We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Fish is required on Christmas Eve. Instead of the usual poached salmon, for after church tonight with in-laws, the kids, and friends, we are doing a big mess o' Marcella's Baked Filet of Sole with Tomato and Capers.
Great stuff, zingy. Easy, too, and only 15 minutes in the oven. Plus potatoes roasted in butter and olive oil, and steamed asparagus splashed with olive oil.
My favorite Christmas cookies are either Ginger cookies, or those plain Christmas cookie-cutter cookies with some sprinkled colored sugar on top, and maybe red-hots for the eyes in the reindeer.
Best with mashed taters, Yorkshire Pudding, and plenty of horseradish. Maybe some vegetables for the health nuts, but I would never waste my appetite on them with something this tasty to enjoy.
Rule of thumb is 1 lb of meat per person, so it's difficult to make for over 8-9 people, really, without a commercial oven. That's why people make filet instead of prime rib for parties and have their prime rib in restaurants - but I think most people prefer a prime rib (technically "choice," not "prime" and technically, as reader notes, "standing rib roast"). It's the perfect food for human beings, along with mashed potatoes.
Christmas Eve supper is traditionally fish. We tend to make poached salmon with yoghurt-dill sauce. Usually asparagus and some potato on the side. It's ready when we all get home from Christmas Eve church.
Christmas Day dinner is the major feast. We often join relatives for this, but sometimes we host. Our relatives tend to make filet, which is always good. Our greatest success, I think, was Stuffed Crown Roast of Pork. If you don't stuff it with apple/cornbread stuffing, you can serve that on the side, with applesauce, mashed taters, and some root vegetables.
Regular Roast Beef is great, of course, but a Beef Wellington is even better if you don't have too many guests. It's easy:
You can use any sort of fresh mushroom you want, but use shallots, not onions. This recipe is about right but it can take 1/2 hr on the stovetop to get the water out of the mushrooms, and to get the reduced flavor back into them. Constant stirring.
What are they good for?
- Stuff a boned quail from D'Artagnan with it, then the quail jus or gibier on top. - Put in a puff pastry for a treat. - Add some grated gorgonzola and stick them in wontons for a very fine ravioli. Cream sauce on top. Would work as darn good potstickers too. - Put in little tarts - use for crostini - and it's the stuff in Beef Wellington
Re-posted - Photo is a simple cheese board for dessert for about 6 dinner guests
Good cheeses must be treated with respect because plenty of effort, time, and pride goes into making them for you, and the tasty ones are mostly expensive. People always put out cheese and crackers at holidays. Here are The Barrister Family Rules and Tips about serving cheese:
1. The only thing Whole Foods (or whatever it's called now) is good for is the cheese department. That is quite good, and often the Cheese Man is somewhat knowledgeable and will give you a taste.
2. Best grocery cheese dept? Definitely Fairway. Best source of that Irish hard cheese - Dubliner - and of un-aged goat cheese? Costco. We love goat cheese. In Manhattan, Grace's Market has good, unusual, unpasteurized cheeses, and it's a fun shop for foodies. Also, the Grand Central Market in Grand Central Station has tons of tasty stuff including fancy cheeses.
3. Cheese as an appetizer or an hors d'oeuvre? Never. It's not done, not proper except as part of an Italian antipasto and even then only a couple of thin tasting slices. It wrecks the appetite and is too taste-powerful to precede a pleasant dinner.
4. Cheese should always be served at room temp, never cold. If a soft cheese gets a bit melty, so much the better because that's what it is meant to do.
5. Assorted cheeses on a buffet table? Of course. A Cheese Board as an after-dessert savory or, as I prefer, instead of dessert? Definitely.
But served how? Our theories on the topic are below the fold -
I recently had a chat with my 4-Star Paris-trained chef friend about special creams. I learned a few things.
For starters, she said that Creme Fraiche and Sour Cream are culinarily identical, but you pay more if the label says Creme Fraiche which is only slightly lighter in weight. I already saved you a few bucks, because now you can put ordinary sour cream on your mixed-berry dessert.
Clotted Cream, or Devonshire Cream, is what you put on your scones and crumpets and strumpets. Excellent flavor on strumpets. Here's what it is. She said you can get it at Whole Foods, but I won't go there.
Good old Whipped Cream requires no comment.
Somewhat related -
- When I was a kid, Mom used to make Junket for dessert. I thought it was good, but nobody makes Junket anymore. (She made Jello dessert too with a squirt of Reddi-Whip, and Coffee Jello was my favorite.) Maybe some chef could spruce up Junket and bring it back into fashion.
- English Custard (Sauce). A classic for Bread Pudding, Plum Pudding, and other Brit puddings and desserts. Simple and delicious. Pour it on.
One of the tastiest and most luxurious hors d'oeuvres is soft-boiled quail eggs with caviar. Eggs on eggs. It's really gotta be served with champagne. But how does the regular family afford enough Osetra caviar at $60/oz to be generous with it? They can't, because a minimal dose is about 1 oz. per person. We'll get to that in a minute.
Best way to eat fine caviar? Off those tiny caviar spoons with a shot of Russian vodka. Second best? On a blini. Third best? On a quail egg.
(By the way, if you have any left-over caviar, it's great on regular soft-boiled eggs or on top of an omelette the next day. It also freezes pretty well.)
Since I'm on the topic of caviar, a chef friend's favorite sandwich is a toasted bagel with creme fraiche (or the very heavy type of sour cream or, at worse, cream cheese) with a pile of caviar and a sweet onion.
The great caviars of the world are, of course, from the various varieties of Sturgeon. Today, sturgeon are farm-raised in some places (eg this French farm raised caviar). Yes, there are wild sturgeon in America (relatively endangered) and every once in a while somebody pulls a 16-footer out of the Hudson River.
Farm-raised American Sturgeon caviar ain't cheap. Let's take a look at the American non-Sturgeon caviars, those caviars for us plebs.
Cheapest is caviar from the roe of the Lake Whitefish. Whitefish Caviar is better than nothing, but it's basically low-rent supermarket caviar, around $10/oz.
Another cheap one is often marketed as American Pride. It's the roe of something they call a Golden Herring. I don't know what that fish is. 7 ounces for $50. Inexpensive enough to use in volume.
My third cheap one is often marketed simply as American Black Caviar. It's the roe of the Bowfin, a primitive cool-water fish of the US and Canada. Fishermen consider it to be an annoying trash fish:
Here's a stranger fish from which the roe is marketed: The American Paddlefish. It's a cousin of the sturgeon, lives in the Mississippi River drainages. Here's one plankton-feeding:
I've never had Paddlefish Caviar, but I'd like to try it. Wild American Paddlefish Caviar goes for around $30/oz. It's a shame that you can't squeeze the roe out of a fish and then let the fish go to make more.
We like big bottles for holidays, but they will want to breathe for a few hours.
That's a double magnum of Pol Roger (no breathing), a Jeroboam of 1994 Col di Sasso Tuscany cabernet/sangiovese, a double magnum of Meeker Sonoma Merlot 2002, and a couple of bottles of late bottled Ramos Pintos 1998 Port. Those late-bottled vintage ports are a good deal, and ready to drink. Martinelli's for the teetotalers (in the fridge, not photogenic).
Plenty nice enough for a proletarian, gun totin', pa'tridge huntin', dog lovin', Bible-clingin' proud Yankee red-necked Mayflower farmin' family. We'll have some cheap seegars, too. Everybody will sleep well... and far more comfortably than their Pilgrim ancestors ever did.
Nice picture on the wall? I like Cape Codder John Grillo. Chatted with him several times. He's still alive, and one day I might be able to afford another one of his purty pitchers of nekked gals and dancers before he goes to the great art studio in the sky. I hope to see him this summer, well-aged (b. 1917) but alive and still working all day, every day.
As a native Cape Codder and cranberry fan, it's a delight to report that they may have a powerful anti-atheroscletotic effect. Maybe this news might have a beneficial effect on a specialized family farming that has been bedeviled by low prices.
The big producers are Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington, Oregon and Michigan.
The sentence in Science Daily I don't understand is the following: "The researchers said that the next step is to determine which compounds in cranberries contribute to the benefits and then figure out how to incorporate them into the diet in a form palatable to humans." How about in cranberry juice, cranberry muffins, cranberry pancakes, 25 kinds of cranberry sauce, cranberry cobbler, and dried cranberry "raisins,"....for starters? You can buy unsweetened, undiluted cranberry juice now in most supermarkets.
We keep bags of them in the freezer, and they seem to last a year.
Cranberry sauce: it's not just for Thanksgiving turkey. It's good for chicken and almost any kind of game meat. Never use the junk from the can, though. Even if you think you like it, you will find you like the home-made better.
More on this native North American bog plant here.
Inquiring minds want to know. Here's ours, for around 23 people - family and friends:
Unknown hors d'oevres (my Sis brings) with Champagne.
Two turkeys, one in the oven with cornbread stuffing, and one on the grill. Extra stuffing. Gibier gravy. My Mom is making her famous artery-smoothing mashed potatoes with sour cream and cream cheese and chives etc in them (mashed potatoes like that plus regular red wine intake have kept my 85 year-old Dad alive and kicking thus far). Brussel Sprouts sauteed with bacon and shallots. String beans with almonds. Creamed baby onions. Sweet potatoes done somehow by my Bro. Mountains of various forms of Cranberry sauces (The best? Orange-Cranberry Relish). Corn pudding (from good dried corn like Cope's) from my M-in-law. Good red wine, cider, along with lots of Martinelli's for the teetotalers and an assortment of really good beers including Palm and some of the German Weissbraus that I have become fond of.
Pumpkin Pie made by Mrs. BD from fresh pumpkin, and Squash Pie from fresh Butternut squash. Apple Pies made by another Sis. Indian Pudding. Pumpkin Cheesecake. Ice cream and whipped cream on the side. Some decent Port for after, with cigars for the gents (and for any women who want them. As far as I know, Mrs. BD has not smoked a cigar since the Macanudo she rebelliously enjoyed at our wedding reception).
The best part? Everybody helps clean everything up after, and nobody leaves until it's all done. It gets like The Cat in the Hat around here. The strong men scrub the pots and pans and carry the rental tables and chairs out to the driveway. Our family - families - are like that: they seem to enjoy work and effort, and seek it out. If they can't find any work at hand to be done or any mess to be tidied, they go for a five mile run or split some firewood or build a wall or do something useful. None of my own kin will watch TV. It's Yankee blood. We do not do idle very well, even on vacation. Or especially on vacation. Maybe it's a flaw - but mess and idleness are the haunts and playthings of the devil. We can rest and "relax" all we want when we're dead. Until then, it's "Hi, Ho, Go, Go" as long as we can.
With a world so full of wonders and challenges, why leave a legacy of a dent in a sofa?
With Thanksgiving on the way, my thoughts have wandered to one of my favorite desserts - Indian Pudding. I don't know about the rest of the country, but up here old Yankees view it to be as essential as Pumpkin Pie and Winter Squash Pie on the dessert table. (I usually consider Mince Pie to be more of a Christmas treat.) Here's one good recipe. I think ice cream overpowers it, but a drizzle of heavy cream does not.
Since we're on the subject of corn meal, here are a few of my other favorites:
Cheese Grits. This would be good for Thanksgiving too. Cheese grits are good with game meat, and with barbecue too. I could live on cheese grits.
Related, but not ground corn: Cope's Dried Sweet Corn. The best for corn pudding, which is a Thanksgiving necessity.
Almost forgot - Cornmeal pancakes. More interesting than ordinary pancakes.
The American Indians ground their teeth down to nubs from chomping ground corn (samp) - and especially from the stone particles in it from their stone mortars.
My friend who I trust completely emails me: "Have you heard of this recipe? It was in the Chicago Tribune many years ago. I've made it several times. A labor of love, but soooo good."
I think I will try this, but not at Thanksgiving. Tradition must be observed here. I am one of those people who truly enjoys a roast turkey, as long as there is plenty of cranberry sauce, mashed rutabaga, creamed onions, and mashed potatoes to go with it. I like the dark meat.
Photo: I forget where that photo came from, but it's not a photo of Thompson's Turkey. Maybe from Dr. Bob.
We did one turkey in the oven, stuffed with cornbread stuffing, and the other one on the grill with occasional doses of soaked apple wood chunks from my neighbor's tree, and with white wine in the steam water. Both birds were brined 24 hrs before cooking, and each around 18 lbs.
We had plenty of family and friends to eat it all up.
I think people preferred the grilled (no stuffing in the grilled bird). It was my first time trying grilled turkey. Beginner's luck: It came out perfectly: moist, with a pleasant hint of smokiness. It took around 3 1/2 hrs to cook. Keeping the temp at near 325 involved carefully titrating the number of briquettes and fruitwood chunks to keep the heat low, but to not let the fire go out. Basted it with veg. oil and honey.
Nice grill, eh? This cast-iron thing weights 500 lbs. I had to assemble the darn thing off a truck, and got most of it right. Except for the wheels, which fell off. Now it takes a few pall-bearers to move it.
This is halfway:
And done:
The puppy seemed equally happy with scraps from the grilled and from the oven-roasted turkey.
My chef friend recommends trying Sweet Chili. I've only made hot chili in the past, and I like to make it with chunks of chuck, and no beans.
With a relative here recovering from orthopedic surgery, I'm trying Sweet Chili tonight. Something like this, with its interesting combination of ingredients: The Best Chili You Will Ever Taste. Chef also advises using Pink Beans - Rosadas - not kidney beans for Chili. Also says canned beans are at least as good as soaking dried beans. Says no good chef would bother soaking beans.
I'll serve it with some rice if wanted, but I think chips are the right thing. Or maybe I'll make some cornbread. Yeah, that's what I will do.
The fun thing about Chili for me is a choice of toppings: Scallions, chopped red onion, grated cheese, chopped pepper or chopped Halapenos, sour cream, etc.
I use a Slow-Cooker, aka crock pot, for these sorts of things so as not to be chained to the kitchen. Slow Cooker never burns things, and you can go do things for 6 hours. Mine has a timer, too.
The good Balsamic Vinegar comes from Modena (home of Ferrari, Maserati, and Lamborghini), where they have been making it for a thousand years. I have some days when I hunger for some Balsamic.
It's called "balsamic" because it was thought to be a good balsam, or balm, for pain and disease. Our North American Balsam Fir was thought to be good for diseases too, hence its name. The Romans viewed vinegar as a balm and a medicine - hence the Roman soldier kindly offering Jesus vinegar on the cross.
They make it from boiled-down Trebbiano grape juice. Balsamic Vinegar is not a wine vinegar.
The aging process seems to be key. As the volume shrinks over time and the vinegar becomes more syrupy, it is moved into smaller and smaller wood casks made of different woods until ready. Juniper is the final cask. 15 and 25 year-old Italian Balsamic Vinegars are readily available, and there are 100 year-old ones. The 15 year-old one in the photo is $70/bottle. Unlike a bottle of wine of that price, however, you only have to use a few drops at a time.
Northern Italians would never touch our supermarket stuff, nor would any really good American restaurant. However, the available quality is getting better and better. Costco has pretty good balsamic for salad use.
The old story Marcella Hazan relates is about the old Northern Italian guy who ran down to the cellar when the Americans began bombing. Then he remembered, and ran up to the room where his precious small casks of very old Balsamic were stored and rushed them down to the cellar. Then he realized that he had forgotten one more thing: His wife.
Ever tried a good Balsamic on strawberries? It's a classic Italian dessert. It's equally good on fresh fig halves with a touch of honey or sugar. Just make sure you use the good stuff.
Hunting Woodcock, which we usually do in conjunction with hunting Ruffed Grouse, is an interesting and challenging sport. They tend to fly in a spiral, and many of us have a moment of remorse when we take one of these lovely little tasty birds from the dog.
The dog is needed not so much to flush them or point them as to find them when shot. Their camo is perfect.
Always make a sauce for them by sauteeing all of their innards and guts in butter and shallots, and shmooshing them up with a fork with a little brandy and pepper. There's no mess in there, because they conveniently flush out their GI track when they flush.
Readers know that the best Woodcock recipe is Woodcock Ravioli in a splash of gibier sauce and shaved black truffle on top.
It's wonderful that Americans have the luxury of getting neurotic about what to buy at the supermarket and about what to eat. As I do, they advocate low-to-no-carb diets for weight control. It's Physiology 101.
Recently, I was invited to join a company seminar on "Reinvigorating the Workday." You spend a few hours at a desk, and reinvigorating yourself seems like a great idea. The seminar was very helpful, providing good information, some stretching exercises and mental games to 'loosen up' a bit when things start to get repetitive.
Toward the end, the instructor decided to discuss healthy foods. She correctly pointed out what you eat can impact how you feel throughout the day. While I believe this, what I got was a lecture on food 'toxins'. The minute I hear someone talking about toxins in food, my eyes glaze over. Another nut talking about their perfect diet. Which is exactly what we got. I decided to play along, because being snarky can be fun.
The instructor admitted alcohol is a toxin, but we all need to unwind, so you should be careful about what kinds of wine or beer you choose. Obviously, fewer preservatives is 'better'. I told her I brew my own beer, and I prefer craft brews to standard national brands. I was lauded for being so careful about my food choices.
However, when she moved into chocolate, caffeine, and other standard fare, the word 'toxins' became more common. I asked her if she ate almonds. She replied almonds are very good for you, very natural. I then pointed out wild almonds (and to a significantly lower degree domesticated almonds) contain cyanic acid which can be toxic, since it is the basis of cyanide. So my question was, how much of my natural diet could be too much? Unaware of this fact, she stumbled a bit, and mentioned moderation.
I'm an extremist when it comes to supporting moderation. It's what I used to lose 30 pounds over the course of the year. Moderate amounts of the same food I always eat. I didn't change my diet at all. Since the instructor had met me before, she asked about my weight loss and what foods I was eating. I proudly told her I have no problem with genetically modified foods, diet sodas, and a host of other items. She looked at me in horror. I told her, as she pointed out, moderation is important. I'm not opposed to healthy eating and if all-natural is your bag, go for it. But please don't treat me as if I'm a simpleton because I enjoy what I enjoy. I'm not killing myself every time I have a Diet Coke or a Big Mac, though to hear her speak I am making a conscious choice to poison myself.
So I did a bit of research, and sent her a list of natural foods which contain toxins (I particularly like this link - the politics of healthy eating - as if politicizing food choices can save us all from ourselves!). Some I was aware of, others not so much. I pointed out what she considers 'toxins' (usually preservatives) enable a much larger percentage of the world to eat. In fact, it allows them to eat good foods and healthy foods, and is part of the reason why the world is a better, healthier place in general. If we were to move to an all-natural farming structure, eating only natural foods, not only would we likely starve half the world, but we'd be spending far too much time farming.
Toxins are everywhere. Even water is toxic, in sufficient quantities. So enjoy the toxins in your foods, whether they are natural or processed.
There is little that people eat that isn't raised on some sort of farm. As humans over-fish the seas, some fish that were once trash fish are now on restaurant menus. Often, new and more appealing names are used.
I had a perfectly-grilled filet of Branzino last weekend in NYC, on a bed of lobster mashed taters. Even the crispy Branzino skin was delicious. I had never had Branzino before. It's European Sea Bass. It tastes like a small Striped Bass, which means very good and a little sweet. Then I saw this: Why does every restaurant in the USA have Branzino in the menu?
It didn't take long to learn that Local Ocean is farming Branzino in the Northeast US. People are farming Striped Bass too. Count me as in favor of this trend.
She had the Emilia-Romagna thing going, and her Bolognese is the best. Bologna is the capital of Emilia-Romagna. Baloney. The home of Balsamic, Mortadella, the Lamborghini, and many other fine things.
How about the "Elvis" from Mississippi? Peanut butter, fried banana, and bacon on toast, with a splash of hot sauce on top. Sounds ok with me. Gimme one, to check it out:
While visiting northern Italy, I jotted down some menu items we saw, and many of which we tried. These are typical antipasti, primis, or secondis:
Beef carpaccio Duck and horse carpaccio Ossa Bucco Antipasto misto Tagliatelle with truffle Tagliatelle with butter and sage Seared Tuna with pepper sauce Braised turkey breast with onion sauce Horse stew on polenta Salmon with zucchini blossoms with Prosecca sauce Gnocchi with porcini and truffle Chicken liver with balsamic sauce Triple fish carpaccio Grilled octopus with pesto sauce Rabbit stew on polenta Truffle risotto with smoked goose breast
That's Italian! As I said before, none of these treats taste as good as they should without wine.
If I want a dessert, my preference is a plate of mixed local cheeses with a couple of figs. Cafes change their menus daily, depending on what they have, and post them outside. Here's one, in Verona. Macceroncini in this context refers to thin tagliatelle:
It's a breakfast drink, the Italian version of cafe au lait.
In Italy, they make it with beautiful swirls. After noon, you drink this in the photo for your needed jolt (but you can get "Cafe Americano" if you ask - all they do is to put a double espresso in a cup, and add water. 2.5 Euros for that, but it's Monopoly money. However, they always serve that Americano with a little thing of hot milk, which is good). Some hotels make ordinary American-style coffee, and it is excellent.
My favorite Christmas cookies are either Ginger cookies, or those plain Christmas cookie-cutter cookies with some sprinkled colored sugar on top, and maybe red-hots for the eyes in the reindeer. 
Best with mashed taters, Yorkshire Pudding, and plenty of horseradish. Maybe some vegetables for the health nuts, but I would never waste my appetite on them with something this tasty to enjoy.
You can use any sort of fresh mushroom you want, but use shallots, not onions. This 
Re-posted - Photo is a simple cheese board for dessert for about 6 dinner guests
One of the tastiest and most luxurious hors d'oeuvres is soft-boiled quail eggs with caviar. Eggs on eggs. It's really gotta be served with champagne. But how does the regular family afford enough Osetra caviar at $60/oz to be generous with it? They can't, because a minimal dose is about 1 oz. per person. We'll get to that in a minute.
What's on your menu? (re-posted) -
My friend who I trust completely emails me: "
The good Balsamic Vinegar comes from 
Toward the end, the instructor decided to discuss healthy foods. She correctly pointed out what you eat can impact how you feel throughout the day. While I believe this, what I got was a lecture on food 'toxins'. The minute I hear someone talking about toxins in food, my eyes glaze over. Another nut talking about their perfect diet. Which is exactly what we got. I decided to play along, because being snarky can be fun.
And we still do. She certainly
