HAPPY NEW YEAR! Bonne Année! I wish all of you a healthy and happy 2013 filled with lots of great food memories!
Now that the holidays are ‘officially’ over and the new year’s resolutions are in full swing…who would like to reflect on an amazing dish (starter, main dish oe dessert) they ate during the holidays? And one sentence on why?
It will keep the memories of the holidays going.
Mine was sitting down ravenously hungry in an intimate pub in New York City with friends after walking all day with my kids in the cold weather. I ate the best hamburger (drunk with a Guinness). Wow did that taste good! And you?
Has to be the traditional Christmas Roast Turkey, sage 'n onion stuffing one end, sausage 'n apple stuffing the other end, rashers of cripy bacon across the whole bird, chipolata sausages on sticks sprouting everywhere, honey-glazed parsnips and carrots, very fresh young brussel sprouts, semolina dusted roasted potatoes, turkey juice gravy, bread sauce and cranberry jelly. You do need a very large plate !!
28 December. My wife is Ticinesi, which is to say from the Italian canton of Switzerland, and is actually a very international eater. Offer her Bangalore Indian food and she is in seventh heaven. In fact, I made pasta and gnocchi as well as the sauces and so on well before meeting her, so I was already hooked. I too clearly love Italian food. It is regionally the most varied, just seeing how many variants there are along the northern border region with Balkan, German, French and other influences is something else. By the time one has eaten their way down to Sicilia the culinary senses are overstimulated. The stomach girth also probably vastly increased too. I smile when people say 'everything with pasta', as if they really knew.
Mmmmmm ! English food is great after long walks or that weather...(sorry-! haha)...the weather that makes you want to sit in front of a log fire and eat real food
Delizioso! and when did you eat this dish? Over the fetes? Maybe I am in trouble for saying this, but Italian cuisine is my favorite-even above French. I grew up in New Jersey-so many Italians around...with amazing homecooked food and restaurants. It is in my food genes-although I cannot (unfortunately) attest to being even 10% Italian. Thanks for sharing...
Loved your description...and TOTALLY agree on the butter from Brittany with sea salt. Love that!
Yes, that sounds MARVELOUS! Perfect for a special Sunday lunch or another festive occasion. Thanks!
Must try that, Sarah, sounds delicious.
Ours was homemade Steak and Kidney pie,buttery mash potato and brussel sprouts washed down with a nice red in front of a roaring log fire.
The gigot d'agneau au whisky et aux herbes that my wife cooked for us and the neighbours yesterday. Marinated for 24 hours in a liberal quantity of good whisky laced with honey and a variety of spices, heated and flambeed before pouring over the lamb. Left to marinate for 24 hours then slow-roasted for five hours.
Mind you the filet mignon en croute we had for Christmas Day lunch, involving a "stuffing" of honey, spices and nuts, is a very close second.
We had a holiday in Corsica, many moons ago with the kids...Eurocamp I do believe...had some wonderful dishes, such as Song Bird Pate....but not chestnut polenta...and will have to find a purveyor of coarse ground chestnuts...my flour is fine for cake baking.
It is the alternative to maize and in Corsica is actually the national dish. You will need the coarse ground polenta flour version and not the fine. I suspect the torta is the ancestor of Death by Chocolate but is richer because of the liquor.
Well thats a good slimming dish! I love chestnuts in anything but never considered making them into Polenta, will have a go now as I have chestnut flour...and the torta is very similar to Death by Chocolate recipe from the RiverCafe...
Polenta di castagne with spezzatino di Manzo, accompanied by a mature Montepulciano and a torta al cioccolato to finish. Well, not a dish, more a meal - but also an indulgence.
Sarah that sounds amazing and I am absolutely going to try that. We had capon this year that had been brined for 24 hours and it was the best bird we ever had, juicy and tender and very tasty. But following the huge roast with a Heston Blumenthal Xmas pud with candied orange in the centre....evening meal of smoked salmon, prawns and other shellfish, I loved the next days brunch of soft boiled eggs and toast fingers....superb...the butter has to be Brittany with sea salt crystals...funny how we really miss the simple things.
One side dish that stood out for me was the marron/apple mixture that was cooked alongside the capons. My dearly beloved's mother (French) makes it every year and it is just divine. It cooks in the capon juices which gives it a gorgeous flavour.
That's all it is too. Just marrons from a jar (pre-cooked), apples peeled and quartered and placed around the bird. You can do it with chicken and turkey too. They go into a sort of sweet mush with a pleasant tartness. Yum!