"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."-- J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
OK, so Thanksgiving isn't technically in winter. Then there's all of the religion/Native Americans vs The Pilgrims/crass commercialism/I hate the holidays because of my crazy family arguments and I am not here to argue for, or against, any of those. What we are here to talk about are the food traditions of what I am calling, for the purposes of our discussion, the Winter Holidays: from late November until the first of the New Year. I can talk about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day. I hope some of you can add food discussions from other holidays and cultures.
Like many of you, I loved food and eating during my childhood and eventually graduated to loving to cook and feed others. The bond of love around sharing food traditions and meals is pervasive throughout human culture and I know my memories are full of those shared experiences and the dishes that were a part of that.
One of the earliest memories I have of a holiday treat that intrigued me was that of a "stack cake" . My family on both sides came from Eastern Kentucky and it was my maternal grandmother who put this stack cake on the table, made with dried apples from a tree in her yard—apples that I had helped pick and peel and dry on clean bed sheets on the southeastern facing slope of the backyard. Sheets that had to be gathered every evening before the dew fall and then spread out again the next day after the dew had evaporated. It seemed like a lot of work to a six-year old boy at the time, but I can sit here writing this almost 50 years later and recall the sensual memories and the love that placed it in the table at Christmas. The closest recipe I can find is here. Grandma is some 40 years gone, but that cake is still a part of my being.
As in many families, there was no shortage of holiday-related tension in our house during my childhood. My mother and father had different views on most everything, including all the particulars of the holidays such as the visiting schedule, finances, etc. As such, the food traditions in my immediate family were hit and miss many years depending on whether there was a current cease-fire agreement. My mother made a cranberry relish that apparently only she and I liked, but she made it at Thanksgiving and Christmas every year, even long after I grew up and left home. I always felt like she did it just for me.
As I've grown older, my love for cranberries has continued. Over the years I have experiemented with various cranberry creations including a cranberry-apple pie that was quite good (add reconstituted dried cranberries to your taste in place of some of the apples in your favorite apple pie recipe, adjust the sugar up just a tad). One year I made a cranberry sorbet that was perhaps the most tart thing I have every had in my mouth. I took a lot of that home. My recent cranberry fixation has been this salsa recipe. It is quite good on turkey, ham, sandwiches, and with cream cheese and crackers. I think it would also be excellent on broiled salmon:
Cranberry Salsa (makes about a quart)
6 cups fresh cranberries (2 standard bags)
1 bunch scallions, minced
2 fresh jalapenos, seeded and diced finely (I leaves some of the seeds in as I like a little more heat)
½ cup sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice (red wine vinegar works in a pinch, I suspect balsamic would be good as well)
½ tsp ground ginger or 1 tsp fresh minced finely
½ bunch of cilantro chopped finely
a touch of orange zest if you're feeling froggy
Combine all ingredients. Let sit, refrigerated a few hours or overnight to let flavors meld. Eat on anything.
My wife asked me the other day if I liked baking more than any other type of cooking. It was hard for me to answer. I love my desserts, baked or otherwise. But I like barbequing, and making soup, and everything else. I do, however, gets lots of positive feedback on my baked goodies. That is partly because they are good and because many people do love sweets.
As I posted in a thread yesterday, this Thanksgiving my burden was spending the holiday with my wife's teabagger cousins. Other than my promise to my wife to not fight with them, my strategy was to knock the chief teabagger (let's call her Sarah) off her pedestal with a dessert that left her speechless and not in a good position to give me any shit (that I am the only Catholic and Democrat in the family make me an easy target at times). Knowing that Sarah is a fool for Nutella I came up with a Nutella cheesecake. Wow. It was good. I hear that Nutella is not even the best version of gianduia in the world. This recipe may be even better with a higher quality ingredient.
Let Them Eat [Cheese]cake
Crust (oven at 350)
24-30 of those chocolate cookies with the creamy filling
6 Tbsp butter melted
Process the cookies in a food processor until fine crumbs. Mix with the butter in a bowl and press into the bottom and about 2 inches up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Remove and let crust cool while you work on the batter.
Prepare the Bain Marie.
The key to a creamy cheesecake is not letting the cake dry out while baking. It also prevent the filling from cracking as it cools. A bain marie (water bath) is a technique of baking inside a lager pan that has water coming about halfway up the side of your baking dish. A broiler pan works well for this particular chore. While the crust is cooling place a broiler pan with about an inch and a half of water in it on the center rack of your oven. When the crust is cool enough to handle, place the pan on a square of foil and bring it up on the sides so as to prevent water from leaking into the springform pan from the bottom. I know, it's a lot of work, but it is so worth it.
Filling
24 oz of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
Mix in a large bowl just until combined. Add
3 eggs
Again, mix just until combined. In a separate bowl mix
½ cup milk
1 13oz jar Nutella spread
Until smooth.
Add to filling and mix until well combined. Pour into crust and place into bain marie, making sure that the water level is below the level of your foil. Shut the oven door and immediately reduce the heat to 300 degrees. Bake for 90 minutes, resisting the temptation to open the oven door unless you must add more water to the bain marie. In which case make sure the water you add is boiling so as not to shock the filling.
The cheesecake is done when the center does not “jiggle” when the pan is lightly tapped. The center will still appear shiny. Remove from bain marie and allow to cool on a rack for 10 minutes or so. Using a thin knife, run around the edge of the cheesecake to separate the cake from the rim of the pan. Allow to cool 90 minutes to two hours. Place plastic wrap lightly right on the surface of the cake and chill for several hours to overnight.
Use the cheesecake to prove to a know-it-all wingnut that liberals know what the hell we are doing when it comes to complex shit.
Thanks for reading. What are your holiday food traditions?