A Pandemic Christmas
Whew, it’s been a year. And not the holiday season any of us anticipated. Instead of the usual fanfare and events to look forward to (Trolley party! Ugly Sweater party! Family dinners! The infamous punch bowl at the office holiday party!), it was more like a regular work week evolved into a sudden realization that this particular workday was Christmas eve. And this work day was Christmas day. Huh. Now what?
It was our first Christmas without family, and our first Christmas of trying to scale down traditions into a 2-person affair. One, it made me appreciate the little traditions of the holidays so much more, and two, I felt immensely grateful for what we have – we have survived the pandemic healthy, alive, and with jobs providing steady income; so many are not so fortunate this holiday season.
Our Christmas dinner was a zoom affair with family, coordinating to cook the usual traditions. We made sourdough bread, which has become a pandemic staple. (I celebrated by the fact that our sourdough actually turned out edible, and rose higher than 1 inch. It’s the little things). There was prime rib – and this recipe, an old family favorite from a chef friend of my parents, never fails…there is always certainty each year that the meat thermometer is broken, or is lying….and the roast always takes longer than we anticipate…and yet, somehow, it always turns out perfect. The traditional homemade ravioli were scrapped due to the nation wide ricotta shortage (and yes, I’m sure we could have made our own ricotta – goodness knows we’ve learned to make/procure everything else this year – but the line had to be drawn somewhere). Lemon risotto, modified from a Giada recipe, was a good substitute – with a few shrimp thrown in for good measure. The traditional peppermint ice cream with hot fudge also scrapped due to a nationwide peppermint extract shortage (and you thought it was all about the toilet paper….not so).
While I was sorting through holiday recipes (the good old fashion months kept on index cards, well creased and sprinkled with a few food stains to show that they are legitimately worth making again and again), I came across an index card from my friend Christine for blue cheese fondue. This recipe came from Trio restaurant in Jackson, who serves this blue cheese fondue over waffle fries. Those that know me know that I cannot stand French fries, but this might be the one place I will eat a few, just for the amazing cheese sauce. But guess what: if you happen to have the secret recipe you can make it at home and serve it over whatever you like, including fresh sourdough. And if you want to call this dinner on a Christmas Eve, you absolutely can. No one is judging.
Blue Cheese Fondue (serves 2-4)
- 1/2 tablespoon butter
- 1 garlic clove, smashed
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 4 oz blue cheese crumbles
- thyme
- salt
- pepper
In a saucepan, melt butter and saute garlic for 1-2 minutes. Add heavy cream and thyme, and simmer until reduced, about 10 minutes. Stir in blue cheese crumbles and season to taste. Garnish with thyme. Serve with bread, veggies, or waffle fries.
Latin’s Prime Rib
- 1/4 cup garlic salt
- 2 tablespoons curry powder
- 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons beef broth
- Prime rib roast with 2-3 ribs.
The day before roasting, mix the spices and broth into a paste and cover the ends and fatty side of roast, Refrigerate covered overnight. This will allow the flavors and salt to permeate the meat. The day of cooking, bring the roast out to sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour before roasting (aka about 3.5 to 4 hours before you want to eat), and transfer to roasting pan, rib side down. Preheat oven to 500’F. Roast at 500’F for 20 minutes without opening oven door, then reduce temperature to 350’F and roast another ~1.5 hours (start checking temperature 1 hour in; for a 6 lb roast, 1.5 hours at 350’F was just about right to get the inside to medium rare). If you like your meat on the pinker side of medium rare, roast to internal temperature of 130’F; otherwise, aim for 140’F. Remember that the meat will cook another 5′ while it rests (and while it rests, finish up any sides in the oven). Remove from oven and rest for 20 minutes to allow the juices to reabsorb before slicing.
Other recipe links: No Christmas punch this year, so we made an equally festive Negroni Sour – probably our favorite cocktail of the year. Giada’s lemon cup risotto served as our pasta course – we deshelled some shrimp and made a quick stock of the shells, bay leaf, some onion scraps, a piece of carrot and a piece of celery to use in place of chicken broth; the raw shrimp were added to the risotto in the last 5 minutes of cooking. If you are lucky enough to have peppermint extract, peppermint ice cream with hot fudge is the greatest combination – make it an ice cream pie by pouring the softened ice cream into a chocolate graham crust.