Tag Archives: Holidays

A Very Northern California Christmas

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First of all, I’d like to apologize to anyone who actually enjoys reading the posts and makes this blog a destination (or perhaps did) for my lack of posting.  I’m happy to report that my first semester of graduate school was a rousing success, though toward the end there I did end up eating a lot of my lazy-day meals.

I’m up in the northern portion of Northern California at the moment, where the rain flows freely, the dungeness crabs jostle claws with one another, the redwoods do yoga stretches to the sky, salmon the size of porpoises leap out of mountain rivers, and hearty beer is brewed.  I figured I’d share some Christmas traditions and just happenings with you all, along with a recipe my mom made this Christmas.

Christmas eve we typically try to vaguely observe the Polish tradition of wigilia, namely this year just eating what I’ll call “Catholic vegetarian”– meaning apparently that fish does not count as meat.  (Mom was too lazy to do the standard Polish fare and really wanted crab!) The crab season up here is off to a really late start (the commercial season isn’t due to open until January 16th!  It usually opens December 1st.), but we managed to find some cooked crabs from down south of Mendocino to continue our tradition.

Paula Deen would be proud: we generally each eat a half of stick of butter (at least) for crab, bread, and whatnot dipping.  This year I invested in some artichokes so we’d at least have a bit of fiber, but they’re also butter-dippable.  Yum.  Soak all the crabby butter juice up with some garlicky sourdough and wash it down with an IPA and you’re in heaven.  Pacific Northwest heaven.

The strategy is to eat all the stupid little crab leg bits first (we joked that in hell they only serve crab knuckles), then eat the legs, then pile the body meat into the butter.  You save that up until the end when you just eat it with a fork. It’s fantastically gluttonous (ironic, given the holiday).  I spooned some on top of my artichoke heart and I can say without a doubt that it was a great combo.

The animals tried so hard to wait patiently for us to be done eating so they could have a little crab in their dishes, but they got pretty vocal toward the end of the meal!

And so, that was Christmas eve.  Plenty of beer, a rousing game of Yahtzee, and some sleep later came Christmas day (today!).

Dad decided we were going to have a ham for Christmas, so he picked up one of those precut spiral hams from Costco.  Not bad, though he didn’t read the directions and just poured the glaze powder over the top of the ham like snow rather than actually turning it into a glaze (it turned out okay nonetheless).  Mom had some potatoes so she decided to make gratin and there was still some kale in the garden so that got steamed.  I made the cranberry sauce as usual, adding in some grated grapefruit zest (which I highly recommend).

We served the whole thing with some homemade saurkraut and dijon mustard.  The liquid that cooked off the ham was quite good over the kale and the dijon/cranberry sauce mixture was pretty good!

Anyway, without further ado, here is my mom’s adaptation of a leek and potato gratin recipe that turned out quite tastily, starring none other than my fabulous and amazing mother!  The good thing about this dish, according to her, is that you can let it cook for as long as you want essentially while you cook other things (see step 8 for info on that).

Leek and Potato Gratin

Serves at least 4

Ingredients

  • 5 large potatoes (total of 2.5 lbs), preferably golds and/or reds
  • 1 leek
  • 2 cups of mixed milk and chicken broth (probably about 50/50, can substitute cream for milk if you have it but probably use less than you would milk)
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 cups grated swiss cheese (we used a mixture of Jarlsberg and Comté)
  • salt (to taste, along with the two below)
  • fresh ground pepper
  • fresh grated nutmeg (just a dash per layer)

1.  Cut the leeks down the middle and rinse them very, very well, thoroughly inspecting to make sure you rinse any dirt or other foreign matter out of the leaves.  Chop the leeks crosswise fairly finely.

2.  Add the milk/broth mixture, garlic, and bay leaf to a pot.  Bring to a boil, then turn off and leave covered so the flavors can infuse into the milk.  Preheat oven to 350 F.

3.  Grate 2 cups of swiss cheese (at least).

4.  Slice the potatoes using a mandoline or knife to be 1/4″ thin at the most.  Put sliced potatoes in a bowl of water as you slice.

5.  Get out a fairly big baking pan, probably about 7.5″x9″ (x 2.5″), about a 2 quarts.  Dry the potatoes on a clean cotton cloth (or paper towel) and then place one layer on the bottom of the pan.

5.  Sprinkle a layer of leeks, cheese, and grate a dash of nutmeg and some salt and pepper on top.  Repeat until you have 3 layers or all your ingredients are used up, with the last layer on top being potatoes.

7.  Remove the bay leaf and garlic from the pot of milk/broth.  Pour the liquid mixture evenly over the ingredients in the baking dish.  Top with some cheese.

8. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the 350 F for an hour, then remove the foil and cook for another half an hour to 45 minutes.  If you have other things you’re waiting on, you can recover it and just leave it cooking in the oven for hours. Just make sure it’s covered except for that 30-45 minutes where you allow it to brown on top.

9.  Remove from the oven, uncover foil (if applicable) and let cool before serving.

Serve with whatever else you want to eat.

I hope blogging burns calories.

Happy Holidays, all!

Preaster brunch

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I have a few little traditions in life, and one of the cheapest traditions is Easter egg coloring (particularly thanks to Costco memberships, 5 dozen eggs for $9).  I don’t generally do anything on Easter itself, so brunch came with the eggs this time. I think it’s funny how I’m not religious, but I end up participating in a lot of religious holidays just because they are so entrenched in American culture (though, I guess that’s the case for most Americans nowadays).  I think it’s because I’m crafty and like working with the unusual materials that a lot of these holidays deal with– cookies, pine branches, eggs, etc.  Lured in by unusual mediums!

Somehow these traditions seem to lump up in springtime (St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Cinco de Mayo if I have money).  Maybe I’m just glad the weather is getting better.

Today for our Easter Egg Coloring Brunch (Preaster Brunch), I served Dutch Babies with fresh farmer’s market strawberries (and, admittedly, Chilean blueberries from Trader Joe’s) and Hash Browns with leeks.  Friends brought along home made raspberry-filled pastries, cupcakes, some savory chicken, mimosa supplies, candy, and of course…bacon.  It was perfect.

I used the dutch baby recipe from Allrecipes, Dutch Babies II.  While places like Saveur and Epicurious are good for teaching you gourmet techniques and having fancy recipes, Allrecipes is a nice user-submitted site with a lot of very easily doable American classics, voted on by members.  This recipe came out quite good.

A Dutch Baby is basically like a pancake, except you substitute some more eggs for some of the flour, turning it into a popover, almost.

You melt the butter in an oven-safe round dish, throw in the batter (which is just eggs, a bit of flour, and some spices.  I added some vanilla extract to mine.), bake it for 12 minutes until golden brown, and top with powdered sugar.  Serve with fresh fruit mixed with some sugar, a bit of lemon juice.  So quick, so simple, and perfect for a brunch.  Here’s my friend Mee (a lovely and talented developer and designer), from Xinair.net,  giving her seal of approval on this recipe:

The hash brown recipe is my own doing, based on years of addiction to hash browns and subsequent years of experimentation.  Today I used leeks for a little more color.  I’ve roughly estimated the recipe below.  Feel free to use more butter or spices as necessary– it’s pretty basic once you get the technique down, and I think the ratio is pretty forgiving overall.

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Kestrel’s Hash Browns

(Serves 8)

  • 6-8 yukon gold potatoes (depending on size)
  • 4 small leeks (or 1-2 large ones)
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • Kosher salt (~1-2 tsp?)
  • Black pepper (~1 tsp)
  • Cayenne pepper (~1 tsp)

Wash & grate the yukon gold potatoes (food processors are awesome for the grating– I unfortunately forgot mine existed for some reason).  No need to peel them, the skin has lots of vitamins! Set them in a bowl with some water and add a teaspoon or two of salt, mixing them up.  Let it sit, 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Chop up the leeks into thin coins.

Empty the grated potatoes into a wire strainer.  Rinse in cool, running water, moving the potatoes around with your hands to remove any excess starch.  This is the key to getting fluffy hash browns.  Gently squish out a bit of the extra water, and let them sit to drain a bit while you continue on to the next step.

Add the butter to a very large frying pan (preferably non-stick– if you’re using not non-stick, use extra butter.), bring the heat up to medium or medium low.  Let melt and move it around so it coats the whole pan.

Add the leeks to the butter.  Stir them around so they get all coated and delightfully buttery and keep stirring occasionally.  Turn the heat down if they start browning too much.  You want them to get translucent and a little golden, but not brown.

Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne.  Mix that all up nice and well, let it cook in for a minute or two, stirring frequently.

Add the grated potato and mix it all up very well until the leeks are fairly evenly distributed.  Turn down heat to as low as you can, cover and let cook 5 minutes, stirring once or twice.  This steaming effect helps cook the potatoes thoroughly.

Turn the heat back up to medium or medium high and turn the potatoes every 30 seconds or so, once they start getting golden on the bottom.  You want to keep turning them so you won’t get burnt bits, just those nice golden bits throughout.

Serve warm.  I like mine with ketchup and/or eggs, but they were good for some starch-on-starch action with the Dutch Babies too.

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We came, we ate, we conquered.   5 dozen eggs, mimosas, and bacon later, everyone was ready for a Sunday nap.  After some tea, I sent them off with more eggs than they knew what to do with in all sorts of bright colors.  I hope no one food coma-ed while the were driving.  What a gorgeous day, in all senses of the word.

Stew > Sleep

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This will be the second or third day of sleep deprivation, I’m not entirely sure.  Last night was due to contemplation about my future, having just received acceptance from one graduate school.  Tonight is the onset of preparation for my annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner party, the celebration of the palest 1/4 of my heritage.  Tonight meant starting the process of an awesome stew to feed at the very least 12 (luckily stew is one of those things that really is better left over, so I can keep it in the fridge for a day or two and reheat it thoroughly).

Tomorrow will be more preparation (making the base for vegetarian cottage pie, prepping vegetables, boiling potatoes, and hitting up the gym so the fact that I may have enjoyed tasting these things and sipping on a beer won’t show in my thighs.  Thursday, of course, is S-day, with moderated debauchery in the form of a massive dinner party (my neighbors have been warned/invited).  Friday I’ll be amazed if I’m still alive.

Granted, I’ve never been to Ireland, but the internet is fabulous place that lets us all reconnect with our past in interesting and often culinary ways.  Here’s my synthesis of how to create a decent Irish lamb stew for 12 people:

Irish Lamb Stew

(for 12)

You’re going to need a very large stock pot for this one.  There aren’t any potatoes, because I usually serve potatoes as a side since it’s an excuse to make champ.

  • 6 lbs leg of lamb (boneless), cut into 2-3″ cubes. Could use lamb stew meat if where you live is fancy enough to carry cheap cuts of lamb.  (I had to drop $35 for the leg…)
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 leek (washed carefully and sliced into 1″ pieces)
  • 6 turnips (2″ dice)
  • 1 parsnip (1″ rounds)
  • 4-6 carrots (1″ rounds)
  • 1 yellow onion (3″ dice)
  • 1 celery root (2″ dice)
  • Frozen peas (1 c)
  • 2 cups pearl barley (optional)

And for the seasoning/sauce:

  • 1-2 c Worcestershire sauce (ok, so I didn’t have any, so I had to use Chinese black vinegar…I’m a horrible person, but it works in a pinch even if it’s a bit thinner.  It’s also vegetarian!)
  • 2/3 c flour
  • 2 bottles of beer (anything will do, as any alcoholic Irish person could tell you)
  • Salt (kosher or sea)
  • Black pepper
  • Thyme
  • Sage
  • Parsley (preferably Italian)
  • Bay leaves
  • 5 or so cloves of garlic (I also threw in a shallot just ’cause)
  • A whole hell of a lot of water
  • Maybe more flour

Cut the lamb into cubes and toss in a bowl with generous amounts of salt & pepper.

Heat up the pot with the butter & vegetable oil until it’s visibly bubbly.  Throw in the lamb cubes.  You’re going to need to stir this a lot and drain off the water about every 5-10 minutes (save this in a pot or bowl!!).  Draining off the water is important, otherwise your meat will never brown.  Keep cooking until the lamb has a nice dark brown color on at least a few sides of each cube.  Remove lamb to a bowl or somewhere, saving fat in the pan.

Add to fat Worcestershire sauce, and the reserved lamb juice that you had drained off.  Use this to deglaze the pan.  Throw in the leeks and cook them until the leeks are nice and soft.   Add in the 2/3 cup of flour, move it around so it absorbs all the juices and creates a roux (a paste-type thing).  Add beer to the roux, stirring frequently.  Taste this and add salt and pepper as needed.  Note that you want this sauce to taste a little more bitter/salty than you would think, because the parsnips, turnips, carrots, and onions all bring a lot of sweetness to the stew.

Now you add the lamb back in, along with the vegetables and spices (thyme, sage, etc.)  Add garlic.  Add a lot of water, enough to cover all of the contents.   This is when I threw in the barley, too.

Let simmer for ever and ever and ever and ever (we’re talking hours here), until there’s noticably less water and it looks like a stew and the meat is tender.  You can add more flour if you need to to thicken the sauce more, but I’d advise whisking it into a paste separately at least with some water, to keep it from making lumps.  A second batch of roux using lard or butter would be better still.

A slow cooker would be great for this, but unfortunately, who really has room to store a slow cooker big enough to hold food for 12 people?