Best of Melting Pot Menu

For this week’s column, I collaborated with grilling columnist
Mitch Mariani and wine columnist David Cox to create a holiday menu
that is inspired by Anglo-Italian cuisine. It spotlights
grill-roasted beef and bruschetta, with accompaniments that feature
some central California winter bounty to celebrate the best of the
melting pot.
For this week’s column, I collaborated with grilling columnist Mitch Mariani and wine columnist David Cox to create a holiday menu that is inspired by Anglo-Italian cuisine. It spotlights grill-roasted beef and bruschetta, with accompaniments that feature some central California winter bounty to celebrate the best of the melting pot.

David has provided several recommendations for some great wine pairings, which we’ll look at later in this column.

Our menu:

– Grill-roasted chestnuts

– Bruschetta

– Seared, then indirect-cooked prime rib

-Yorkshire pudding

-Horseradish mashed potatoes

– Green beans

– Salad of greens, avocado and grapefruit

– Sweet anise

– Pumpkin pie and sweets

– Stilton, port and walnuts

I was eager to feature Yorkshire pudding because its connotations are cozy and wintry, and it is often mentioned as part of a traditional English meal. Yet I realized I had never actually eaten one, let alone prepared it, so I did some research on what it is and how it should taste before I tried it myself.

First of all, Yorkshire pudding is not what we think of as pudding at all. It’s not sweet, and it’s more like a dense pancake or, when cooked in individual portions, a muffin.

Yorkshire pudding seems to have originated as a way to “stretch” the meat in a meal, being cooked while the meat roasted and served with meat juices as a first course to dampen appetites for the main course.

As the meat roasted on a spit over an open hearth, the pudding batter would be placed in a pan underneath, and the combination of heat from the coals and the hot drippings would cook the pudding.

The most common method today involves removing the drippings (some of the fat and all the beef juices) from the roasting pan and into the pan in which the pudding will be baked. The pan is heated, and the batter is added.

For my trial run, I used a 12-cup muffin pan. I roasted a small-standing rib roast and used the fat and juices to line each of the muffin cups. For a larger group, say eight people, you would need two pans.

Make the batter ahead of time. Some recipes suggest that it be chilled; if made several hours ahead, it should be, for safety. Then, once the roast is removed from the heat to rest before carving, place the pudding in a hot oven for about 35 minutes and see to the rest of the meal.

Yorkshire Pudding

2 cups all-purpose flour   

1 tsp. salt

6 large eggs   

2 1/2 cups milk

pan drippings from prime rib

Step 1: Sift together flour and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Add flour mixture; whisk until combined. Cover with plastic and set aside or chill.

Step 2: Twenty minutes before the prime rib has finished cooking, preheat oven to 425 degrees. After roasting pan has been deglazed, divide about 1/2 cup drippings into the muffin cups.

Step 3: Heat pan and drippings on top of the stove until very hot, about 5 minutes. Remove batter from refrigerator, and shake or whisk well; quickly pour about 1/3 cup into each muffin cup.

Step 4:  Bake until crisp and golden, 20 to 30 minutes. The puddings will puff up dramatically, then collapse some when removed from the oven. Serve warm with prime rib.

Horseradish is a traditional and very tasty accompaniment to roast beef, and here it is incorporated directly into the potatoes. I will be serving additional horseradish for myself and other aficionados.

Horseradish Mashed Potatoes

(adapted from Martha Stewart Living)

Serves 8

To ensure that the potatoes arrive at the table hot, mash them in a bowl set over simmering water.   

3 pounds Yukon gold or russet potatoes

1 Tbs. salt, plus more to taste

1 1/2 cup milk or cream at room temperature

6 Tbs. unsalted butter at room temperature

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper or to taste

freshly grated horseradish, to taste

Step 1: Peel and cut potatoes into 1 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place in a saucepan. Cover with cold water; add 1 Tbs. salt. Simmer until a knife easily pierces potatoes, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, fill another saucepan with water; bring to a simmer.

Step 2:  Place milk in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Place a heat-proof bowl over the pan of simmering water.

Step 3: Drain potatoes and press through a potato ricer or food mill into the bowl, or mash in the bowl with a potato masher until smooth. Using a whisk, add butter, and blend until incorporated. Drizzle in hot milk, whisking constantly. Add pepper and salt to taste. Add horseradish to taste, and mix until smooth. Serve immediately.

Winter Salad

Serves 8

This may be made an hour or so in advance and does not need to be chilled.

4 large grapefruits, preferably red

3 ripe avocados

4-6 heads endive or 4-6 romaine hearts or other sturdy salad greens

purchased creamy vinaigrette dressing or vinaigrette made with the grapefruit juice.

Step 1: Peel and section the grapefruits over a bowl so you capture as much juice as possible. Set aside.

Step 2: Peel and cut the avocados into slices. Sprinkle with some of the reserved grapefruit juice to prevent darkening.

Step 3: Wash, dry and separate the greens.

To serve, arrange the grapefruit segments, avocado slices and spears of lettuce on salad plates and drizzle with vinaigrette.

Mitch suggested that this meal, as rich as it is, would benefit from one of his family traditions, that of eating raw “sweet anise” or fennel (finnochio) between the main course and dessert. With its mild, licorice-like flavor and crunchy freshness, sweet anise cleanses the palate and may help to settle the stomach.

Sweet anise is a bulb-like vegetable often sold with feathery fronds still attached.

To prepare for this use, buy one bulb for every three or four people. Rinse the bulbs in salty water, then dry and cut lengthwise into wedges. Rinse them again in fresh salty water to remove any lingering grit from between the stalks.

Serve as a finger food with plenty of conversation.

For dessert, I am proposing pumpkin pie, for which I’ve given recipes in the past. In addition, one of my family’s traditions is for whoever received a box of chocolates to pass them around the table to share.

A final course for the adults would be Stilton cheese accompanied by walnuts and port wine. This is a traditional British finish to a leisurely meal. Serve the walnuts in their shells, along with nutcrackers, and a large chunk of Stilton to which everybody helps themselves.

The rhythm of cracking the walnuts and munching them with bits of the cheese, along with the slightly sweet, rich wine, encourages conversation for a friendly finish to your holiday meal.

And now, to make the meal shine, some wine recommendations from David:

Acidity in wine is what gets our taste buds popping. Many people shy away from having wine with some appetizers and salads because the foods can be acidic. A nice wine often can balance out the acidity in the food, like the salad with vinaigrette and brushcetta. Wines I recommend:

– Perrier Jouet Brut champagne, nonvintage from France ($25-$30). A solid, any occasion champagne. French champagnes have a nuttier character than most sparkling wines, so this would go well with the roasted chestnuts, too.

-Charles Heidsieck Brut Rose champagne, vintage 1996, from France ($70). This champagne is creamy and has loads of citrus. This is a vintage champagne, which is why the price is higher.

– Grgich Hills fume blanc 2003, from California ($16).

– Pastou Cotes de Sury sancerre, a rendition of sauvignon blanc, from France ($18). This wine was made to go with goat cheese.

The main course features a nice, full-bodied piece of prime rib. Giddy up! So, in this situation, an equal pairing of full-bodied wine sounds good to me. You RARE-ly can go wrong with this classic wine and food advice.

A couple of choices:

– Vine Cliff merlot 2000, from California ($25). Long finish, good balance with notes of fruit and jam.

– Montes Alpha syrah 2003, from Chile ($15). This wine was on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list. Great value!

Elizabeth and Mitch have concocted a devilish array of sweets. A nice port would be incredible with the pumpkin pie, chocolates and Stilton cheese:

– Fonseca Vintage Porto 1997, from Portugal. This is a bit pricey at $89, but you only need a couple of ounces of this stuff to be in heaven. Fonseca’s 2003 edition is almost as good and its price is around $60.

Cheers!