food and drink

Christmas Hors d'Oeuvres

2011-10-31T13:40:00.000-07:00

Christmas food such as hors d'oeuvres, from the French, meaning "outside the work," can be harder to spell (hors d'oeuvres, hors d'ouevre, hor douvres or hor'dourves) than they are to actually prepare! Most American chefs and hosts will resort to preparing "appetizers" simply because it's easier to say.

The Italians call it antipasto, meaning "before the meal." The Spanish call it tapas; Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures call it meze; and the Russians call it zakuski. No matter what you call it, everyone enjoys delicious finger food before a meal.

During the holiday season, Christmas hors d'oeuvres are great to serve either before a formal Christmas meal or as snack food during a casual cocktail party. Below you'll find a sampling of easy Christmas hors d'oeuvres, fit for any setting. Pair them with some of our other Christmas Dinner ideas for a complete festive meal.

Flatbread

2011-10-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

4 thick strips bacon, thinly sliced
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
Pinch of sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper
6 scallions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon capers
1/2 cup fresh parsley
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1 pound frozen pizza dough, thawed
All-purpose flour, for dusting

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring from time to time, until browned and crispy. Transfer to paper towels to drain; keep warm. Add the onion slices to the drippings in the skillet; sprinkle with the sugar and season with salt and pepper. Cook until light brown and tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Taste for seasoning.

Combine the scallions, capers and parsley in a food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste and half of the lemon zest; pulse gently to chop and blend. Turn the processor on and add the olive oil through the top in a steady stream. Transfer the scallion pesto to a bowl; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk the creme fraiche and the remaining lemon zest until smooth. Season with salt and pepper; set aside.

Roll the pizza dough into an 8-by-14-inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough around the rolling pin and unroll it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in the center of the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Spread the creme fraeche mixture on the crust. Dot with the onions and some of the bacon drippings from the pan; sprinkle with the bacon. Slice into pieces and drizzle with scallion pesto.

Crispy Fried Tofu With Sweet Chille Sauce

2011-10-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

It feels like yesterday, but the memory is fresh. Eons ago, I happened to spot some "white slabs" sitting next to my all time favorite Paneer, in the aisle of the grocery store I frequented. See, I was this good girl who went shopping for my mom during the weekends, all on my own, so that my mom can relax her feet. At times I used to buy other stuff that caught my fancy apart from the list my mom provided. So on this particular day, this packet with something called as "tofu", went into my basket. I, in fact, thought it was probably another "brand" of Paneer and even wondered at the peculiar name ( ..those naive days!!!)

Once home, my mom had a different story to tell. She told me it was not Paneer but a similar cheese but made of Soy. She said that she never bought it cos it was bland. I opened the packet and put some right in my mouth and so did my sister. Her face mimicked my mom's with a "Blech!" expression. I ,for some "weird" reason, loved it! My love affair, loyal that I am, still stands inspite of the test of various types and flavors of Tofu that have crossed my path in all these years hence.

In fact I think I love it even more (if that's even possible!) My husband actually has a nickname for me - "Dofu Monster!" and he literally means it. That name has its origins with an interesting incident that I will recount later with some other tofu recipe :) As for today this recipe is from a cookbook that I trust blindly to the point of not even making my habitual modifications. I have made teeny weeny "blink-u-will-miss-changes". As for the taste, the title is self explanatory. The Tofu is beautifully crispy, thanks to that crunchy coating ,before melting into your mouth with its softness. And that sauce, for all its simplicity, is extremely addictive. Sweet with a mild heat to it and plays a perfect partner to these cubed beauties.

Christmas Party Ideas for Food

2011-10-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

Enhance your office Christmas party with a spread of tasty treats to satisfy a crowd. Choose a variety of items to suit different tastes; if the party isn't a sit-down dinner affair, stick to neat, bite-size finger foods that are easy to eat while shaking hands or engaging in conversation with fellow party guests.

The drink menu is a critical component of any office party and will probably be the first thing guests ask for once they arrive. Keep it simple with a selection of wine, beer and mixed drinks, or go all out and provide some seasonally festive options. For instance, whip up a traditional batch of eggnog or fix a warm spiced rum punch. If you plan to serve alcoholic beverages, provide several alternative options for non-drinkers including a non-alcoholic batch of eggnog or hot apple cider.

Provide a variety of food items for your guests to nibble on during the party. Choose bite-size finger foods that won't be too messy or awkward to eat while mingling with other party guests. Create snacks that can be placed on the end of a toothpick to ensure it will be easily managed in a single bite. Serve standard items like cheese and crackers and bite-size vegetables alongside dip or hummus. For some festive foods, prepare seasonally inspired dishes like cinnamon fruit kebabs with apples and pears, roasted nuts, sausage and cheese bites, or stuffed figs.

If the party will feature a sit-down dinner, offer several main course options to suit a variety of tastes and diets. For instance, serve a vegetarian option like a warm goat cheese and spinach salad, or offer a hearty winter vegetable-based soup. For the meat-eaters on the guest list, offer options that they won't be tired of during the holidays. For instance, lamb and duck are typically less common during the holiday season, so complement these with wintry flavors like mint or cranberry for a hearty alternative to the standard Christmas meat and poultry dishes. Provide a mix of hearty roasted root vegetables like squash or sweet potatoes to accompany your protein selections.

Regardless of whether or not you are planning to include a sit-down dinner, provide a selection of seasonal mini desserts to cap off your office party. The miniature sweets will offer a light finish to a hearty meal, and will also be ideal for munching and mingling. Serve fruit kebabs for a light, portable option, as well as a variety of miniature pastries and tarts for guests with a serious sweet tooth. Focus your flavors on seasonal items like apples, cranberries, pumpkins, pears, peppermint and cinnamon. Provide warm beverages like coffee, tea and hot chocolate to accompany the seasonal desserts.

Christmas Party Food

2011-09-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

The purpose of Christmas party food is to feed your guests. However, it can also serve as your chance to showcase your culinary talents and to serve some of your favorite recipes. Often, foods served at events such as a Christmas party are only made a few times a year so sharing them with friends and family is even more special. When planning for Christmas party foods, don't forget the beverages. It's a good idea to have a variety of beverages available to guests: alcoholic, non-alcoholic, cold and warm. Again, the purpose of these beverages is to quench thirst and match the foods served.

When planning the menu for a Christmas party, it is important to consider your guests. Are any of your guests vegetarians? Does anyone have severe food allergies? Are there any dietary concerns among your guests? The more information you know, the better you can plan your menu. Another consideration when planning the menu for a Christmas party are the types of foods you serve. Most guests will stand as they eat and try to balance a beverage in one hand. Plan easy-to-eat foods that are not messy. After all, if something spills it's your house and you'll clean it up the next day.

Planning the menu for a Christmas party should follow the theme of your party. A sit-down meal works best for a small group of close friends and enables you to pull-out all the stops when it comes to food. A dessert party highlights the holiday season with sweet treats. However, these are sometimes hard to pair with the appropriate drinks, and can involve complicated recipes that take a while to prepare. A simpler way to taste the sweets of the season is to host a Christmas cookie party. Make several different types of holiday cookies for your guests to sample. An appetizer party allows hosts to prepare a variety of dishes for guests to enjoy. Hosts can also incorporate a few sweet treats into the appetizer party. For any Christmas party, don't forget the beverages. Carefully choose a variety of beverages for guests to enjoy that match the theme and foods served.

Stollen

2011-09-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

Stollen's culinary lineage derives from a long history of festive holiday foods. Related foods are fruitcake, panettone, Dreikonigsbrot, three kings cake/king cake and babka. What do these sweet breads have in common? They were developed in Europe during Medieval times and were traditionally saved for holiday times because they were expensive. Cook of all times and places save their very best ingredients for special occasions. These special holiday yeast cakes were made with the cook's finest wheat flour, white sugar, butter, eggs, and dried fruit; some included rich filling, such as marzipan [almond paste]. Three kings cakes (related to New Orleans' King Cake) required similar ingredients and were/are connected with Twelfth Night and Mardi Gras.

"Holiday breads...

The spices used in...holiday breads...and their symbolic shapes and meaning vary. However, they are all based on the same type coffee-cake dough, and each is an integral part of some festivity in its native country...The Dresdener Stollen recipes...is the most famous of many regional variations of Germany's Christmas bread."

"Stollen

a rich fruit bread/cake from central Germany, especially the city of Dresden...the name is derived from an Old High German word, stollo, meaning a support or post. The characteristic shape of Stollen--oblong, tapered at each end with a ridge down the centre--is said to repersent the Christ Child in swaddling clothes, whence the name Christollen sometimes given to it. The Dresden Stollen, now known internationally as a Christmas specialty, is made from a rich, sweet yeast dough, mixed with milk, eggs, sugar, and butter, sometimes flavoured with lemon. Raisins, sultanas, currants, rum or brandy, candied peel, and almonds are worked into the dough. After baking, the Stollen is painted with melted butter and dusted with sugar. It may then be further decorated with candied fruits..."

Egg nog

2011-09-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

The reason you won't find 16th century recipes for "egg nog" is the term didn't appear in print until the next century. Food historians/period recipes confirm English recipes for posset (esp. sack posset) were very similar to later egg nog. References to 16th century Jamestown egg nog were published after the from 18th century forwards, it is most likely the author was using a newer/more popular & accepted American term to denote an old traditional English holiday beverage.

How old is egg nog?

"By the mid-1760s patrons were drinking eggnog, juleps, sling and sanger in addition to the punch and toddy already available."

---"Taverns and Tavern Culture in the Southern Colonial Frontier: Rowan County, North Carolina, 1753-1776," Daniel B. Thorpe, Journal of Southern History, Vol 4, no. 2, November 1996

[1796] "Rich and creamy dessert drinks, such as eggnog and syllabub, reflect the English heritage in America, especially in the South. In England posset was a hot drink in which the white and yolk of eggs were whipped with ale, cider, or wine. Americans adapted English recipes to produce a variety of milk-based drinks that combined rum, brandy, or whiskey with cream. The first written reference to eggnog was an account of a February 1796 breakfast at the City Tavern in Philadelphia. Beginning in 1839 American cookbooks included recipes for cold eggnogs of cream, sugar, and eggs combined with brandy, rum, bourbon, or sherry, sprinkled with nutmeg. Southerners enjoyed a mix of peach brandy, rum, and whiskey."

Christmas birds: peacocks and swans

2011-08-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

Food historians tell us the practice of serving large, stuffed fowl for Christmas, like many other Christian holiday food traditions, was borrowed from earlier cultural practices. Peacocks, swans, geese and turkeys all fit this bill. The larger the bird, the more festive the presence. "New World" turkeys were introduced to Europe in the 16th century. For many years, these "exotic" turkey birds only graced the tables of the wealthy. Working-class English Victorian families, like the Cratchits in Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol, belonged to Goose Clubs. In America, turkey (wild and plentiful) was a natural choice for the Christmas feast. And yet? Our survey of historic newspapers reveals the goose still commanded a traditional place on the Christmas table through the 19th century. Some traditions die hard.

PEACOCKS & SWANS

"Apart from the wild and tame fowl for everyday consumption, there were a few which were outstanding as celebratory birds for feasts and festivals. These were swans and peacocks among the rich, and herons and bustards for those less well off. The pacock made a fine show on a festive occassion...More usual than peacocks at feasts of the nobiltiy were swans. The Percy Family [Medieval England] at them on the principal festivals of the church at the rate of five for Christmas Day, four for Twelfth Night, three for New Year's Day...The family consumed an enormous range of both moor and waterfowl during the year, but the swans were appointed for those special days. Swan was roasted like goose, and served with chawdron sauce...Those who were not in the swan-eating class had goose or chicken."

Candy canes

2011-08-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

Why are some candies associated with Christmas? Hundreds of years ago sugar was very expensive. It was a food of the wealthy. For other people, it was a special treat saved for holidays (Christmas, Easter) and other special occasions (weddings, christenings). Many of these traditions remain today. About candy.

Food historians tell us that hard candies (sticks, losenges, etc.) were originally manufactured for medicinal purposes. This idea survives today in the form of cough drops. Confectioners were quick to recognize the popularity of hard candy, in its various forms. Before long, hard candies of all sorts of shapes, sizes, and flavors were produced for "recreational" purposes.

"The concept of sugar as medicine probably came from the tradition of Moslem physicians. They came from a culture which knew and used sugar...That sugar was an expensive and exotic luxury, used medicinally by the subtle and learned Arabs, probalby helped reinforce medieval European ideas of its intrinsic goodness. There were pleny of ailments in northern Europe for which sugar was considered suitable treatment--coughs, colds, chest infections, agues. The Christ allowed that sugar was medicinal (St. Thomas Aquinas himself apparently considered and pronounced on the subject), which meant it could be legitimately nibbled during Lent, probably adding to its appeal. It is no coincidence that our earliest information about pulled-sugar sweets in Britian, using the very word penides that travelled all the way from the Orient, comes from compilations of medicinal formulae, not elegant books on fine confectionery. A description of pulling sugar was written down about 1500 in the York manuscript, under the title To make penydes...The art of pulling sugar was evidently well understood 500 years ago..."

Buche de Noel

2011-08-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

Buche de Noel is one of many traditional cakes baked at Christmas. As the name suggests, it is of French origin. The name of this recipe literally translates as "Christmas log," referring to the traditional Yule log burned centuries past. The ingedients suggest the cake is most likely a 19th century creation. That's when thinly rolled sponge cakes filled with jam or cream and covered with buttercream icing begin to show up in European cook books. Marzipan and meringue, typically employed for decorative purposes, date to the Medieval Ages and the 17th century respectively. We find no person/place/company credited for having *invented* this particular confection. This is what the food historians have to say on the topic:

"Christmas Yule Log. A log-shaped cake traditionally prepared for the Christmas festivities. It is usually made of rectangular slices of Genoese sponge, spread with butter cream and placed one on top of the other, and them shaped into a log; it is coated with chocolate butter cream, applied with a piping bag to simulate bark. The cake is decorated with holly leaves made from almond paste, meringue mushrooms and small figures. A Swiss roll (jelly roll) may be used instead of sliced Genoese cake. There are also ice cream logs, some made entirely of different flavoured ice creams and some with the inside made of parfait or a bombe mixture. This cake is a fairly recent creation (after 1870) of the Parisian pastrycooks, inspired by the real logs which used to be burned in the hearth throughout Christmas Eve. Before then, the cakes of the season were generally brioches or fruit loaves."

food and drink

Christmas Hors d'Oeuvres

Flatbread

Ingredients

Directions

Crispy Fried Tofu With Sweet Chille Sauce

Christmas Party Ideas for Food

Beverages

Appetizers

Main Courses

Desserts