Tweede kerstdag 2020

Mille-feuilles de al Mer Meatloaf Filled with Eggs Wrapped in Bacon Mashed Potatoes Braised Peas with Spring Onions and Lettuce Bûche de Noël au Choco-Marron

We like to invite someone to dinner on this day, and I suppose we could have legally, but we're still acting like we're in full quarantine, minimizing our contact with the outside world.

Our starter was a recipe that attracted me on the web recently, Mille-Feuille de la Mer (web), disks of smoked salmon layered with crab meat and herbs. This was very yummy.

For a main, we had Meatloaf Filled with Eggs Wrapped in Bacon; I think this was from Jamie Magazine, but I can't find on web. À la Alice B. Toklas, I used veal and pork, rather than beef and pork. The sliced green olives were a nice touch, but I think Toklas's meatloaf is still the best. The meatloaf cooked in a bundt pan in a bain marie setup, so the bacon was pretty soggy when I turned it out. I put it back in the oven on high to get the raw look out of it.

Served this with smashed potatoes and, more or less, Braised Peas with Spring Onions and Lettuce (web). The pea dish was especially good.

For dessert I finished the Bûche de Noël Maison au Choco-Marron (web). The chestnut filling and chocolate-chestnut icing were delicious. The cake itself was fiddly (as cakes with separated eggs always are), and broke into bits when I unrolled. it. Mostly hidden by the icing.

Lots of meatloaf and bûche for leftovers.

Christmas dinner 2020

Verrines de Foie Gras & Chutney de Mango Brochettes de Poulet au Magret Fumé et Polenta aux Trois Parfums Bill Hatcher's Amaretto Poached Pears with HomemadeVanilla Ice Cream

Neither of us felt especially hoiday-ish this year, so we were minimally decorative and not very festive. But we ate pretty well. 

Today's meal started with Verrines de Foie Gras & Chutney de Mango (web). I found a tin of foie gras i the the back of a cabinet needing to be used up. This recipe, which is titled as a papaya chutney, appealed because I knew Intermarché had had papayas recently. But not in the last two weeks. I decided mango would have to do instead. Upon reading the recipe closer, I saw that while the title and ingredient list included papaya, the instructions had you chopping mango. So that was that. Served this with baguette slices. We still have some of the tasty chutney to use up. 

For our main, we had Brochettes de Poulet au Magret Fumé et Polenta aux Trois Parfums (web). Of course I used regular polenta rather than the instant that was asked.  Ed wasn't especially fond of the flavored polentas (parmesan, basil, and sun-dried tomatoes), but I thought they were fun. Have lots of odd bits of these left, in the freezer now, for use in other dishes.

This morning I started to make a bûche for tonight's dinner, but when I got to making the filling, I discovered that only frozen butter was available, a long way to room-temperature butter. Oops. Maybe this worked out okay in the end, because I was getting pretty tired by this point. Plan B was an old favorite Bill Hatcher's Amaretto Poached Pears (MC) with homemade vanilla ice cream. This is easy and alway good, although not too much to look at.

We ate well, but not so much we were over-full.

Tweede kerstdag 2019

Verrine Thon, Céleri, Noix et Gorgonzola Cuscinetti di Vitello — Braised Veal Scallops with Prosciutto-and-Cheese Stuffing Carolino Gratinati — Brussels Sprouts au Gratin Riso al Limone — Boiled Rice with Lemon Häagen-Dasz mini ice cream cups

This meal was not especially well-planned since all the dishes were cheesed, not lots, but still it was cheesy.

There were nice little verrines (web) to start, although the layers were not as apparent as on the website. I thought it might be better to mix all the ingredients except the nuts (a kind of waldorf salad then), although you can, of course, do that at table.

The veal (TLItal, p58) was nice, although how you manage to get 4"x4" packets is beyond me. I think you must be prepared to trim off lots of meat. I ended up with two packets roughly that size for the two of us. It was tasty if not picture perfect.

The Brussels sprouts (VegCarlu, p93) were edible but nothing to do again. First the sprouts were boiled, which doesn't bring out the best in them, and then they were drowned in too much bechamel.

I've made the lemon rice (TLItal, p20) before. This time I did it with long-grain rice rather than arborio. This worked fine. It's a nice when you'd like sometime a bit more than plain rice. Now I'm wondering it if wouldn't be nice with some brown rice, long- or short-grained.

For dessert we had some Häagden-Dasz mini ice cream cups. We were full and happy.

Christmas dinner 2019

Verrines de Radis au Chèvre Frais Parmentier de Canard Wild Mushrooms braised in Late Harvest Wine Carottes Glacées Vanilla Ice Cream with Blueberries and Ginger Snap Crumbs

This was the first really sunny day in quite a while, so I should be happy. I'm still tuckered out from being sick though. Today's cooking wore me out.

We started with verrines of radish slices in chèvre frais thinned with cream. To go with them I made some sesame tuiles from another recipe. The bit of crunch was nice, but can't say the tuiles were really successful. They needed much more time to cook that the recipe asked. The verrines were nice and I'll make the extra cheese mixture into a sandwich filling tomorrow.

We had parmentier de canard at a restaurant last year and loved it. I smerged a bunch of recipes and the result was okay, but not in the same league. I used confit de canard from a can, rather than making in from scratch.

For the braised shrooms, I bought girolles, pieds de mouton, and oesterzwammen (pleurotes) for the mushrooms. Most of the girolles were too slimy to use unfortunately. This dish was good, but a bit richer than I would have liked, with the sage-scented cream in the sauce. Used sauterne for the wine. The recipe came from A Thousand Days in Venice and was recommended by Anne.

For the carrots I found some bio carrots of mixed color. The recipe (TLProvFr, p92) asked for the carrots to be cut in chunks (or even shaped like olives!), but I preferred the sticks. They were okay.

I had meant to make crème caramel for dessert, but didn't have the oomph. Instead we had a simple thing, using another verrine, with ice cream and frozen (defrosted) blueberries sprinkled with crumbled ginger snaps.

We're stuffed!

Tweede kerstdag 2018

Verrines de Crevettes au Pamplemousse Gigot à la Provençal et Gratin de Pommes de Terre Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Mustard Vinaigrette Terres d'Exceeption Bordeaux Millisime 2016 Chocolate Fondue with Kiwi, Pear, and Toasted Pound Cake

Cath came to dinner tonight, and we managed to eat at a more reasonable hour.

For a starter we had Verrines de Crevettes au Pamplemousse (VPG, download). This was supposed to be a salad, but I served in in verrines, layers of shrimp, finely chopped cucumber, and red grapefruit sections. Topped with a sauce of fromage blanc, lemon juice, chives, salt, and pepper. Easy and very tasty.

Our main was Gigot à la Provençal et Gratin de Pommes de Terre (Essential, p537). My lamb leg was a bit smaller than asked, but that wasn't a problem; I used fewer potatoes too. This was accompanied by Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Mustard Vinaigrette (web). (I didn't add the Parmesan shards to this, but it would have been a nice touch.) These all made a nice main.

The wine was one brought by a guest this summer. It's been waiting for a special meal, and was worth the wait.

For dessert, I thought I'd make use of the fondue pot that I got as a holiday gift from HP many many years ago. So, there chocolate fondue with spears of kiwi, pears, and pound cake. The fruit was good, but the fondue was nothing special, and hard to take a picture of, so I didn't. The fondue pot will go to a charity shop now.

Christmas dinner 2018

Ribbons of Smoked Salmon with Warm Potato Pancakes and Dill Cream Magret de Canard Façon Wellington Roasted Broccoli with Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette Château La Colombière Les Frontons Flingueurs 2016 Pannacotta au Lait d'Amande Vanillé et Sauce Chocolat

Another depressing holiday. Today was the first sunny day in ages. Guess I'm feeling less gloomy today than in preceding days, but still not happy. (I made this candle at a recent candle-making course.)

For a starter we had Ribbons of Smoked Salmon with Warm Potato Pancakes with Dill Cream (Dinners42, p49). I first saw this recipe as Galette de Pomme de Terre, Saumon Fumé et Fromage Frais (VPG; download), then discovered the Dinners42 recipe that is very similar, and a little "fancier." Potato pancakes with smoked salmon and a dilly cream sauce. Easy and surprisingly good, but not very photogenic. I think next time I'll just make a few smaller pancakes, rather than big ones cut in wedges.

We didn't make it to the big marché de noël again this year, which was okay since I had already planned Magret de Canard Façon Wellington (VPG; download). I made a half recipe of this, which was a bit too doughy. The pastry, store-bought, was lined with a buckwheat crêpe; neither were home-made. The dish was delicious, but extremely filling. Although half a magret is usually a good portion for one, with the pastry and filling of mushrooms and foie gras, I think a thick slice per person would suffice. As a side there was Roasted Broccoli with Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette (EW/sep-oct17; web). This seemed like a good idea, but really didn't work. After more than 30 minutes the broccoli was still crunchy, even the floret part. The vinaigrette was good, but the dish was a disappointment.

The wine was one we bought when we visited the Toulouse area, Château La Colombière Les Frontons Flingueurs. When we tasted wines at the Maison des Vins in Fronton, we'd done four, and I asked for one more, something different. This was what was offered. A hundred percent Negrette grape, and really nice. This is the third, and last, bottle we bought. More expensive than the others we bought there but worth it.

For dessert, there was Pannacotta au Lait d'Amande Vanillé et Sauce Chocolat au Lait  (VPG; web; download) which was very tasty. (The web version is almost exactly the same, but not quite.) The almond milk I found was sweetened, so I reduced the amount of sugar I added. Neither of us likes milk chocolate, so I used dark chocolate. At the last minute I added at bit of cream to the melted chocolate, rather than water that I see now is asked in both recipes. As soon as I stirred in the cream, the melted chocolate thickened, so it wasn't exactly a nice thing on which to serve the delicate and delicious pannacottas.

After a late and lazy start to the day, dinner was late, but we enjoyed it!

Tweede kerstdag 2017

Smoked Salmon Salad with Dill Pork Loin Braised in Milk Charlotte de Chou et de Pommes de Terre—Cabbage Charlotte Italian Pear Almond Cake

A smaller meal for second xmas day than we had yesterday. We started with Smoked Salmon Salad with Dill (BEFCC, p35), which we've had before. It's still good and so easy to do.

For our main, there was Pork Loin Braised Milk (web). (Entirely coincidentally, the Italian Pear Almond Cake is from the same site, collected two years apart.) This was nice and made a delicious sauce.

As a go-with, I finally made Charlotte de Chou et de Pommes de Terre—Cabbage Charlotte (BEFCC, p41). I've had my eye on this recipe for a long time, but it wants a special occasion and a small charlotte mold to bring it off. I broke down and bought myself the mold recently. Isn't it cute?

This dish is kind of a fancy version of bubble and squeak; it's tasty, but you'd only go to this work for a special meal. I do like my little charlotte mold, though, and will have to find other things to do with it.

For dessert we finished off yesterday's Italian Pear Almond Cake, which lasted quite well. (Recipe says it doesn't keep.) This is supposed to serve eight. Those would be very delicate servings. Six would be better. We ate is as four servings. It's good.

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.

Christmas dinner 2016

Terrine de Saumon Fumé à Avocat Crème Grilled Filet Mignon de Daim Haricots Verts in Walnut Oil Mushroom and Pea Orzo Risotto ChantetBlanet St Emilion 2014 Raspberry Bûche de Noël

Not the cheeriest of holiday seasons, of course, but any excuse for a nice meal. Ed gathered green things from the neighborhood for the flower arrangement. (Look, he found holly berries. When I looked on Wednesday, I went to the bottom of our property and turned right. None to be found. He turned left, and there they were. Oh well.)

Smoked salmon is very much a French tradition for the holiday season. With nothing particular in mind, I found a package of two slices of smoked wild salmon. I lined two little dishes with the salmon, then made a filling of avocado, cream cheese, crème fraîche, dried dill (being too lazy to chop the stuff in the freezer), and frozen chives (potted chives being much past their prime). Chilled those overnight. Served with some avocado slices. Very tasty.

Originally I intended to do a Time-Life Italian dish for our main course, but at the marché de Noël last weekend, we found some filet mignon de daim (fallow deer). This corresponds to the filet mignon de porc (varkenshaas in Dutch, pork loin in English?). I marinated this for a couple of hours in my usual, easy meat marinade, and wrapped the pieces in bacon slices before cooking on a hot cast iron skillet after reading in Larousse that the filet mignon should be larded. Very tender and very tasty. Served with Haricots Verts in Walnut Oil (Lunch, p216), which I've made many times. And then there was, loosely, a half recipe of Mushroom and Pea Orzo Risotto (web), made with shiitakes rather than white button mushroom and chicken stock rather than vegetable broth. Also good.

For dessert there was Raspberry Bûche de Noël (web). This was very tasty, but not the easier jelly-roll sort of thing to make. There seemed to be not quite enough cake batter and it was quite fussy with the spreading. Tasty enough, but not pretty. The filling (fromage blanc and marscapone) was scrumptious. The whole thing was very good, if not very pretty.

Altogether a nice dinner.

Christmas dinner 2015

Beet Consommé with Vegetables, Salmon, and Scallops Cocotte Luté de Pintade aux Citron Confits Perfect Roasted Green Beans Alsace Pinot-Noir Pecan Pie Bread Pudding

Ed set the table more than two hours before dinner was served and was clearly quite anxious to get that wine poured.

We started with Beet Consommé with Vegetables, Salmon, and Scallops (p113, Dinners42). The consommé was made from shredded beets and fish stock. The vegetables were an asparagus spear, a carrot stick, and a small potato each. (Now I see there was supposed to be a leek too. I bought one, but forgot to cook it. That's really okay because the plate is quite full.) There were two chunks of salmon and a scallop to go with those in each plate. A pretty nice soup course. The the beet consommé went especially well with the scallop.

For the main, I chose Cocotte Lutée de Pintade aux Citron Confits. I collected this recipe from C&V. On close reading, the recipe looked a bit odd. The photo clearly shows a bay leaf, thyme, and rosemary and these ingredients were not listed. Plus the cooking time was only one hour, which just didn't seem right for a whole bird. So I looked it up online and found the same but different recipe on the magazine site. The lutée in the title means the pot is sealed with a "rope" of flour and water dough. My tajine was just the right size.

Inside is a nicely cooked guinea hen with potatoes and preserved lemons. Very tasty it was. Served with Perfect Roasted Green Bean (MC, HandyBook).

The magazine article recommended an Alsace pinot-noir to go with the bird. This is a light red wine that indeed went well with the bird, although not as well with the soup. (Online crozes-hermitage was recommeded. No idea what that is.)

Dessert was Pecan Pie Bread Pudding (web), which turned out pretty good. I used sucre de canne (brown sugar) in the egg mixture and reduced the amount to 1/2 cup. Served with a store-bought topping of cream-and-marscapone. Doesn't look like much but it was tasty.

A small but nice dinner.

Christmas dinner 2014

Fig Stuffed with Foie Gras and Salad of Watercress  Nori Fettuccine and Shrimp with Garlic-Chili Butter Sauce Spicy Rack of Lamb with Thai Red Curry Sauce Haricots Verts with Sesame Oil Basmati Rice Mango Ice Cream Sandwich with Macadamia Nut Cookies and Tropical Fruit Compote

Bits of this meal got prepared over the preceding days. On the day itself, I got a typical late start and puttered away most of the afternoon. Nothing rushed and everything came together at the right sort of time.

We started with figs stuffed with foie gras, bought at the marché de noël on Sunday, one each, accompanied by a bit of watercress with vinaigrette. Forgot to take a picture of this, so you'll have to imagine a salad plate with a fat fig and a bit of green beside it.

For the next course there was a pasta dish from a mangled recipe (Dinners42, p91; cookbooker). There should been opihi, a Hawaiian limpet, but there were no limpets at the shop (lots of other crustaceans, so maybe they're not in season). Shrimp was given as a substitute, so shrimp there was. The pasta has nori sheets ground up with the flour and sesame oil as the fat (no eggs). Very tasty.

For the main, there was a lovely rack of lamb (6 points) with a tasty sauce (Dinners42, p93; cookbooker). Since the menu I was following didn't include vegetable matter, we had some haricots verts and a bit of basmati rice on the side (but no pictures) of those.

We finished off a bottle of red wine that we won in a charity hamper. The matching rosé, which we took to the choir party, was not bad at all, so we gave the red a chance for this meal. Not the best choice. It was definitely so-so. Drinkable but nothing interesting.

Dessert (Dinners42, p95; cookbooker) was good, if a bit oversized. There's a layer of mango purée at the bottom, then two halves of an ice cream sandwich, topped with some tropical and not-so-tropical fruit (mangos, kiwis, and some mixed berries). Rather than having a whole ice cream sandwich each, we could have split a single one and been fine. A super idea, though, especially because the real work can be done days before.

Altogether an enjoyable meal.

Christmas dinner 2013

A late start to the day and a small meal for the two of us this year.

The starter was Lasagnesandwich met Zalm en Basilicumdressing (web). Directly translated that's a lasagna sandwich with salmon and a basil dressing; clumsy and we need a better name, since this was quite good and would be a nice company dish, easy to assemble and can be done ahead. I made a half recipe with four lasagna sheets, cutting each in half for assembly, leaving squares of pasta. (The recipe actually has you cutting the stacks after assembly, but I think this would be a mess.) The basil dressing is olive oil, lime juice, and basil leaves, buzzed in the blender. First sheet, some smoked salmon with a bit of dressing, second sheet, thin slices of avocado that have been tossed with lime juice, third sheet, more smoked salmon and a bit of dressing, All topped with the fourth sheet. I decorated the top with some leftover bits of salmon and a pretty drizzle of dressing. Very well accepted.

When we went to the market to find something special for our xmas dinner, we had in mind some ostrich steaks or medallions of venison. But the ostrich vendor wasn't there and the venison vendor had only bits of meat for a civet (a stew). So that's what we had. I smerged recipes for Civet de Chevreuil from two books (SaveurFR, p238 and Petit, p625). Actually, chevreuil is roe deer, where my farm-raised venison was daim or fallow deer. The French recipe called for finishing the sauce with pig's blood (or even hare's blood per Larousse Gastronomique); I didn't see any of this at Leclerc and the butcher was closed when Ed went by, so I did without. The result was a very nice, tasty stew. The meat and veg marinated for over 24 hours, then the bits of meat were browned and everything simmered for several hours until tender. And tender and delicious it was.

Then we had a cheese plate with small pieces of three cheeses along with a bit of arugula and a plain vinaigrette. There was a tomme de savoie, St Felicien, and Delice du Poitou, a cinder-covered local-ish goat cheese (from the town where we visit the Bach à Pâques festival) with a lovely texture and taste.

Our dessert was Poire Pochée Chocolat et Vanille (VPG), Chocolat and Vanilla-Poached Pear. This was tasty enough, but nothing special. I bought long, skinny Conference pears, but when I should have bought short, fat Comice. And the chocolate seemed dried out, where it looks like I should have been able to spread it like peanut butter. Not a keeper.

(Ha, I've just found this recipe on the web, but in a version serving 6 rather than 4 as it was published in VPG. The picture in VPG is the same but cropped a bit and reversed. And, assuming the one for 6 is original, the one in VPG was cut back badly. Where there was 250g each of almonds, chocolate, and sugar, VPG has 170g almonds and 135g each of the chocolate and sugar. Now, I don't mind cutting the sugar back, but the chocolate wasn't right. I actually used less almonds, having gotten tired or chopping, and more chocolate but not the full 170g.)

Altogether a tasty and filling dinner, but not too much. And I see we've had the red tablecloth for three xmases in a row now; will try to do something different next year.

Christmas dinner 2012

Another small xmas dinner with just the two of us. It occurs to me that in Amstelveen we had access to a small population of folks who needed dinner, but here we don't  have that network. Our Brit friends like to eat out at British restaurants, where the food is good enough, but nothing special. We both like having a relaxed morning and eating at home.

Our starter was what we've been having for many years now, slices of foie gras wrapped in dried duck, accompanied by a bit of arugula and vinaigrette. Oh so yummy. Oh so rich. The xmas market where we've been getting this has enlarged, but strangely seems to have fewer good food vendors, so this may be the last time we get this.

Finding nothing of interest for a main course at the xmas marché, I fell back on the two coquelets I bought at the grocery as backup. Thinking I'd just roast them simply with some herbs, I was wandering through cookbooks looking for cooking times when I ran across Bademiya's Justly Famous Bombay Chile-and-Cilantro Chicken (Essential, p471). This looked very appealing and I happened to have everything needed on hand, so did a bit of replanning to accommodate this as the main course. I spatchcocked the chickies and marinated them, but ended up cutting them in half to serve since they were a bit too big for the plates. These were accompanied by Cilantro Sauce from the recipe, the suggested String Beans with Ginger and Garlic (Essential, p260), and Indian Mashed Potatoes (Q&E, p90).

We both enjoyed it all, along with a lovely bottle of Sancerre. I expected this to be a bit overwhelmed by the spicy coquelets, but it actually was a good accompaniment.

Dessert was a laugh. I chose a promising recipe for Amaretti Chocolate Cake (web). Promising, yes. Definitely a positive on taste. But a cake, no. More like some kind of mousse, very soggy. A 4 of 5 for taste, but a 0 for presentation. Not sure what the problem was, but I expect the amount of cream is wrong.