Martha's Christmas Feast gets the ball rolling with oysters on the half shell, quiche with wild mushrooms in a Madeira glaze, prime rib roast, steamed pudding and a gingerbread trifle with a cognac custard. The crafts/decor interlude offers instructions for making ribbon medallions, pomegranate & flower garlands, a pine cone wreath sprayed in silver, embossed aluminum ornaments, paper tassels, gingerbread snowflakes, plus tips on collecting antique ornaments.
In Meringues we are offered chocolate meringue cookies, almond meringue sandwiches, pavlova and a baked Alaska, while Cookies and Candies consist of raspberry crumb cookies, lemon ginger drop cookies, biscotti, fruit jellies, toffee, French almond nougat and caramels, plus tips on working with chocolate - touching on tempering, shaping and working with molds. A few of the crafts/tips in the interlude include balsam pillows, gift wrapping ideas, cookie packing hints and a few felt projects: pillows, boxes and bottle bags.
The last chapter, New Years Days at Home, dishes out an apple & red onion caraway tart, wild rice salad and an almond torte. At the end of the recipes is an 8 page spread on perfect roasting ~ with a recipe for prime rib with Yorkshire pudding.
Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook, published in 2003. A comprehensive collection of 600 favorite holiday recipes filling over 450 pages. In the introduction, The Tastes of Christmas, examines culinary holiday traditions from around the globe ~ Baba au Rhum (Poland), Beef Wellington (very popular in 1960's America - thank Jackie Kennedy), Buche de Noel (France), Gravlax (Scandanavia), plus the usual suspects ~ cranberries, fruitcake, goose and oysters. There are also a few pages of suggested menus ranging from Christmas breakfast or brunch through the big feast.
The recipes begin with Breakfast which delivers fritattas, quiche, pancakes (apple or cornmeal) , orange croissant French toast, oatmeal, granola waffles (banana nut, buckwheat sour cream or savory potato), scones, blueberry sticky buns, muffins (sour cream, breakfast or carrot & fig) and coffee cake with poppy seed filling, followed by Breads which offers mini panettone, rosemary bread sticks, pretzels, biscuits, rolls, popovers and a cornmeal pear loaf.
A few of the Drinks include hot buttered rum, eggnog, glogg, planter's punch, homemade aquavit, hot chocolate and cherry bombs, with Hors d'oeuvres dishing out citrus & rosemary olives, spiced nuts, flame-grilled eggplant dip, chicken liver pate with white truffles, shrimp bruschetta, apricot onion tartlets, brie en croute, sweet potato chips, blini with caviar, curry waffles with gravlax, star anise gravlax and endive petals with smoked scallops.
Soups and Stews presents chestnut mushroom soup, pea bisque with shrimp, fresh lentil soup, potato seafood chowder, lamb & chestnut stew, spicy sweet potato soup, beef stew and a winter veggie chicken stew, with Main Courses doling out beef tenderloin with an herb salt crust, beef Wellington, prime rib roast with Yorkshire pudding, stuffed lamb chops, braised ham, roasted rack of venison, classic roast turkey with giblet gravy or a cranberry glazed turkey. Other options include a tamale casserole, duck roasted with salt, roast capon, goose, pheasant or guinea fowl, horseradish crusted halibut, whole roasted salmon with pickled beet salad, lobster fricassee and rigatoni with pumpkin & bacon.
Apparently I skipped the Salads chapter so here goes ~ some of the offerings are beets with blood oranges & watercress, chicory with lemon anchovy vinaigrette, fruit & fennel, a warm goat cheese salad or a wilted Brussels sprouts salad.
Among the many Side Dishes are mashed potatoes with numerous variations (saffron, garlic or herbed), a potato chive souffle, three potato gratin, baked sweet potatoes with pecans, green beans with tasso ham, caramelized chestnuts & Brussels sprouts, sweet & sour red cabbage, stuffing (cornbread, couscous, oyster brioche, cornbread & sourdough or wild rice & sausage), a pomegranate pilaf, polenta wedges, wild rice cakes, chutney (peppery fig or cranberry) and a cranberry fig relish.
The last two chapters tackle the sweet tooth, with Desserts introducing a few fruit choices ~ pear pavlova or a winter fruit crisp, some custards & puddings ~ eggnog panna cotta, chocolate souffle crepes, festive figgy pudding,tangerine parfaits, a pistachio Charlotte or gingerbread/poached pear trifles.Champagne granita, chestnut espresso caramel swirl ice cream and pear & cranberry sorbert represents the frozen desserts, while a few of the festive cakes are comprised of chestnut chocolate layer cake, a fig holiday roll, Buche de Noel, chocolate mousse cake, linzertorte with ligonberry jam, ginerbread upside down cake, brownie cupcakes, ginger baba au rhum, petits fours, fruitcake and of course gingerbread. Don't forget a few pies & tarts too ~ pear & sour cherry pie, pecan pie, holiday fruit tart, tangerine curd tartlets and a quince apple pie.
Finally, there are the Cookies and Confections ~ Congo bars, pecan caramel shortbread, rocky road brownies, lime sables, orange poppy seed spirals, chewy coconut chocolate pinwheels, coconut pyramids, honey lebkuchen, pistachio cranberry biscotti, palmiers, bourbon praline, toffee, candied citrus peel, and truffles (champagne, hazelnut, mocha, ginger or Sambuca).
No comments:
Post a Comment