A HOMEMADE, NEW YEAR'S EVE FEAST - GREATEST HITS (12/31/08) - Polenta Cups, Fig Crostini, Brussel Sprout Hash, and Celeriac Soup

It may have been foolish to start a close-to-daily blog right before the holiday season, even if the subject matter is food. Irregular schedules and lack of time in front of a computer tend to get in the way of regular upkeep. But with the new year comes a renewed commitment to this hobby. Future posts will also begin incorporating a theme that is always prevalent at the beginning of a new year – healthy eating – because boy do I need it. That topic, however, must be delayed for the moment, as I must report on the feast of New Year’s Eve.

This year, J and I found ourselves hosts of the annual New Year celebration of my college friends. Though smaller this year than in years past due to babies (welcome Caroline!), “temporary” relocations (Scott and Adina, you’d better come back!) and unfortunate work schedules (hope it was a good one Brett!), we still had 14 people coming to dinner at my apartment. My friends like to cook, so we had arranged this as something of a pot-luck. And it turned out to be quite a feast! Pete and Lisa made some amazing, spicy jalapeño shrimp as well as some chocolate/rum balls. Ian and Ellen brought a wonderful puffed pastry appetizer, a fantastic (truly) salmon dip and a homemade cheesecake. Sarah and Tom made tabouli and a refreshing citrus green bean salad. Gary and Brooke brought the green salad as well as a number of desserts, including a Barefoot Contessa-inspired “bark” with candied ginger. Vi and Laura made a wonderfully-cheesy shepherd’s pie. And Ron and Liza made some of the biggest cookies I’ve ever seen!

At any reasonable gathering, this would have been more than enough food. But J and I decided to take on a very ambitious challenge, opting to put together an additional ten dishes from scratch. We had homemade gyozas and quail eggs dredged in coriander. There were fig crostini and polenta cups filled with both braised beef and spinach. We put together a celeriac soup topped with crispy bacon, brussel sprout hash, Greek risotto and a strawberry sorbet with sweet balsamic sauce. And we roasted an eight-pound porcini-crusted beef tenderloin over fennel and potatoes. That no one lapsed into a diabetic coma or developed severe gout is both surprising and lucky!

Pulling off this stupidly-immense feast was an exercise in stamina. It took us 16 hours over the course of two days to complete the final products, including a 13-hour marathon on New Year’s Eve day. Having never worked in the food industry, I won’t pretend to compare what we did to the absolute crush that line cooks and chefs must endure day in and day out. But, for us amateurs, it was hard - and I loved every second of it. I was braising beef at 8:00 in the morning, cutting sheets of polenta into countless cylinders at noon, and dabbling into molecular gastronomy on and off all day (my strawberry spheres failed to materialize, so J saved us with the idea for sorbet). We ground porcini mushrooms in a coffee maker, peeled about 60 quail eggs, made gyoza wrappers from scratch using a tortilla press and toasted our own coriander!

Not all of what came out of our kitchen was great. The risotto lost its creaminess when we made the mistake of making it in the early afternoon and then having to chill and reheat it before serving. The gyozas weren’t as good as the last time we made them, I think in large part because we let the dough for the wrappers sit for a while before we could turn to them. The beef was good, but not out of this world – 10 fewer minutes in the oven would have done the trick. But a few stars did emerge, and for those I will share the recipes.

POLENTA CUPS WITH BRAISED BEEF

I got this recipe from foodchannel.com, and it worked out exactly as I had hoped. I braised the beef in my new le cruset dutch oven, and it came out moist and tender. The polenta cups were flavorful and really unique. I only wish I had been able to eat a few more of them instead of staying in the kitchen working on the next dish!!!

Ingredients:
8 cups chicken stock
2 cups polenta
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 pounds boneless beef chuck-eye roast, cut in 3″ cubes
1/2 cup shallots, minced
2 tablespoons garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 cups beef stock or broth
3/4 cup red wine
1 teaspoon fish sauce (optional)
1/2 tablespoon whole black peppercorns, crushed
5 thyme sprigs
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

Preparation:
- Bring chicken stock to a simmer. Whisk in polenta.
- Cook for 30 minutes or until tender, whisking frequently. Add butter.
- Line a deep-rimmed baking sheet with wax paper. Pour polenta onto tray and spread evenly to 1” thick. Allow to cool at room temperature; transfer to refrigerator and chill for a minimum of two hours.
- Remove polenta from the refrigerator when completely chilled and firm. Cut circles into the polenta using a 1” cookie cutter. Scoop out the centers of each polenta circle with a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon, taking care not to make a hole in the bottom of the circle. Polenta cups may be prepared up to 2 days in advance at this point.
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Season beef with salt and pepper to taste.
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
- Add meat to pot, searing on all sides until dark brown. Remove meat from pot.
- Add shallots and garlic to the Dutch oven. If necessary add remaining oil. Sweat for 5 minutes.
- Add tomato paste and cook until paste becomes fragrant and dark red, approximately 3 minutes.
- Reduce heat to low and add flour.
- Whisk in beef stock, breaking up any lumps. Add wine and fish sauce. Simmer over low heat until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Add the reserved beef to the sauce and bring to a boil. Cover and place in oven. Cook until tender, about 1½ hours. (Sauce should continue to be at a light simmer while in the oven. If the sauce stops simmering bring it back to a simmer on the stove top and return to the oven.)
- Remove the beef from the sauce, cover and reserve.
- Strain sauce through a fine mesh strainer and reserve.
- Shred beef while warm, discarding any pieces of fat. Toss shredded beef with some of the reserved sauce to coat. Reserve warm.
- Warm polenta cups in a 250°F and fill with shredded beef.

WINE-SOAKED FIG CROSTINI WITH PROSCIUTTO

We were planning on doing a pear and gorgonzola ravioli, but we just didn’t have the time. Instead of wasting the ricotta that was to be used with the filling, we decided to do something a little less involved, and I think this ended up being my favorite dish. It’s a Dave Lieberman recipe (MOT alert!!!). Sweet and tangy from the balsamic reduction and smoky from the prosciutto, this dish was easy to prepare and fantastic to eat. Fourteen people went through almost two loaves of French bread in this incarnation.


Ingredients:
1 pint (about 15 to 20) dried figs, preferably Calimyrna
2 cups full-bodied red wine
1 demi-baguette (or half a regular baguette)
1 cup whole milk ricotta
1/4 pound prosciutto
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Preparation:
- Using a small knife, trim the stems off the figs and cut the figs in half lengthwise.
- Place the figs and the wine in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, and simmer about 20 minutes until figs have absorbed most of the wine and they are tender and fat. Remove figs with a slotted spoon to a bowl and reserve for later. Some reduced wine should remain for sauce; return wine to medium heat and simmer again until reduced by half and a syrupy liquid remains. Let cool slightly.
- Slice demi-baguette into 1/2-inch slices. Lay the bread slices on a baking sheet and toast lightly in the oven, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
- Spread a tablespoon of ricotta on each crostini then lay a small piece of prosciutto on top of the cheese. Place fig halves on top of the meat and finish by drizzling the remaining reduced wine on top of the figs. (I replaced the wine reduction with a balsamic reduction, just simmering about two cups of vinegar over low heat until it had reduced by about ½ and had become sweet and thick.)
- Serve immediately.

BRUSSEL SPROUT HASH

Unfortunately, I’ve got no pictures of this one, but you’ll have to trust me. I’ve converted a number of people who swore they detested brussel spouts using this dish. I believe this was a Bon Appetite recipe, but I’m not sure. When prepared properly, the sprouts retain that amazing green color, and the bitterness cited by so many as the reason for their dislike is replaced by the sweetness of caramelized shallots and the tanginess of apple-cider vinegar.

Ingredients:
6 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 lbs brussel sprouts, shredded (cut in ½ and then cut lengthwise in 1/8 inch strips)
1/2 lb shallots thinly sliced
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
4 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
- Melt 3 Tbsp butter over medium heat.
- Add shallots, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Sauté until golden, about 10 minutes.
- Add vinegar and sugar, and brown for another 3 minutes. Then remove shallots from the pan.
- In the same pan, heat oil over medium high heat and add the shredded sprouts.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Sauté until brown at bases – about six minutes.
- Add 1 cup water and 3 Tbsp butter, and sauté until water evaporates--3 minutes.
- Add the shallots back in, toss and serve immediately.

CELERIAC SOUP

I had never worked with celeriac (celery root) before, but it is not very intimidating. Just like pretty much any root vegetable, once you get past the tough, ugly skin, the inside becomes very easy to work with and very difficult to screw up. We served this in small glasses, topped with crispy bacon, and it looked quite elegant. But I can definitely see making this soup in the depths of winter and making a Sunday afternoon very warm and cozy. This recipe comes from the cooksister.com site. Ingredients:
1 celeriac (about 1kg), peeled and chopped
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped (or half and half onion and leek)
1 potato, peeled and cubed
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
750 ml chicken stock
100ml single cream (or milk)
50g butter
salt and pepper
2 thick cut slices of smoked bacon

Preparation:
- Prepare the celeriac first and place the peeled pieces in a bowl of water to which you've added a couple of tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice to keep the root from turning brown.
- Heat the butter in a large saucepan and add all the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and then allow to cook gently for about 10 minutes until they are just starting to soften.
- Add the stock, bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and allow the soup to simmer for about 25 minutes.
- Cut up the bacon into thin strips not more than 1 inch long. Heat a frying pan and toss them in - they should render enough fat that you don't need to add oil to cook them. Fry over high heat until the bacon pieces are starting to look crisp and golden around the edges. Remove and drain on paper towels.
- Check if the celeriac is tender enough to mash - if so, remove from the heat and liquidise the mixture. Return to the heat and stir in the cream or milk. Check for consistency (add more milk if the soup is too thick) and season to taste.
- Garnish each serving with a couple of bacon crisps and serve immediately.

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So there you have it. These were my favorite dishes of the ones that J and I prepared. I’d love to put some of the recipes for the food others brought up here, so if any of you are reading, feel free to post. Happy New Year!!!