New Year's Eve 2020

Another 2020 holiday - you know the deal, we spent it by ourselves but had a lot of fun cooking and watching the annual Phish concert. On to the pics!

For the main item on the menu, we settled on a traditional standing rib roast, which Leah's family normally eats on Christmas day. I was already leaning toward this idea when I saw Alton Brown's timely post for his recipe, which cinched it due to the inclusion of Yorkshire pudding.

Step one entailed air-drying the roast for a week in the refrigerator, before seasoning and placing into a 250F oven until the internal temperature reached 118F, which was about 2 1/2 hours. 

Once the roast was cooked through, we pulled it out to rest. In the meantime we got to work on the Yorkshire pudding, using the roast drippings and rendered beef fat in both the batter and the pan. This conveniently baked for the same duration that the roast rested. 

While all that was going on, I prepared the ingredients for our other side dish, a classic Caesar salad. Not much work here, just some lettuce prep, dressing making, and crouton baking. 

When the Yorkshire pudding was finished, we pulled it out and set it aside, then returned the rested roast to the oven, cranked up the heat to 550F, and blasted it for ten minutes to sear the outside. This method worked absolutely perfectly, yielding a delicious brown crust. The best part is that since the roast was already cooked through internally and had sat for 30 minutes, it required no further resting - we were able to go straight from the oven to slicing, so we each got a hot, crisp piece. Thanks Alton! 

The only downside was the massive amount of smoke that filled our apartment...

Walter Gibson

Old Home Distillers Gin

Tito's Vodka

Old Home Distillers Applejack

Dolin Dry Vermouth

Cocchi Americano

Simple Syrup

Cocktail Onions

I previously mixed this same cocktail on Christmas Eve. The recipe came courtesy of the NoMad Bar, where Leah and I enjoyed the drink back on New Year's Eve in 2017, but since theirs has a few esoteric ingredients (like pineapple gomme), I had to make some substitutions, listed above. 

Caesar Salad

Romaine

Homemade Caesar Dressing

Sourdough Croutons

Pecorino Romano

Standing Rib Roast

Yorkshire Pudding

Horseradish-Chive Cream

Happy wife, happy life

A shot of our beautiful New Year's Eve spread - I think we did a pretty good job! 

Bûche de Noël

Tequila-Soaked Sponge

Coffee Buttercream Filling

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Cold Brew Coffee w/ Frangelico

We ate the last two slices of Bûche de Noël for dessert, along with a cold glass of strong coffee with booze - a great end to a great meal!

And of course it wouldn't be New Year's Eve without a champagne toast, although we opened ours around 8pm when the Phish show started rather than at midnight. I can't remember what we actually drank - it was a bottle that had been sitting unopened in our fridge for months, likely something a friend brought over earlier in the year.

Either way, a great end to a not so great year!

Christmas 2020

As with Thanksgiving, we spent Christmas solo this year. Though we missed our families, it was also an opportunity to plan our own meals, which turned out to be a lot of fun. 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Cookies

A huge pre-holiday care package of Christmas Cookies from my mom!

Pre-Dinner Cocktails

Left - Walter Gibson

Right - Manhattan

Fritto Misto

Fried Calamari, Shrimp, and Scallops

Marinara Sauce & Anchovy-Caper Mayo

Fish on Christmas Eve is a big deal for my family, which spent many years doing the traditional southern Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes. Leah and I of course didn't prepare all seven, but we managed to get four in (though the anchovies are more of a technical inclusion). I loved the next course but would have also been perfectly happy eating fried fish all night. 

Poached Salmon

Hollandaise

Fried Skin

Herb-Buttered Potatoes

Peas

For the main course we observed Leah's family's tradition of eating poached salmon with Hollandaise sauce. Since we already had the deep fryer out from preparing the fried fish appetizer, we blasted the salmon skin and made some delicious chips to go along with the meal. 

Bûche de Noël

Tequila-Soaked Sponge

Coffee Buttercream Filling

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Another pickup from Leah's family, and one of my all-time favorite desserts. Though we used Leah's mom's recipe, we customized the flavors to our liking, which was fun to brainstorm. We ultimately settled on tequila, coffee, and chocolate, which was a delicious combination. Leah expertly rolled the cake without any tearing, showing those chumps on the Great British Baking Show how it's done. We enjoyed eating this dessert for about a week after the holiday - our slices became progressively larger as we made our way through the log. 

Christmas Day

Fried Fish "Kaftero"

For lunch on Christmas Day we heated up the remaining fried fish in a dry non-stick skillet, which did a decent job at re-crisping it all. I remembered serving (and eating) a delicious dish at the Tenafly Diner, where I worked years ago, called Calamari Kaftero - they would drop calamari straight from the fryer into a hot pan along with chilies and lemon. We tried a similar version here, adding pickled jalapeños, chili flakes, and capers. It was a fantastic way to eat the leftovers. 

Lasagna

Homemade Pasta

Bolognese, Béchamel, & Marinara Sauces

Pecorino Romano

Lasagna is my family's Christmas Day dish, and one of my favorite things in the world - it would probably be my deathbed meal. Our lasagna is Neapolitan, meaning it has a lot of "fancy" stuff in it - tiny meatballs, two types of sausage, bits of salami, finely diced hardboiled egg, multiple cheeses, and "gravy" (marinara sauce flavored with meat). It's pretty over-the-top and eats like a brick, in the best way possible.

On my own though, I like to make a different type of lasagna from northern Italy using thin sheets of homemade pasta layered with small amounts of Bolognese and béchamel sauces and a bit of grated cheese (here I also added marinara sauce, which is untraditional). 

I had originally planned on baking this using the free-standing method developed by Mark Ladner for his famous 100-layer lasagne at Del Posto. However I screwed up the pasta dough somehow (I think I over-kneaded) and it became too tough to properly roll out, leaving me with only about a quarter batch of usable pasta for all my work. It wasn't a total loss though, as there was enough to bake one small lasagna which was plenty to share for one meal.

As they serve it at Del Posto, we lightly baked the lasagna in advance, then refrigerated it until ready to eat. At meal time, we cut thick slices and seared them in butter on one side in a hot pan, creating a delicious crispy crust that contrasts with the almost creamy inner pasta layers. Served over warm marinara sauce and topped with a bit more grated cheese, it was heavenly. Though it if were my last meal, I'd still probably want my mom's lasagna. 

Turkey Soup

Just a couple quick pics of the turkey stock and soup I made with our leftover Thanksgiving bird. Stock made with the turkey carcass, onions, garlic, celery, carrots, parsley, thyme, rosemary, salt, and peppercorns. For the soup itself, we used the picked turkey carcass meat, carrots, onions, parsley, and egg noodles. Honestly, way more delicious than the turkey by itself!

Thanksgiving 2020

It was a small and somewhat lonely Thanksgiving this year, but one silver lining was that for the first time in our lives, Leah and I got to plan and cook our own meal, which was pretty fun. 

Turkey

Brined, Spatchcocked, Air-Dried, and Roasted w/ Butter and Herbs

We got an 11 lb. turkey, which was the smallest we could find. I had always wanted to try spatchcocking a turkey, so after a day in a salt and brown sugar brine, and two more days air-drying in the fridge (to yield crispier skin), I cut the backbone out of the bird and pushed down on the breast to break the ribs, thus laying it out flat. Next we slathered it in herb (thyme, rosemary, and sage) butter and roasted in the oven: 20 minutes at 450F and then about another 45 minutes at 350F until it reached 165F internal temp using a probe thermometer. 

After resting it for 30 minutes I carved the bird - it came out perfectly (at least, as perfectly as turkey can be - it's always a little dry and gamey). While I love dark meat on chicken, I'm just not crazy about it on turkey, so next time I'd honestly rather just roast a bone-in double breast rather than spatchcocking a whole bird, though I do think the spatchcock method results in the most evenly cooked turkey I've ever had. 

Critz Farms - Rippleton Original

We poured ourselves a glass (or two) of dry, champagne-style cider, which we drank as we worked. 

Gravy

For me, a good gravy is just as important as a well-cooked turkey. In the same roasting pan, we cooked the backbone, neck, and giblets (we picked out and ate the delicious liver as soon as it was done) along with onions, garlic, lemon, and herbs. Once browned, we deglazed with the dry cider and added chicken stock. Reduced, strained, and seasoned, it was absolutely amazing and my favorite part of the whole meal. 

Cornbread Stuffing

I supposed it's more "dressing" than "stuffing" since we didn't cook it in the turkey (and neither should you - "stuffing is evil" after all). Leah made the cornbread itself in advance using a mix of yellow and blue cornmeal (it was delicious on its own and she had to stop me from trying to eat it several times). Then she crumbled and dried it out a bit in the oven before tossing with cooked sausage, sautéed jalapeños, celery, herbs, beaten egg, chicken stock, and then baking until crusty on top. 

Utica Greens and Maple-Roasted Acorn Squash

Leah wanted both a green side dish and one with squash, so this is what we came up with.

We both love the regional central NY specialty Utica Greens, so I suggested we make that. We used rainbow chard sautéed with lots of olive oil, bacon, garlic, pickled chilies, and topped with breadcrumbs and grated cheese. 

For the squash, we roasted an acorn squash, then peeled and portioned it. Each slice was basted with maple syrup and sage-infused brown butter before going back in a hot oven. It came out a bit soft (really we should have used butternut squash) but tasted great. 

It's not often we break out the good tablecloth but it was nice to treat ourselves to a more formal dinner for once. Even Jacques got some turkey trimmings. 

Bourbon Brown Butter Pecan Pie

This was a recipe in my archive from Bon Appétit - I can't remember if we ever made it before, but pecan pie is my favorite so I insisted we make some version of it and Leah chose this recipe to work from. Unfortunately all the sugary syrup bubbled up in the oven and spilled over the side, leaving a mess in the oven and also seeping under the crust. This made it almost impossible to scoop out intact slices, but man was the ugly looking pie pile still incredibly delicious! 

More Beer From Harlem Hops!

As phase 2 of the pandemic continues to escalate, the small pleasures in life feel all the more impactful. Another trip to the best-stocked beer supplier in the neighborhood yielded another handful of interesting brews that Leah and I sampled over the course of a couple weeks. 

Here are some shots of the non-repeat beers we purchased, along with my notes from Untappd. 

Harlem Hops

2268 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd, New York, NY

harlemhops.com

Fest Bier

Festbier

Interboro Spirits & Ales

3.5 / 5

A good, easy to drink beer. Mild bitterness and sweetness with very subtle spice notes. Clear amber color. Great all round no frills beer. 

You're Never Too Old For Ice Cream Cake

Pastry Stout

Kills Boro Brewing Company

4.0 / 5

A serious dessert beer. Very sweet with chocolatey flavor and a hint of marshmallow. Thick and dark with almost no head. The sweetness borders on cloying, but if dessert is what you want, this is it. 

Banana Fluffernutter

Brix City Brewing

New England IPA

3.5 / 5

Strong peanut butter aroma but almost none of that in the flavor. Sweet and creamy but with a drying mouth feel after swallowing. Mild banana flavor. Very minor bitterness for an IPA. Overall tasty but much less interesting than the name suggests.  

Cadence

Helles Lager

Hudson Valley Brewer

3.75 / 5

A nice, crisp easy-drinking beer with just a hint of something interesting which I'd call malt. Light without being watery. Refreshing and goes down fast. 

Marshmallow Drip

Pastry Stout

Finback Brewery

4.25 / 5

Strong vanilla sweetness combines with bitter coffee to mimic the flavor of burnt marshmallow. Very thick, oily viscosity with no head. Pronounced peanut butter cup aroma and taste, as well as an unusual hint of raspberry jam. 

Baked Stuffed Potatoes

We were low on groceries and I was trying to think of some way to liven up the potatoes I was cooking as a side dish. These came out really well, but could have used more cheese. 

Spanish Coffee

This is a recipe I saw some time back on the now-defunct Esquire network. It's reasonably easy to recreate at home (I tweaked it just a bit) and tastes amazing. 

Spanish Coffee

1 oz Overproof Rum (i.e. Smith & Cross, Bacardi 151, etc.)

1 1/2 oz Kahlúa

1/4 oz Triple Sec

1 1/2 oz Cold Brew Coffee

Heavy Cream

Lime Juice

Sugar

Nutmeg

Rim a tall glass with lime juice and sugar. Combine spirits and coffee in a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled. Strain into glass over fresh ice. Top with cream and grated nutmeg. 

Penne Vodka

One of the all-time greats. Who could argue with Penne Vodka?

Marinara Sauce

Sometimes the best things in life are the simplest. 

Black Rice Risotto with Butternut Squash

On a recent trip to Kalustyan's, Leah found a bunch of fun grains, including black rice. She's been on a Halloween kick lately and asked me to make the rice into risotto with butternut squash (black and orange). It was not easy, as the rice grain was a lot harder and a lot less starchy than the traditional arborio you would use for risotto. I got it to work in the end, and we had the delicious, nutty risotto (topped with roasted squash seeds and a drizzle of fig-balsamic reduction) for dinner with a bottle of dry cider - a perfect fall meal!

Okonomiyaki

When I was a teenager I was obsessed with the anime Ranma 1/2. One of my favorite characters, Ukyo, is an okonomiyaki chef. I had never heard of this dish before but it looked good in the anime, so I decided to learn to make okonomiyaki at home. Back then the results were pretty bad - I ended up with a plain, bland cabbage pancake. This was before the internet, so I had no readily available way to look up a recipe and learn the correct ingredients. 

Fast forward twenty three years and I've enjoyed real okonomiyaki many times at various izakaya. Leah and I were thinking about making something different for dinner one night, and the idea just popped into my head. With online shopping at our fingertips, we were able to easily procure the necessary ingredients and condiments, i.e. okonomiyaki flour, dashi, tenkasu, aonori, okonomi sauce, and bonito flakes. We didn't buy kewpie mayo because our Sir Kensington's is already much tangier than typical American mayo. 

I was also able to look up the proper technique for cooking the dish, i.e. laying strips of pork belly (or bacon) over the top while it cooks on one side, then flipping to render the bacon, and then flipping again to let the first side cook a few moments longer in the rendered pork fat. I'm happy to say that these came out identical to the taste at our favorite izakaya, so after almost two and a half decades, I can say I've accomplished my goal of making authentic okonomiyaki at home.