Christmas and New Year’s Eve feasts
| January 11, 2010 | Posted by ameliaps under holidays, menus, winter |
First things first: Happy New Year (or should I say decade?) to everyone!!!
Ouch! I am sooo behind with my posts. I cook so much that it’s hard to keep up with editing the pictures, posting them on my flickr, re-writing my scribbled down recipes and notes, and finalizing my blog posts!!! and that’s why I find myself at midnight writing this down… Thank you for your patience 
The holidays were wonderful and my favorite thing to do is have friends over to cook together (we have friends that love and appreciate good food as much as we do and we are lucky because our croud is pretty interational so we get to experience different culinary traditions too), with a glass of wine in hand. This year the weather was particularly rigid for this side of the world so the fire seemed to be on for a long time, which added to the kitchen aromas and to the atmosphere.
Christmas eve was a very simple and frugal meal, just for our small family nucleus:
- Tarlets of blue cheese and caramelized onions (because I had some blue cheese around)
- Spaghetti with “vongole” (clams), white wine and parsley (a tradition for Christmas eve in Italy)
- Arugula salad
- “Struffoli e Chiacchiere”: traditional Italian fried dough with honey and orange peel
- Sugar plum fairies: dried fruit and coconut balls (because I had so much dried fruit around!!!)
Christmas day was such a wonderful day, spent with family and a small group of friends:
- Lobster dip
- Yorkshire puddings
- Prime Rib Roast (roast “beast”) with demi-glace and port-wine sauce
- Slow roasted winter root vegetables
- Stewed red cabbage with red wine
- Yule log with mushrooms meringues and frosted rosemary
- Cookies: shortbreads, coconut macaroons, walnut sandies
New years’s evening was a fun fun night with friends, that ended up at 5 am!!!
When everyone arrived I had them fill some ananymous new year resolutions on small pieces of paper and put them in a bowl. We later would spend some fun going through them and guessing who wrote what
Before everyone went away I gave them a small package with lentils (for health and money), garlic (to fend off the enemies) and red pepper (to spice it up!!!).
- Baked brie with candied pecans, candied kumquats and chestnut honey (me)
- home-made pate de foie gras (Frank)
- Bouillabaisse with saffron aioli (Pat)
- Lentils with sausage and greens (me)
- Stuffed pork roast (Simone)
- Broiled balsamic and rosemary flank steak (Cheryl)
- Brazilian-style Collard Greens (Simone)
- Calabaza squash with sage (me)
- Potato gratin (me)
- Chocolate mousse raspberry cake (Heidi)
- Grapes on skewers for the final count-down
…all profusely showered with Cachaça (expressely brought from Brazil by Marinho), sangria (my concoction), wine and champagne!
So let’s proceed in order…
Christmas eve
- Tarlets of blue cheese and caramelized onions (because I had some blue cheese around)
- Spaghetti with “vongole” (clams), white wine and parsley (a tradition for Christmas eve in Italy)
Put a large pot of water to boil. Salt the water and throw in the linguine (before straining, reserve some of the boiling pasta water) and cook “al dente”. Meanwhile, in a pan with extra virgin olive oil sautee’ some garlic cut in slivers and crushed chili pepper. Add a couple of pounds of small clams, scrubbed and rinsed, and about half a cup of white wine or more. Cover and cook, shaking here and there, until the clams are open (discard the unopen ones). Add the drained pasta to the sauce and top with chopped fresh parsley, adding pasta water if needed.
- Arugula salad
- “Struffoli e Chiacchiere”: traditional Italian fried dough with honey and orange peel.
My sweet grandmother (nonna Paola) sends them to me in a care package straight from Italy. The only thing I have to do is heat some honey in a pan, grate some orange peel in it and add a dash of liqueur (ideally “Strega” but I use Grand Marnier) and roll them in.
- Sugar plum fairies: dried fruit and coconut balls (because I had so much dried fruit around!!!)
To make these cuties, I just buzzed in the processor some almonds, dried papaya, dried figs, honey, tangerine zest and juice then rolled the “paste” in small balls and rolled them in coconut flakes. No need for measurements, that’s the beauty Super-quick, healthy, and sort of fig-newton tasting.
Christmas day:
- Lobster dip
2 cups cooked lobster, finely chopped
1 cup celery, finely chopped
1 scallion, minced
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
Dash of worchestershire sauce
A pinch of cayenne pepper or a dash of hot sauce
- Yorkshire puddings
2 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
6 large Eggs
2 1/2 cup Milk
Sift together flour and salt. Place in bowl; make a well, and place eggs in center. Slowly whisk eggs into flour mixture until a paste forms. Gradually whisk in 1/2 cup milk. Gradually whisk in remaining 2 cups milk. Cover with plastic; chill in the refrigerator at least 4 hours, or overnight. When prime rib roast is finished, set oven at 425 degrees. When pan has been deglazed, pour 1/4 cup reserved pan drippings into roasting pan. Heat pan and drippings until very hot, about 5 minutes. Remove batter from refrigerator, and shake or whisk well; quickly pour into hot pan. Cook until crisp and golden, 20 to 30 minutes.
- Prime Rib Roast (roast “beast”) with demi-glace and port-wine sauce
- Slow roasted winter root vegetables (golden beets, turnips, rutabaga, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, onions) seasoned with the rib roast juice and some extra beef stock. Melt in your mouth vegetable candy!
- Stewed red cabbage with red wine
- Yule log with mushrooms meringues and frosted rosemary
- Cookies: shortbreads, coconut macaroons, walnut sandies, delivered via mail by Aunt Greta:
New years’s evening 
- Baked brie with candied pecans, candied kumquats and chestnut honey (me)
- home-made pate de foie gras (Frank – he’s a chef)
- Bouillabaisse with saffron aioli (Pat)
- Lentils with sausage and greens (me)
In Italy on new Year’s eve we eat lentils with cotechino (a particular sausage) for good luck.
In this version I also added some greens.
Read more on this Italian tradition here.
- Stuffed pork roast (Simone)
Simone mentioned that she had stuffed the pork roast with carrots, green olives, garlic and lemon and then rubbed the whole roast with LOTS of lemon juice. She then broiled it on high (550F) at first and then slow cooked it at a lower temperature. It was incredibly juicy and savory. The outside was crunchy and candied.
- Broiled balsamic and rosemary flank steak (Cheryl)
- Brazilian-style Collard Greens (Simone)
These should really be called GREEN Collard greens. They are crunchy and fresh, not soggy and greasy.
Cut about 1 pound collards (stems and center removed) in chiffonade (stack them, roll them like cigars and cut in thin strips). Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat and add 2 minced garlic cloves. Add collards and cook just a few minutes, leaving the leaves green and crunchy.
- Calabaza squash with sage (me)
- Potato gratin (me)
- Chocolate mousse raspberry cake (Heidi)
- Grapes on skewers for the final count-down
- Sangria
Red wine, lemon-orange-lime slice, cinnamon stick, a little bit of crushed pineapple, and ginger ale.
Before everyone went away I gave them a small package with lentils (for health and money), garlic (to fend off the enemies) and red pepper (to spice it up!!!).
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Amazing! Can I come next year, too??
The yule log look fantastic, ho do you do the meringue mushrooms? I have never seen their like.
@Zeralda: Thank you! the funny thing about the meringue mushrooms is that in my case I had some royal icing left over from the gingerbread castle (basically just whipped egg white with confectioners sugar, with a tad of vanilla) so I decided to use it for the meringues, and added some more confectioners to it to make it more dense. I just piped rounds for the mushroom caps and long (fat to thin) strips for the mushroom stems, then I "glued" these two parts together with more icing. In general, to make meringue, I use about 4:1 room-temp egg whites to confectioners sugar (will vary based on egg size and humidity). So 4 egg white beaten to stiff peak adding 1 cup conf. sugar. Bake at 325F for 20-30 mins.
Happy New Year, Amelia! You've been feeding your family and friends well and that's a beautiful gift.
This all looks so amazing and what dedicated documentation of it all.