The much anticipated holiday issue of Bon Appetit arrived in the mail last week. As always, the December issue features menus for both Christmas and Hannukah and, as always, this year's offerings fail to disappoint.
There is a do-ahead Christmas Eve menu inspired by the flavors of New Orleans: Shrimp, Chicken, & Andouille Gumbo, Crab Cakes, and a Caramel Pecan Buche de Noel (I've always wanted to make one of these!). This is followed by a traditional Prime Rib Roast meal with all the trimmings: Yorkshire Pudding, Potato Gratin, Green Beans with Caramelized Shallots, and a Spiced Cranberry-Pear Tart (blech). Finally, a Mediterranean-inspired Hanukkah dinner featuring Roast Chicken with Dried Fruit & Almonds, White Bean Salad flavored with lemon and cumin, a Shredded Zucchini and Carrot Casserole with scallions and dill, and for dessert: Honey-Glazed Doughnuts with Pine Nuts and Raisins. The photo alone makes me want to convert to Judaism for the night...or eight, whatever the case may be (traditionally, fried foods are a staple of the Hanukkah menu to represent the number of nights a single lamp of oil miraculously lasted).
In addition, there is a spread on Christmas cookies which struck me as less-than-inspired: Pistachio-Cherry Mexican Wedding Cakes, dusted with powdered sugar; White Chocolate-Cranberry-Macadamia Cookies; and Chocolate Peppermint Stars. To make up for it, a lesson in chocolate truffle-making, including Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles, and a bizarre, but intriguing, Balsamic Truffle. There is also a brief discussion of the latest trend in chocolatiering: cocoa nibs, crushed bits of cocoa beans combined with smooth chocolate. Sounds like something I'll have to keep an eye out for.
Dorie Greenspan's "Tools of the Trade" offers her recommendations for essential appliances for throwing holiday parties: chafing dishes, multiple-compartment buffet servers, and the newest addition to my own arsenal of cooking appliances: the Maxim food warmer. For whatever reason, I'm completely obsessed with these types of serving ware. Maybe it's my inner caterer.
The magazine offers a number of gift ideas, such as the 12 Gifts of Christmas, which culminates in an $8,000 CornuFe' range, the "cook's version of a Bentley." Cookbook recommendations range from the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook based on the Dr. Seuss classic to The Improvisational Cook, which shows readers how to take a basic recipe and tweak it into something more. Also, for me, there's The Kitchen Diaries, a chronicle of a year of cooking by Nigel Slater, whose autobiographical Toast made for a great read on my last trip home from London.
The "RSVP" section features a couple of good-looking recipes which I will have to remember: a New Orleans-inspired Osso Bucco (a guilty pleasure I have yet to move myself to cook due to the whole veal issue) and a 6-layer Coconut Cream Cake, one of my greatest dessert obsessions.
Anyway, lots to see and cook in the pages of this month's issue. Can't wait for Gourmet to arrive!
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