Christmas Day and All That Came With It

I had a lot of fun preparing for this Christmas dinner! I had a Scandinavian theme, so I coined the dinner Viking Christmas 2014. 

The first day of the 48 hour bonanza was covered in the last post. I figured I would cover the actual day of in a seperate, and probably (haven't thought that far yet) multiple post (s). 

One of my favorite parts of prepping for a dinner is setting a nice table. I took a raised cheese board and decorated it with pieces of pine and other evergreen bits that I dissembled from a wreath. I surrounded it with candles and baby's breath flowers and stuffed a couple of big candles in old wine bottles. It looked lovely with the Christmas china on larger white marking plates. I put leftover baby's breath and rosemary with the rolled linen napkins and placed a menu next to each plate (with a cheeky little nutcracker as place settings!). And Guinness water glasses...for strength.

I'll put the days activities and breakfast in a seperate post...I think it's too much for one! So I'll get straight to the cocktail hour. Every year I love to incorporate some sort of Russian vodka toast to start off the feast. My uncle is from Siberia and always has given great toasts with vodka and caviar to start off previous Christmas dinners. This year, I decided to infuse vodka with a charred rosemary sprig (another Bon Appetit idea...it was a GREAT issue) and pair it with caviar themed hors d'oeuvres. 

For the vodka cocktail, I mixed four parts of the rosemary infused vodka with one part dry vermouth in a shaker, splitting it into four glasses and topping with a lemon twist. The hors d'oeuvres included real caviar on home made blinis, "fake" caviar of La Tur and chutney on blinis, and olive oil drizzled Proscuitto San Daniele. The pairing was great, and the home made blinis really made it. I mean....the caviar was delicious, but the blinis were definitely the icing on the cake. I used a plastic squeeze bottle full of the batter (egg whites folded into the batter really make the difference between these and standard pancakes) to form the blinis in a sautee pan. They cooked quickly and a copious amount of butter made them brown beautifully!

For the first "sit down" course, I made a Swedish (or maybe it was Finnish...who knows) blueberry soup. This was so easy, and reminded me of everything I loved about mulled wine, minus the alcohol! You cook three pints of blueberries down with a few cups water, until all the blueberries have burst. After straining all the skins and seeds, you add some cloves and cinnamon (whole cloves, and sticks so that you can later strain) and quite a bit of sugar. You let the mixture reduce until thick, and serve with creme fraiche (or sour cream if you're in a pinch. 

I served the soups in my mother's china tea cups, each one is different and she has collected them for the last 10-15 years. Each one is absolutely stunning, providing for beautiful and unique presentation, and is a fabulous conversation starter (if you're worried about silence around the dinner table). I served the soup with a Sparkling Pointe Seduction Reserve Brut that I picked up on my trip to North Fork Long Island last week. Was that wonderful leathery, bready, toasty style that feels so decadent. Although a great pairing, next time I would go with a Brut Rose Champagne instead....as the berry notes would pair even better!

For the second course I grilled wild red prawns (marinated in lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, and cayenne) and served in an essence of tomato. For the essence of tomato, I cooked a bushel (can you call it a bushel?) of fresh tomatoes chopped roughly with garlic and spices until slightly soft and warm. I took the whole thing and put in a cheese cloth sack and let the water drain out overnight. What was left was a crystal clear liquid, with mild coloration, with a powerful flavor of spiced tomatoes. With the spicy prawns, it was a perfect cooling flavor agent that still let the fishiness shine through. 

I paired this with Sancerre, which with its high acidity and grassy, clean citrus notes paired outstandingly. Sancerre is such a great fish pairing, with shellfish especially. Head on prawns like this can tend to be a little funkier, so good acid in white wine is a great quality to help balance it out.

For the third course I made a salt baked salmon. Of the whole meal, this was certainly the piece de resistance. I spent an entire week trying to find the right salmon for the meal, which I did when I finally trekked to this dingy little market in the Garment District of New York. I'll talk all about it in another post....

This was another Bon Appetit recipe (seriously.....their BEST issue to date!). Props to their writers who not only made this easy to understand but also for their video which outlined the process in such a replicable manner. The greatest quality in a chef who writes cookbooks or makes televisions shows (or writes for magazines) is the ability to write recipes that are replicable...or write them in a way that makes them easy to replicate. I'll forever be in love with dear Jamie (Oliver, that is) for this....everything he's ever done I have been able to reproduce without fail. But that's between he and I ;)

In effort to save words, I will attach a link to Bon Appetit's detailed recipe HERE. As a short summary of the process though, you stuff the salmon with citrus (grapefruit and lemon), herbs (tarragon and dill), and season with salt, pepper and olive oil (oil only on the inside). You then try to fit the whole bugger on a baking dish where you envelope the entire body in wet salt (it's just like burying your little brother in wet sand at the beach. Yes. That easy). You bake the hell out of it and filet it post-roasting. Top it off with a buerre blanc sauce and voila! I served the fish over a bed of blood orange wheels which was a nice addition to the citrusy, buttery salmon. 

My brother's surprise California wine pairing with this was the Tablas Creek 'Cote de Tablas Blanc'. A Rhone style white blend that was a great pair and excellent representation of Paso. I love Tablas Creek, run by the Perrin and Haas families. Reasonable and high quality, they do Rhone style California wines like the best of them.

For the final course involving savory things, I made a roast pheasant. This was actually a leftover from the Thanksgiving extravaganza of excess as some guests had cancelled last minute (silly weather). Rather than the lemon and herb butter pheasant I did for that meal, where I stuffed the bird with a zesty mushroom blend, I did a dijon mustard herb butter and just sealed off the cavities with lemon halves. I roasted it 30 minutes on each side and 10 minutes breast up at 375 F. I served the pheasant over Jamie Oliver's creamy mushrooms. It turned out, as before, splendidly. I need to remember to use lemon juice in the whatever butter rub I make, because it does keep the pheasant more moist.

My brother's surprise wine pairing with the pheasant was a Grenache from Tablas Creek. That definitely rivaled the Sancerre as the best pairing of the night. I love the super jammy Rhone style grenache wines, and like I said above, Tablas Creek does them very well. I included a picture of all of the wines my brother paired below:

For dessert I made a berry meringue tart, composed of crust from scratch (which I made well in advance), whipped cream mixed with crushed meringues, and topped with mixed berries and a little bit of powdered sugar. I paired it with a dry rose from my North Fork trip, their Bridge Lane from Lieb Vineyards.

This was the ultimate "make in advance" dish. I chopped the fruit that morning, whipped the cream a few hours ahead, and pre-crushed the meringues and kept in a ziploc. With the tart dough already made, all I had to do was mix the meringue with the cream, pour it into the tart, and top with the berries. Probably took me a grand total of two and a half minutes. ALRIGHT MAYBE THREE. Maaaaayyybeee.

This was such a fun meal and all my work really paid off. Apart from the pheasant, I hadn't made any of these dishes before and they all turned out so well. The favorite was definitely the salmon, but that was definitely a hard decision to make.

Leftovers will be left for another post...there weren't too many but we definitely got creative. 

Of course I couldn't resist playing with my food....

So until next time, I want to let you all know that I speak whale.

Viking Christmas Eve 2014

So I subjected the four pack (what I call it when all my family is together at once) to a 48 hour Christmas bonanza. Don't worry...I've split it into a few posts to make sure that no one post is too...just...much. Because that's what Christmas was. It was WONDERFUL, GLORIOUS amounts of "too much" 

:)

So let's call this one the "Christmas Eve" post. Let me start with I prepped for DAYS up to this point. Dough making....mix prepping....pickling jars....there was a lot. The plus side of this was the fact that when it actually came down to the day of, the whole process was absolutely stressless. Only a luxury of the unemployed (I'd like to call it "inbetween projects").

In the morning, we started with a Swedish tradition (I think...remember the theme was Scandinavian) of porridge and almonds for luck. The way that this works (again..I think) is that you make a big pot of porridge (oatmeal for all you Americans who don't have old English grannies) and mix one almond in so that you don't know where it is. You dish out the porridge to the family and whoever finds the almond in their bowl has good luck for the coming year! Hiding the almond was harder than I thought, but we mixed up the bowls a bunch of times and was grand. Best thing was...I got the almond! Woop!!!!

For Irish style porridge, like I made, you simmer two cups milk for every one cup oats in a sauce pan. Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture thickens. I usually add just a pinch of brown sugar and garnish with salt OR honey...depending on whether you would like savory or sweet. It was Christmas so, of course, I went with the sweet option. This does take a while, much longer than sticking milk and oats in the microwave for a minute. For me, it is totally worth it to take the extra time. Rather than grainy oats, the mixture is thick, creamy and smooth. I think most Americans are used to the instant microwave style oatmeal...I learned how to make it the real way while I lived in Ireland.

So the idea behind the evening meal was that it would be delicious (DUH), fit the theme, but be a "one pot" kind of dish.

So for the main, I made a beer braised pork belly. I got this recipe out of the Bon Appetit Holiday Issue (mentioned in previous posts). Just for the sake of space, I've attached the recipe from the website HERE. It turned out perfectly, and I did follow the recipe pretty closely. Because it cooked for almost six hours, the pork was so tender and rich (pork belly is very fatty). I would highly recommend this for any cold night, but again, as a one dish kind of dinner.

Since we didn't really have a big lunch, I did prepare a pickled herring spread for cocktail hour. This was a total experiment, but I love pickled herring and have been trying to do a dish where it acts as a centerpiece for a while. I also robbed this recipe from the Bon Appetit holiday issue. The mixture involved the herring, fresh chives, one finely chopped shallot, lemon juice and zest, sour cream, and dijon mustard (whole grain). I then jarred it and put it in the fridge for four days. The resting period is critical because it allows for all the flavors to blend and....essentially..."funks" it up a bit. Which, when you're eating pickled herring, is totally the point. All that wonderful funky flavor. It turned out splendidly, and was actually the highlight of the night. I served it on whole grain baguette and hearty sour dough. Any earthy, crusty bread would do. The zesty, bright quality to the spread was also a great contrast to the heavier pork roast.

As my Christmas gift, my brilliant mini-me of a brother went to his local Paso Robles wineries and paired wines with my Christmas menu. Two of the wines he bought were for the herring and the pork (consecutively). The pairing with the spread was a WONDERFUL Grenache Blanc blend (with Roussaine, Viognier, and Picpoul) and the pork was paired with a Syrah, both from Halter Ranch. They were both absolutely delightful, and totally revved me up for my trip out there in a few days!

I'll leave this one at that...it already is probably a little too long!

Until Part Deux....

Christmas Countdown

T-Minus Three Days!!!

So usually I'm a little crazier (and I mean mental) about the whole Christmas fever. Not so much in the present buying shopping mall mob way...more in the Christmas kitch overload, ugly jumper, mulled wine, bad music played constantly kind of a way. To my family's great pleasure, I seem to have skipped that bit of bonkers this year.

To no one's surprise, I did ramp up the whole mealtime agenda.... 

And the 48 Hour Menu was born.

The shopping in preparation for my two day long family bonanza has been hectic to say the least, but that's what I get! My last trip is to Manhattan tomorrow to collect an entire salmon (yes...I'm only feeding four people), lobsters (yes...plural) and possibly a few glasses of wine to warm my belly ;)

I just returned from a great weekend on the North Fork of Long Island. The "four pack" stayed in Greenport, NY for a few nights and drank our weight in wine. We might have bought about ten times our weight.........78 bottles later (whoops). Self control is not in my family gene pool. I was thoroughly impressed by what I ran into there, and can't wait to have a little more time to write more about it. We visited Martha Clara, Shinn, Lieb, Lenz, Bedell and Sparkling Pointe Vineyards. The biggest surprise were some of the delicious reds!!!

For those of you who don't have far too much time on your hands, I found a great slideshow with some delectable, eye-pleasing and easy holiday meal ideas on Food and Wine's website. Check it out HERE.

Until next time, I hope everyone enjoyed their Hanukkah!!!

For the Netflix Binger...

Just a few recommendations to put on the queues of those foodies who also indulge in unhealthy amounts of streaming cinema....

I have been trying to watch more documentaries on wine and food as I get closer to starting school as another way to prepare for my academic course load. I have found a few that I really like, that provide a lot of basic information but also some great details in an entertaining and thoughtful way. Titles are as follows:

SOMM

(a documentary about dudes studying for their Master Sommelier Exam)

RED OBSESSION

(Narrated by swoonworthy Russel Crowe on the Asian influence on Bordeaux futures markets)

A YEAR IN BURGUNDY

(a quaint look at Burgundian wine making over the course of the growing seasons)

All of these titles are on Netflix...aka Crackflix...and are really great for someone who knows about wine or who is just interested in getting into it. Somm and Red Obsession are a little more approachable, minimal subtitles, where A Year in Burgundy you better put your glasses on for. The title on my "to watch" list is Mondovino (The World of Wine), but alas, it isn't streaming. I might actually have to rent a DVD...how prehistoric....

Until then, curl up with a good flick and some sour patch kids!

Christmas Cookies from the Garden...

So, as I mentioned in my last post, the Holiday issue of Bon Appetit is the bomb. Go buy one now. And I WISH they paid me to say that. *Hint Hint*

Another tidbit I got from this bangarang issue was for Christmas cookies! They had an entire section devoted to atypical Christmas sweets that, frankly, looked unreal. So of course I HAD to give 'em a try.

We started with their lavender shortbread wreaths, which became lavender shortbread holly sprigs since I didn't have a wreath cookie cutter. The recipe is attached to the link HERE. I followed the recipe closely and they turned out FABULOUSLY. So yummy, easy to decorate, and a lot of room to be creative. I decorated with edible flowers (from Whole Foods), candied rosemary from my garden, dried cranberries, crushed pistachios and crushed candy canes.

I also tried their White Chocolate Matcha Cookie...replacing the matcha with peppermint (see link above). Matcha is a super grassy green tea, and although I think the balance with the sugar could have turned out nicely...I really didn't want to waste all that butter for something that reminded me of the rash I used to get when I rolled around in dewy grass. I just removed the matcha from the cookie recipe and rather than mixing the tea in with the sugar to coat the outside of the cookies, I mixed regular granulated sugar with crushed candy canes. Funnest part? Crushing the candy canes using a hammer, saw, and the bottom of my boot.

These are SO delicious and such a great way to change it up during the holiday season. Festive without being kitchy.....though I do love me some good Christmas kitch.

Until next time, deck the halls!!!!

Parmesan Stock and Fridge Diving Pho

So if you haven't gotten this month's issue of Bon Appetit yet, you're seriously missing out. Not only has it inspired my entire 48 hour Christmas menu, but is full of great little ideas for fridge diving and using odd bits from the fridge.

One of the ideas I picked up from this particular issue was the idea of "parmesan stock/broth" where you make a stock from your leftover parmesan rinds (instead of just throwing them out). Brilliant, right?!

Any good stock requires bunches of herbs, onions, salt, pepper etc. For my parmesan broth I stuck my rinds, salt, pepper, a large white onion (halved), an entire head of garlic with the bottom chopped off, a bunch of time sprigs, a bunch of parsley stocks, and leftover chicken bones in a large pot of boiling water. I let this boil for about four hours, until very fragrant and dark in color. The longer the better, really. It's a pretty spectacular pot of boiling goodness, but I forgot to take pictures. Whoops.

What I DID take pictures of was the resulting pho we made with the broth. I bought round udon noodles and boiled for seven minutes in hot water, removed and rinsed. I heated the broth back up to a boil, and poured the broth over a pile of noodles in each bowl.

For the toppings, I chopped up various vegetables and seaweed on the side, so that each person could tailor their bowl to their own taste. My options were fresh parsley, fresh basil, sliced fresno peppers (HOT), spring onions, leeks, seaweed, hard boiled eggs, and mushrooms. Hard boiled eggs are my favorite bit, especially with a bit of seaweed in there. My father did learn the lesson of adding too many hot peppers, as the broth adopts the heat and the whole pot turns into a firey broth from sweaty hell.

This was super fun to do as an easy family dinner, especially with the whole "add your own toppings" interactive bit. The broth was delicious and we could have probably just eaten it plain with the noodles, but there's no fun in that!

Finally have my Christmas menu down and can't wait to get into the city to start shopping for it. I'm doing a scandinavian theme, providing me the opportunity to cook all kinds of things I've been dying to try for ages! The one thing that I sadly will not have a time slot for is curing my own salmon (there would be far too much food....), but there's always a next time!!!

Until next time, stay warm!

Dad's Dinner Comes Early...

So my father has one of those awkwardly placed birthdays in December where, if you celebrate ON the day, you just escape an overlap with Christmas shenanigans. Unfortunately, any later the celebrations look less like birthday fun and more like early Christmas festivities. My Dad has been super busy with work, and so we knew he wouldn't be able to celebrate the week before his birthday either, so we just had a REALLY EARLY birthday party. He can't complain...he can milk it for all it's worth!

I didn't want to do as extravagant of a menu for the birthday celebration as I like to save those for larger parties and family holidays (usually they are one and the same).

Its still ended up being five courses, but three of five required practically no culinary prep nor skill. I paired each course with a nice wine, with a largely American wine list since my Dad is a big lover of the California cabs and pinots. I also wanted to experiment with a surf and turf menu, as the birthday boy's favorite cut of meat is a filet mignon, and what goes better with filet than lobster?! So the menu looked as follows:

Proscuitto San Daniele & Pickled Banana Peppers

Bailly Lapierre Cremant Rose

Fennel & Lobster Stew

Jones Family Vineyards Vidal Blanc Blend

Truffled Goat Cheese & Beet Salad

Patricia Green Cellars 'Freedom Hill" Pinot Noir 2012

Filet of Bison in a Red Wine Mushroom Reduction

Michael David Winery 'Earthquake' Cabernet Sauvignon 2012

Birthday Cake Pop, Blood Orange "Adult" Slushie & Pistachio Macaroon

We had gone to buy our Christmas tree that day from the tree farm (Jones Family Farm, where I also acquired the vino), and used the extra clippings to decorate the table. Ended up smelling nicely of pine without being overpowering. Winter festive without too much "Christmas" kitch. 

I served the proscuitto and peppers with the Bailly Lapierre Cremant Rose (NV). It's just so yummy, with strong cherry and raspberry flavors, bone dry. It's super cheap for high quality cremant, and a great start for any celebration. My family and I are a big fan of the bubbly!

For the first course, I did a lobster stew which is one of my go to favorites. I actually have posted about it before, so I will include a link to that instead of beating the horse into glue all over again. Unfortunately I have been having some problems with the photos, so I've attached the picture of the course below. I served the stew in tea cups because (1) it is a perfect portion size and (2) they're just so damn pretty on the table!

Link to Lobster Stew Recipe HERE

For the second course, I boiled beets until just done, skinned and let cool. I sliced them into very thin wheels, drizzled them with olive oil and black truffle oil, and laid in a flower pattern on the base of a shallow plate. I then laid a thin slice of truffled goats cheese on top, and garnished with a generous spoon of aged balsamic vinegar. We decided that this was absolutely necessary if the dish was to be repeated, and in the future I might drizzle it over the whole dish rather than leaving it on the side of the plate.

As the third course I seared bison filets over the stove (in bacon fat), and finished them to medium rare in the oven. Bison is leaner than beef, so for a good medium-rare the cook time is faster. I removed the filets from the skillet and threw in finely diced shallots, a sprig of time, and a generous pour of red wine. I let this blend simmer for a few minutes and added the mushrooms. I continued to let the sauce reduce until I liked the consistency, and poured directly over the filets on a plate (filets were placed on a very small bed of sauteed spinach in olive oil, white wine and garlic). It ended up being super yummy...and the sauce was fab. All the bison juices and leftover bacon fat just made it perfect.

Finally, for dessert, what is a birthday without birthday cake?! I didn't want to make a whole cake that no one could finish and would probably bloat the whole table, so I figured cake pops were a great idea. I had this concept of "a kid in a candy store." On the plate, I included an "adult wine slushie," made from blood orange sorbet and topped off with dry white wine (I used leftover Gavi) and a pistachio macaroon on the plate for color and a little fun :) For the candle, you can often wax your dessert or ruin the look if you stick it directly into one of the sweets. Instead, I heated the bottom of the candle with the flame and set it directly on the plate. It looked great and didn't drip on any of the goodies!

Was a great dinner and no one felt overly full at the end, yay portioning! Was a lot of fun and a change up from my usual European based menus :)

Happy Birthday Papa!!!!

B is for...Branzino!!!

Man do I love Branzino (European Sea Bass). I've never been one for American species...who knows why. Maybe I was just a finicky eater as a child. Regardless...

No one should ever eat filets of this fish...you just miss out on so much other goodness! Head on, tail on, stuffed with some savory bits and seasoned skins is just perfect in my books. Whole Foods (where I trust the fishmonger when I don't have time to go to a specialty market) was doing a great special on the fish, so for my family of three I bought two whole fish (2.3 lbs). I should have bought three whole fish...lesson learned. These things are like the crack cocaine of sea dwelling creatures-second only to oysters, because, let's be real, nothing beats a dinner of four dozen oysters. Yes, I've done it. On multiple occasions. You only judge me because you're jealous.

For dinner I made a salad of pears, red grapes, rocquefort, charred endives (on the grill), walnuts, bacon bits and champagne vinaigrette. A hell of a lot going on but pretty delicious. For perfect blue cheese mix, freeze the block and then grate it over the salad for more of a blue cheese "snow". It helps even out the flavors rather than getting an overpowering chunk of funk in the odd bite here and there.

I've had branzino several different ways. A fisherman's style tomato base sauce is great with it, but I was feeling lazy and decided to go with an even more basic citrus stuffing. I sliced one large lemon into wheels and stuffed the inside of the fish with the wheels, a drizzle of olive oil and a LOT of thyme. Don't worry about taking the herbs off of the stems...I just threw in the whole branch. I also generously seasoned the fish with rock salt and pepper. I tied the fish closed with poultry string and generously rubbed the skin with olive oil, salt and pepper.

I've been a big fan of throwing things right on the grate of the grill recently, as it produces a nice char that you can't really replicate otherwise. Make sure to have extra oil on hand and a clean grill though, as the skin is delicate and can be sacrificed to the grill gods if you're not careful. It didn't take long to grill, just a five-six minutes on each side. The fact that the fish is open made it easy to check the inside of it as I went.

I didn't serve it over a salad or with a garnish....just the fish. It's easy enough to filet at the table, just start gently at the cheek seperating it from the bone, moving towards the tail. The cheek is the best part...(that piece right behind the eye), so be careful not to overlook it!

I served the fish with a Gavi wine, super dry, crisp yet fruity Italian wine made from the Cortese grape. Absolutely perfect for fish of any kind (as long as there is no cream in the sauce).

It makes some people squeamish to be served a head on fish....but it really guarantees you enjoy every delicious part of it, and don't miss out on any good meaty bits in a pre or post cooked filet. Also, let's be honest. All meat consumed once had eyes and a heartbeat. Get over it!

Until next time, play with your food!

Making it through the big day...

So one last post about Thanksgiving (the previous one was just too long) and how my family made it through the day eating as little as possible to save room. Three words: Smoked salmon blinis.

I was up in the kitchen cooking from about 7 AM prepping for this beautiful beast of a meal, but the problem is how to avoid snacking too much while still being a healthy human and not starving yourself. Blinis!

A blini is like a mini pancake. A little starch, but not like eating a baguette, topped with a little creme fraiche and a small bit of smoked salmon. Great snack, five or six tide you over, and you can make it through to the 3 o'clock antipasti and cocktail hour.

Of course what is smoked salmon without white wine?! So I paired it with a taster of Tete du Rhone Viognier (which I later used in the dessert course). It was a perfect taste without having a full glass (or two) so you're not lushing too early, and I was able to control myself due to the fact that I did NEED it for the dessert. Success!

Anyhow, this is my absolute favorite "tide over" on Christmas and Thanksgiving when I do meals of this magnitude. Just a quick thought from the kitchen!

Until next time, it's 5 o'clock somewhere!!!!

Our Italian Thanksgiving...

So my mother fought with me long and hard about whether to host a Thanksgiving dinner this year. In the past she was used to large portions of Turkey, stuffing, squash mash, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie, looooads of gravy, and even MORE dishes (followed by the food hangover to combat all food hangovers). Generally you sit down and eat everything in one sitting, and wine is based on preference rather than pairing. I assured her nothing of the sort would happen and, that if she let me do my thing, she would be very happy.

"But can't we just go OUT to dinner, Erin!? All those dishes....or we could go..do something....ANYTHING but the Turkey!!!!"

I think she's just had one too many bad turkeys. Which in itself, is a great tragedy. Turkey can be BANGIN! Regardless.....

She finally consented on the condition that it would be a nontraditional feast including absolutely no turkey. Excellent.

For this atypical meal I was inspired by my french maman who was 50/50 Italian and French and who I'm pretty sure is the root of all of my culinary loves. Not only was she an amazing cook, and made everything from scratch, but nothing was ever really that heavy when she cooked. Everything was also, ALWAYS fresh.

I figured a mix of land and sea would be a perfect way to maintain excellent variety throughout my "tasting" menu of sorts. I also decided to keep each course exceptionally small, so that we could make it through a six course bonanza without passing out, face down in our cheese plates.

So the menu went as follows:

ANTIPASTI

Prosciutto San Daniele, Calabrese Salame, and Hot Pepper with Anchovies

PASTA

Linguine with Baked Clams in a lemon, anchovy, and white wine broth

PESCI

Charred Octopus over a salad of fava beans, charred artichoke hearts in a sherry vinaigrette, aged balsamic vinegar

PRIMI

Roasted Rack of Lamb over a brown butter butternut squash gnocchi, port and cranberry gastrique

SECONDI

Roasted Pheasant stuffed with wild mushrooms, port and cranberry gastrique

DOLCE

Raspberries in Viognier, lemon twist

(The wine line-up for the evening)

Setting a beautiful table is important to me, as it sets a positive tone and guests get excited for what's to come. Food, and dining, is similar to wine tasting as you enjoy the experience with all five senses. I used rosemary and oyster shells to garnish each place setting, using the shells as place markers. All glassware was placed at each setting and I prepped the antipasti on the table for when guests arrived.

For the antipasti, I included NO STARCH. Bread is your worst enemy when trying to make it through a marathon meal, so I intentionally served the charcuterie and mis en bouche with small forks and no crackers or baguette. Generally for a three course meal, I would offer a starch with the antipasti, but remember, people have no self control (myself as the number one example!!!!)!

Aside from the standard Prosciutto San Daniele and the Calabrese Salami, I included what, I believe, is more of a traditionally spanish mis en bouche. I took pickled hot banana peppers on a spear, or toothpick, and stuck two or three on with a whole filet of anchovy. This is not for the faint of heart but absolutely delicious and the PERFECT palate cleanser before starting a meal. It's tart, hot, and salty, and the extremes from all sides bring it to a balance. All my guests were open minded, and ended up loving the combo. Don't cringe, it's delicious ***cough***anchovy haters***cough*** With this course I paired a lovely Brut Champagne. Nothing too expensive (was a staff favorite at my local wine shop, Mo's) but beautifully crisp, clean and (importantly) dry. 

For the first course, I wanted to go with the lightest possible pasta with clams. Tomato bases were out of the question. I originally envisioned more of a soupy pasta, with clams and pasta suspended in a light clam broth. Instead, I ended up baking the clams and sauteing the leftover juices with lemon juice, a few anchovy filets, white wine, olive oil and salt/pepper in a sauce pan. As the pasta finished, I tossed it in the sauce pan with the light sauce and added the baked clams (kept warm under a warming lamp). Everyone just got a small bit of pasta with a few clams, and was delicious! The clams weren't fishy at all, with a subtle fishiness to the pasta sauce but balanced by the lemon and white wine. I served this course with an Artner Gruner Veltliner which was bone dry with great minerality to compliment.

For the "fish" course, I originally wanted to do a softshell crab dish. Alas they are not in season, and sometimes people just aren't that into eating THE ENTIRE crustacian. Fair enough! So I settled on octopus. I'm not a pro at things like octopus, and my local Eataly (MAN DO I LOVE LIVING IN NEW YORK!) sells it cooked. Now I would never just eat their octopus straight off the ice, because it is cooked with no seasoning and intended to be further manipulated. So I threw it on an open fire, straight on the grate to char up the skin and give it a nice smoky, savory flavor. I seperated off each tentacle and served them individually over a salad of fava and kidney beans with charred artichoke hearts (tossed in a sherry vinaigrette). I drizzled my version of aged balsamic over the top (balsamic vinegar reduced down to a thick syrup) and voila! It ended up as a great balance between smoky and acidic which worked very well with the meaty octopus. I paired that with a Volnay 1er Cru Burgundy Pinot Noir, which was light and earthy enough to pair with the dish.

For the third course, I roasted a rack of lamb (which I covered in herb butter before putting it in the oven). I generally roast racks around 375 F until medium rare. I then served two meat popsicles each over a small bed of butternut squash gnocchi tossed in a sage brown butter sauce. I got the idea off of a website and it sounded like a perfect light pairing for the gnocchi that wouldn't overpower any flavors associated with the lamb. I drizzled the port and cranberry gastrique on the plate as an optional garnish (my homage to traditional Thanksgiving with the squash and cranberry sauce). Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the gastrique to thicken as much as I would have liked, but the taste was all there (Gastrique: a kind of sweet and sour sauce generally made from fruit).

For the butternut squash gnocchi, I did follow a recipe pretty closely. There a quite a few things I would do differently in the future, but you learn as you go! I had never made gnocchi before, so best to stick to the opinions of someone who has. It was messy as hell, especially because I decided to do the "roll out" method. Don't do this. When you make your dough, stick it in a plastic pastry bag with the end cut off and squeeze out morsels directly into salted boiling water, rather than rolling out individual nuggets and flouring them. Just...just.....just don't. I served the lamb and the gnocchi with a Casa Emma Chianti Classico (my favorite budget Chianti out there!). 

See the recipe I started from HERE.

For the main course I roasted a pheasant. Native to Europe, so within my theme, and the next closest thing to Turkey you can get in wild game birds. I LOVE pheasant. I've had it several times over the course of my young life, and it has always left an impression. The sad thing is that it is so damn hard to find. And for this reason D'Artagnan online ordering exists <3 I ordered a fresh (not frozen) pheasant from them for $38.00 (after shipping costs) and it arrived overnight on my front doorstep. So much easier than plucking it yourself!

I laid out the bird to come to room temperature for a few hours and, once there, stuffed a load of herb butter between the meat and the skin (very carefully...you don't want to rip the skin). Pheasant is so lean and very easy to overcook or to dry out that I was very generous on the butter. I also did this a few hours before roasting. I then rubbed the outside of the bird with MORE herb butter (my own mix of thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano and unsalted butter), finishing then with salt and pepper. I laid it on a rack and cooked it at 375 F on both sides for thirty minutes each, and then finally laying it on its back for 10 minutes-a grand total of 1 hour and 10 minutes. I kept it in the oven while we ate the lamb so that there wouldn't be a great time lapse between courses. I stuffed the bird with a wild mushroom blend that had been sauteed in butter with mixed herbs, garlic, spring onions, leeks, white wine and panko bread crumbs. Before tying the legs together, I sealed the cavity with half of a lemon. 

To serve, I unstuffed the pheasant and divided the mushroom mix between all of the plates. I carved up the bird, which was the perfect amount for five people, and served (again) with a little bit of the cranberry port gastrique on the plate. I was so pleased with how this turned out. The bird was so moist and tender (even the white meat). Just the perfect combination of rich and gamey. I ordered more birds and can't wait to repeat with a variety of different sauces and sides...not that it even needed sauce! I will admit that I watched the bird in the oven like a raging psychopath. I served the pheasant with a Crozes Hermitage Rhone syrah. Delicious, jammy, perfect for all game meat.

Finally, to wrap up the meal, I poured a Tete du Rhone Viognier over raspberries in a martini glass with a lemon twist. The lemon and fruit took very well to the wine, and it tasted much more like a dry after dinner cocktail than anything else. Super easy and very light. Originally I wanted to do a limoncello pairing with a lemon madeleine and a limoncello sorbet, but it would have been more time consuming and possibly overkill. No one was too full...but we were all very happy there was no more food to be nommed. 

I have so much to be thankful for, but this year I am especially grateful for all the people in the last five years that have inspired me to ditch the more "traditional" career path that I had been following and go after something I was far more passionate about. To my wine instructor in Burgundy, Paul, Colm, and Chris from the Corkscrew Dublin, my coworkers in DC...the education, love, support, and advice you have given me is invaluable and has been quite life-changing!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and bon appetit!