Notes on a Holiday Meal

I got a little creative today while cooking the holiday meal. My inspiration for this sudden burst of creativity was my husband. He's a great lover of hot sauce and finds the New Year's meal a bit on the bland side. It's not that it doesn't have much seasoning, it's just that it the flavors are more subtle. With this in mind, I set out to kick up the holiday meal.

Here's what resulted:

Roast Pork and Sauerkraut

Since I chose a pretty lean cut, I knew there wouldn't be much in the form of pan drippings for gravy. Instead, I chose to prepare my sauerkraut in the oven. First, I roasted the pork until it reached 140 degrees Fahrenheit and then added a mixture of sauerkraut and chopped granny smith apples. I mounded the mixture over the pork as well as surrounding the entire loin. You can add caraway seeds to this mixture, but I didn't have any and am not a huge fan of caraway. The whole thing cooks together until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I let the entire roasting pan rest for about 10 minutes and then served the sliced roast on a bed of the sauerkraut and apples.

Mashed Potatoes

Typically, I like to add garlic, horseradish or wasabi to kick up mashed potatoes, but none of those options seemed to match the main course very well. I was making apple crisp at the time and thinking about what to add into the mashed potatoes when nutmeg came to me. A dash of nutmeg and there was an earthy dimension to this wonderful side dish.

Some minor tweaks and our traditional meal took on a whole new dimension. It was a great meal! One that did not require hot sauce. It's a New Year's miracle ;-)

Starting Off the New Year Right

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right. In light of my post on New Year's food traditions, I decided to get a jump on those "luck" foods and make Dutch Apple Pancakes with a side of bacon -- it's never too early to hope for health and good luck.

Years ago, I discovered this recipe in a Williams-Sonoma catalog and have been making it ever since with a few tweaks . I typically use Red Delicious or Granny Smith apples and skip the confectioners sugar (confectioners sugar + a 4 year old = a big mess for me).

Dutch Apple Pancake

Ingredients:

4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1 Golden Delicious apple, cored and cut into 1/2-inch slices

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 Tbs. granulated sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat an oven to 400ºF. Butter a 10-inch ovenproof braiser or fry pan.
2. In another fry pan over medium heat, melt 2 Tbs. of the butter. Add the apple, cinnamon and granulated sugar and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the apple begins to soften and brown, 5 to 6 minutes. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, using a whisk, beat the eggs. Add the milk and whisk until blended. Sift the flour and salt into the egg mixture and whisk until just blended. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the remaining 2 Tbs. butter. Add the butter to the egg mixture and whisk until smooth.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and arrange the apple slices evenly on top. Bake until the pancake is browned and puffed up, 25 to 30 minutes. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve immediately.

Happy New Year from Ally's Kitchen to Yours!

Food Traditions

Growing up, my Grandmother was in charge of New Year's Day dinner. It was a tradition that could be counted on each year like clockwork. My Grandmother was a first generation American raised by German parents and surrounded by German relatives. Through this holiday meal, she shared with us, the traditions that her parents taught her "from the old country".

Dinner was always a pork roast (luck), sauerkraut (gelt), mashed potatoes with gravy, spinach (wealth) and apple sauce (health). Once all the food was on the table, my Grandmother would remind us that each of the items on the table held a special significance for the coming year. The pork was for luck. The sauerkraut represented gelt or money. The spinach was for wealth. Grandma doubled up there to make sure we were covered. Apples were to ensure good health. I cannot remember what the mashed potatoes and gravy were there for except that she always served mashed potatoes and gravy with her meals. No matter how many times she told us, we were always asking the same question each year -- "what does spinach represent?", "what is the sauerkraut for?", etc.

For the turn of the century, my husband and I were in Germany. In the back of my mind, I was expecting to find that my traditional New Year's meal was an American amalgamation of German tradition kind of like corned beef and cabbage to the Irish -- not really something they ate in the home land. I was surprised to find how close my Grandmother came to the traditions on saw on menus and all around me. It was comforting to know that despite some interpretations, our family meal was true to the culture from which it came.

My Grandmother is no longer with us. Sadly, lung cancer took her in 2002. But, she is always with me. Especially on New Years. As I shopped for my holiday groceries, I couldn't help but think about all the New Year's Days when she was standing in the kitchen making her gravy and talking about the New Year's Days gone by with her family. Tomorrow, I will again, honor her memory with my meal. Although, I do make some tweaks -- apple sauce is replaced by apple pie, red cabbage has been added to the menu this year, and I cook fresh spinach instead of the frozen chopped spinach loaded with butter that was a staple of her meal.