Holiday Menus and Recipes Using Locally Grown Ingredients
courtesy of Judy Birsh and her son Andy -
proud CSA members and island summer residents
An Intimate Holiday Menu
Salad of Sliced Roasted Beets,
Goat Cheese, Mixed Greens, and Toasted Walnuts
Pork Stuffed or Rolled with Bread, Onions, Kale, and Sage
Fresh Cabbage
and Grated Carrots Sautéed in Butter
Winter Squash "Pumpkin" Pie or
Winter Squash Baked CustardSalad of Sliced Roasted Beets, Goat Cheese,
Mixed Greens, and Toasted Walnuts-- serves 4
1 large, 2, medium, or 4 small beets
Fresh or dried thyme
1 small log of fresh goat cheese
Olive oil
1 cup walnut meats, whole or pieces
2 cups salad greens, washed and spun dry (torn bite-sized if large)
Red-wine or white-wine vinegar
Salt and pepper1) Pre-heat oven to 425°F.
Cut away beet greens, if attached, and rinse beets gently.
Wrap beet(s) and fresh thyme sprigs or pinch of dried thyme in aluminum foil
and roast about 45 minutes or until tender. Allow to cool. Rub or pare away beet skin.
Cut beets into
quarter-inch slices.
2) While beets cook, roll fresh goat cheese in paper towel
to absorb surface moisture. Remove from paper towel and cut in half-inch
slices.
Lightly coat cheese slices with olive oil and sprinkle with thyme leaves or dried thyme
and some coarsely ground black pepper.
3) Set walnut meats in pie pan in the oven with the beets briefly,
until heated through and a shade darker. Allow to cool.
4) To assemble salads: Lightly salt beet slices and toss with oliveoil.
Divide among four plates. Toss salad greens with some olive oil and season with salt,
pepper, and a sprinkle of vinegar; divide on top of beets.
Top salads with goat-cheese slices and walnut pieces.
Pork Stuffed or Rolled with Bread, Onions, Kale and Sage
6 slices of bread
6 tb. butter, total
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 cups of kale, stems removed, sliced cross-wise into ribbons
2 tb. fresh sage leaves, coarsely chopped or half-tsp.
dry rubbed sage
Salt and pepper
4 thick-cut pork chops or one-and-a-half lb. pork roast or boneless shoulder or
butt
1 tb. vegetable oil
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup heavy cream
1) Cut away crusts from bread slices leave out for 24 hours to stale.
Break or cut slices into one-inch squares and pulse in food-processor
to make coarse bread crumbs (or chop into small pieces with a sharp
knife, saving crumbs).
2) Melt 1 tb. butter in skillet over medium heat, add onions and sauté,
stirring often, until soft and starting to color. Add kale and sage and cook
until kale softens. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Remove from heat.
3) Melt 4 tb. butter in scant cup of water. Lightly toss together bread crumbs,
onion-and-kale-mixture, and butter-water. Taste for salt and pepper and add
seasoning if needed.
4) Slice horizontal pocket in pork chops or cut boneless pork to unroll flat.
Stuff pork-chop pockets or spread stuffing over boneless pork, roll and tie with
kitchen string. Season generously with salt and pepper.
5) Pre-heat over to 350°F. Over medium heat on stove top,
brown surface of stuffed pork chops or pork roast in 1 tb. butter plus oil.
Remove pork to ovenproof pan and finish cooking in oven until meat
reaches 165°F on instant-read thermometer.
(Note: any extra stuffing can be cooked alongside in a small baking dish.)
6) Remove meat from oven and set aside covered loosely in a warm place
to rest while making cream gravy. Pour out any fat from pan. Deglaze pan
on stove top with wine and boil until wine is reduced by two thirds.
Add heavy cream, bring to a boil for about a few minutes, taste for salt
and pepper and correct seasoning.
7) Divide pork roast into thick slices (or serve pork chops whole), with
gravy and any extra stuffing.
Fresh Cabbage and Grated Carrots Sautéed in Butter
4 cups green cabbage,
dense core removed, sliced very thin (or grated
with food-processor grating
disk or coarsest side of box-grater)
1 cup carrots, peeled and grated with food-processor grating disk or
coarsest side of box-grater
2 tb. butter
half-tsp. caraway seeds or quarter-tsp.
ground caraway
salt and pepper
Melt butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet. When hot, stirfry grated
cabbage and carrots until just tender. Season with salt, pepper, and caraway
and serve.
Winter Squash "Pumpkin" Pie
adapted slightly from the Pumpkin Pie recipe in The Art of Simple Food:
Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution by Alice Waters
(New York, Clarkson Potter, 2007)The filling:
Winter squash weighing at least 1 lb.1 cup, total, heavy cream
2 tsp. white flour
3 eggs
Quarter-cup brown sugar
1 tb granulated sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Quarter-tsp. ground cloves
Quarter-tsp. ground ginger
Half-tsp. salt
Pinch of ground black pepper
One standard recipe crust for single-crust pie or one pre-made pie crust
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Cut squash in half and scrape out seeds and fibers.
Place squash cut-side down on an oiled baking sheet and bake until easily
pierced through with a sharp knife. Allow to cool.Scoop flesh away from the skin and purée flesh in a food mill or potato-ricer
(or mash thoroughly by hand).
If making the crust yourself: Roll out pie dough and lay in 9-inch pie pan.
Prick crust with fork. Blind-bake pie crust with foil-liner and pie weights at
375°F until edges set.Remove weights and foil and bake until light golden brown.Remove and let cool.
In small pan whisk together and heat until bubbling the flour and a quarter-cup of the cream.
Gradually add remaining cream and remove from heat.
Stir together eggs and a cooled
15 oz (about 1-and-a-half cups) of the squash purée in a large bowl.
Combine sugars and spices in a separate bowl.
Add thickened cream and sugars and spices
to squash purée and blend
thoroughly.
Fill pie crust and bake at 375°F until center is barely
set (about 45 to 50 minutes).Shield edge of pie crust with strip of aluminum foil if edge is darkening to fast. Allow to cool
to room temperature before serving.
Winter Squash Baked Custard
Prepare winter squash purée
as described above but use at least 2 lb. winter
squash.Use 3 cups of this purée instead of the canned pumpkin purée in the Spiced Pumpkin Custard
recipe at About.com:
Menu for a Festive Holiday for a CrowdCauliflower, Leek, and Potato Soup with Fresh Chopped Chives
Roast Turkey
or Roast Chickens with Bread-and-Mixed-Herb Stuffing and Pan
Gravy
Cranberry
Relish
Potato and Winter Squash Gratin
Broccoli Spears Drizzled with
Warmed Yogurt, Butter, and Mint
Creamed Golden Braised Onions and Radishes
Lemon Custard Pie
Cauliflower, Leek, and Potato Soup with Fresh Chopped Chives
-- for 10 or more4 lb. leeks
8 tb. butter
salt and white pepper
2 lbs of white- or yellow-fleshed potatoes
1 full-size or two small heads cauliflower
3 qt. water
2 cups half-and-half
Fresh chives or scallions,sliced across, very thinCut off tough green leaf portions of leeks (save for stock) and trim off roots.
Cut leeks lengthwise into two or four (if very large) then crosswise in thin shreds.
Wash leek shreds in deep pan of water to remove all sand or mud.
Lift leeks from pan of water and drain.
Melt butter in soup pot over medium low heat and add drained leeks.
Stir briefly to coat with butter and cover pot to sweat leeks until soft.
Wash and peel potatoes and cut into half-inch chunks (keep cut potatoes in cold water).
Cut away cauliflower leaves.
Cut florets and stem into small pieces (setting aside half-cup of small florets for garnish, if desired).
When leeks are softened (without taking any color), add potatoes, stir and warm through.
Add water, raise heat, and bring to boil. Add salt and white pepper to taste, then add cauliflower.
Simmer until potatoes and cauliflower are very tender. (Blanch reserved cauliflower florets
separately in boiling salted water and drain; cut each piece in two for garnish).
Purée soup with an immersion blender if available or pass through the fine disk of a food mill.
Soup can be made to this point and kept, chilled, overnight. Reheat if chilled.
Add half-and-half, check seasoning, and keep hot.
Ladle into bowls and garnish generously with chives
(or scallions) and reserved
florets.
Roast Turkey or Roast Chickens with Bread-and-Mixed-Herb Stuffing and Pan Gravy12-to-15 lb. fresh-killed turkey or
2 4-5 lb. roasting chickens
3 lemons
1 lb. butter,
total
Fresh herbs: might include thyme, sage, marjoram, parsley, savory, tarragon (for
chickens only)
Salt and pepper
2 quarts water
2 turkey (or 1 lb. chicken) wings
1 carrot chopped coarse
1 celery rib, chopped coarse
1 small onion, chopped coarse
parsley stems
2 bay leaves
2 or more loaves country bread
4 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped celery with celery leaves
dried thyme and sage
2 cups white wine
2 tb. flour
4 tb. butter, totalUpon purchase, trim any excess lumps of fat from poultry and remove giblets and neck.
Rinse cavities with cold water and blot dry with paper towels.
Allow poultry to rest, lightly covered, in refrigerator until cooking day, to evaporate excess moisture.
Early in cooking day, remove poultry from refrigerator.
Cut one or two lemons in half and squeeze juice over poultry and rub skin
with
lemon peel.
Place lemon peels in cavity.
Season inside and out generously with salt and pepper.
Set in cool spot to come to room temperature (to shorten oven time).
Place poultry giblets (except livers), extra wings, carrot, celery, onion,
parsley stems,
and bay leaves in 2 qt. cold water (or poultry stock, if available).
Bring to boil and simmer for an hour or more, until vegetables are limp.
Strain the giblet stock into a clean container and save the giblets and necks.
Cut bread into the smallest cubes its texture allows.
Melt three-quarter lb. butter.
Toss bread cubes with onions, celery, dried thyme, dried sage, and two
handfuls of coarsely chopped fresh herbs.
Moisten gradually, tossing mixture
gently, with melted butter.
Season generously with salt and pepper.
Transfer stuffing to steamer insert for pasta pot and steam until very hot over
2 cups giblet stock (adding water to bottom of steamer if giblet stock evaporates).
Or remove lemon peels from poultry cavities and lightly stuff with bread mixture
(do not pack) just prior to roasting and bake extra stuffing in covered pan
(which may finished uncovered to form a crust).
Heat oven to 325°F. (Stuff poultry, if desired.)
Allow remaining quarter-lb. butter to soften and then smear over surface of seasoned,
rested poultry. If not stuffing the poultry, then place extra herb sprigs in cavities.
Tie or truss, if desired.
Place poultry in shallow roasting pan and cook in oven, basting once butter accumulates in pan.
Rotate roasting pan several times for even cooking.
Poultry is done when fragrant,
deep brown, and either registering 180°F on instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest
part of thigh or when juices run clear (not pink) when skin between leg and breast is slit.
Chop reserved giblets and remove meat in shreds from necks.
Heat giblets and
neck meat through, until browned, in 1 tb. butter.
Remove poultry from pan and set in warm spot, loosely covered by foil.
Pour fat and pan juices into glass container, leave to separate.
Place roasting pan over direct heat and deglaze pan completely with white wine,
at a rapid boil, scraping with a wooden spatula.
Set aside, off the heat. Skim off fat from separated pan juices.
In a saucepan, heat two tb. of the skimmed fat until very
hot and whisk in flour.
Whisk without pausing until mixture is light golden.
Add 2 cups giblet stock, the white-wine deglaze, and the fat-free pan juices.
Boil and stir until thickened lightly. Correct flavor with salt, pepper, and some
fresh lemon juice.
Potato and Winter Squash Gratin
3 lb. winter squash
3 lb. potatoes
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved
|1 bay leaf
4 tb. butter
1 cup milk
Salt and pepperPeel winter squash.
Cut in half and scrape away seeds and fibers.
Slice thin.
Peel potatoes.
Slice into one-eighth-inch slices.
Boil potatoes and squash in separate pots in just enough salted water to cover,
adding garlic halves to squash and bay leaf to potatoes. Cook each until tender.
Drain thoroughly, remove bay leaf, and combine squash and potatoes in one of the two pots.
Over low heat, mash potatoes, squash, and garlic together to make an even mix, with s
ome remaining texture. Beat in cold butter, as for mashed potatoes.
Dish can be prepared to this point
and held at room temperature for several hours.
Scald the milk and beat into the potato-squash purée.
Correct seasoning.
Spread mixture evenly in ovenproof dish and bake at 325°F until brown on top.
Broccoli Spears Drizzled with Warmed Yogurt, Butter, and Mint3 lb. broccoli
Salt
12 oz. whole-milk yogurt
2 tb. butter
2 tb. finely shredded fresh mint leaves (or 2 tsp. dried mint)Peel the stems of the broccoli to remove all the fibrous outer layer.
Cut broccoli into longest possible spears with florets and stem attached.
Bring a tall pot of water to a boil, salt the water heavily, and par-cook the broccoli until just tender.
Transfer to an ice-water bath briefly to stop the cooking and hold the bright color.
Refrigerate in one layer, covered by a damp kittchen towel or paper towels until before serving.
Let yogurt come to room temperature and stir until smooth.
Cut butter in pieces and place in glass container.
Melt butter in microwave oven or on warm part of stove, stir in tempered yogurt and fresh
or dried mint.
Salt yogurt sauce to taste
and keep in warm (but not hot) spot while reheating the broccoli
in simmering salted water.
Transfer broccoli to heated platter and drizzle with yogurt.
Creamed Golden Braised Onions and Radishes
Follow Gourmet Magazine's recipe for Creamed Pearl Onions
at
epicurious.com. Except: Substitute 1 lb. trimmed radishes for 1 lb. of onions.
Lemon Custard Pie
Follow Bon Appétit's recipe for Lemon Custard Pies at
epicurious.com.
A Vegetarian Holiday Menu
Quick-pickled Radishes, Cauliflower Florets, and Carrot Spears (Hors d'oeuvre)
Winter Squash Bisque Topped with Deep-Fried Leek Strips
Baked Onions with
Bread-Kale-and-Chopped-Egg Stuffing
Steamed Small Cabbage Leaves Filled with Rice, Cashews, and Chopped
Broccoli,
Warmed Yogurt Dressing
Green Salad with Slivered Roast Beets
Maple Custards
A Look Back at Our Family Holidays Menu....by the BirshsAppetizers:
Broccoli and Cauliflower Florets, Celery Stuffed with Goat Cheese,
Carrot Sticks,
Radishes, Cherry Tomatoes, Deviled Eggs, Olives, Parsley for GarnishMain Course:
Roast Turkey with Chestnut Dressing and Gravy
Butternut Squash with Sage
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Creamed Onions
Whole Buttered Green Beans
Cranberry RelishDessert:
Ice Cream Moulds: Vanilla, Raspberry and Lemon Sorbet;
Coffee and Maple Walnut Wafer Cookies or Angel Food Cake
Chocolate Covered Mints
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
4 – 5 large baking potatoes
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup of milk heated in a saucepan
4 tb. softened butter
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
fresh ground white pepper1) Peel and cut the potatoes into quarters. Put in lightly salted water to cover and
bring to a boil. Cover loosely and cook until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.2) In the meantime, heat the milk in a saucepan with the butter and garlic over medium
heat until hot, being careful not to let the milk boil. Remove from the heat.3) Drain the potatoes and return them to the pot. Mash the potatoes in the pot.
Reheat the milk, butter and garlic over low heat, then remove the garlic and discard.
Dribble the mixture into the potatoes beating until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Butternut Squash with Sage
1 1/2 pounds peeled butternut squash or any other winter squash cut
into
1 inch cubes (about 4 cups)
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 large shallots cut into fine slivers
10 fresh sage leaves or
2 tsp. dried sage
1/2 tsp. sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp. trubinado sugar
1/2 c. water1) Heat the olive oil in a wide, deep saucepan over medium heat. When hot,
stir in the shallots and sage leaves . Fry until the shallots are golden in color.2) Add the squash cubes, stirring until the cubes gain a little brown around the edges and
the shallots are deep brown. Add the salt and sugar folding them in to caramelize the sugar.3) Quickly add a half a cup of water. After it comes to a boil, cover the saucepan,
and simmer over low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the squash is just tender.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.Serves 4
Contributed by:
Andy Birsh of Woodside Press,
fine letterpress printers
The Brooklyn Navy Yard
Brooklyn, New York
Judy Birsh CSA member