New Years Eve Lasagna

New Years Eve Lasagna

Food humorist/writer/poet extraordinaire, Calvin Trillin, single-handedly launched a campaign to make spaghetti carbonara the national dish for Thanksgiving. I first learned of his coup attempt to unseat the roasted turkey as America's thanksgiving day centerpiece when I read the story in a passage in the New York City Cookbook. A few years later, I listened to it when National Public Radio aired the story.

In the essay, Calvin Trillin begins his amusing if not logical argument citing, "It does not take much historical research to uncover the fact that nobody knows if the Pilgrims really ate turkey at the first Thanksgiving dinner". Here's a link to the rest of the story to see where he goes with his argument.

This year, New Year's Eve fell on a Wednesday and other than the occasional barrage of fireworks and celebratory gunfire from the next block over, it felt like any other uneventful midweek day. I couldn't come up with a good justification for having lasagna but I thought, nobody needs an excuse to eat lasagna, after all, it's lasagna. So that's what we had, New Year's Eve lasagna in homage to Calvin Trillin's Thanksgiving spaghetti carbonara.

Here's a short sampling of the dry wit of Calvin Trillin.

Christmas Day Munchies (and the feast continues)

Miko Pupu Rockets and Rolled Cheese Omelet

And so the feasting continues. Carrying on with the small plate tradition, we started the day with a breakfast plate of Miko Pupu Rockets (sausage chronicle post to come) and a rolled English coastal cheddar omelet. Not wanting to over do it, this was a great way to get our breakfast fix on the end of a toothpick without topping up our tanks too early.

Sausage Rolls with HP Sauce and Salad Cream

T1 picked up these English style sausage rolls from the Tudor House in Santa Monica. Sausage rolls are a staple of many a holiday get-together in England. Savory sausage meat is encased in flaky pastry and baked. All that was required from us was to warm them up in the oven for ten minutes to bring back that freshly baked flavor and texture. Doing so also makes the house smell like an English Christmas. We should figure out how to capture that smell and turn it into a scented candle. We could market it as "English Christmas, Sausage Roll scented Candles" :)

Brie with Champignons en Croute

Our friend "K" spent the day with us. A fellow foodie, K showed up with arms full of all sorts of gastromonic goodies including this fantastic baked brie. A few minutes toasting up in the hot oven and it too was ready to join the party. We cut into it and it oozed molten brie over a layer of champignon mushrooms. As K would say, "Nice".

Bacon Wrapped Enoki Mushrooms

Based on the blurry photo and the burnt mushrooms, I'd say that by the time this picture was taken, the Christmas festivities were well under way. It would be nice if I could remember. Anyway, enoki mushrooms, wrap in bacon, put under broiler. Here's a quick idea for a munchy; take (?), wrap in bacon, broil. Always a successful formula... just try not to burn it.

We eased off on the small plates towards the afternoon to save room for a traditional meal consisting of a shrimp cocktail starter followed by a roast beef dinner complete with yorkshire pudding, roasted parsnips, fennel, carrots and potatoes. Unfortunately by that time I couldn't find my camera quick enough so I was unable to get any pics before it all got consumed. It was another great food day.

Our Christmas Eve Tradition

Christmas Eve has finally arrived. Every year, T1 and I pull out all the stops, cook all day and eat into the night. It started as a way to treat ourselves and give us a break from holding back on getting the things we'd like to eat the rest of the year. It's our one day of truly unabashed gluttony. We both look forward to it every year.

The tradition usually begins on the day before Christmas Eve. I head out early to all my favorite markets with an ice chest and a stack of reusable shopping bags in tow to see what looks good. As the day progresses I quickly accumulate the makings for a day of indulgence. I'll gravitate towards items I too often walk past; ikura caviar, premium grade hamachi, U15 colossal shrimp (both sounding and looking like miniature submarines), maybe some nice cheeses we haven't yet tried, if there's something I've been thinking about, this is the day to splurge and get it. This year, I hit Santa Monica Seafood, Mitsuwa Market, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's with very good results.

Over the course of the year, I take mental note of recipes I'd like to try and food I've had in restaurants that might be worth recreating and culinary experiments I'd like to conduct. I usually leave the house with a very loose shopping list, opting instead to see where the markets take me, Anything that happens to look fresh, in season and tasty may get picked up along the way. I'll see something and think, "that'll be good prepared in such and such a way" or "I haven't had that in a while". The most important thing is to keep things casual, fun and stress free. Most dishes only require 15 to 30 minutes prep and cook time.

This year we managed to assemble a nice collection of tasty tidbits. I really enjoy this way of eating because you get a bunch of flavor in each new dish and surprisingly, if you pace yourself, you can avoid getting too full too fast.

Colossal Shrimp Croissants.

First up, colossal shrimp croissants. If you happen to be ambitious, you could roll out your own croissant pastry dough, but in keeping with the stress free theme, I use the instant refrigerated variety. Clean and dry the shrimp, roll them up in dough, pop'em in the oven for 12 minutes, done.

Devils on Horseback (Feta Stuffed Medjool Dates Wrapped in Prociutto)

Next in line is a keeper recipe inspired by the Two Fat Ladies. I remember seeing a version of this hors d'oeurve on their BBC/PBS program years ago, only their recipe called for chicken liver stuffed dried prunes wrapped in bacon. The recipe for this variation seems to be fairly common but I don't remember where I saw it first.

Devils on Horseback
(Wielding swords)

Pit some nice fat dates, stuff them with creamy feta and wrap them with prociutto (10 minutes), stick a pick in to hold them together, dust them with a little ground nutmeg (my personal contribution to the recipe) and stick them under the broiler (5 minutes). After 15 minutes of effort, you'll be rewarded with little flavor bombs; sugary, salty, creamy and smokey all at the same time.

Caper and Egg Salad in Twice Baked New Potato Cups

This is just a play on potato egg salad, fancied up a bit for a party. When thinking of things to make, I always return to ingredients that can be natural, edible, single serving containers; basically, anything that can serve as a cup, a scoop or a wrapper. In years past, I've used endive, little stuffed tomatoes, hollowed out cucumbers, chips and crackers.

Caper and Egg Salad in Twice Baked New Potato Cups

For these bite size potato salad versions, I baked some red-skinned new potatoes until done and let them cool down. Next I cut them in half and placed them cut side down on a baking sheet drizzled with olive oil to crisp up. The filling is just an egg salad with capers mixed through. For the bling factor, each was topped with some ikura salmon caviar.

Bloody Mary Aspic

I can't remember where the inspiration for this dish came from. I remember thinking how nice sections of little tomatoes would look, suspended in a gelatin. Tomatoes made me think of Bloody Mary's and gelatin reminded me of Jello shooters. A Bloody Mary Aspic seemed like a natural. I haven't had much experience cooking with gelatin other than the J-E-L-L-O variety. I knew pineapple juice is too acidic to set up properly in a gelatin, would tomato juice react similarly? How would the vodka in the Bloody Mary react? After Googling around for info on the matter I actually found a few recipes for Bloody Mary Aspic. Dang! There goes my points for originality.

To a can of V8 vegetable juice, I added a dash of Worcestershire sauce, some Tabasco, a couple of grinds of black pepper, a squeeze of lime juice and a good shot of Absolut. Next, I took a rectangular storage container and greased it up and layered whole little grape tomatoes in neat rows. Gelatin was dissolved per the packages directions, the Bloody Mary was stirred in and the mixture was poured over the grape tomatoes. The container was place in the fridge for three hours to set up.

At the end of three hours, the container was removed and dipped in a bowl of warm water to help release the aspic. The aspic was sliced (revealing those tomato sections I envisioned) and served on a celery salad dressed with lime juice and olive oil.

It worked. It tasted just like a Bloody Mary in Jello form. Maybe next year I'll have to try a Mojito Jelly with a fruit salad. How about a Black Russian gelatin over vanilla ice cream for desert? Definitely worth further experimentation.

Hamachi Sashimi with Jalapeno and Ponzu

Earlier in this post, I mentioned keeping track of dishes I've had in restaurants worth trying to recreate. This is one such dish. Earlier in the year, I had dinner at Nobu on La Cienega. One of the dishes we ordered was Nobu's "new style" yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno. It was excellent. The Jalapeno provides just a little bite and the tartness of the astringent ponzu balances the richness of the fatty yellowtail. Nobu knows his flavor pairing well.

This is my attempt at this dish and although nowhere as elegant in presentation as Nobu's, I think at least captured some of the key flavors.

Hamachi Sashimi with Jalapeno and Ponzu

At this point, we took a break for an hour or so just to kick back even though I was still having way too much fun in the kitchen. It's nice not to be on a schedule and just eat when we're hungry.

I was feeling like something with a bit of crunch so we resumed with crispy fried wonton. I folded a few in the traditional style and thought I'd be creative and made a few more by gathering the wrappers into a bundle and tying them off with some blanched green onion. The filling was ground pork, minced shrimp, some minced water chestnuts and green onions, a dash of sesame oil and fish sauce, a little white pepper and just a pinch of sugar. They came out looking like tri-cornered pirate hats and pouches presumably filled with treasure. We joked about these being called just that on some fancy menu somewhere.

Crispy Fried Wonton

Although we were starting to wind down, I still had a few things in the fridge I wanted to use. This last dish is spicy wasabi tuna on senbei rice crackers with wasabi tobiko.

Spicy Wasabi Tuna on Senbei Rice Crackers with Wasabi Tobiko

I picked up the negitoro (chopped toro tuna belly) from Mitsuwa market. All I had to do was mix it with a little mayo, wasabi, wasabi tobiko and green onion and spread it on some rice crackers. It was a nice end to the day of eating. Clean tasting, cool and light, not to mention as easy to prepare as spreading butter on a cracker but with tons more flavor.

Spicy Little Wasabi Tobiko

All in all, I'd say this year was a success. There's no limit to the decadence you can achieve at home when you start out with the freshest of ingredients and a little imagination. With the fridge still fully stocked, there will definitely be a few more days of good food to come but for today, we were satisfied. I can't wait to see what next year brings.