My life revolves around food. If I have any other passion I certainly don't reveal it to my friends. My Christmas presents this year, like many years before, were all cook books. My collection has swelled to well over 50 quality titles.
The recent additions include "Marcella says..." by Marcella Hazan; "Barefoot Contessa in Paris" by Ina Garten; "Louis Osteen's Charleston Cuisine" by Louis Osteen; "The Gourmet Cookbook" edited by Ruth Reichl, a magazine subscription to an ABC (Australian) publication "Delicious" and Maurizio Terzini's "Something Italian".
The latter book brought with it some Australian nostalgia. It was a gift from my parents in a care package that also included Italian coffee(!) and Australian chocolate cookies (Mint Slices and Tim Tams). The book is beautifully designed with the trademark food styling and photography Donna Hay pioneered in her cookbook series. It is also very Australian with such words as "daggy" in the copy and the emphasis on super fresh ingredients, sharp, strong flavors thrown together in a casual Mediterranean way.
What I was most excited to see in the book was the author, Maurizio Terzini. He started his restaurant career creating Cafe e' Cucina. A restaurant I worked in after I was tired of waiting tables at cafes and "restaurants" that had locations better than the food. I didn't work very long at Cafe e Cucina but I loved every minute of it. I learned so much from the experience and Maurizio's advice and style still stands out some 10 years later.
Here the staff and clientele called me Domenico in this lush wanting manor. The staff because they needed the help and loved the attention speaking Italian always got them. The clientele to show how global and sophisticated they were. Whatever the reason, it was truly one of the first times I felt the sexiness of my Italian heritage.
Cafe e Cucina also taught me a level of professional service I had been oblivious to receiving and giving. I was told quite sternly by the chef not to shake a plate of pasta, the pasta didn't need to reach the plate's edge as it did in my home. Maurizio also showed me how to professionally clear a table (something only the finest American restaurants understand) and serve an espresso -- with the teaspoon handle pointed toward the diner on the right hand side of the cup.
The whole experience was an awakening of senses, of possibilities and style. I would sit at the bar during a break in the dinner service to eat my staff meal -- a glass of red wine, any pasta off the board and great bread to wipe the dish clean. I think this experience fundamentally changed my expectations on what a restaurant meal could be. I search for this constantly and so few places deliver.
Today's Christmas dim sum meal couldn't be further from that enchanting experience -- long waits, large crowds, impersonal service, shared tables, harsh lighting and no ambience worth mentioning. The only saving grace is the food. It has extraordinary dim sum. So good it makes up for everything else.
This year's Christmas Eve was so much fun. Joe and I hosted a dinner party for 11 friends and family. Joe's parents were in from Louisville, Kentucky and we invited our friends Steven and Erik, Elliott and Shaun, Ami and our neighbor Ellen with her daughter Tamar.
It was the first time we got to extend our relatively new dining table out to its full 10 feet and dress it with our fine French linen tablecloth. Very fancy, formal and fun.
Low lighting, great food and plenty of good wine created an evening of conversation, laughter and sense of warmth the holiday's always promise but rarely deliver.
hors d’oeuvres
- assorted hand-crafted cheeses
- mini onion tarts
appetizer
- spaghetti with shitake mushrooms
entrée
- grilled bronzino italian style
- fresh red leaf green salad
- chili roasted brussel sprouts
- lemon roasted potato medley
dessert
- decadent chocolate soufflé with fresh vanilla cream
This was last night's dinner. Roasted beef tenderloin with buttered fiddleheads. Joe had made a sour cream and horseraddish sauce a few nights ago that went extremely well with the beef.
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The fiddleheads were a good green to accompany the meat. A little out of the ordinary with a taste of artichoke and asparagus. I blanched them in salted boiling water and then tossed in melted butter with salt and pepper.
As you can tell, I am also loving our new digital camera.
Joe's parents, Helen and Edwin, have often recounted stories of their fabulous new year's eve dinner parties or what they called their "last suppers". Edwin (probably in a smoking jacket) satisfying the cerebal crowd with his "5 part gin to 1 part vermouth" martinis and Helen serving a feast, that in the seventies was only associated with 5 star French restuarants. The night would end only when guests were found passed out in the bathroom, faces pressed against the cold tile floor.
No doubt these soirees came to be known as the "last suppers" because of their sheer decadence and debauchery. I am sure it was often the case that the following morning (or afternoon) guests would crawl out of their beds, probably in their previous evening's attire, and think they wouldn't survive new year's day and if they did, revise their new year's resolution never to touch Gin again...at least not for another year!
Damn it! I wanted to host one of these parties. I wanted my own new year's eve Last Supper!
If we were to do this right we needed a suitably decadent dish. Something people had only heard about. Something even the gastronomes had never eaten before and something so excessive there would be talk all over town. Joe and I would out do ourselves and create a feast for 14 people. One that would lure our guests from other more traditional new year's eve celebrations, to our place for a culinary adventure. The dish? The menu's piece d'resistance? A grand Turducken, a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey with sausage and bread stuffing sitting between the layers.
Even though there was some room for improvement, the result was excellent. Everybody was suitably impressed. The birds were tasty, moist (surprising considering it was in the oven for 12 hours) and well marbled. While Joe's Kir Royales didn't match Edwin's martinis for sophistication they were apropos, and started the night's celebration nicely.
The night continued well after desserts. Joe and Nina played piano. Frank sang songs from the musicals Oklahoma, Sound of Music and Hair in no particular order. Unfortunately, no one passed out. We can only try again next year to attain the standard set by Helen and Edwin.
The entire feast's menu:
Hor'dourves
- parmesan 'frico' cups with herbed goat cheese
- crostini with creme fraiche and smoked salmon
- crostini with creme fraiche and salmon roe
Appetizer
- Butternut squash soup with ginger shrimp
Main Meal
- Turducken with classic gravy
- Joey's smooth & fluffy potato mash
- Carrot "tiles" & parsnip rounds
Dessert Selection
- Creme caramel
- Home made chocolate cake with mocha butter cream
- Vanilla pound cake
- Peppermint meringues
- Callebaut chocolate truffles dusted in cocoa
- Soft nougat with pistachio and dried cherries
While the Turducen sounds excessive, this dish wasn't that hard to prepare. I made a modified version of
The result was excellent and I learned a few things for next time. For one thing the Turkey needed to be more than 12 pounds to easily fit the duck and chicken inside. Something closer to 18-20 pounds would have allowed plenty of room for the duck, chicken and some extra stuffing. The 12 pounder I had, almost needed a shoehorn to fit the other birds inside.
The second lesson was the technique of placing the birds inside each other. Instead of layering each of turkey, stuffing, duck, stuffing, chicken, stuffing and then bringing it all together to stitch it a la Turduckenstein, it would have been easier to roll the chicken first around stuffing, then roll the duck and stuffing around the chicken and then place all of this on the turkey before sewing it up neatly. The later would have produced a more even (and aesthetic) distribution of meats when cut for presentation.