Food has always been an integral part of holidays and feast days. Easter has lamb, Thanksgiving has turkey, Memorial Day and Labor Day have anything that comes off a grill. But there is no definitive Christmas food. Some have ham, some turkey and the adventurous have duck or goose. I've even made a prime rib for Christmas dinner.
Since there is no definitive food, Christmas is an opportunity to be creative. These are some of my ideas. They're good any time of the year, too.
Roast Pork Loin with Orange and Rosemary
Ingredients:
· 1 Pork loin of good quality
· Fresh-squeezed orange juice – ½ cup per pound of pork (use the small, cheap oranges – they generally have more flavor and more juice)
· 4 sprigs of rosemary per pound of pork (don’t even think about using dried – it has to be fresh or it’s no good)
· ¼ cup diced white onions per pound of pork
· ¼ cup olive oil (extra virgin)
· Salt (preferably sea salt)
· Black pepper (freshly cracked)
Salt and pepper the loin and rub about half the olive oil in. Toss in the orange juice, onions and rosemary. Use a pyrex baking dish. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. It can sit overnight and will be better if it does.
Once it’s marinated, preheat a thick-bottomed steel skillet or cast iron one, add the pork and let it brown on each side. The temperature should be hot enough to caramelize the outside but not really cook the inside or make the oil smoke.
When it’s a pretty brown, take the loin out and put it back in the dish it came from.
Put the glass dish, covered, in a medium temperature oven. Cook until it’s just done. (You need a good meat thermometer for that. They’re cheap. Get one.)
When the loin is done, take it out and lay it on a plate or cutting board to rest.
Pour the dripping into the steel skillet, add a cup or so of good white wine and a couple of tablespoons of butter. (Real butter, unsalted). Gradually bring it to a boil so as not to make the butter clot, and then simmer until you have a thick sauce. Scrape the bottom of the pan regularly to incorporate the crusties into the sauce. They add a lot of flavor.
When the sauce reaches a divine consistency, take it off the heat, put the loin on a serving dish and pour the sauce over it.
Serve as medallions with some sauce atop, under or beside.
Garlic and Dill Potatoes
Ingredients:
· Red potatoes, cubed but not peeled.
· Garlic, pressed or chopped. (Don’t ever use garlic powder. It’s awful.)
· Fresh dill. Drag you fingers down against the way the leaves grow to harvest it.
· Butter (2-4 tblsp).
· Salt.
· Pepper.
Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Toss in the potatoes and let the water come back to a boil. Reduce the tempature to a low simmer. Cook until they’re tender, but no mushy.
Drain off the water or pour them through a collander and put back in your cooking pan. Add the butter, garlic and dill. Mash until they’re a consistency that you like. I like the old-fashioned hand mashers.
Salt to task and garnish with a little fresh dill.
Tarragon Green Beans
Ingredients:
· Fresh green beans, cleaned and cut to about 2 inches each
· Butter.
· Salt.
· Tarragon. (Fresh tarragon is hard to come by, but the dried is acceptable in this case. It has so much flavor you don’t need much.)
Prepare your beans by snapping off each end and pulling the string off. Wash them thoruoghly.
Bring a pot of lightly-salted water to a simmer. Add the beans and let them simmer until they’re a bright, beautiful green, cooked but still crisp. Drain the water off and add the butter and tarragon. Salt to taste.
Citrus Fruit Salad
Ingredients:
· 2 cups cantaloupe
· 1 can pineapple
· 1 cup white grapes
· 1 Granny Smith apple
· 1 lime
· 1 lemon
· 1 juice orange
· 1-1.5 cups honey
Peel, seed and cube the cantaloupe. Cut the grapes in half lengthwise. Drain the pineapple. Add these ingredients to a bowl.
Juice the lemon, lime and orange into a cup or small bowl.
Peel, core and cube the apple and add to the fruit mixture.
Pour the citrus juice over the fruit. (The juice will keep the apple from discoloring. That’s why you peel it after you have the juice ready.) Pour enough honey over the mixture to achieve a consistency you like.
The fruits that can be used are as varied as your supermarket’s produce department. The only essential is the cantaloupe. To adapt it for the season, add strawberries and toasted coconut in the summer or nutmeg, cinnamon and clove powder for the fall and winter. Be careful with the clove powder: it’s potent, so start with a small amount and add more to taste.
Honey Strawberries and Ice Cream
Fresh strawberries, sliced
Honey
Ice cream
Add enough honey to the strawberries to glaze them. Spoon over ice cream. I prefer Breyer’s whole-bean vanilla—it offers a nice counterpart to the strawberries.
To add a bit of novelty, include other fruits like blueberries, pineapple or grapes. Also, some coconut, pecans or slivered almonds can add a different dimension to both the flavor and texture.
Baby carrots sauteed in butter with fresh dill
Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a thick-bottomed pan. Be careful not to let the butter turn brown (turn the temperature down if it starts to smoke or turn brown). Cover the pan. Stir occasionally, but not often, as they cook. Every time you take the lid off, you’ll let heat and moisture out.
Pull the leaves off the dill and toss them on after the carrots are cooked. Add a little salt if needed.
Honey-glazed carrots
Prepare the same as above, but instead of adding dill, pour enough honey over them to give them a nice sheen.
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