2007's Christmas dinner

This is the third successive year that I've concocted a grand meal as a Christmas gift to my parents as well as my brother and sister-in-law. This year, however, I was able to work on a previously unprecedented scale, thanks to the assistance of my lovely girlfriend-cum-sous-chef. I also mixed things up a bit from previous years by focusing significantly more on the presentation of the foods, even going so far as to acquire two whole new sets of dinnerware to make sure I had enough square plates. It was quite an adventure.

First up was a smallish appetizer — pan-seared sea scallops, served over pureed celery with a carrot-and-anise emulsion and a quick red-wine reduction. The recipe is pulled verbatim from Dec. 2007's Bon Appetit, so I won't repeat it here.


Next was one of the few dishes I can actually claim as something of a personal creation. For want of a better name, I've given it the working title of "lasagne caprese", since it's basically a caprese salad with a thin slice of very fluffy, light lasagne nestled underneath and a sprinkle of freshly-grated Parmesean for a hint of umami. The most interesting flavor characteristic emerges from the interaction between the lasagne and the honeyed balsamic reduction I put on top. I'll definitely be posting more on this idea later when I've had time to develop it further.


Third was a soup of roasted butternut squash, which I mucked around into something resembling a Thai curry. The flavors of coconut milk, roasted squash, and panang curry paste actually melded beautifully, and if I hadn't gone a little overboard with the chili I think this would have been an unqualified success. The greenish goo around the edge of the bowl is a green-pepper coulis; the flavor contrasted wonderfully with the spicy savoriness of the soup, but unfortunately it made the whole concoction look rather unpleasant. I'll have to think more on the presentation for this one in the future.


Fourth and last of the savory courses was a relatively light entree (since there was so much food involved in this meal) — a pair of small French-cut lamb rack chops crusted with dukkah and drizzled with honey and pomegranate molasses, served with pepper and jicima crudities and a lemon-pesto goat-cheese dip. Like the scallops, this was ripped straight from the pages of the Dec. 2007 Bon Appetit.


No gigantic meal would be complete without a dessert, and Dot and I have been having great fun lately with my new pasta-rolling attachment for my lovely Kitchenaid, so we decided to take things in a more experimental direction with sweet ravioli — specifically, chocolate ganache ravioli poached in syrup and bananas Foster ravioli deep-fried. We also concocted some of Orangette's lovely ricotta fritters complete with home-made ricotta and cream whipped until it hung precipitously over the edge of butter. A French-vanilla custard sauce, this from a 1998 Bon Appetit, tied everything together wonderfully — and real vanilla beans are so much fun!


My rather miserable attempts at photography notwithstanding, the presentations turned out surprisingly well given that they were entirely improvisational. True to form, the square plates really did make everything look very spiffy, and even just the availability of black plates in addition to white made a huge difference. This is a direction I simply hadn't explored before, and it was really fascinating to see the effect that aesthetics could have on the overall enjoyment of food.