Christmas dinner

Three ideas for an elegant holiday dinner

heading for a steaming pot any minute now!

For anyone who reads my blog, it is clear that for us the holidays revolve around food. Whether it is Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Eve, the celebration is not complete without an interesting dish on the holiday dinner table.

We lived in Europe for many years and on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day seafood is the way to go. At this time of year, a parade of large platters of shellfish is seen leaving fresh markets en route to a family gathering nearby. Similarly, restaurants in Paris, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon – all places we have either lived in or visited during the holidays, will often have a seafood tower as a featured item on the menu.

Parisian oysters ready to eat

Lobster on Christmas Eve

So a few years ago we started featuring lobster on our holiday dinner table, usually on Christmas Eve. Our favorite way to prepare and serve the lobster is to par cook the lobsters so that they are still slightly raw. The meat is then removed from the tail and claws and poached in clarified butter until tender. The lobster pieces are served with a fresh batch of clarified butter.

doubly decadent - poached in butter and served with butter

Rack of lamb for Christmas dinner

Christmas dinner tends to be a “meatier” option and many times we have opted for a rack of lamb. The recipe is one derived from the Williams Sonoma grilling book – a Provençal sauce made from mustard and tarragon covers the rack, with a bit held back to drizzle on the lamb when it is served.

cooking on the ceramic cooker results in a very succulent lamb

Venison tenderloin is a great holiday dish

This year I was fortunate to have a friend gift me some venison, so another holiday dinner option will very likely be a tenderloin prepared sous vide (one hour in the circulator at 130 degrees) and then finished over a very hot fire in one of my favorite cooking implements - the ceramic cooker (Big Green Egg).

finishing on the ceramic cooker (in my case a Big Green Egg) results in a very moist tenderloin

The perfect accompaniment is a cranberry sauce that is dead easy to make. The cranberries are cooked in a mixture of water and maple syrup until they pop. After taking the cranberry sauce off the flame, a couple of tablespoons of orange zest are stirred into the mixture.

the ultimate in holiday comfort food

Bon appétit and happy holidays!