Nutcracker icon courtesy of Mary Leigh Fitzmorris. One of many handpainted on her last cake, if I can be a shameless bragging Mom.
There will be none of the usual things on nomenu or in the newsletter today. We’ve highlighted the Reveillons and alerted you to cool holiday happenings around town. We even got one wrong: (The Hanukkah Brunch at Meauxbar is TONIGHT, not tomorrow.) And you’ve made your own reservations way ahead of time for your favorite places to eat on Christmas. But most of you will still likely be cooking at home for some family or friends event where you will either be host or guest. Here are some recipes.
Crabmeat Cheesecake
Ingredients
For the crust:
1 bag of Stacy’s Fire-Roasted Jalapeno Pita Chips, or any crunchy cracker you prefer.
6 oz melted butter
For the filling:
4 8-oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 pint whipping cream
1 tsp. lemon juice
8 oz blue claw crabmeat
⅓ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
½ small onion minced
½ red bell pepper finely chopped
1 T butter
Steps
Melt the one tablespoon of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper till soft, stirring occasionally. When the vegetables are soft, add crabmeat and stir to mix. Remove from heat and set aside, or refrigerate.
Put the cream cheese into the bowl of a mixer and blend on medium to slow speed until completely blended and fluffy--about 10 minutes.
While that is going on, make crumbs out of the crackers in a food processor. Add the butter and process until the butter has soaked all the crumbs.
Line the bottom (and go up the sides) of a 10-inch springform pan with parchment paper. Dump the crust mixture in and press a wedge of crumbs into the bottom corner all the way around. Then make a bottom crust, and finally press the remaining crumbs up the sides of the pan. It is not necessary for the crust to come all the way to the top of the pan. Set aside.
Add the sour cream to the mixer bowl. With a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl after this and each other ingredient addition throughout the recipe.
Add the eggs, one at a time, allowing them to blend in completely before adding the next one. (Break each egg into a cup first to make sure it's okay before you add it.)
Add the cream, Mix for another five minutes or so, until no streaks are visible.
Pour the seafood mixture (should be room temperature, or preferably cooled) from the saucepan into the bowl and gently mix with a spatula.
Pour the filling into the crust. Place the springform pan into a shallow pan (i.e., a pizza pan), and place it in the center of the oven at 350 degrees (no convection). Pour warm water into the bottom pan. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 300 degrees. Bake for another hour and fifteen minutes, until you see the cheesecake has just a hint of browning on top.
Turn the oven off, but leave the cheesecake inside. After 30 minutes, open the door a crack and let the cheesecake cool in the oven another half-hour. Remove the cheesecake and let it finish cooling on a counter. After another hour, remove the sides of the springform pan and put the cheesecake into the refrigerator. Chill at least six hours before serving.
Pinwheels
I pkg puff pastry
I bag of grated mozzarella
1 pkg pepperoni
Red sauce
Grated parmesan
Roll out the puff pastry
Layer pepperoni, then grated cheese
Roll the puff pastry into a roll
Slice into ¼ inch disks
Place on cookie sheet with ½ inch spacing.
Bake at 350 until golden brown pastry and cheese is melted.
Serve with your favorite marinara for dipping and parmesan cheese for dusting.
Smoked Salmon Dip
Smoked fish dips have been gaining in popularity for a number of years, and usually, they are trout-based. As a fan of smoked salmon, (the hot-smoked rather than cold-smoked) I have done a dip with salmon. Use crostini or any crunchy cracker you like. I am partial to Stacy’s Chips.
Ingredients
6 oz smoked salmon. (If you are doing it yourself, make a paste of olive oil and creole seasoning of your choice and liberally paint on the fish on both sides. Smoke at 300 degrees until done, turning once.
8 oz cream cheese, softened
⅓ cup sour cream
2T minced purple onion
1 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice
2 T chopped flat leaf parsley
2 T chopped fresh dill
1 tsp horseradish
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 T capers
Mix all ingredients before adding salmon. Crumble salmon into the mixture and blend gently. If you want a well-blended just pink dip with no defined fish, blend well.
Serve chilled with crackers or crudités.
Prime Rib
Ingredients
1 rack of prime rib roast of beef, 3-4 ribs across
Coarse-ground black pepper
Kosher salt: 1 Tbs. per rib
1 small, fresh horseradish root
Steps
If there is an extravagant amount of fat on the outside of the roast, trim it off. Or not, as you wish.
Preheat an outdoor grill, or a black iron skillet over medium-high heat on the stove. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Season the roast with pepper and what will seem like too much salt. Put it cut side down on the grill or in the skillet, and sear for about three minutes until it's browned and you can see fat running out of the roast at the bottom. Turn and brown the other side.
Place the roast on a broiler rack set above a broiler pan to catch the drippings. Add about a cup of water to the pan to create some steam, as well as it keeps the drippings from drying out.
Turn the oven down to 250 degrees. Roast until the desired doneness is reached, according to the readings on your meat thermometer, inserted into the center of the beef:
Remove the roast from the pan and allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes before carving. You may carve it into chops with the bone on, or carve away the bone and slice it thinner.
Mirliton and Root Vegetable Gratin
Ingredients
2 slices lemon
2 whole cloves
1 tsp. black peppercorns
1 rutabagas, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch-thick slices
2 lbs. carrots, peeled and cut on the bias into 1/4-inch-thick coins
2 lbs. parsnips, prepared the same way as the carrots (substitute: turnips)
4 mirlitons, halved, seed removed, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese
1 1/2 cups finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 pint whipping cream
2 egg yolks, beaten
Pinch nutmeg
1 tsp, white pepper
1 cup bread crumbs
Steps
Bring a large saucepan of water to a rolling boil with the lemon, cloves, and peppercorns. Add the rutabagas (it helps to do this in a large sieve or a chinoise), boil for about two minutes, remove and drain. Repeat with the carrots, parsnips, and mirlitons. (The mirlitons will only require about one minute.)
Crush the garlic cloves, and use them to wipe the inside of a two-inch-deep, 12-by-9-inch glass baking dish. Discard what's left of the garlic.
Layer the vegetables in the baking dish, in the order listed. Sprinkle a mixture of the cheeses between the layers. Season with white pepper and (sparingly) nutmeg. The cheeses will provide all the salt this needs.
Combine the whipping cream and egg yolks thoroughly. Pour the mixture over the vegetables. Cover with aluminum foil, and bake in the preheated 400-degree oven for one hour.
Remove the foil, sprinkle bread crumbs in a thin layer over the top, and return to the oven. Continue baking until the crust browns.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest and cool for at least ten minutes before serving. This is better warm than hot.
Savory Bread Pudding with Mushrooms
Ingredients
3 cups half-and-half
4 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. Worcestershire
1/4 tsp. Tabasco
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. butter
18 inches of a loaf of stale poor boy bread or French bread
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 1/2 cup shredded Gruyere, Fontina, or other easy-melting white cheese
Steps
Combine the half-and-half, eggs, Worcestershire, Tabasco, and salt in a bowl and blend well.
Slice the bread into thin (about 1/4 inch) slices. Butter the inside of a 9"x5"x4" baking dish or casserole. Place a layer of bread along the bottom. Sprinkle one-third each of the cheese, mushrooms, and green onions over the bread. Pour one-fourth of the milk-egg mixture over this, enough to soak it well. Push down gently until the bread is soaked.
Repeat the layers in the same order as above, following with a dousing of liquid. Finish with a layer of bread and the last of the liquid.
Place the baking dish in a pan of warm water and put the entire assembly into the preheated oven. Bake for an hour and 15 minutes at 300 degrees. Let it cool for at least a half-hour before serving. It can be sliced, but it’s perfectly fine to spoon it right out of the dish at the table.
Shortbread Ice Cream Sandwiches
Mary Leigh has tweaked the Seriously Sinful Shortbread recipe from Sharon Tyler Herbst's "Food Lover's Guide To Chocolate And Vanilla".At Chez Fitzmorris it amounts to a Bible.
Ingredients
1 cup softened butter
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 T pure vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ tsp salt
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 carton Breyer’s Vanilla Ice Cream
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add flour and cocoa into the butter mixture, blending until combined. Then add melted chocolate until a dough is formed.
Spoon dough onto plastic wrap and wrap it into a rounded rectangle log about 2x3 inches. Chill for 2 hours.
Unwrap and slice into ¼ inch slices. Bake on parchment cookie sheet spaced slightly apart.
When the cookies are cooled, fill them with vanilla ice cream about an inch thick. Rewrap in plastic wrap and place in the freezer.
