December 31, 2010

New Year's Eve

Over the years, New Year's Eve has become more special to me than Christmas. Despite growing families, moves out of the city and the general changes that happen over fifteen years of friendship, we've a pretty great track record of ringing in the new year with four of our very favorite people.

Following is our food diary of 12/31/10. It's gluttonous. Don't judge.

We started slowly with some cheese, sausage and flax seed corn chips and crackers. Some truffle pate made an appearance. And then we moved things along with some heart-stopping (almost literally) artichoke dip made entirely of canned products (Bake at 350 for 30 minutes 2 cans artichokes, drained, 1 cup parmesan cheese, 1 cup mayonaise. Mix and top with bread crumbs and pats of butter).

Before settling in for the evening, we headed a mile up the road for a quick skate before the sun went down. The boys, armed with shovels and brooms (some larger than others), cleaned off a lovely patch of ice. The ladies did a quick spin, left some libations in the snow and headed home.

The Eating Begins

Course One

First course was a late lunch of BBQB's brisket. He'd promised mini brisket sandwiches, but here's the pic. Not small by any stretch. Not that anyone was complaining as the sandwiches and a nice jar of Rick's Picks Smokra were devoured.

Course Two

Next up were Lobster, Cilantro and Jalapeno dumplings. I was downplaying these because my experiments that morning with wonton wrappers as well as rice wrappers yielded a gritty, disappointing dumpling. But not wanting to waste all that lobster (and the work cleaning it), I prepped them with the regular wonton wrappers. Before serving, I decided to boil the dumplings pre-pan fry. Wow! What a diff. Recipe here.

Course Three

I'd intended to serve an amuse of soup. But that amuse turned into a teacup's worth of Garlic Soup with Ni-tamago. Although loaded with 24 cloves of garlic, this soup yielded a mild flavor and none of the harsh aftertaste you might expect. Be sure to blend the soup well to a nice froth. A homemade chicken stock is not essential, but adds a not insignificant flavor to this very simple soup. House favorite!

Course Four

BBQB prepared the dough (via Jim Lahey) the night before so we could have a nice rosemary, smoked salt boule. Since the oven was occupied, he decided to BBQ (naturally!) the bread. Not accounting for the concentration of heat coming from below, the bottom half of the loaf burnt. It was a beautiful, but sad burn. But that top half was near perfection.

Some of the lightweights took a breather with some coffee.

Course Five

JK wanted to resurrect our oldie but goodie NYE tradition of meat fondue. A couple pounds of nice tenderloin, cubed, and a few of mom's favorite sauces from the 70's. I added a Korean pepper sauce, just to bring it up to 2010.

The Main Event: Srirachia and Soy Glazed Roast Duck with Pomegranate Garlic Sauce, topped with fresh cilantro and mint, wrapped in Dutch Duck Baby pancakes

Despite my minor fear of poultry, I had it in my mind to roast a duck. It's not that far-fetched, as I've been getting pretty acquainted with chicken as I've been making chicken stock most weekends for various food projects.

Using my own glaze and dipping sauce recipe, and improvising on Hungry Mouse's wonderful tutorial on roasting a whole duck, everything turned out just, well, you know.....

I served the duck with butter and lemon sauteed oyster mushrooms (1.25 lbs oyster mushrooms and .75 lbs creminis, chopped and sauteed in with butter and topped with loads of fresh lemon juice.)

We made some gorgeous duck french fries from all the rendered fat.

Greens by way of an arugula, pomegranate, grapefruit and snap pea salad.

Dessert

The menu was a little intense, but with plenty of wine, champagne and fancy beer to wash it down, we barely batted a lash when 12:15am 2011 happened and we were digging in to Lori's burger-sized homemade oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwiches and a plate of Whole Wheat Cacao Cookies (WWCC) made from this Orangette recipe.

We ended the night with a muscat in my dainty Rosenthal crystal.

This, our fourth year celebrating at MH, was one of my favorites. Despite all the courses, it was a lovely, mellow, unhurried day. Extravagant eating. Indulgent drinking. A bit of fresh air. And fun with friends all day and all night.

Bonjour 2011!