We ate so many good things at Christmas, but I only took a few pictures. We arrived four days late due to the Baltimore snowstorm, but started the holiday off right with roast pork in milk curd sauce, an italian dish. The next night was lamb loin, cardoon gratin (too bad I didn't get any pictures, cardoons are wacky - they look like barbed celery, which, not endearing AT ALL) and rosti (a swiss shredded potato cake sauteed in its weight in butter).
Christmas Eve we made lobster ravioli with the remains of a five-pound lobster that a student of my Dad's brought him, in thanks for helping him through a tough job search, and two salads. One was fennel and parsley; the other, a tricolore salad with a buttermilk chive dressing.
Then the GOOSE.
Take one goose. Stuff some prunes with duck foie gras.
Now, put those in the goose. Roast your goose, mostly on its side, turning it like one does in a tanning booth for extra golden color. Apply hot water from time to time to keep the pores open and the goose schvitzing.
Meanwhile, make a mushroom soup using approximately 8 lbs of butter and 1lb of mushrooms. The pomegranate is for scale, and also to go with the roasted butternut squash cubes + cilantro. This was delicious, btw, and sorry, no pictures. Dad made up the recipe.
Also meanwhile, make some twice-baked potatoes. Paprika, we have decided in the end, is basically sine qua non, even if Mom thinks it looks tacky. Note additional butter on top, after having stirred in 2 sticks of it during the mashing process.
Ah yes, the goose must now be done.
Throw in some spinach cooked in butter (of course) for some greenness on the plate, while you're at it. Finish it all off with lemon tart to cut the butter. Ha! Just kidding. There's butter in there too.
Most of these recipes from Julia Child. The goose was delicious, very very very dark meat. The squash/pomegranate/cilantro was amazing. The buttered mushrooms, potatoes, and spinach - well, let's just say, I've never been happier to be full of butter. Dee-lish. I think the secular Koenker household can take on any Jewish household during Hannukah season in a butter-off, I'm just sayin'.
