onions). Blueberry crumble for dessert.

Xmas dinner- big fat filet mignons sitting on fine-sliced onions braised in red wine and soy (amazing combination), savory and sweet mashed smoked yams, yukon gold au gratin, steamed asparagus w/ brown butter. Dessert was individual sticky toffee puddings.

Burp.

Edited December 26, 2013 by gfweb (log)

[SylviaLovegren]

We're driving down to the States for Christmas with MIL. She no longer cooks and her kitchen is tiny and, because she doesn't cook, things are hard to find or just not there. But there's a great market nearby that has wonderful prime rib, so probably we'll have that, since it's easy, and roasted veg alongside, since that's easy. Simple salad and plenty of wine. Christmas cake and lotsa cookies which I'm bringing down from Canada. If I can convince everyone else, we'll have my favorite Christmas Eve meal, which is spaghetti with white clam sauce -- so easy. SIL has a new boyfriend, whom we haven't met yet, and I know he's quite a cook -- so maybe he'll change things up from my simple ideas.

Turns out that new boyfriend DOES cook. My beautiful prime rib was roasted covered with foil -- it was very tender but had no crispy brown bits and there was no gravy because all the water that was put in the pan when the foil went on just turned into a mildly flavored beef broth. But we didn't need gravy because we had burned scalloped potatoes, which certainly would not have been helped with gravy.

Not that I'm complaining! Much. Well, VERY much. Some, maybe. A little.

Edited December 29, 2013 by SylviaLovegren (log)

[Dejah]

The best-laid plans...

The family would not allow me to do the prime rib in the Big Easy, so it was in the oven by 2:30 after the Yorkies were done. It was to be pulled at 120F but we had a visitor, so it was 125F. It was closer to medium, but still tender, delicious, juicy. Main side attraction was brussel sprouts sauteed with bacon, shallots, pecans, and whole grain mustard.

Santa brought all the kids T-shirts when he visited A Christmas Story in Cleveland in the summer. I got the apron - most appropriate when our family has gatherings. That's my future-son-in-law Ryan who also loves to cook...and eat!

Xmas Day dim sum was sort of cancelled until grandson decided he really wanted to come up for brunch. So it was a rushed job with only siu mai, char siu baos, and deep fried wontons. Luckily, I had all the prep. done as previously planned. Supper was some of the leftover roast beef.

Boxing Day was with my brother and his families - for 25 people. Ryan and I decided to make a marinade to inject into the turkey instead of using a brine. Bought a utility turkey, used everything except the dark meat to simmer with roasted vegetables. The broth was seasoned with fresh herbs and reduced to 2 liters of intense marinade. This was injected into the turkey as well as the bone-in turkey breast. The whole turkey was cooked in the Big Easy for 2.5 hours in -20C weather. The dripping was incredible, and made the best gravy ever. My nieces had a battle to see who would take the leftover gravy home! We also had meatballs, and ham with raisin sauce, plus a gazillion sides. Dessert was mango pudding for 30 - made in a big catering dish. It was such a busy time that no pictures were taken...

Dec. 27, we had visitors for brunch, and made dim sum again: siu mai, har gow, sticky rice in lotus leaf, char siu baos, summer rolls, shanghai bak choy stir-fried with garlic and ginger, and another batch of mango pudding.

Families all went home to the big city late afternoon. I was so tired I had a 4 hour nap. Woke up at 11:00 pm. cooked rice and had it with Chinese cheese (fuyu)...SO good after all the rich meals and baking...

Yesterday, I made a pot pie with the ground-up, well seasoned dark turkey meat that Ryan had made up. I added frozen mixed vegetables, topped it with creamy mashed taters, and it was very good. I think we'll keep Ryan as a s-i-l!

[ahpadt]

^ The sprouts look really good.

[gfweb]

never boil a sprout.

maybe a zillion people ate them this way ....

times change the Sprout Changes for the better non-boiled.

I'll blanch halved sprouts prior to frying in bacon fat till they brown up...and then toss in a little maple syrup