Christmas Meatballs
The history of Christmas meatballs is tied to the Swedish dish Köttbullar, which some sources trace back to King Charles XII bringing the recipe from the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century. While meatballs have ancient roots, the specific tradition of serving them on the Swedish Christmas julbord is a relatively modern development, gaining prominence around the 1970s. They are great and festive for Christmas parties and hold well for a period of time in a chafing dish. They also can be made ahead of time and frozen….I can tell you I always have them in my freezer! My version is made with both ground beef and pecan wood smoked bacon, spices, Parmesan cheese and a dab or two of my famous and smokey Chipotle Ketchup. They are then cast-iron skillet roasted with a sweet, tangy and spicy sauce made with cranberries, chipotle chiles, red wine vinegar and beef broth. They are addictive and always one of the first dishes to disappear on my buffet table!
Duck Liver Mousse
I am following up with my duck theme for the month of December. This will be somewhat controversial, but I love Foie Gras. When I owned French 75 in Laguna Beach it was one of the most popular appetizers on the menu. It was pan seared briefly and served atop cinnamon French toast with a pan sauce of maple syrup, shallots and the render fat and garnished with Prosciutto crisps and raspberries…decadent and truth be told, I’ve made it for myself for breakfast! But alas, California banned the sale of it several years ago so I was driven to find a replacement in order to get my duck liver fix. When visiting Paris, I so that many of the Bistros served a simple duck liver pate so I decided I’d like to come up with an elevated version of this. I decided it should be a baked mousse. I must have made a dozen versions of it before I hit the right ratio of brandy, cream, egg yolks, liver and butter. All the ingredients are blended together, finely strained, then lightly baked in individual molds that are then chilled and topped with a blackberry gelee and served with sourdough bread that is fire grilled to order and a little mound of Hawaiian pink salt and some fresh blackberries….enough to share for two…it’s good enough to not make me miss Foie Gras…..(almost)!
Christmas Duck
My early days of cooking were filled with my fascination of all things French and one of the country’s favorite holiday dishes involved duck prepared in one fashion or another. I love duck served in any fashion still to this day. It is a rich and flavorful bird that can served with various sweet and fruity sauces served with traditional holiday sides. In fact, many French, Danish and German families traditional eat duck for Christmas Eve or Day. All this month we are serving a half of roasted duck at both Taverns for dinner. It is slow roasted which renders the ample amount of fat that the bird has, resulting in meltingly soft and moist meat with a thin crispy flavorful skin….my favorite part? And you can use the resulting rendered fat to add extra flavor to roasted Brussels Sprouts or potatoes. We are serving it a cornbread stuffing that I have made every Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember. I developed it based upon an original Jame’s Beard recipe which is studded with pine nuts, apples and sun-dried cranberries. Being a Michigan native, I had to serve with a brandied cherry sauce as Michigan is known as the ‘Cherry Capital of the World’. It is the perfect compliment to the rich bird. I invite you to come in and enjoy this delicacy for dinner at either location throughout this month!
Streuselkuchen
I’m not a big dessert guy but I do love pumpkin and during December we are offering a dessert that’s a play on a German classic streusel topped pastry with pumpkin and pecan. I love it as a sweet Brunch starter, served hot or cold, but it also makes a great dessert warmed and served with ice cream and caramel sauce. It’s like a pumpkin pie on the bottom covered with a crunch cinnamon-pecan streusel on top. This is a no-brainer pumpkin dessert that simply rocks. Available at lunch, dinner and Brunch!
Coq au Vin
When I opened my first restaurant PAVE in Corona Del Mar in the early 80’s it was in the midst of my early fascination with French cuisine. After that I moved on to dabble in Southwestern (El Torito Grille & Kachina) American (Bistro 201) and Italian (Sorrento Grille) Years later my love affair with French food surfaced again with the opening of French 75 in Laguna Beach but, while the menu did include some haute cuisine delicacies such as Foie Gras and Chocolate Souffle, most of what I served were classic French Bistro dishes, albeit with a little flair. These dishes were what were considered comfort food in France, so I guess I always have been partial to simple, robust and rustic comfort foods no matter what their ethnic origin. As the weather starts to turn chilly I’ll be making some of these one pot stews, and while this dish might not seem likely to show up at Tavern at the Mission, it should as it’s one of my winter favorites….the iconic ‘Coq au Vin’. The literal translation is ‘chicken cooked in wine’ but there is much more than wine that goes into the making of this rich dish that delivers multiple layers of flavor. The original French version is typically made with whole frying chickens cut into pieces but given the aversion to having to deal with bones by many, along with the unequal cook times for different parts of the bird, I use boneless, skinless chicken thighs. When I cook any chicken dish, this cut is always my favorite since it includes some extra fat (fat=flavor) that breasts do not have. The fat cooks out in the process, so you are left with very lean and moist chicken meat but the small amount of rendered fat adds so much to the flavor of the finished dish. Also, the thighs continue to become more tender the longer they are cooked in contrast to breasts which can become tough and dry.
