Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Dinner 2009

Tonight was Christmas dinner, so we had L's family over. To save time I started prepping things yesterday.

The first dish I prepared was a sicilian sweet and sour butternut squash, which was butternut squash, shiitake and grape tomatoes, drizzled with rosemary and garlic infused extra virgin olive oil, then roasted. The dressing was red wine vinegar sweetened with some sugar and drizzled over the top.

Next I braised some shortribs in herbs and vegetable stock, then refrigerated them til today.

This afternoon I resumed cooking, and started by heating the spiral sliced ham in the oven. While heating the ham, I prepared the celery sopressata salad, which also has basil, lemon juice and olive oil.

Next I made a festive Waldorf salad with Fuji and granny smith apples (for the Christmas colors), toasted walnuts, celery, flat leaf parsley and cranberry raisins, with a yogurt mayo honey dressing.

After that I took the shortribs and did a light au jus dip breadcrumb crust. I broiled the shortribs to brown the breadcrumbs, which was a deviation from my original plan to do deviled shortribs (there were too many sweet items on the menu).At the last minute, I ended up doing a honey dijon mayo sauce, but as it was on the side, the sweetness was optional. It had a vaguely horseradish flavor so I thought it worked well with the beef.

Next I heated the wok, coated the opakapaka with cornstarch and salt, then deep fried. The sauce was a sweet and sour sauce.

Last we added some 'nalo greens, and L's aunty brought pasta salad. The dinner was close to being a little too sweet, but optional sauces countered that.

Though everyone was told to come at 5:30, people showed up as early as 4:15, so we scrambled to finish things up. That's partially why the salads were last on the buffet line. But it ended up working out fine. Can't wait to come up with next year's dinner!!

Fried opakapaka (snapper) with sweet sour sauce


Braised shortribs with honey mustard sauce, sicilian sweet and sour butternut squash, spiral sliced ham

Nalo greens, waldorf salad with craisins, celery sopressata salad, pasta salad

2 comments:

sdwcc said...

Whoa, DMSC! Gourmet action. I am impressed. Your aka moniker - "Morimoto" is deserved. Ohhwewynicepwesuntasun, rookurikewerymuchuumami!

The Death Metal Soccer Coach said...

SankWehrMuchForComment. SomeFoodBurndAndDryButTasteOkay.