Christmas Dinner
Dec. 27th, 2002 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jim_pIt's a couple days after Christmas, but I only just got into this LJ thang... so let me tell you about Christmas dinner.
Since 1998 or so Tam and I have had a "tradition" of having a nice meal on Christmas day. Our lives have been absolute chaos for the past several years, what with family members getting sick and dying and the repercussions thereof, which keeps pushing back the renovations on the house. Every year I have a little bit more of a kitchen to cook in, and on Christmas I make the best use of it that I can. Christmas dinner is just the two of us, since we have no family that we wish to visit and just the cats here at home. Suits us fine!
Last year was perhaps the best-tasting Christmas dinner I'd ever made -- Peking Duck. It came out absolutely *perfect* 8-)
This year was also duck, but the theme was "salvage". For a variety of reasons, we had a Muscovy duck in the downstairs freezer for well over a year; we salvaged it from father-in-law's freezer in mid-2001 just before he died. We defrosted and unwrapped it, and deciding that it was still safe to eat I set about preparing it. I separated the skin from the meat as best I could, sliced it in numerous place, and slipped garlic slices in each slit. I then spiced the inside and stuffed it with chopped scallions (duck and scallions go together REALLY well).
While Duckie was roasting in the oven, I worked on the rest of dinner; steamed Brussels sprouts for the side and lemon mousse for dessert. The secret to good Brussels sprouts is to clean them well, cut an "X" into the stem end, then steam them gently until JUST tender through. The lemon mousse started with lemon curd (Alton Brown's recipe), which would later be folded in beaten egg whites.
The last item had to wait until after the duck was out. Again, in the theme of recycling there was a container of white rice in the fridge left over from a previous meal. I made a fried rice dish with this using the fat drained off the duck along with (drum roll) minced truffle. I'll post the story of obtaining the truffle as a separate LJ entry.
Dinner was served, enjoyed with a bottle of 1983 Chateau Morgon from father-in-law's wine collection. That old bottle still had quite a bit of life left in it, surprisingly enough. Despite rough storage conditions, it tasted only barely past its prime. Paired with the slightly gamy duck, it was perfect!
Tonight's dinner, BTW, was duck soup.
Since 1998 or so Tam and I have had a "tradition" of having a nice meal on Christmas day. Our lives have been absolute chaos for the past several years, what with family members getting sick and dying and the repercussions thereof, which keeps pushing back the renovations on the house. Every year I have a little bit more of a kitchen to cook in, and on Christmas I make the best use of it that I can. Christmas dinner is just the two of us, since we have no family that we wish to visit and just the cats here at home. Suits us fine!
Last year was perhaps the best-tasting Christmas dinner I'd ever made -- Peking Duck. It came out absolutely *perfect* 8-)
This year was also duck, but the theme was "salvage". For a variety of reasons, we had a Muscovy duck in the downstairs freezer for well over a year; we salvaged it from father-in-law's freezer in mid-2001 just before he died. We defrosted and unwrapped it, and deciding that it was still safe to eat I set about preparing it. I separated the skin from the meat as best I could, sliced it in numerous place, and slipped garlic slices in each slit. I then spiced the inside and stuffed it with chopped scallions (duck and scallions go together REALLY well).
While Duckie was roasting in the oven, I worked on the rest of dinner; steamed Brussels sprouts for the side and lemon mousse for dessert. The secret to good Brussels sprouts is to clean them well, cut an "X" into the stem end, then steam them gently until JUST tender through. The lemon mousse started with lemon curd (Alton Brown's recipe), which would later be folded in beaten egg whites.
The last item had to wait until after the duck was out. Again, in the theme of recycling there was a container of white rice in the fridge left over from a previous meal. I made a fried rice dish with this using the fat drained off the duck along with (drum roll) minced truffle. I'll post the story of obtaining the truffle as a separate LJ entry.
Dinner was served, enjoyed with a bottle of 1983 Chateau Morgon from father-in-law's wine collection. That old bottle still had quite a bit of life left in it, surprisingly enough. Despite rough storage conditions, it tasted only barely past its prime. Paired with the slightly gamy duck, it was perfect!
Tonight's dinner, BTW, was duck soup.
