Christmas Eve Gathering Dinner Menu

Dinner Menu

Bokchoy with Shiitake and Tomatoes - L

European-style Bread

Hummus

Cannellini Beans with Garlic and Sage

Turkish Chickpeas with Spinach

Fresh Green Peas with Pearl Onions and Mint- L

Miniature Potatoes with Basil Pesto - DL

Normandy Brie Cheese with Gorgonzola Crackers - D

Tossed Field Greens Salad - L

Blueberries with Ripe Papaya

Mango Granita - L

Vegetable Shell Clear Soup with Crusty Focaccia

This came about tonight when I came home from writing at Panera Bread and wanted something hot to accompany a chunk of focaccia toasted topped with Provolone and Parmesan. In vegetabler oil, I sautéed chopped yellow onion with cubed fresh ginger, then added quarters of winter melon 1/8 inch thick and shell pasta. When the melon is completely covered with oil and beginning to turn translucent, I added strips of kale or mustard green, broccoli flowerets, and stringed snow peas, sprinkled half a teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice mix and cooked for a minute or so. I added hot vegetable stock, covered and simmered for 12 minutes or until pasta is al dente. Served garnished with Italian parsley sprig, with a side of toasted focaccia. I know. This is an international mongrel of a supper!

Red Beans with Ginger, Cardamom and Cinnamon

I've been cooking more beans lately, getting back into a healthier pattern of eating. The recipe is called "Rajma" in Rolli & Janssen's Indian Vegetarian Menu Planner, 2010. It called for both green and black cardamom and ginger powder. I didn't have black cardamom (badi elaichi) so I felt free to modify the recipe. I sliced fresh ginger, sautéed that in canola oil (Kevin Logan says the chemical used to extract the oil is unhealthy but I don't use canola often anyway) with crumbled Chinese hot chili peppers, cardamom, and cinnamon stick that broke into pieces. I added the hot boiled beans, turmeric, more chili and ginger powder, and salt. I also added cubed Roma tomatoes and zucchini and the juice of half a lime, simmered the stew until the beans were really tender (I don't like my beans to still be crunchy), and the sauce had thickened. Wonderful on rice. The recipe did not call for sautéing the spices but I find heating them in oil brings out their essential oils and aroma. It called for the addition of butter just before serving, which I omitted because I had already used oil.

Chicken Asparagus a la Ollie's at Times Square

My sister used to enjoy this dish at a small Chinese restaurant on 47th Street, just steps away from Times Square. It has since closed and the new incarnation on 42nd Street is not the same. I've wanted to duplicate the recipe at home and when I found myself with chicken breast looking for a recipe today that's what I did. To my surprise the dish, but cooked with shrimp rather than chicken breast, was in Irene Kuo's 1977 book, The Key to Chinese Cooking, one of my first "bibles" in Chinese cooking. I heavily modified the recipe to use with chicken but basically used the ingredients she recommended, except that I substituted chicken breast for the shrimp.

Slice half a chicken breast into 3/4 inch chunks and set aside. Snap off tough ends of 12 asparagus stalks and cut into 2-inch lengths. Chop two quarter-sized, peeled ginger, mince one peeled garlic segment, chop 1 Tb. scallion, green part. Now, heat wok over high heat. Pour in 1 Tb. of canola oil and when hot quickly stirfry garlic and ginger, careful not to burn them. Throw in chicken and cook until inside is no longer pink, about 1 1/2 minutes. Take out chicken and set aside. In remaining oil, add asparagus, 1/4 C. hot water, 1/2 Tb. crumbled Chinese dried hot peppers, a pinch of sugar, soy sauce (light would give nicer appearance, closer to what we had in NYC) and black pepper to taste. Cover and cook for a minute. Throw chicken back in, remove from heat. Mix in 3/4 Tb. sesame oil, top with chopped scallions and serve with rice. I like to sop up the juices in the wok with rice, throw in chopped scallions, for quick fried rice.

Chicken Salad on Toasted French Bread

This is a twist on your ordinary chicken salad. Parboil half a skinless chicken breast till just cooked through. (You may parboil with slivers of scallion, carrots, celery and thyme sprig for added flavor, but plain water is fine.) Cool and cut into 3/4 inch chunks. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Brown a fourth of a cup of whole almonds with skin on, careful not to burn the nuts, take out and set aside. Sauté 1 Tb. chopped yellow onion, 2 Tb. (I like celery and you may not) chunky celery, until just cooked but still crispy. Add chicken and cook over high heat quickly until tinged with gold. Throw in raisins (golden raisins would be prettier), almonds and season with salt and pepper. Cool, mix in mayonnaise and sour cream to taste. Mound on toasted French bread sliced open but still attached and serve immediately with rice dolmades, grape tomatoes and a sprig of Italian parsley from the garden for a lunch or light supper treat!

Lamb Paella

Every time we've visited Spain I'd stock up on saffron but back in the U.S. I'd hoard the precious dried stamens because they're so expensive here to buy. Well, that's over. The future is now!

Traditionally paella is cooked starting with raw short-grain Spanish rice. My version is simpler and I think just as tasty. I cook Japanese botan rice in a rice cooker! This is the height of heresy but with this technique I can have paella in 20 minutes instead of an hour.

I cool the rice. For this recipe I also had sautéed the lamb chunks beforehand. When it was time to cook tonight—I got home from the gym at 9:30 pm—I prepared the other ingredients. I soaked the saffron threads in hot water then minced garlic, chopped shallots, diced Roma tomatoes, large-diced yellow pepper, minced fresh rosemary, diced pepperoni (instead of chorizo) and I was ready to cook. I heated olive oil in a Dutch oven on my brand-new Kenmore smooth-top stove and gradually cooked the ingredients starting with the garlic and shallots. I added the yellow pepper and rosemary last. I decided not to use white wine and instead added a little chicken stock after I mixed in the cold rice. I lowered the heat, covered the pot for ten minutes and the paella was ready! It was delicious.

Prosciutto and Peach

Peaches are on sale, not as juicy as those we picked in Fennville, MI last summer but when ripened in a brown-paper sack they're delicious enough. Especially with thin slices of prosciutto with Dijon mustard on baguette, and intensely flavored Greek oil-cured olives!