Archive for December 27th, 2006

This Christmas I had planned a grande dinner, but it slowly diminished in scale. The main feature was still a honeyed-ham, which was tasty. But the opening soup, a French curried cauliflower soup, thickened with hazelnuts, was served instead for luncheon. It was quite good.

Another side dish ended up being a pre-meal appetizer: Patrick O’Connell’s green beans that get a tempura treatment, and a dipping sauce. This was a disaster, because all the oil overflowed and I had a royal, fatty mess. Tasty, though.

The side dishes that went with the ham included a root-vegetable gratin, brussels sprouts with wild mushrooms and shallots, and biscuits.

The holidays are for sharing, and we all had a good time. For some reason, my timing/planning was off this season, and the chore of putting all the dishes together as one complete meal needed help in efficiency. Nonetheless, I learned a few things, and postponed the dessert for another day.

The recipes for the gratin (celery root, parsnip, sweet, and russett potatoes) and the brussels sprouts came from the November, 2006 edition of Gourmet magazine.

Oh heaven.

I know that readers will doubtfully have ever tried Sicilian Pistachio cream. This stuff is heavenly, to say the least. It has that quality of flavor that says it’s so good, like a truffle, or an exotic honey, that maybe you shouldn’t be eating it. Luxurious, yes, but so creamy, sweet, and nutty rich.

Where did I get this spread? From the Z-Club: one of my Christmas gifts from Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor. They send you a box, and it’s filled with all sorts of gourmet treats.

Supposedly this stuff is rare, and the first time it has been imported into the U.S. of A. Zingerman’s tells us that this stuff is good on toast, bagels, waffles, and oatmeal, or drizzled over ricotta cheese. I’m guessing it would make a killer addition to a pistachio-flavored soufflée, too.

Yum. Zingerman’s is likely to carry this in 2007 at their store, or through their catalog. It’s one (and the first) treat in my Z-Club box that I whole-heartedly recommend. It’s that good.

Some time ago, I read a recipe in NY Times Magazine for a passion fruit soufflé. Needless to say, keeping things like old magazines around this house is a real challenge. I lost it. So, I searched online for another recipe.

The basic idea is: whip your egg whites, make a thick sugar syrup by boiling 1 cup sugar with 2 Tbsp. of water, and a vanilla bean. Then, you drizzle this warm syrup into the egg whites. Then, at last, you add the passion fruit purée.

It must have been a bad day for the messy chef. I made the syrup too thick. Instead of a nice thick liquid to make an Italian-style meringue with the eggs, I got hard strings of sugar. It all tasted good, but… it wasn’t very correct.

The passion fruit was hard to incorporate. It was very liquidy. Yet, despite my mistakes in trying to make this dish, the taste was phenomenal! No wonder it has been a rising star in the world of dessert soufflées. Both tart, exotic (with vanilla), and sweet. I should like to try again, as I have more purée of passion fruit left. You can find it in latin markets.

• 1/2 cup passion fruit purée
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 egg whites
• one-half split vanilla bean, scraped
• 1 Tbsp. water (or more, if you boil it for too long)
• butter, sugar, for preparing ramikins