Christmas dinner 2017

Seared Scallops with Mint, Peas, and Bacon Bricked Game Hens with Savoy Cabbage on Polenta Croûtes Brillat-Savarin Signé Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2014 Italian Pear Almond Cake

This is not our happiest holiday season. Beyond the interminably gray weather, which is not very cheery, we've lost two friends recently. We lit an extra candle on the table to remember Doug and Stevie, who was a good friend to my brother. I think we'll make this a tradition for our special meals, a candle as a small remembrance for those who were close but are now gone from our lives.

For a starter there was Seared Scallops with Mint, Peas, and Bacon (web). This is a pea sauce, topped with seared scallops then a garnish of peas, mint, and bacon (I used lardons). The serving sizes in the recipe are odd. For four people, the recipe asks for 12 scallops totaling 1-1/2 pounds. Now, I live right next door to the coast, so fairly well-supplied with seafood, and six scallops (for a half recipe) totaled 4-1/8 ounces, about a sixth of what was asked. Puzzling. With my six scallops, I made half the pea sauce. A very nice starter that is easy to make and very yummy.

We didn't make it to a marché de noël this year, so we didn't have any venison or other festive meat. Instead I made Bricked Game Hens with Savoy Cabbage on Polenta Croûtes (Polenta, p74). I cooked two coquelets, each about the size of a Cornish game hen, but we ate only one. (Ed used to easily eat a whole one, but we have leftovers for another night.) The cabbage was especially nice and easy, finely sliced, then sautéed with a bit of finely chopped shallot and chicken stock. When it's done-ish, stir in a spoonful of grainy mustard.

Then we finished the last little bit of Brillat-Savarin we had, on plain crackers.

The wine was, um, undistinguished, but we did manage to finish the bottle over the course of our meal. We both forgot to buy something nice at the shop this week, and our stash is almost empty so this was all that was available.

For dessert, there was Italian Pear Almond Cake (web) which was very tasty. This was supposed to serve eight, but the two of us finished off half. Oh well, supposedly it doesn't keep well, and I'd hate for it to go bad.

A nice meal altogether, accompanied only by Oscar, while Sophie slept upstairs.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/25-Dec-17: Our xmas meal got its own post.

Tuesday/26-Dec-17: Our tweede kerstdag meal got its own post.

Now we have lots of leftovers.

Wednesday/27-Dec-17: Leftovers with the bricks coquelets and the cabbage charlotte mold. Some ice cream bars for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/28-Dec-17: Shopping today after Ed's early dentist appointment. This week there were more "exotic" foods, typical of the holiday season. Okra, even, if you like that. And the meat counter had lots of fancy birds, capons and regular chickens, each wrapped in a dish towel sort of thing, with tail feather, and feet, and sometimes heads showing. The better to choose what you want.

Our main meal was quite early, Roast Cod on Smoked Salmon and Cabbage Hash with Horseradish Butter (Raising, p40). Surprisingly tasty, this was. I cannot get a piece of cod to be nicely browned like that picture. It comes apart in big flakes. Still tastes good. The cabbage and smoked salmon and cod went together surprisingly well. I didn't see the bit about serving with plain mashed potatoes till it was too late, so served with bread.

Friday/29-Dec-17: Well, it was supposed to be fresh pasta today, but I didn't have the time, energy, or enthusiasm. Instead there was fresh (?), store-bought pasta from the freezer. We had Fettuccine al Limone (ClassPasta, p96), which was very good. And a big salad. Some mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Saturday/30-Dec-17: Make two lumps of Tart Dough (Tenth, p256; HandyBook), one for tomorrow's tart, one for the freezer. Make some polenta for tomorrow night's crostini. Our meal was leftover pork roast from tweede kerstdag and the rest of the cabbage-potato charlotte. We had ice cream at the movies.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/31-Dec-17: Cath came to spend the night. For dinner we had Leek and Mustard Pie (Greens, p245; cookbooker) followed by a big salad and then some Three Kings' Cake (from a Chasseneuil boulangerie with a Harry Potter character as the fêve).

For munchies, I had way too much for three people. We nibbled on corn nuts before dinner, always a mistake. With South Pacific there was: more corn nuts Carrot sticks. Celery sticks. Grilled Polenta Crostini with Smoked Trout and Mascarpone (Polenta, p48) (used the smoked salmon left from Thursday instead of smoked trout). Didn't use: chaource, olives, artichokes with green tapenade and goat cheese. All those back in the fridge for future use.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no

Christmas dinner 2010

Just the two of us and a fairly simple, but quite tasty meal.

Our third xmas here at we and we already have a tradition: at the Chassenon marché de noel, we buy a chunk of foie gras wrapped with magret seche, dried duck breast. Very very good, if rich. It makes a lovely starter with a bit of salad on the side, this year arugula with a dab of vinaigrette. Here's the table set and starter served. (This is my mother's favorite tablecloth, beautiful embroidery, with my grandmother's china.)

Also at the marché this year, we got a pair of venison steaks. While looking for a little sauce to go with them, I found Venison Medallions on Cranberry-Orange Polenta Diamonds (Polenta, p87). We didn't really have medallions, but it worked anyhow. The recipe called for making your own venison stock, but I just used AH's wildfond, which is quite good. I made the polenta up a day before, so that it could set up properly. Usually I make very simple polenta; this one started with sautéing pancetta, chopped red onion, and garlic, then adding the polenta to cook with the stock and some orange juice. Some dried cranberries are stirred in at the end for a festive look. Once this has set, it's is cut into diamonds, brushed with a bit of melted butter olive oil, then browned under the broiler.

The steaks are salt-and-peppered, then cooked quickly in clarified butter (I use ghee). They got smaller and taller, as meat does, but were wonderfully tender and tasty. When these are done, you make a pan sauce, first (in theory) by flambéing some Cointreau. Since I was making a half recipe, there wasn't really enough alcohol to light; seems like it all evaporated in the hot skillet before I could get the pan tilted into the flame. Oh well. Then you add some pinot noir and and more stock and cook it down to a syrup. Pop two bits on polenta on a plate, top with a steak, drizzle on the sauce, and top with some dried cranberries and a half slice of orange (which I forgot to buy). My presentation wasn't the prettiest, but the taste was good.

For a side, I roasted (toaster oven), some cauliflower, broccoli, and brussels sprouts. This went quite well with the meat.

Dessert was a repeat of last year, Bill Hatcher's Amaretto Poached Pears (MC), this time with freshly made French vanilla ice cream. Tasty. Since it was just the two of us, I made this up between courses, but it takes about 20 minutes altogether, 5 minutes of prep and 15 minutes of cooking. Sometime I should try getting the pears most of the way done before dinner, and then reheating just before serving.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Dec-10: Breakfast and lunch both involved fruit salad and we still have some of this left. For lunch we also finished off the soup from the lamb stock.

Dinner was Broccoli with Orechiette (30MinPasta, pxx), which is more or less the same as Broccoli with Anchovy Sauce from ClassicItal, missing the cheese, which would have been a good idea, but when I realized this, I was too lazy to grate any. I added some strips of roasted red bell pepper from a jar that needs to be used up. Followed by a salad. Followed by two pieces of gateau Breton that we bought at the marché de noel yesterday.

We found it odd yesterday that the Brits all assumed fruit salad we brought to the choir dinner was dessert, whereas we Amurricans expected it would be served with the main course. One of the choir members mentioned that an American friend in the UK who served cheese for munchies at a party and was surprised that no one ate it; the Brit guests all thought cheese was a dessert, not a snack. Hmm ...

Tuesday/21-Dec-10: Dinner was Cabbage Gratin (VCE, p278) or pain au chou (cabbage loaf). Had to bake it in the toaster oven, which isn't best at these things. Tasty enough, but the custard bit didn't really set as it ought. Beforehand we had a store-bought snack of goat cheese wrapped in bacon, tasty and rich. For dessert we had one each of the chocolate goodies we bought at the marché, a bit of raspberry gel, covered with some delicious dark chocolate (criollo from Peru) and topped with an almond. Expensive little boogers, but mighty tasty.

Wednesday/22-Dec-10: French toast for breakfast. Yum. Good thing we don't eat that every day.

Visited Gitem in the afternoon before shopping. The current idea is that the problem might be the regular on the butane bottle so they gave us a new one to try. Indeed the ovens sort of light again, but in the funny kind of way they were doing around Thanksgiving, not in a dependable sort of way. We'll see. (The old regulator was only five years old and we had the idea that sort of thing lasted forever, or at least longer than five years, but who knows.)

Dinner was yet another Cooking Light variation on Indian-Spiced Salmon. A bit of a boring one. I'd planned to serve this with the recommended basmati rice, but discovered a package of gnocchi in the freezer that I thought we'd already eaten, so made that instead; with some garam masala and some chopped cilantro it was vaguely Indian. The cooking directions for the gnocchi were very odd (to me): you plop in the frozen gnocchi in a pan of hot butter and stir for a bit over a lively fire. Then turn down the heat, put on a lid and cook for longer till they're done. Actually they were surprisingly good, with a nice crispy exterior and soft and lumplike (like gnocchi are) on the inside. Big salad. Then the end of some goat cheese. We're full.

Thursday/23-Dec-10: Dinner was Buffalo Chicken Casserole (soon to be MC) from Eating Well mag. I was attracted to this recipe because of the conjunction of hot sauce (Frank's RedHot suggested, Tabasco used) and blue cheese. And it worked. The recipe serves 8; I made half and we'll have two dinners from it. Followed by a salad, embroidering the rest of the pink eggplant sauce to make a dressing.

The new regulator doesn't solve the oven problem.

Friday/24-Dec-10: Tonight there was Spicy Cajun Shrimp (MW@Home, p255), an old favorite, but somehow not as good tonight. Was too lazy for a salad. Had some of Weezie's (Ed's piano student) English Christmas cake. Not bad at all. Might use the last bit to make some bread pudding.

Made the polenta for tomorrow's polenta diamonds and the custard for tomorrow's ice cream.

Saturday/25-Dec-10: A beautiful day. Snow on the ground, sun in the sky, cold temps. Santa brought us each a nice gift. Two nice walks during the day. A tasty dinner. No company; we didn't run across any "strays" and we're both wanting a bit of quiet anyhow.

Thinking about the shopping we've done in the last days, I'm struck by how veggie prices differ between here and the Netherlands. Cauliflower is very expensive here, but cheap in NL. On the other hand, asparagus here cost about a third of the Dutch price. This has to the difference in local tastes, I suppose, but a very odd difference nevertheless.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/26-Dec-10: Dinner was some turkey scallops with a simple pan sauce using some of the extra wildfond, with the leftover cabbage gratin and some trio rice. For dessert, there was a bit of the xmas cake with ice cream. Note to self: When the ice cream is made, put it into the freezer in another container. If you leave it in the ice cream maker bucket, it doesn't soften in real time. Duh.

Out of bread. Nobody wanted to go to the boulanger today. Cornmeal Bread (BigGerman, p35) on overnight.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/30-Aug-10: This morning I started the roasted tomatoes (Polenta, p66) from a recipe that I didn't make for the CookBooksEtc contest. They cook a long long time at a low temp. Very tasty after. Ed thought I must have added something to them, but there was just salt and pepper. I've frozen these for later use.

Then I made two jars of plum jam, using several recipes from the web. One in the freezer, one in the fridge. The lickings were quite promising.

Mostly leftovers for dinner tonight, leftover beans-and-rice, leftover rice-and-peas, leftover zucchini-with-yogurt. I flattened a pair kip filets and rubbed them with some (homemade) Cajun spice mix, then sautéed them in olive oil and butter. Made a tasty little sauce by deglazing the pan with a slog of white wine, stirring in a bit of instant fond, then adding a small slog of cream. All was good, although not necessarily together.

The Plum Ice Cream (Scoop, p77) was very good. The two of us ate all of the half recipe that I made. Still have lots and lots of plums to use and to pick.

Tuesday/31-Aug-10: Put on yogurt in the a.m. Shopped. Avoided getting big boxes of cilantro and sorrel that I'd need to use in the next days. Bought more tomatoes for roasting. Started Strawberry Gelato (ClassicItal, p610) to make tomorrow.

Dinner was (loosely) Grilled Swordfish, Chettind Style (IndLight, p155), but with salmon and only marinate 30 minutes, accompanied by the MJ1's Buttery Rice with Onions, with shallots, since I was making a small amount, and without the book. For afters there was some pavé affinois, which was on sale.

Wednesday/1-Sep-10: For a late dinner following Bill's arrival, I vaguely followed a recipe of Holiday Posole found on the web. Didn't start it the night before as asked, didn't have the powdered chile pepper that they wanted, so I embroidered quite a bit. It was good though. A half recipe filled my Le Creuset Dutch oven. Three of us ate half and I froze the rest. Made Cayenne Cornbread (BigGerman, p182), an old favorite, as a go-with. For dessert, some fresh strawberries over vanilla ice cream. The strawberry gelato has to wait another day.

Thursday/2-Sep-10: A very filling 5-course lunch at La Fermette de Beaumont today. They've gotten even more expensive, although it is 5 courses, and we might not go there for lunch again. In the evening we were still quite full and just had a salad, followed by the Strawberry Gelato that didn't get made last night.

Friday/3-Sep-10: Made yogurt during the day. Plans changed and we ended up with a small bbq at home this evening. Ed grilled some chipolatas and merquez. I made a big dose of Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalad, p15). We started with some rillettes d'oie from the charchuterie in Montbron and finished with some cheese and some store-bought custards that were pretty good.

Saturday/4-Sep-10: Used the rest of the homemade sausage from the freezer to make Fusilli with Sausage and Zucchini (30mimPasta, p150). This was very good, but definitely not a 30-minute dinner. I suppose seeding the tomatoes took a lot of time. Used orechetti instead of fusilli. Followed by a big salad. Then we finished off the rest of the strawberry gelato with some cake that Bill bought at the foire today.

Sunday/5-Sep-10: Yogurt going all day. At a bric-à-brac in Vitrac, I bought some chiles and a handful of tiny, white egg-shaped eggplants.

Whew, lunch today was a repas de la chasse today at St. Adjutory. No food for us this evening. Still no word on the outcome of the CookbooksEtc Ingredient contest.

CookbooksEtc Ingredient Contest 2010

1. 23-May/28-May: strawberries — Balsamic Strawberries with Arugula and Goat Cheese
   
2. 29-May/4-Jun: cheese — Spinach-Stuffed Anchos
   
3. 5-Jun/11-Jun: whole wheat flour — Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes
4. 12-Jun/18-Jun: ground pork or pork sausage — Curried Rice Noodles with Ground Meat
5. 19-Jun/25-Jun: blueberries — Tarte Amandine à la Myrtille
6. 26-Jun/2-Jul: salmon — Almond-Crusted Grilled Salmon with Garlic Sauce
7. 3-Jul/9-Jul: potatoes — Potatoes and Peas in a Yoghurt Sauce
8. 10-Jul/16-Jul: elbow macaroni — Macaroni Salad
9. 17-Jul/23-Jul: tomatoes — Eggs Baked in Tomatoes
10. 24-Jul/30-Jul: dates — Date and Onion Salad
11. 31-Jul/6-Aug: butterscotch chips — Chocolate Chip Cookies and the oven disaster
12. 7-Aug/13-Aug: pecans — Peppered Pecans
13. 14-Aug/20-Aug: mango or peaches — Grilled Shrimp with Green Mangoes and Red Lime Sauce
    
14. 21- Aug/27-Aug: cornmeal or Italian sausage — Cornmeal and Italian Sausage