CHRISTMAS PARTY 2011

The Holiday Season is always the busiest time of the year for everyone especially for me.  It's work, party, play, and planning for the Christmas Dinners.

This year I held my Christmas-Holiday Party between Christmas and New Year.  I figure, I personally am done with all the Christmas parties to go to, the shopping, our own family Christmas Eve dinner, and am ready to tackle my own event.

Here is what I made for the Christmas Party.  You can prepare the sauces and desserts a day in advance.  On the day is mostly assembling the food.  Let me share with you what I did:

The gingerbread house above was store-bought whereby I added the marshmallow tree, the gummy Santas, Snoopy and candy canes bought from a nice candy store (Dylan's). I made my own egg white frosting with plenty of confectioner's sugar that I beat till it was stiff to use as extra snow and for gluing the candy trees and decor to the house.  I happen to have always had the Christmas ornament of a Real Estate Agent and a Sold sign; so I stuck them down on 2 corners of the house this year instead of hang it as Christmas tree ornament.

For hors'd'eouvres, I ordered and bought already peeled and cooked lobsters and served them in individual containers with my own sauce.

Above are the lobsters with miso-butter sauce, topped with black caviar and minced chives for decor.

 On the left were lobster meat as well individually served with yuzu emulsified butter with some yuzu tea marmalade (available from Japanese grocery stores) topped with minced chives.  This sauce has a wonderful citrus taste and a little sweet.

Served surrounded by the 2 versions of the lobster hors'd'eouvres is the Armagnac soaked prunes stuffed with D'Artagnan foie-gras.  A chef pastry cake decorating bag with a wide serrated tip was used to stuff the foie gras into the overnight-soaked prunes.

Above is the gravlax I made 4 days before to cure.  I used fresh dill, salt, sugar, and freshly ground white peppercorns.  You spread the mixture on top of one equally sized center cut of a fresh clean and deboned salmon and cover it with another piece of salmon of almost exactly the same size.  Wrap it well with plastic-lined aluminum foil.  Place in a plastic bag to seal the juice while processing.  Put this in a larger container and place weight of at least 5 lbs on top; turning it over each day for 4 days. (For weights, I use our home barbel discs covered in plastic)  To serve, remove all the dill and peppercorns and slice thinly using a special gravlax slicer or a very thin flexible bladed knife.  Serve it with WASA bread.  I didn't use a gravlax sauce because it defeats being a healthy dish.

**Not photographed:  I also served a fresh whole roasted pork called lechon.  It's a small suckling pig with very crisp skin.  For the salad, I used thin slices of fennel with radicchio and arugula and a simple olive oil and premium balsamic vinegar dressing for a less sour but still tangy but sweeter flavor enhancing the fennel.  As a vegetable dish, I served roasted root vegetables (parsnip, sweet potatoes) with fresh rosemary and garlic mixed with roasted asparagus, and red and green peppers.

One of the desserts I served was the poached pears in wine with homemade chocolate ganache:

Poached sekel pears was my choice, so they can be served in individual dishes and served whole. This way, the guest can try the poached pears and other desserts too.   I poached them for only 12-15 minutes with cloves stuck on each top which I removed before serving.  The poaching liquid was sherry, vanilla bean pod, and sugar.

Some of the poached pears were served on a pedestal dish with my homemade egg less butter-chocolate chip cookies.

This is called CANONIGO.  It is made of egg white cooked in "bain Marie" (pan is in a pan of hot water baked in the oven). served with "natilla" like creme anglaise (yolk with rum, milk and sugar) and fruits on the side if you wish.  My College friend gave me their family recipe and I've kept it all these years.

And the party was joyful as everyone got full.  I was delighted to share my culinary ideas amidst the busiest time of the year.

       H A P P Y     N E W    Y E A R    T O   Y O U    A L L!


Should you want the recipes of the food in this party, please let me know.

I also ordered a chocolate lemon cake from LA Burdick
www.burdickchocolate.com/Pastry/chocolate-lemon-cake.aspx
It's my favorite cake and you can order this.  Imagine chocolate layer cake with fresh lemon cream inside.

Ingredients were mostly from wholefoodsmarket.com
http://maps.google.com/maps?rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7GPEA_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=whole+foods+market&fb=1&gl=us&hq=whole+foods+market&hnear=0x89c24fa5d33f083b:0xc80b8f06e177fe62,New+York,+NY

THE PLAZA FOOD HALL - Todd English at the Plaza Hotel

Earlier this year, I featured The Plaza Food Hall located in the lower level (basement) of The Plaza Hotel by Central Park in New York City.  Today, the good news is some of the iconic wonderful places I go to will join the Food Court.  The following will soon be in the The Plazal Food Hall:

1) Luke's Lobster  (already featured)2) La Maison du Chocolat  (mentioned) 3) Lady M Cake Boutique - specializes in the multi layered crepe cakes in different flavors (have ordered on ocassion but have not featured)  and 4) Sushi Gari.

I can't tell you how excited I am to find all of these under one roof (err... basement).  If you haven't read my experience at The Plaza Food Hall, go check it out now below:


In the beginning of this summer 2011, in search where my favorite French little pastry shop went, I delightfully discovered The Food Hall in the lower level of the famous Plaza Hotel in New York City.  I had not realized that the Plaza Hotel actually had a little shopping mall with fine food!

Entering from 58th Street takes you directly down the escalator to the shopping concourse. Behind the perfumery is Todd English's Food Hall.  The place is enormous, and you can either eat around the counters or on tables with high stools.

The menu is very good.  The atmosphere is casual and the place was totally vibrant! They have a bakery, wine bar, cheese and mini market. We decided to sit at the counter around the seafood-oyster bar area. 



On the left above were the lobsters and oysters on ice.



The Food Hall had 2 versions of Prix-fixe lunch menus with several choice for each.  You could also order ala-carte.

Pictured on the right is the oyster board menu.

A sample of the prix-fixe lunch menu which we did not have.  We chose the other side of the fixed menu not in photo.

  

The first course was fried oysters on special cream sauce with lemon, scallions and some capers

 Main course was arugula pizza with very thin crust and light cheese. It was healthy and delicious!

Above was the pastrami sandwich served with okra, pickles and special Todd English mayo mixture

A side dish of Parmesan cheese french fries perfectly crisp and light with minced parsley

 On the right was the petite cheesecake with berry coulis for dessert.  Just a touch of sweet to end the meal.

By the way, you can sit at any counter.  They serve the same food from the menu anywhere you are.

There is also a takeout menu.  You can check it out by going to the link below.

THE PLAZA FOOD HALL

One West 59th Street (concourse level of The Plaza Hotel)

New York City

212-986-9260

HOURS: Sun – Thur 11am-10pm.

Fri & Sat 11am-11pm

http://theplazafoodhall.com/