Holiday Food Memories
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We are going to Seattle on Christmas Day to spend the holiday with my sister and her family. My sister is my favorite chef in the whole world. Every Christmas she cooks and we don’t just eat — we dine.
Truffles, oysters on the half shell, foie gras, caviar. She’ll roast a goose or make a Bouche de Noel or Bouillabaisse. And there’s always port and Christmas pudding.
This year we’re having goose on Christmas Day. On New Year’s we’ll be on Orcas Island eating cioppino. And next Sunday night, my sister and I are going to leave the kids with our husbands and go to a dairy farm on Vashon Island for dinner.
To get seated at this dinner (which happens on Sundays at the farm), you have to be invited, and you have to email an essay. This month the question was, “What are your great food memories from the holidays?”
Here is my sister’s essay:
My family and I have been cooking together at Christmas every year for the past 20 years. That’s when we kids were old enough to really take control of the menu and divvy up the responsibilities.
Our tradition is to choose a region every year and cook dishes native to that area, finding the very best ingredients we can to make them, from producers who are as close to the real thing as possible. We have been around the world a couple of times with this custom, but the meals that have been the best for us are those that are connected to other family memories that tie us together.
Ten years ago, for example, with memories of childhood trips to the Russian Tea Room in our heads, we folded wild king salmon into brioche with rice, mushrooms, and dill and sipped vodkas that we had infused with anise seeds, lemons, and peppers.
Another time we visited my sister in California, and feasted on citrus of all types—blood orange, avocado, and spinach salad; buttery Meyer lemon tarts—as well as charcuterie and filets from the brand new Niman Ranch, the filets stuffed with local oysters.
After studying in England one year, we sought out a goose, which we massaged for a day and then roasted and served along with chestnuts, Yorkshire pudding, and poached quinces. This year, we are thinking about the Dordogne, where my grandfather traced our family back to the 16th century before he passed away two years ago. We’re envisioning duck, truffles, rillettes…
No matter what the theme is for the holidays, one thing we always count on for dessert is a steamed pudding. The recipes and fruits involved have varied—persimmon, carrot, chocolate, pumpkin, prunes, figs—as have the ingredients in the hard sauce: ginger, brandy, rum, and vanilla.
But there is something so modest and yet so ceremonial about a steamed pudding that feels just right for Christmas. As the pudding cooks away, covered with a homey muslin cloth tied with a string, and then is brought to the table and unmolded with great flourish, I always struck by the magic of how simple things can be truly special if we believe them to be.
Needless to say, her essay got us in.
By the way, when she writes “we” in the essay, that’s the Royal we. Meaning her.
She is the one who dreamed up and executed the Russian Tea Room salmon brioche and infused vodka, the Meyer lemon tarts, the oyster-stuffed filet mignon.
The rest of us are merely her sous chefs.
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23/12/2008 at 7:24 am Permalink
Ann Marie,
Here’s how out of the gourmet cooking scene I am…I have no idea what most of those foods ARE that you mentioned in your first few paragraphs! But I’m sure I’d love them! (Except for maybe the oysters.)
What an awesome vacation that will be, you deserve to get away and REST! Enjoy your time with the fam.
I’m thankful for our new friendship in 2008!
Kelly
23/12/2008 at 7:36 am Permalink
Thanks, Kelly. I am grateful for your friendship, too.
Hugs and kisses and a very Merry Christmas!
Ann Marie
23/12/2008 at 8:00 am Permalink
PS: Interestingly, all the fancy gourmet foods also happen to be not only very flavorful but also extremely nutrient dense…
Truffles – mushrooms (very high in protein and minerals)
Oysters on the half shell – raw shellfish (extremely high in zinc and B-12; when eaten raw, you get all the enzymes too)
Foie gras – duck or goose liver (rich in fat-soluble vitamins A & D; liver is the most nutrient-dense food)
Caviar – fish eggs (eggs of all kinds are very nutritious; caviar also has a lot of iodine)
Bouche de Noel – traditional French “Yule log” cake made with Genoise (sponge cake) and chocolate buttercream (cream is very nutritious) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouche_de_Noel
Christmas pudding – traditional English custard tart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_pudding
“Although it took its final form in Victorian England, the pudding’s origins can be traced back to the 1420s, to two sources. It emerged not as a confection or a dessert at all, but as a way of preserving meat at the end of the season. Because of shortages of fodder, all surplus livestock were slaughtered in the autumn. The meat was then kept in a pastry case along with dried fruits acting as a preservative. The resultant large “mince pies” could then be used to feed hosts of people, particularly at the festive season. The chief ancestor of the modern pudding, however, was the pottage, a meat and vegetable concoction originating in Roman times. This was prepared in a large cauldron, the ingredients being slow cooked…”
Sweet Christmas pudding is made with dried fruits, nuts, muscovado sugar, eggs, and a lot of butter.
Bouillabaisse – French multi-course fish stew (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouillabaisse)
Cioppino – Italian fish stew (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cioppino)
Since Bouillabaisse and cioppino both have lots of shellfish, they are both very nutrient dense. Shellfish is second in nutrition only to liver.
23/12/2008 at 8:05 am Permalink
I just learned a ton! Thanks for adding all that.
You got me thinking about shellfish. We’ve never been much of a seafood family, but since we’re trying to get more liver in, I guess I should work more of this in to our diets, too.
Question: what are the health concerns with shellfish? Is it like regular fish in that it should be “wild caught”? What else do we need to be careful about when buying, and where is a good place to purchase???
Thanks,
Kelly
23/12/2008 at 11:20 am Permalink
Wow. Cheeseslave’s sister makes me feel grossly inadequate. The fanciest thing I’ve ever made for a family gathering was a flourless chocolate cake with whipped cream and raspberry sauce. Nutrient dense because of all the eggs and butter:) I’m better known for my ugly-but-yummy pies.
I probably don’t have to ask, but please take pictures at the farm! I’m jealous and would like to live vicariously.
23/12/2008 at 11:58 am Permalink
This was so much fun to read. I’m sooo impressed w/ your sister. How fabulous! Spinner…is there a recipe that goes w/ a chocolate flourless cake??
Wow, there’s my friend Kelly, the Kitchen Kop….you two have my 2 favorite sites. Color me happy reading them both!!
Happy Holidays. and your daughter w/ the butter is one fabulous picture.That picture is going to be cherished forever!
Hugs.
Karen in California
23/12/2008 at 1:22 pm Permalink
Kelly -
Nina Planck covers this topic exhaustively in her book “Real Food”. She has a whole chapter on seafood and she discusses which fish must be wild, which can be farmed, and so forth.
I know salmon and shrimp must be wild. If it doesn’t say “wild”, you should not buy it.
Oysters and mussels can be farmed I think but you of course need to know where they come from.
I get my oysters, mussels & clams here locally at the farmer’s market from Carlsbad Aqua Farm (http://www.carlsbadaquafarm.com/).
You can often find good seafood at Whole Foods — just ask them where it comes from. They will even shuck the oysters for you — at least they do at my Whole Foods.
While they are good at Whole Foods, the oysters are not quite as fresh as they are at the famer’s market. At the farmer’s market, they’ve brought them in that day.
You can also order from Vital Choice. http://www.vitalchoice.com/ You can trust everything they sell. Vital Choice is more expensive but it’s really worth it. It tastes SO MUCH better.
I always buy fish frozen (except for the clams, mussels & oysters I get from Carlsbad). I think that’s the freshest way to buy fish if you can’t get it at the farmer’s market — since they often freeze it right on the boat.
23/12/2008 at 2:35 pm Permalink
good luck getting to seattle, we have family stuck in airports trying to get to portland.
24/12/2008 at 6:26 am Permalink
Rita –
Luckily we aren’t leaving till Christmas Day.
Hopefully the snow will melt some by then… I just checked the forecast; it’s still snowing but the temp is steadily going up: a high of 36 degrees today and 38 degrees tomorrow.
24/12/2008 at 12:50 pm Permalink
Karen,
The recipe I used for the flourless chocoloate cake is from the All Recipes site, http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Flourless-Chocolate-Cake-I/Detail.aspx. Definitely serve it a little warm. It is not good cold. The next time I make it, I’m going to make it in individual ramekins instead of one big cake.
Cheeseslave,
Thanks for all the info on how to buy seafood! I’m running out of excuses for not buying any.
24/12/2008 at 1:48 pm Permalink
I can tell you it’s still snowing in Portland
I’m dreaming of a grey christmas… I’m sick of being snowbound 
Julia Child says she expect three to four CUPS of fat off a goose…. I can’t wait! 
I’ll letcha know how goosey-gander turns out. I can’t wait to hear about your trip to the farm.
I got a Christmas goose this year! I’m so excited. I probably won’t cook him until the weekend after new years because I can’t get anyone to my house – thank’s snow!
24/12/2008 at 8:04 pm Permalink
MMMM goose fat! I hadn’t thought about that. I will have to make sure my sister saves the goose fat.
Merry Christmas, Alyss!
26/12/2008 at 8:48 am Permalink
Don’t forget to blog about the farm dinner! Happy holidays.
26/12/2008 at 1:28 pm Permalink
I hope you made it, Ann Marie! We barely got out of Portland on our way to the coast. That farm sounds amazing, by the way. Do tell us about it, when you get back.
27/12/2008 at 6:09 am Permalink
Your cool fridge looks like ours (x 2)