Cooking on Christmas: Part I, The Menu and The Prep.

The Wife and I finished up the shopping for Christmas dinner on Christmas eve. After a few hours of dashing around town we picked up the last of the groceries at City Market. After hunting, gathering and debating we decided on the following menu:

Cocktail: 

Kaffir lime infused vodka with ginger simple syrup

Appetizer:

Pan seared dry sea scallops

Main Course:

Hardwick Beef Company filet mignon 

Brussel sprouts with toasted hazelnuts

Garlic and basil mashed potatoes

Dessert:

Michele Chiarlo Nivole, a sparkling Moscato

The first order of the day was to have a light breakfast to get the day started. While I took Shyla, a.k.a. Big Dog, 

Shyla a.k.a Big Dog wearing her Hanukkah bow.

for a nice long walk Sandy made sweet biscuits. Once I got back I whipped up a pretty simple frittata of eggs seasoned with rosemary, onions, hot pepper and bell peppers.

Originally we had planned to make a spanish styled frittata with potato, but decided that it would have been too heavy for brunch.

Once we cleaned up we started the prep work for dinner, the first order of business was to get the meat course marinating. The night before we had picked up 2 beautiful Hardwick Beef company  filet mignon's from our friend Frank Pace at the Healthy Living Market meat counter. I trust Frank's judgment in all matters concerning meat, and I am glad that we took his suggestion of the filets over the rib roast. They turned out to be melt in your mouth tender and incredibly juicy.

To make the marinade I combined 2 tablespoons of stone ground mustard, 6 cloves of garlic and 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary in the food processor. As those ingredients blended I drizzled in about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of olive oil until smooth. After rinsing the filets under cold water and patting them dry, I seasoned them with coarse sea salt and black pepper and coated them liberally with the marinade. I then placed them in the refrigerator for 8 hours in a covered glass bowl.

Once the meat was marinating I whipped up a batch of compound butter, or in our case the non-dairy substitute Earth Balance (basically, whipped and flavored canola oil.). I added 2 sprigs of rosemary, a little fresh thyme, salt, pepper and 4 cloves of garlic in the food processor and blended until smooth. Place in an adequately sized container, cover and refrigerate.

The next thing up was the ginger simple syrup for the cocktails. About a week ago I started infusing a batch of vodka with kaffir lime leaves. I placed a bunch of washed and dried fresh kaffir lime leaves in a clean 800ml mason jar and filled it to the top with a quality vodka. I sealed the jar and placed it in a cool dark cabinet and shook it 3 times a day for a week. 

Yesterday I made the ginger simple syrup to go along with it. I grated 1/2 cup of fresh ginger and placed it in a sauce pan with 1 cup of fine sugar and 1 cup of water on medium heat. I allowed it to come to a slight boil while stirring it constantly to allow the sugar to fully dissolve. After it boiled I shut it off and allowed it to cool to room temperature. Once it cooled I strained it into a clean mason jar and placed it in the refrigerator.