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Dec. 31st, 2007 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petermarcusSo, each year I do a Christmas dinner for family and guests that usually revolve around a theme. "Red and Green" was a theme one year with an entree of pistachio-crusted buffalo. "Wrapped" foods was another year, with the salad course completely contained in two endive leaves tied with a blanched leek strip. That sort of thing.
This last year, I've really become serious with my cooking, learning a lot of technique and history instead of kinda whipping things together. So, I tried to go a little more in-depth in my food this year. However, I was cooking for a dozen, and I picked a theme that was a little more "architectural" in my plating. Plating is still my weakness, and arranging something like 48 plates and bowls of food on Christmas Eve didn't exactly improve my technique. The food tasted pretty good for all the juggling of timing I had to do, and I now fully understand why sous-chefs and multi-burner, multi-oven kitchens are necessary for meals of more than a handful of guests.
Anyway, on to the theme, and pics of the meal, along with some prep and a lot of explanation:
Since scheduling conflicts prevented Christmas dinner last year, I merged last year's and this year's events in my family. Two years ago at Christmas, my parents had 2 grandkids. Between last year and this year, four new grandkids were born (two of them due to Christey and me), they acquired two step-grandkids who are very loved, and my sister-in-law is pregnant again.
The theme this year was Nests:
Appetizer:
Guava-barbecued pork rib nest, with grilled pineapple over a bibb-lettuce leaf.
I lifted the BBQ sauce from the CIA cookbook, because it reminds me of my favorite ribs at a local restaurant here in Melbourne. The ribs were slow-cooked for almost 90 minutes after a quick sear, then separated and arranged into a nest shape, three ribs per plate (ever dismantle three racks of ribs at once? Whew.) Pork and pineapple are naturals, and there's nothing better than grilled fresh (fresh!) pineapple drizzled with soy sauce and nothing else. I chopped the grilled pineapple into medium chunks, then dropped a couple spears over the top.
Soup:
Wisconsin cheddar and beer soup in homemade bread bowl, popcorn garnish.
The Atlanta airport has a Sam Adams restaurant which sometimes serves beer-cheddar soup with popcorn as a garnish. When you toss in the popcorn, it shrivels a little as it soaks up the soup -- tasty! I used a basic flaky white bread recipe, made a 1.5 pound dough in my breadmaker, after rising I cut the dough into 6 pieces, sprayed six ramekins with Pam and formed the dough over those and did a egg-yolk wash on the outside. I let it rise again for a little, tossed it into the oven, and when brown, the ramekins pop right out and there's the bread bowl. Then I did it all over again so I'd have a dozen bowls.
Entree:
Marinated beef skewers with homemade salsa verde, over shredded yellow plantain pancake, with fried tortilla strip nest.
Originally, I wanted to do the tortilla nest with the plantain pancake sitting in that, beef on top, then salsa. However, I decided to go for the almost deconstructed version, and string them out horizontally over the plate. I bought a couple rib-roasts, cubed them, then marinated them overnight in a mexican spice-marinade (olive oil, lime juice, beer, cumin, chili powder, garlic, shallots, onion powder, salt, pepper, cayenne, and soy sauce). The next day, I skewered them and broiled them to sear on the outside, then baked them a bit longer because my family doesn't appreciate rare-to-medium-rare beef.
The salsa verde is made from oven-roasted tomatillos (and finding tomatillos in Melbourne was an adventure. I hit two tiendas where I had to use my rusty spanish only to strike out, then I found a mexican produce market that had a barrel of them). Then, oven roasted onions and garlic, and oven-roasted green jalapeños. Tossed in a food processor and chopped roughly with cilantro, olive oil, lime juice, and a lot of kosher salt.
I like yellow plantain better than green as it's a little sweeter. Not as sweet as banana, but just a hint of sweetness, and I'd eat it instead of potatoes any day. I grated in the food processor, fried in oil in rings, then smashed the patty flat, fried a bit more, and salted.
I also took a pizza-cutter and cut corn tortillas into strips about 1/4" wide or so. I put the strips in one of my strainers (used below with the raspberry puree) then put another strainer over that so the tortilla strips are sandwiched between the strainers. Then I deep fried in oil until golden. Removed and salted, then plated the whole thing.
Dessert:
Chocolate mousse with chilled raspberry sauce, over a butter-baked filo nest.
This is definitely one that could have been plated a little better, but I was on an assembly line and this is the one I stuck in front of Christey's camera. The mousse itself is pretty easy to make if you keep an eye on it, especially with a wand mixer, and there's nothing as decadent as handmade mousse.
Originally, I wanted an oval of chocolate mousse next to an oval of raspberry sorbet, with a green-lime syrup over that. My raspberry sorbet wouldn't freeze, though. It got colder and colder and crystalized a bit near the edges, but it was a goof on my part as I pretty much doubled the recipe, then, lacking an ice-cream maker, I tried to manually stir/freeze/stir/repeat and it was just going to take too long. So, since the slushy sorbet-wannabe tasted really, really good, I decided to skip the lime and go with the raspberry mixture as a sauce. No one complained.
Prep:
Processing frozen raspberries.
Straining. It's impossible to get all the seeds out of raspberry puree, but it's still worth it to try.
Peeled yellow plantain
Shredded
Fried in rings in a pan with a bit of olive oil
Rolling individual doughs for bowls
Bread bowls out of oven, still on ramekins
Stacked and waiting for soup
Carrots, celery, shallots. Kicky mirepoix for the cheese/beer soup.
This last year, I've really become serious with my cooking, learning a lot of technique and history instead of kinda whipping things together. So, I tried to go a little more in-depth in my food this year. However, I was cooking for a dozen, and I picked a theme that was a little more "architectural" in my plating. Plating is still my weakness, and arranging something like 48 plates and bowls of food on Christmas Eve didn't exactly improve my technique. The food tasted pretty good for all the juggling of timing I had to do, and I now fully understand why sous-chefs and multi-burner, multi-oven kitchens are necessary for meals of more than a handful of guests.
Anyway, on to the theme, and pics of the meal, along with some prep and a lot of explanation:
Since scheduling conflicts prevented Christmas dinner last year, I merged last year's and this year's events in my family. Two years ago at Christmas, my parents had 2 grandkids. Between last year and this year, four new grandkids were born (two of them due to Christey and me), they acquired two step-grandkids who are very loved, and my sister-in-law is pregnant again.
The theme this year was Nests:
Appetizer:
Guava-barbecued pork rib nest, with grilled pineapple over a bibb-lettuce leaf.
I lifted the BBQ sauce from the CIA cookbook, because it reminds me of my favorite ribs at a local restaurant here in Melbourne. The ribs were slow-cooked for almost 90 minutes after a quick sear, then separated and arranged into a nest shape, three ribs per plate (ever dismantle three racks of ribs at once? Whew.) Pork and pineapple are naturals, and there's nothing better than grilled fresh (fresh!) pineapple drizzled with soy sauce and nothing else. I chopped the grilled pineapple into medium chunks, then dropped a couple spears over the top.
Soup:
Wisconsin cheddar and beer soup in homemade bread bowl, popcorn garnish.
The Atlanta airport has a Sam Adams restaurant which sometimes serves beer-cheddar soup with popcorn as a garnish. When you toss in the popcorn, it shrivels a little as it soaks up the soup -- tasty! I used a basic flaky white bread recipe, made a 1.5 pound dough in my breadmaker, after rising I cut the dough into 6 pieces, sprayed six ramekins with Pam and formed the dough over those and did a egg-yolk wash on the outside. I let it rise again for a little, tossed it into the oven, and when brown, the ramekins pop right out and there's the bread bowl. Then I did it all over again so I'd have a dozen bowls.
Entree:
Marinated beef skewers with homemade salsa verde, over shredded yellow plantain pancake, with fried tortilla strip nest.
Originally, I wanted to do the tortilla nest with the plantain pancake sitting in that, beef on top, then salsa. However, I decided to go for the almost deconstructed version, and string them out horizontally over the plate. I bought a couple rib-roasts, cubed them, then marinated them overnight in a mexican spice-marinade (olive oil, lime juice, beer, cumin, chili powder, garlic, shallots, onion powder, salt, pepper, cayenne, and soy sauce). The next day, I skewered them and broiled them to sear on the outside, then baked them a bit longer because my family doesn't appreciate rare-to-medium-rare beef.
The salsa verde is made from oven-roasted tomatillos (and finding tomatillos in Melbourne was an adventure. I hit two tiendas where I had to use my rusty spanish only to strike out, then I found a mexican produce market that had a barrel of them). Then, oven roasted onions and garlic, and oven-roasted green jalapeños. Tossed in a food processor and chopped roughly with cilantro, olive oil, lime juice, and a lot of kosher salt.
I like yellow plantain better than green as it's a little sweeter. Not as sweet as banana, but just a hint of sweetness, and I'd eat it instead of potatoes any day. I grated in the food processor, fried in oil in rings, then smashed the patty flat, fried a bit more, and salted.
I also took a pizza-cutter and cut corn tortillas into strips about 1/4" wide or so. I put the strips in one of my strainers (used below with the raspberry puree) then put another strainer over that so the tortilla strips are sandwiched between the strainers. Then I deep fried in oil until golden. Removed and salted, then plated the whole thing.
Dessert:
Chocolate mousse with chilled raspberry sauce, over a butter-baked filo nest.
This is definitely one that could have been plated a little better, but I was on an assembly line and this is the one I stuck in front of Christey's camera. The mousse itself is pretty easy to make if you keep an eye on it, especially with a wand mixer, and there's nothing as decadent as handmade mousse.
Originally, I wanted an oval of chocolate mousse next to an oval of raspberry sorbet, with a green-lime syrup over that. My raspberry sorbet wouldn't freeze, though. It got colder and colder and crystalized a bit near the edges, but it was a goof on my part as I pretty much doubled the recipe, then, lacking an ice-cream maker, I tried to manually stir/freeze/stir/repeat and it was just going to take too long. So, since the slushy sorbet-wannabe tasted really, really good, I decided to skip the lime and go with the raspberry mixture as a sauce. No one complained.
Prep:
Processing frozen raspberries.
Straining. It's impossible to get all the seeds out of raspberry puree, but it's still worth it to try.
Peeled yellow plantain
Shredded
Fried in rings in a pan with a bit of olive oil
Rolling individual doughs for bowls
Bread bowls out of oven, still on ramekins
Stacked and waiting for soup
Carrots, celery, shallots. Kicky mirepoix for the cheese/beer soup.
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Date: 2008-01-01 01:39 am (UTC)