[Sca-cooks] Christmas Dinner

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Dec 23, 2008, at 9:48 PM, Michael Gunter wrote:

>
>> You're doing the whole gratineed thing with the melted cheese, or >  
>> putting the cheese on the crouton, which is generally what you get  
>> in > France?
>
> Gratineed all the way, Baby.
> I've done just topping the soup with the crouton and shredded cheese
> but I think going all out and gratineeing makes it look much more
> special and festive.
>
>> I've started to think other forms of onion soup are vastly  
>> underrated; > there's a certain magic to being able to cook onions  
>> in white stock > and perhaps milk or cream, without browning, and  
>> still concentrate > their flavor.
> There's a period soup made with onions and almond milk I'd like to
> try.

One of my 14th-15th-century English faves is porrey chapeleyn, which  
is an onion-and-almond-milk pottage with fried faux onion rings made  
of dough. Could this be what you're referring to?
>
>
> Speaking of France, I made a lovely beef dabe today although I feel
> it would have been better with lamb. Braising the beef for 2 1/2 hours
> made the chuck roast melt in your mouth.
> I served it over Campanelli pasta and it was very good. I think it  
> will
> be much better once it sits in the fridge for a day or two.
>> I was asked if there was any way I could put up some gravlax for >  
>> Sunday [once again, a vacuum-sealer is a godsend for this job],
>
> Groovy idea! I need to think of that the next time I do a gravlax.

No turning, no basting, and fully cured in about 36 hours, baby! (Some  
would argue 24 is adequate; I'm not among them, but the vacuum seal  
definitely does seem to speed up the marinating process, if not the  
tang of the longer cures; people tell me this is the best gravlax  
they've ever had, but I have no real idea what they're comparing it to.)

>> something > decadent, Spanish, and involving too much garlic, olive  
>> oil, and flat > parsley.
> Go decadent.

Yeah, one of those things where you dunk your bread in hot olive oil  
unabashedly. Probably the single defining act of my existence...

>> - Croutons and brandade de morue (salt-cod simmered in milk, pureed  
>> > with garlic and olive oil), possibly a small mesclun salad if the  
>> > supply boats get in again...
>
> We are thinking of doing the Italian thing of celebrating New Year's
> with a seafood dinner of some 7 courses, each with a different
> seafood dish. I was considering bacalao or a nice calamari stew.

I'm thinking there may be leftover gravlax, in which case a coulibiac  
may be indicated; not the traditional method, but salmon and dill  
generally do figure heavily, so it makes sense. Hmmm... blini for  
starters?

>> On Friday we are attempting to establish an ancient and venerable >  
>> tradition of Boxing Day dim sum, which is probably all the food  
>> we'll > need anyway.

> I could live with a Boxing Day dim sum. Unfortunately, I think we are
> heading out to spend a couple days at a casino this weekend so I'll
> be having some kind of buffet no doubt.

Well, it sounds like you'll be having fun either way. I've got the  
usual mix of much-beloved and much-missed relatives, and the annoying  
ones, all converging on the area, with no really comfortably large- 
enough place to put them all at once, so we found a nice new dim sum  
house just a couple of miles from our place, to replace our old  
standby which closed a while back, where we can comfortably seat 25  
people or so for a morning brunch...

Adamantius







"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter