Saturday, January 19, 2013

New Year's Eve Feast


Monday 31 December
We have no real traditions of lucky foods for new year's eve, so we use everyone else's.
One is that eating fish is a good thing, so we extended that to seafood.  Our hors d'oeuvres, then, was a half pound of shrimp (boiled in a court bouillon of their own shells, some celery leaves, and black peppercorns, then cooled) to dip in a classic cocktail sauce made from ketchup mixed with lashings of hot white horseradish. 
In Italy, we learned that eating things that looked like coins (sausage slices, lentils) was a sure path to money in the new year.  So we cooked up a batch of organic lentilles de Puy (from Canada, via Jungle Jim's) with smoked duck stock, carrots, and onions.  It made a soft bed for slices of smoked duck breast.  

At midnight, we ate Christmas pastries in bed, drank a bottle of Pol Roger white foil reserve champagne (gift of the nice proprietor of Cork 'n' Bottle), and watched the festivities in Times Square on TV.
It all made for a very happy new year.

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