Fresh Tart

Swedish meatballs make a scrumptious main dish or festive party appetizer - your call.  Tender, fragrant with allspice and nutmeg, and bathed in a lightly creamy sauce, everyone goes wild for them.  Only you need to know that they're not complicated to make, and as a bonus, they're pretty cheap eats, too.

If you serve the meatballs for dinner, make sure to offer a mountain of fluffy mashed potatoes alongside.  (I offer a gluten-free adaptation below - and pictured!)

If you serve the meatballs as an appetizer, make them no more than 1-inch in diameter.  I like them even a bit smaller so they can be neatly skewered with a toothpick.

For another New Year's Eve appetizer idea, see the gougeres (aka cheese puff pastry) recipe I posted at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly magazine this week.  Easy, do-ahead, and utterly addictive!  Serve them hot and cheesy from the oven, or cool to room temperature - lovely with a glass of wine.

Swedish Meatballs
Adapted from a recipe by Alton Brown for Food Network
Serves 4 as a main course, or makes 30 1-inch meatballs

Stephanie's note: The original recipes calls for 1/4 tsp. of allspice, but I find 1/8 tsp. much more to my liking. I have also prepared the recipe with all beef, very tasty.

2 slices fresh white bread
1/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons clarified butter, divided
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
A pinch plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 pound ground chuck
3/4 pound ground pork
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups beef broth
1/4 cup heavy cream

I am stuffed to the max from rich holiday foods.  Even though I was successful in avoiding gluten and grains, the salt really catches up to me.  Puff city.  And after a week of heavier foods, salads, fish, and brothy soups just sound so right to me.

While these recipes aren't new, I thought you might appreciate having a few ideas for taking it down a notch this week.  Above is one of my favorite salads, Grilled Salmon with Greens & Avocado.  Warm salmon, cool greens, and a mustard vinaigrette hit the spot in any season.

I posted my aunt Mary's Chicken Vegetable Soup at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine a few weeks ago.  It's delicious anytime, and can be adapted to use up leftover turkey if you're lucky enough to have some on hand.

Grilled Shrimp Tostadas with Spicy Slaw are easy to mess around with.  Saute or broil the shrimp if your grill is buried in snow.  Skip the tortillas if you're watching your grain intake.  The cool, crunchy slaw sets off the hot shrimp nicely.

A pan of Fried Chickpeas with Chorizo & Spinach can be on the table in minutes and is hearty and spicy enough to chase away a chilly evening.  How do you wind things down when the holidays are over?

To me, it's not Christmas without my mom's fabulous 1970s appetizer platter.  I use it all the time, this time for fondue vegetables.

The smooth, tangy cheese...

...and rich beef tenderloin fondue were both amazing.  Fried beef.  Yes.

But I think my very favorite were the crispy cauliflower fritters - ridiculously good.

I used two fondue pots - one for the cheese, the other for the oil.  We dipped bread and vegetables in the cheese fondue, then fried the beef and cauliflower in the oil and dipped them in tomato-truffle and horseradish sauces as we went along.  If you were feeling really decadent, you could dip the cauliflower fritters in the cheese.  We missed that marvelous little move.

Next time.

Any of these would be delicious fun for New Year's Eve!

Cheese Fondue
From The Book of Fondues by Lorna Rhodes
Serves 6

1 Tbsp. butter
1 large shallot, minced
1 c. light ale (I used gluten-free beer)
4 tsp. cornstarch
5 Tbsp. half & half
4 c. (1 lb.) freshly shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Serve with any combination of:
baguette cubes
small pickles
radishes
red bell pepper
mushrooms

Melt butter in a large saucepan and cook shallot until soft.  Whisk together the ale, cornstarch, and half & half.  Whisk ale mixture into the shallot butter until hot and thickened (do not boil).  Turn heat to low and gradually stir in the cheese.  Continue to stir and heat until mixture is hot and smooth (but again, do not boil).  Transfer to a warm fondue pot and serve with bread and vegetables.

Cauliflower Fritters
From The Book of Fondues by Lorna Rhodes
Serves 6

1 lb. cauliflower, cut into florets
1 c. water
2 1/2 tsp. salt, divided
3/4 c. fresh bread crumbs (I used gluten-free bread)
1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs
peanut oil or other high heat oil

Serve with one or more dipping sauces:
Tomato-Truffle Sauce
Cheese Fondue

Combine water and 1/2 tsp. salt in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil, add cauliflower, and cook for 3-4 minutes (tender-crisp).  Drain well and spread on a baking sheet to cool.  (Can be done up to 3 hours ahead.  Cover and chill.)

Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, parsley, 1 tsp. salt, and several grinds of black pepper in a medium bowl.  In a pie plate or shallow bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the remaining 1 tsp. of salt.  Dip cauliflower florets in beaten egg, coat in bread crumb mixture, placing on a serving platter as you go.  (Can be done up to 1 hour ahead.  Cover and chill.)

Heat oil in fondue pot (amount varies according to your individual pot and instructions; I use an electric Rival fondue pot, half-filled with oil) to 350 degrees F.  Spear cauliflower florets and fry until golden brown, about 3 minutes.  Serve with dipping sauces.

Beef Tenderloin Fondue
Serves 6

2-3 lbs. of beef tenderloin, cut into 1-inch cubes
salt
peanut oil or other high heat oil

Up to two hours before serving, lay the beef cubes out on a large baking sheet.  Sprinkle with coarse salt and let sit at room temperature.  Before transferring to a serving platter, blot any moisture from the cubes with paper towels.

Heat oil in fondue pot (amount varies according to your individual pot and instructions; I use an electric Rival fondue pot, half-filled with oil) to 350 degrees F.  Spear tenderloin cubes and fry to desired doneness.  Serve with warm tomato-truffle sauce, horseradish sauce, or other dipping sauces.

Tomato-Truffle Sauce
Makes about 1 1/2 cups

3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 14-oz. can imported Italian tomatoes
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. Thai fish sauce or anchovy paste (optional)
salt & freshly ground black pepper
truffle oil or truffle salt

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add oil and when it's hot, stir in garlic and oregano.  Saute for a minute or two, then one tomato at a time, crush tomatoes with your fingers into the pan, adding all of the juices from the can as well.  Stir in sugar and fish sauce (if using) and bring sauce to a simmer, turn heat to low, and cook gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until nicely thick and rich-tasting.

Remove from heat and stir in truffle oil or salt to taste (intensity varies widely, so you'll have to taste to decide, depending on the type of oil or salt you're using).  Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.  Sauce should have a nice amount of saltiness to it since you're using it as a condiment.  (Can be prepared 2 days ahead; cover and chill.  Reheat before serving.)

Horseradish Sauce
Makes about 1 cup

1/2 c. whipping cream
1/2 c. creme fraiche
1/4 c. grated fresh horseradish (or more, to taste)
2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley
1/2 tsp. salt

Whip cream to soft peaks.  With mixer on low, add creme fraiche, horseradish, parsley, and salt.  Adjust seasoning to taste.  (Can be made 1 day ahead; cover and chill.)

The table is set.

The Alice Medrich chocolate souffles - not too rich, nicely chocolatey - are ready for the oven.  They're both gluten-free and do-ahead.  If they washed dishes, they'd be perfect.  (That giant one in the back is for John!)

Cauliflower is blanched.  It still needs a coating of breadcrumbs, then it will be ready for the fryer we fondly call "fondue."  (Recipes for fondues and sauces are here.)

It's kind of crazy how perfectly Christmas-y all this snow is!  After Christmas, it's just...a lot of snow.  But for now, it's lovely.

Yeah.

Ooh, here's another quick crowd-pleaser from the lovely blog Jenn Cuisine: Pan-Roasted Almonds with Thyme & Truffle Oil.  They take mere minutes to make and whoamygoodness, they are insanely delicious.  I'm putting these away now so there are at least a few left for my guests.

Yikes.

The skaters arrived!

And both sauces are now done: Softly whipped cream with freshly grated horseradish, minced scallions, and a generous pinch of salt folded in, as well as the tomato sauce from below.  (Recipes for sauce and fondues are here.)

I'm having fun - I hope you are too!  More to come...

If you're scrambling today, wishing you'd made Christmas cookies, I offer this fast and delicious chocolate almond coconut bark.  It takes 10 minutes to prepare!  And just try to keep your hands off of it.  If you hate coconut, or almonds, substitute crushed toffee, or peanuts, or whatever you do like - this bark is whatever you want it to be.  Recipe at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly magazine.

So far this morning, the house smells of garlic and truffles after making a quick tomato dipping sauce for this evening's beef fondue.  Here's our whole menu, by the way, forgot to put it up yesterday.

Cheese fondue with radishes, peppers, pickles, and cubed bread

Escargot in mushroom caps with garlic cream sauce
Roasted asparagus with fresh lemon

Beef tenderloin and cauliflower fritters fondue
Dipping sauces: tomato-truffle, horseradish cream

Chocolate souffles

What are you cooking today?

Even I have to admit that the winter wonderland out my window is gorgeous.  We have a neighborhood hockey rink which one of my neighbors is kindly snow-blowing so everyone can skate today.  It'll be a Norman Rockwell painting of skaters as soon as he's done.  (While we enjoy this lovely view, exactly none of us skate...although we stopped feeling guilty about it years ago and now happily watch the fun.)

Merry Christmas Eve!

I asked my son what he would like for Christmas Eve dinner, something out of our ordinary, something that would feel special.

He requested...escargot!

How fabulous, right?  I immediately jumped online, ordered the snails, and decided I'd rather not deal with the shells.  The dish that inspired Nathan's request is Cave Vin's shelless version anyhow, napped in a garlic cream sauce, topped with fried parsley.  Mon Dieu, it is every bit as delicious as it sounds.

For him, I'm going to stick to just snails and garlicky herb butter, served sizzling from the oven, with plenty of crusty baguette slices.

For the rest of us, who love mushrooms as well as escargot, I'm going to place an escargot inside a mushroom cap with garlicky herb butter, ditto the sizzling, crusty deliciousness.

Recipe forthcoming, once I (s)nail it exactly down...

(Oh look, there just happened to be one extra mushroom cap, which found itself stuffed with cheese, and then in the toaster oven, and then in my stomach.  Cook's treat - I'm a big fan.)

Uh, I'm clearly having a Tex-Mex moment.  No, I am not pregnant.  I'm just cold and wanting to fire up the ol' tastebuds...  And, I reached into Homesick Texan for the chile con queso recipe below, and just happened to pull out a recipe for classic Tex-Mex enchilada gravy as well.  What can I say?  I love it all, love, love, love it.

Yeah, I'm from North Dakota.  Yeah, I grew up with pretty tame (by Texas standards) Tex-Mex food (Grand Forkians still call chips & salsa chips & sauce, yep).  And yet...the craving was utterly cemented.  A beef burrito, topped with enchilada gravy and cheese, was the first food I remember seriously craving.  Forget sugar plums - visions of burritos danced in my head.  It would have scared me a little if everyone around me weren't dreaming of the same things - grinders from The Red Pepper, melted cheese with slabs of fresh jalapeno from The Italian Moon, even taco chain Taco John's potato oles, extra seasoning please.

I've never found a Minneapolis equivalent for the enchilada sauce of my memories.  Plenty of good, authentic Mexican eats (love!) but not the Tex-Mex I maniacally crave.  Now I can scratch the itch at home, in 15 minutes or less.  Wow.  I'm not sure this is a good thing, but it is certainly delicious.

The only remaining issue: Adapting the dish to be gluten-free.  The gravy was easy enough (I used cornstarch) and traditional corn tortillas are naturally gluten-free; but I really wanted the dish to be relatively low-carbohydrate as well.  Enter the ever-excellent Mark's Daily Apple, a goldmine of grain-free recipe ideas.  These "tortillas" are really crepes, but they are nonetheless addictive cheese-and-enchilada-gravy-delivery vehicles, and as such, more than hit the spot.  Two enchiladas as prepared below deliver around 5 grams of carbohydrate, 320 calories, and 20 grams of protein.  Not bad at all.

Of course, if you'd rather have real corn tortillas, go for 'em!

Chili Gravy
Robb Walsh, via Homesick Texan
Makes 2 cups

1/4 c. lard (or vegetable oil)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano (preferably Mexican oregano)
2 Tbsp. chile powder (homemade or a dark brand such as Gebhardt's or Whole Foods; I used 1 Tbsp. Whole Foods, 1/2 Tbsp. chipotle, 1/2 Tbsp. ancho)
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 c. chicken broth

Grain-Free "Tortillas"
From Mark's Daily Apple
Makes 8 tortillas

1/3 c. whipping cream
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp. salt
nonstick spray

Cheese Enchiladas
Adapted from Homesick Texan
Makes 8 enchiladas

8 tortillas
2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I like Monterey Jack/cheddar mix)
1 medium onion, diced
1 large jalapeno, seeded and minced (optional, but I love the heat and fresh chile flavor)
2 cups chili gravy (above)

Preheat the oven to 450 degree F.  Coat a 9x13 baking dish with a thin smear of oil or a spritz of nonstick spray.

Make the gravy: Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  In a small bowl, stir together the pepper, salt, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, and chile powder.  In another small bowl, whisk the cornstarch into the chicken broth and set aside.

When the oil is hot, stir in the dried spice mixture and saute until fragrant, 1-2 minutes (do not burn!).  Whisk in the chicken broth mixture and cook until thickened, 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Make the tortillas: Wipe out the skillet and return to the heat.  In a small bowl, whisk together the cream, egg whites, and salt.  When the skillet is hot, spritz with nonstick spray, then add a small scoop of batter (about 2 Tbsp.) to the pan.  Working quickly, swirl the batter around to form a thin crepe.  Cook until lightly browned on one side, flip and cook until lightly browned on the second side.  Slide out onto a plate.  Continue with the rest of the batter, stacking the crepes as you go.

Assemble the enchiladas: Pour 1/2 c. of chili gravy in the bottom of the baking pan.  Take one tortilla, sprinkle with 1/4 c. cheese, 1 Tbsp. chopped onion, 1 tsp. of chopped jalapeno, and roll up.  Place seam side down in the gravy.  Continue with the rest of the tortillas.  Pour remaining gravy over the rolled tortillas.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese, onion, and jalapeno (if any remains).

Bake for 10 minutes or until sauce and cheese are bubbly.  Serve hot.

OK, con queso addicts, it's time for treatment.  This here's a real-deal, spicy-melty, creamy-dreamy chili con queso made without 1) gluten, or 2) processed cheese.  And oh, it's easy and foolproof too.

Get out your tortilla chips, it's a helluva dip.

This recipe hails from one of the most delicious blogs on the planet, aka The Homesick Texan.  I can hardly read her posts they incite such powerful cravings!  The only change I made to her fabulous recipe was to use cornstarch instead of flour to thicken the base.

While I avoid grains in general, I made an exception for this beauty, tossing back more than a few tortilla chips in a spicy-cheese trance before snapping back to reality (aka shoving the dish into my son's hands and running from the room).

Merry, Merry!

Chile Con Queso
Adapted from The Homesick Texan
Serves 4

2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 onion, diced (about 1/2 c.)
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 Serrano peppers, diced
3 jalapeno peppers, diced
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 c. milk
6 c. shredded cheese (any combination of Longhorn cheddar & Monterey Jack)
1/2 chopped cilantro
2 plum tomatoes, diced (about 1 c., can use canned if tomatoes aren't in season)
1/2 c. sour cream
salt to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat, add onions and peppers, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring a few times, until onions are translucent.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch into the milk.  Whisk the milk mixture into the vegetables and cook until thick, about 2-3 minutes.  Stir in the cilantro and tomatoes.

Turn heat to low and 1/4-cup at a time, slowly add the shredded cheese, stirring until completely melted before adding more.  When all the cheese is added, stir in the sour cream.  Add salt to taste.  Serve hot with tortilla chips.

I posted this recipe a few weeks ago at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine. I thought it was worth another look in this week before Christmas.  As delicious as cranberries are for Thanksgiving, I think they're even more perfect - red! - on the Christmas table.  Delicious with turkey, of course, but also pork or chicken. Or with tortilla chips as a festive appetizer.  Or spooned over cream cheese as a pretty spread for crackers.  You get the tasty idea... 

Cranberry sauce often gets short shrift during Thanksgiving meal-planning, but it shouldn't.  Relish serves an important purpose, namely giving your palate a break during a rich and multi-dish meal, elevating your appreciation of the whole.

A bit of heat is a welcome surprise on the holiday table, at least in Minnesota.  My mom has been surprising guests for years with the bite of horseradish in her well-loved cranberry mold.  I riffed on that idea by poking around for a fresh cranberry salsa recipe and found a beauty.  Jalapenos?  Yes.  Raw cranberries?  Yes, yes.  With cilantro and a hint of sweet, the salsa is at once utterly familiar and completely new and refreshing.

It's also a snap to put together, better if made ahead, beautiful on the plate, and after serving with Herb-Roasted Turkey and Warm Brussels Salad...the leftovers are delicious with tortilla chips.  Pretty perfect in my book.

Fresh Cranberry Salsa
Adapted from All Recipes

1 (12 ounce) bag cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 bunch green onions, cut into 3-inch lengths
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
2 limes, juiced
3/4 cup white sugar
1 pinch salt

Combine cranberries, cilantro, green onions, jalapeno pepper, lime juice, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a medium blade. Chop to medium consistency. Refrigerate overnight. Serve at room temperature.