I meant to post this over the holiday, but whaddya know it, I got too caught up in the festivities (read: eating and drinking).
One thing I love about Christmas is our family traditions. For instances, Christmas morning we always follow the same protocol. As soon as we get up and we’re ready to open up gifts, the breakfast egg/sausage/cheese casserole goes in the oven, and we start opening up presents. We set a kitchen timer, and when the alarm goes off, this marks the gift opening interlude. We head to the kitchen for a quick bite, then we go back to the tree and continue with the gifts.
The great thing about these breakfast casseroles are that you can prepare them the night before, so there’s no cooking Christmas morning. It pairs fabulously with mimosas. Here’s a Mexican version from Emeril that I’ve had a few times, and is very good.
Jumping backwards to Christmas eve dinner, my mom made her baked clams. Butter, breaded clam goodness, I think I could eat a dozen of these as a starter. Even before I loved seafood, these have always been a “mom favorite” of mine.
This year we had a special dish for Christmas Eve – cassoulet. My mom spent days sourcing the ingredients and preparing the duck confit, following the Les Halles method of preparation.
It’s not a cheap dish to prepare from scratch, but if you want to cut down on costs and time, you can order the D’Artagnan kit. It was awesome. Duck fat, pork belly, garlic sausage, and Tarbais white bean goodness.
We paired this with the ‘03 Domaine Bois De Boursan Chateaunuef du Pape. This wine was still extremely astringent, but with tons of fruit, and a looooong finish. I saved a glass and it continued to get a bit smoother and more intriguing as the night went on.
We also sipped on this Windy Oaks Pinot Noir that evening. Pure California Pinot, it had the overt jammy ripeness of a quality California Pinot, but with enough dirt to make it interesting to me.
Over the holiday my parents also soaked a cured country ham over a few days (changing the water multiple times to remove the excess salt), then roasted it to finish it. We were gnawing on this bad boy the entire holiday.
With Christmas day dinner I made the Ad Hoc at Home celery root with melted onions, a dish that I’ve tried twice now. It’s extremely rich (don’t ask how much butter is in it), but it’s a nice accompaniment with red meat, and a welcome change from the normal starch side dishes. I haven’t cooked with celery root until recently, and I love the aromas when it’s cooking. Celery root needs to be added to your repertoire if it isn’t already.
The last few years we’ve done an herb crusted New York strip roast for Christmas dinner. It’s not an inexpensive cut of meat, but it’s super easy and elegant at the center of the table.
With dinner we had a magnum of ‘02 Trespass Cab. Delicious California juice that went perfectly with the New York strip roast.
What are your family cooking traditions for the holidays?
