Christmas Eve Dinner 2011

The Menu:

Crudo
Salmon-cucumber-mint-jalapeño-kumquat

Salad

Proscuitto-fennel-pomegranate

Soup

Chestnut bisque-white truffle oil

Seafood

Lobster-Champagne butter sauce-pappardelle

Meat

Individual Beef Wellingtons-Brussels Sprouts-Latkes

Desert

Gingerbread cake-homemade whipped cream

Cocktails

Kumquat Champagne cocktail

Hot Cider (Non alcoholic)

Made a day ahead:

-Gingerbread Cake

-Chestnut Bisque- combination of several recipes: one here and one here

-Beef Wellington prep- for the recipes, it was based of two combined, one here and one here

To make day-of:

The crudo

The Proscuitto, fennel, and pomegranate salad

The Pasta

Baking the beef

Brussels Sprouts

Potato Latkes

And the pics....


Ahh, the crudo. Delicious.

Champagne cocktail- champagne, kumquat, bitters, sugar cube. Classic! Drop a sugar cube in the bottom of a glass and lightly sprinkle with bitters. We substituted Kumquat slices for lemon twist because we had it on hand.

Roasted chestnut bisque with truffle oil. This is really tasty- creamy and earthy and rich. When serving, I added too much truffle oil though :(

I looooooovvvveeee smitten kitchen, and this salad is her recipe. The spicy arugula went really well with the fennel and pomegranate seeds.

Dave's lobster with pappardelle in champagne butter sauce. But mostly the butter sauce. We only used half the butter called for in the recipe. You can cook the lobster ahead of time to keep things moving quickly.

Individual Beef Wellingtons with latkes and braised brussels sprouts

The Beef Wellington requires prep but shouldn't intimidate you if you want to try it. A couple of keys. First, making this a day ahead was a great idea. Second, make sure to do a good job searing the meat. This will protect against juices making the pastry soggy. Third, be mindful of the thickness of the steak. We had small filets and found it perfect to pull it the second the pastry was golden brown (between 20-25 minutes).

Potato Latkes were also something I'd been intimated by for no good reason. The recipe worked great although we only used green onion and skipped the other call for onion. A couple of keys. First, get the water out!. I strained and strained and even used my hands to drain the Latkes before hitting the frying pan. Second, don't make them too big and be sure to flatten them with a spatula once they hit the pan.

The brussels sprouts are our own recipe... bacon, brussels sprouts, chicken or beef stock, apple cider vinegar, rosemary. I forgot to get enough beef stock to braise the brussels sprouts, so I fried them in duck fat before I steamed them with a little water and apple cider vinegar. Because, yeah, I have spare duck fat in my fridge. Unsurprisingly, they turned out awesome. I've been trying to recreate this dish I had at the Publican once, and this got pretty damn close.

Mmmmm cake. This is another smitten kitchen recipe, but she was trying to recreate the gingerbread cake from Gramercy Tavern in NYC. This tastes freaking awesome... she is very serious about the cake sticking to the pan though. I lost half of the pretty top of mine (but that was secretly OK because then I got to eat the crumbs out of the pan while they were still warm). Served with fresh only-lightly-sweetened whipped cream.

Braised Rabbit with Olives, Capers, and Potatoes

We were lucky enough to come into possession of 5 rabbits this week. Here is the first of several attempts to cook rabbit. This round went really well.

Ingredients

1 rabbit, cut into 8 pieces (10 if you have the belly)
6 Tbs of olive oil
1 lb of red skinned potatoes, cut into 1 in pieces
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 bell peppers, cut in the thin strips (I used red and orange)
2 medium tomatoes, diced
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
1 1/4 cup sliced Sicilian green olives
1/3 cup capers, drained
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup of water
salt and pepper

Butchering the rabbit

We've had rabbit before, but only in restaurants, and we've certainly never butchered our own little bunnies. So this was an adventure. Armed with some instructions in hand, I set off to butcher the little guy. I was intimidated for sure after seeing how many steps were involved, but it actually was not that difficult. If you can buy a whole rabbit, pre-butchered, it would save you some time, but there is something cool and primal about doing it yourself. Because the rabbits were small, I found a paring knife and kitchen shears worked best.

Removing the front legs:

Removing the belly, aka rabbit bacon!

Remove the silver skin

More belly:

Hind legs on the left, tenderloins on the right (cut into two sections):


So for the recipe....

Heat 4 Tbs of olive oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Dry, then salt and pepper the meat. Brown the pieces of rabbit, about 7 minutes per side, then remove from the oil.


Front legs (top left), ribs (top right), tenderloins (middle right), rabbit belly (bottom right), hind legs (bottom left):


Add the other 2 Tbs of oil and saute onions until soft. Then add everything else- the potatoes, bell pepper, tomato, olives, celery, capers, garlic, and thyme... cook 5 minutes. Mix in vinegar and 1/4 cup water. Then, add the rabbit back and reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring every now and then.




Serve with bread:

Really delicious. The vinegar adds this sweet and sour element that works really well with the capers and onions.