Holiday Cooking

I've sure been slack this month. But now with short days and cold weather and the holiday vibes buzzing about, Global Financial Meltdown notwithstanding, it's time to cook more. Because I don't have enough sugar-induced nausea in my life, I made a caramel sauce yesterday. It was good served warm over ice cream.

Hot chocolate
This is easy to make from cocoa, milk, and sugar. Mix cocoa powder with equal parts cold whole milk. Very weird as they don't seem to combine for a while and it's like stirring liquid powder. Eventually it makes a satiny emulsion that is irresistable. After you get over the bitterness and vow not to eat any more straight up like that, you can make hot chocolate by whisking it into near boiling milk. Add sugar to taste. Make a bunch of the cold cocoa/milk paste and keep it in the fridge. Some people get excited about adding cinnamon to cocoa. Do it if it makes you happy. I like adding dried ground chili, enough to really clear the sinuses, but I'm in the minority on that.

Chestnut dressing
Get too many chestnuts, score them with an 'X' with a sharp knife, roast in oven until they split open. Peel while hot, as hot as you can stand. I recommend buying a ton, and chucking any that don't peel quickly and easily. Roughly chop them and use liberally in stuffing. Stuffing should have some dried bready stuff, onions, celery, apple, sausage, and butter. Use homemade stock if possible. There are lots of other things you can put in there, too, but as long as you have chestnuts and butter it will turn out ok.

Turkey stock
Roast turkey stock is liquid gold. Every year I consider not letting anyone eat any turkey so I'll get a higher yield on that night's stock. Carcass, onions, carrots, celery, bay leaves, water, simmer. If dementia caused you to forget to use the pan drippings for gravy, scrape those in, too.

Goose leg confit
I like goose for Christmas rather than doing turkey again. It's beefy, much more forgiving in the oven than turkey, and basically fries itself in its own fat. I get a couple geese, cut the legs off and confit them (in the fat from the goose), wrap one of the carcasses carefully and freeze it, then use the other for Christmas roast. In theory the confited legs will last for many months, but I usually don't make it out of January without devouring them.

Mashed potatoes
Before my oldest grew out of his milk allergy, I'd devised rich mash using mayo instead of milk and butter. Usually with garlic: finely chop garlic, then steep it in generous amount of warm olive oil (heat garlic and oil in microwave, very carefully, stop when it's bubbling nicely but before it explodes). Mix garlic/oil into room-temperature mayonaise, then mash that and some sea salt into cooked and very-well-drained potatoes. I like the hand masher but some people use a machine to get things whippier. I've now got a taste for mash this way so have not gone back to the dairy style.