Home for the Holidays
By Carole Kotkin


When it comes to the pleasures of the table, most people would agree that during the holidays there is simply no place like home. It's a time of year when families revisit all manner of rituals, including culinary traditions that have been passed down for generations. Diets are abandoned, and fanciful fusion food and spa cuisine give way to evocative butter- and cream-laden dishes that push the buttons of deeply embedded palate memories.

And although I am a cooking teacher, there will be no trendy or overly elaborate culinary creations on my holiday table. Holiday dinners for my clan are the very epitome of comfort cooking. They're the meals that pull everyone home for the soothing and familiar scents and flavors of treasured family recipes. Chefs are no different. It doesn't matter how accomplished or sophisticated they've become, most return to their roots during Christmas and Hanukkah to prepare the memory-stirring home fare on which they were raised.

However, those evocative dishes aren't necessarily straightforward, given the multicultural backgrounds of the chefs who cook in some of our nation's finest establishments. Indeed, when one considers the melting pot of ethnic influences that is so symbolic of the American tapestry, there are always pleasant surprises in store when these restaurant chefs cook at home during the holidays.

For Mexican-born Martin Rios, executive chef at The Old House Restaurant in the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, since 1997, the month of December is a cross-cultural experience because his wife, Jennifer, is Jewish. "There are always bagels and tortillas side-by-side in the freezer, and at this time of the year we do Jennifer's grandmother's noodle kugel, latkes and pot roast for Hanukkah."

On Christmas, Rios prepares a rich, soul-warming baked butternut squash soup with a splash of chestnut purée; a tian of marinated Maine lobster salad tossed with avocado, artichokes, baby corn, roasted peppers, lemon zest and Champagne vinaigrette; and perhaps most significantly, his mother's almond mole, which he says is wonderful spooned over roast turkey. Rios, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and apprenticed in France with Georges Blanc, claims his mother was his greatest teacher, instilling in him the passion for cooking that burns in him today.

"She is simply a great cook. I love the classical Mexican food she learned from my grandmother, the flavors she cooks with and the different chiles she uses," he enthuses. "When I was growing up, there were eight children to feed. She made soups every day, stews and posole, and she knows ten to twelve different moles."

Rios moved to the forefront of American cuisine when he began using French techniques to reinvent traditional New Mexican cooking at The Old House, the only restaurant in the state of New Mexico to receive both the 2001 Mobil Four-Star Award and the AAA Four Diamond Award. He loves nothing better than adapting the New Mexican larder to dishes like herb-painted sea scallops with crisped potato, sweet peppers, tender leeks and roasted corn; and red chile-glazed veal chop with red wine, onions, wild mushrooms, jack cheese, potato and Port-mulato chile sauce.

With the exception of soup and dessert, the Rios Christmas feast is usually served all at once, making both red and white wines, served family-style, appropriate choices. "I encourage everyone to drink what they like and not be afraid to try something different," Rios says. "We also like to showcase California wines like Chardonnay, Sauvignon or Fumé Blanc and Merlot. They're very fruity and give such a great balance to our food, [which] uses different spices and chiles from around the world."

For Marcus Samuelsson, executive chef at Aquavit in New York and Minneapolis, Christmas Eve burns brightest in his memories. Born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, he began to cook as a young child in his grandmother Helga's kitchen. "By the time I was six, my grandmother was teaching me how to cook," he recalls. "She had been a professional cook herself, and I'd spend hours with her learning how to make traditional Swedish food, cookies and fresh bread."

Leaving home at age 16 to attend culinary school in Switzerland, he steadily journeyed up the culinary ladder. One of the first rungs was an internship at Aquavit followed by a one-year tenure with Georges Blanc (chef of the eponymous Michelin three-star restaurant in Vonnas, France). In 1994, he returned to New York and a year later became the executive chef at Aquavit, where he made such an impression that he was awarded Best Rising Star Chef by the James Beard Foundation in 1999 and the 2001 Ivy Award. The New York Times bestowed its second rating of three stars upon Aquavit in May 2001 and called Samuelsson a "fearless and artistic chef."

Samuelsson's cooking says as much about his personal history as it does about the holidays many of us share. "I'm really three personalities," he says. "If I don't open my mouth, I'm 100-percent Ethiopian. As soon as I open my mouth, I'm Swedish. And I live in America." The dishes that emerge from his kitchen at Aquavit may be Scandinavian by design, but the food is strongly original. Ingredients one would think incongruous - gravlax with pickled fennel, avocado and mustard-espresso sauce; Kobe beef ravioli with Japanese mushrooms; and hearts of palm salad with truffle tea broth - become complementary in his hands. And the presentations are elaborate. A dish such as house-smoked salmon with poached quail egg, goat cheese parfait and osetra caviar is served on an ice block. "We see ourselves like a production company putting together a concept and fantasy, dish by dish," Samuelsson says. "By contrast, when

I cook at home for the holidays, I like things traditional and down-to-earth. When I was a kid in Sweden, we didn't grow up on foie gras."

His childhood memories are filled with the traditional scents and flavors of Christmas. He notes that every home in Sweden smelled of cinnamon, clove, cardamom - all the spices that go into glögg, a warm, spiced red wine drink, and his grandmother's gingersnap cookies. Referring to Sweden's food as "based on a poor man's culture," Samuelsson still pickles, preserves and cures fish for Christmas the way his grandmother taught him.

"I make foods in December that are not seen for another twelve months - ham, herring, red cabbage, turkey, goose and basic homey potato gratin with anchovies," he says. Samuelsson applies a breadcrumb mustard crust to the moist and tender cooked ham, and graces it with balsamic stewed figs.

With his family dispersed around the world, Samuelsson celebrates with friends and Aquavit employees in his Manhattan apartment. "Most New York apartments are just too small to accommodate a lot of people; it becomes a sort of come-and-go-affair with people bringing foods from their culture," he says.

Instead of wine, Samuelsson serves the traditional glögg throughout the holidays and ends each meal with aquavit, the Scandinavian liquor for which the restaurant is named. Scandinavians believe aquavit, which is flavored with caraway seeds, bestows eternal life. Issues of immortality aside, the liquor, the restaurant, and the chef himself provide the warmth of the communal cooking pot during the chilly holiday season.

While temperatures are warmer down south, a little nip in the usually balmy air is welcomed by Bob Waggoner, executive chef at the Charleston Grill (the only restaurant in the state of South Carolina to receive Mobil's Four-Star Award), and his wife, Christine.

Born and raised in California, Waggoner is no stranger to a green, rather than a white, Christmas. In fact, he prefers it. During the holiday season, the South displays its gastronomic riches particularly proudly. Indeed, the mild South has long been a land of culinary abundance - a vast agricultural bazaar enriched by seafood from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The local flora and fauna are complemented by elaborate traditions of baking and pork butchery, as well as culinary accents from rural black, Native American, English, Spanish, German and French traditions.

Despite his West Coast background, Waggoner's food has a real old Southern richness to it. He sautés Smoky Mountain golden trout with Low Country crawfish tails; plates seared lamb sweetbreads over truffled grits; and stuffs local young zucchini blossoms with Maine lobster. Even his most obvious Southern inspirations, however, are informed by his classical techniques. Waggoner received his formal training with Michael Roberts at Trumps in Los Angeles from 1981 to 1983. In 1984, he went to France for what was supposed to be a one-year footloose adventure, but he became captivated by the French cooking that was then considered to be the best in the world. He remained for eleven years studying with a constellation of Michelin-starred chefs - Jacques Lameloise, Charles Barrier, Pierre Gagnaire, Gérard Boyer and Mark Meneau. After working in leading hotels and restaurants in Canada, Miami and Nashville, he joined the Charleston Grill, located in the Charleston Place Hotel, in 1998. "Combining my cooking experience from abroad with the flavors of the South, I enjoy serving dishes that incorporate Low Country favorites with classical French techniques," he notes.

Waggoner's multicultural bent is particularly evident at Christmas. Similar to his fare at the restaurant, his holiday dinners skillfully combine down-home, old-style Southern comfort with vibrant Gallic touches on the same platter. "When we get together with neighbors and friends during the holidays, Christine and I will cook together. We'll roast a goose, some quail or a leg of lamb. Christine is French, so on Christmas Eve, we'll begin with her roasted turban squash and salmon followed by her family's traditional roasted pheasant with chanterelles." In Christine's interpretation, the all-American roasted squash becomes a bowl that is filled with a heaping mound of corn, bacon and onions and then topped with a thin slice of salmon; her classic French stuffing for the pheasant is seasoned with Armagnac, ham and chicken livers, along with pecans for a Southern twist.

Other Southern fare makes the most of the season's harvest. "While I love Charleston's subtropical climate, winter brings some of my favorite foods - oysters, citrus fruit, greens and country ham," Waggoner says. "We'll have some Low Country dishes like grits with roasted garlic; sweet potatoes; collard greens; fried green tomatoes and corn bread."

On Christmas Day, the Waggoners entertain a gang of family and friends. "Everyone brings something so no one gets hit too hard on the preparation, and we'll carve a ham or two," he says. The ham is the real thing, from Virginia, slowly cured with salt and smoke and aged for a full ten months. Christine glazes the ham with sherry vinegar and wildflower honey. In addition to the ham, there's poultry - a whole, deep-fried turkey or pan-fried quail with gravy.

To go with this eclectic spread, Waggoner pours California Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot, and encourages his guests to experiment with the wine pairings. "With the turban squash and salmon I'll serve Jed Steele's 1997 Catfish Vineyard Clear Lake Zinfandel, and with the roasted pheasant and chanterelles I'll pour a 1997 Pinot Noir from Jim Clendenen's Au Bon Climat winery. Jim is a great friend and we have Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot made by him as our private label house wines at the Charleston Grill," he says.

California wine also reigns supreme at Terra, the celebrated Napa Valley restaurant founded by chefs Lissa Doumani and Hiro Sone. Theirs is a partnership unlike any other. Doumani, a Napa Valley native of Lebanese ancestry, met the Japanese-born Sone in Los Angeles in 1983. They were both working at Spago, where the French-trained Sone (who studied with legendary chefs Paul Bocuse and Joel Robuchon) was executive chef and Doumani pastry chef. They opened their award-winning restaurant in a century-old fieldstone foundry in St. Helena in 1988 and married in 1992.

As one might imagine from the chefs' cultural blend, the cuisine at Terra, awarded the "Robert Mondavi Culinary Award of Excellence" in 2000, is robust and richly flavored, a savory take on the homey cooking of Southern France and Northern Italy. Evident by the artfully plated dishes, entrées such as the sumptuous bone marrow risotto with braised veal shanks, Sone's Japanese sensibility is also at work here. (Home cooks can get a literal feel for the ethnically imaginative fare from the couples' first cookbook, Terra: Cooking from the Heart of Napa Valley, a critically acclaimed labor of love.)

When it's time to celebrate the holidays, the couple invites Doumani's family (her father, Carl, is the proprietor of Quixote Winery and former owner of Stags' Leap Winery), as well as their circle of chef and winery friends to their home on Christmas Eve. They have turned what was formerly a very simple dinner of cheese fondue with bread, fresh fruit and lots of wine into a sort of no-holds-barred bravura holiday feast of global inspiration. "We have a good division of labor," Doumani says. "Hiro is in charge of meat and fish, I do side dishes and desserts. But most important, he is in charge of timing. Otherwise we may never eat."

Each year, a different theme is chosen. Last year,

it was India. They assembled a repast of traditional Indian curries and breads and asked the guests to come clothed in Indian attire (Sone was dressed as Gandhi and the women wore saris). The year before was Lebanese; a whole lamb was stuffed with rice, onions, ground lamb and pine nuts, then roasted in Terra's oven at 250 degrees for seven hours. "It was so tender the meat would fall off the bone at the nudge of a fork," Sone says. "We designed a menu so there is a sensible yin and yang: The almost effortless lamb compensated for the more demanding and time-consuming side dishes. We're no different from anybody else - we hate feeling like caterers, not the hosts." Doumani agrees: "We want to spend time with our family and friends."

Japanese-inspired holiday menus appear every so often and give Sone the chance to revisit his past. Dishes such as his Sonoma-raised Miyagis oysters - which originally come from Sone's hometown in Japan - in ponzu (a sauce of soy, sake and lemon juice) and a seafood nabe, which is like a hot pot, are among his favorites. "Everyone gets to cook what they like at the table. There can be a bit of thievery for the best pieces," Doumani notes. She adds her touch annually via dessert. She often prepares a pomegranate granita with walnut-filled, Lebanese-style cookies followed by a chocolate bread pudding with sun-dried cherries topped with crème frâïche. "[It's] just great with left-over Cabernet," she says.

Indeed their home wine cellar boasts a trove of exceptional bottlings. Still, the task of wine pairing often falls to Carl Doumani, who favors old vintages from his cellar, along with lots of Champagne to make the holiday meal memorable.

The selection of wine alone illustrates the cultural significance of the holidays to Michelle Bernstein, chef at the acclaimed Azul restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Miami. When she, her parents and her sister celebrate Hanukkah at home, they sip a selection of Kosher wines with their dinner -Yarden sparkling, Baron Herzog Chenin Blanc and Yarden Katzrin Galilee. The choices honor the diversity of Bernstein's family tree. Her mother is a fourth-generation Argentine Jew from a family that emigrated from Eastern Europe, while her American father's ancestors had settled in the first Jewish ghettos of Italy.

As a result, Miami native Bernstein, who is also the host of "Melting Pot" on the Food Network, grew up eating cholent (pot roast with beans and barley); stuffed cabbage; and brisket with tzimmes (carrots and sweet potato stew) and dumplings, along with Italian-influenced tomato sauce and creamy polenta. "My mother and grandmother always kept the European-Jewish traditions, but added Argentine-Italian flavors," Bernstein recalls. "The foods we cook are a living legacy that link us to our past. Holiday dinners were always made by my mother, who in turn was taught by her mother and grandmother."

Recently, Bernstein has "taken the labor away from my mother," she says. The menu she'll cook for her close-knit family is a rich mix of dishes reflecting Bernstein's unique heritage. "We light the menorah and eat latkes (potato pancakes). Sometimes there's lasagna, spinach pie or cheese arepas, plus the traditional Jewish staples. I feel fortunate because I have both backgrounds," Bernstein says. "The dishes of the Italian Jews still influence modern chefs like Mario Batali, executive chef of Babbo in New York."

Trained in classical French cuisine and known professionally for her deeply flavored fusion foods - dishes such as her delectable "Bahamian cracked conch two ways" pan-fried with citrus sauce or marinated with habañero - she'll also give tradition a tweak. For example, Bernstein's noodle pudding is given a tart and savory flavor by substituting goat cheese for the customary cottage cheese.

Bernstein's life has taken some twists as well. She was a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company in New York until an injury forced her into early retirement. She quickly refocused and set off in pursuit of her second love, cooking.

After earning a culinary degree from Johnson & Wales University, she polished her skills at Jean-Louis at the Watergate in Washington, D.C., and Alison on Dominick and Le Bernardin in New York. She returned to Miami in 1997, and after stints at Red Fish Grill, Tantra and The Strand, she was lured to Azul last year. Tom Seitsema, restaurant reviewer for The Washington Post, reported in September 2001 that, "The most exciting cooking in Miami at this moment comes from Michelle Bernstein and the Dining Room at Azul." John Mariani, dining critic for Esquire magazine, named Azul the "Best Restaurant of 2001" in the December issue. But when it comes to the holiday meal, Bernstein's rendition of her grandmother's stuffed cabbage may well outlive her fancier restaurant fare - at least in her family's opinion.

Of course, no matter the ingredients or the ethnicity of dishes, the holiday dinner is an affirmation of family life. Chefs, who put in long hours in their restaurant kitchens, agree that feeding family and friends around their own table is pleasure for them, not work.

Holiday Recipes

Baked Butternut Squash Soup with Chestnut Purée
Adapted from a recipe by
Chef Martin Rios of The Old House

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and diced
1 shallot, peeled and diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 leek, white part only, diced
2 green apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 large butternut squash (about 31/2 pounds), halved, seeded and roasted (see Note)
1 tablespoon to 1/4 cup red chile purée, depending on your taste (see Note)
1 cup apple juice
8 cups chicken broth, either homemade or low-sodium canned
1 stick cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the ginger, shallot, carrot, leek, apples and curry powder. Cook until translucent and almost dry. Add the butternut squash and red chile purée and continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Purée mixture in a blender until smooth. Return mixture to pot. Add apple juice, chicken stock and cinnamon. If necessary, thin out with more broth. Season with salt and pepper. Remove cinnamon stick. Serve warm.

Note: To roast squash, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place squash cut side down on an oiled baking sheet. Bake until the squash can easily be pierced with a fork; about 1 hour. Let cool, then scoop out the squash flesh.

Note: Stem, seed, and rinse 4 large dried New Mexico chiles, then place them in a pan with water to cover. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes until tender, covered, then remove from heat. Drain, reserving the chile juice. Purée the chiles in a blender with 1/4 cup reserved chile juice until smooth.

For the Chestnut Purée:


1 five-ounce can roasted whole chestnuts
1 cup heavy cream
1 green apple, peeled and cored
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Herbs to garnish (optional)
Place all ingredients in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Cook for 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender and purée until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle the hot soup into ten warm soup bowls. Drizzle the chestnut purée all around. Garnish with a parsley sprig, basil and tarragon.

Serves 8 to 10


Christmas Ham with Balsamic Figs
Adapted from a recipe by
Chef Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit

1 lightly salted ham (14 to 20 pounds)
2 bay leaves
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2" pieces
2 onions, peeled and cut in quarters
2 juniper berries
2 cloves
1 tablespoon dried thyme
For the Mustard Mix:
3 cups bread crumbs
1 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon ginger powder
2 tablespoons mustard
1 tablespoon garam masala
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Place ham in a large pot. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Skim the foam off the top. Add bay leaves, carrots, onions, juniper berries, cloves and thyme. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 4 hours. Let ham sit in broth overnight. The next day, lift out and trim the fat. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange the ham meaty side up on a rack in a roasting pan and brush with mustard mix (recipe below). Bake for 30 minutes. Let stand for 30 minutes before slicing.

Serves 16

For the Balsamic Figs:


1 pound dried Mission or Calimyrna figs
1 cup Port wine
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 sprigs thyme, finely chopped
Combine Port wine, vinegar, and thyme in a shallow baking dish. Add figs, making sure to completely submerge in liquid. Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in refrigerator overnight.

Pour figs and marinade into a small sauté pan. Bring to boil over a medium-high flame. Continue boiling until there is very little liquid remaining. Remove from heat. Serve alongside ham.

Roasted Pheasant with Chanterelles and Pecans
Adapted from a recipe by
Chef Bob Waggoner of Charleston Grill

For the Stuffing:


3 tablespoons butter
3 shallots
1/2 pound chicken livers
1/2 cup bread crumbs
12 prunes, pitted
1/2 pound fresh ham, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 cup milk
11/2 teaspoons Armagnac
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat a large skillet over medium heat and sauté the shallots in the butter (do not brown). Add the livers and cook for 1 minute. Set aside to cool. Chop the livers into large pieces. Add the bread crumbs, prunes, ham, pecans and nutmeg and stir to combine well. Mix egg, sour cream and milk together and stir the mixture into the stuffing. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serves 4

For the Pheasant:


1- 2 1/2 pound pheasant
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Season the pheasant inside with salt and pepper. Fill the inside of the pheasant with the stuffing and tie or sew the opening closed. Rub the entire bird with the butter, salt and freshly ground white pepper. Place the pheasant on a rack in a roasting pan. Set the pan in the oven and roast until the juices from the thigh are clear when the skin is pierced, about 35 to 45 minutes. Baste often with pan drippings.

For the Chanterelles:


3 tablespoons unsalted butter
11/2 pounds chanterelles
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
4 shallots, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped chives
4 tablespoons pecans
Heat butter in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add chanterelles and "toss," stirring often. Add salt and pepper, and continue stirring for about 5 minutes. Add shallots and cook for another 3 minutes. Add chives and pecans. Arrange the mushrooms around the pheasant on a serving platter and spoon the pan juices over the pheasant just before serving.


Artichoke and Potato Ragout with Black Olives and Lemons
Adapted from a recipe by
Chef Michelle Bernstein of Azul

4 large artichokes, trimmed, choke removed, and cut in quarters (or use frozen artichoke hearts)
4 Yukon gold potatoes, cut in small wedges, poached in simmering salted water for 6 to 8 minutes until tender, and strained
1 lemon, cut in 8 pieces
2 roasted red peppers, cut in 6 pieces
Handful of black olives, pitted
1 teaspoon each of fresh thyme, rosemary and marjoram
1 tablespoon olive oil salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a baking dish large enough to accommodate the ingredients. Toss to coat with the oil. Roast for 6 to 8 minutes.

Serves 6

Chocolate Bread Pudding with Sun-Dried Cherries
Adapted from "Terra"
by Chefs Lissa Doumani & Hiro Sone

1/2 cup sun-dried cherries
1/3 cup Cognac
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups sourdough bâtard without crusts cut into 1/2" cubes and dried overnight
For the Garnish:


1 cup crème frâïche or sour cream
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar, sifted
6 fresh mint sprigs
Combine the cherries and Cognac and soak for at least 2 hours, or preferably overnight.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over barely simmering water (don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl or the chocolate will get too hot).

Remove from the heat and let the chocolate stand over the warm water until ready to use.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, sour cream, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Quickly whisk in the melted chocolate. If the chocolate does not completely melt, place the bowl back over the hot water and whisk gently until the chocolate is completely incorporated. Fold in the bread cubes, cherries and Cognac. Let sit in a warm place until the bread absorbs the custard, 1 to 2 hours. To test, break a bread cube in half; there should be no white showing. Spoon the mixture into six 10-ounce soufflé dishes or one 8-cup dish. Clean the edges well with a damp towel to remove any chocolate drips.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the dish(es) in a roasting pan. Slide the middle rack partially out of the oven, and place the pan on the rack. Pour boiling water into the pan to a depth of about

1-inch, making sure none of the water comes over the sides and into the dishes. Very carefully slide the rack back into the oven. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the puddings are puffed and set to the touch. Remove the dishes from the water and let cool slightly if serving immediately.

To serve, if necessary, cover each cooled pudding with a square of aluminum foil and reheat in a preheated 350 degrees oven for 6 to 8 minutes. To test, stick a small knife into the center of a pudding for 30 seconds, then remove it and feel the blade; if it's not warm, keep the puddings in the oven a little longer. Whisk the confectioners' sugar into the crème frâïche or sour cream.

Put a large dollop on top of each of the puddings and garnish with a sprig of mint.

Serves 6 - CK


From Truffles - diamonds in the rough
Tajarin with Fresh White Truffle
by Katherine Alford in Caviar, Truffles & Foie Gras

Tajarin are the unforgettable fresh egg-yolk-rich noodles of the Piedmont region of Italy, the heart of white truffle country. The noodles, which are almost saffron yellow due to the farmhouse yolks, are the customary accompaniment to fresh white truffles. There is a culinary bravura to recipes for tajarin, which can max out with up to 40 egg yolks per kilo of flour. Making handmade noodles is definitely a commitment, but when you are slicing fresh white truffles, it is worth the effort.

3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more salt to taste
4 large eggs at room temperature
8 large egg yolks at room temperature
Fine cornmeal for dusting
12 tablespoons (11/2 sticks) unsalted butter, diced
1 cup chicken stock
2 to 4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 ounces fresh white truffle
Mound the flour and the 2 teaspoons salt on a clean work space and make a well in the center. Crack the whole eggs into the well and add the egg yolks. Break up the eggs and yolks with a fork and gradually combine them with the flour by stirring bits of flour into the well with the fork. Use your other hand to move the flour around to keep the eggs from running out of the flour. (It is like moving the walls of a sand castle to keep the water inside.) Keep mixing the flour into the eggs until all the eggs have been absorbed and you have a rough dough. Knead the dough until smooth and satiny, about 10 minutes.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour at room temperature. Do not refrigerate the dough, or it will become wet and pasty.

Divide the dough into 6 pieces and cover with a towel. Flatten a piece of the dough with a rolling pin into a rectangle that will fit through the widest setting of a pasta machine. Feed the dough through the machine, then fold the flattened dough like a business letter. Pass the folded dough through the machine again. Repeat this process until the dough is satiny smooth, 3-4 times. Close the machine's rollers down by 1 notch and feed the dough through the machine. Repeat this at each setting down to the next-to-last setting. To prevent the dough from scrunching up in the rollers, pull lightly on the part of the dough feeding into the rollers to keep an even tension. (If the dough gets too long to pass through easily, cut the piece in half.)

Lay the sheet of pasta out to dry on a large towel or tablecloth. Repeat this procedure with the rest of the dough. Let the dough dry slightly until it is not tacky but is still pliable, about 20 minutes. (If the dough gets too dry, it will not cut properly.)

Cut the dough into foot-long pieces and pass the sheets through the tagliatelle cutters of the pasta machine. Dust the pasta with cornmeal and twist it into nests. Set on a rack to dry for up at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours.When ready to serve, bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it liberally. Add the pasta and stir to prevent clumps. Cook at a rapid boil until the pasta is al dente, 2-5 minutes, depending on how long the pasta has been drying.

Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven or large skillet, whisk 6 tablespoons of the butter with the chicken stock over low heat. Drain the pasta and toss in the pan with the remaining 6 tablespoons butter and the cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Divide the pasta among 6 to 8 warmed shallow bowls. Serve immediately. Shave paper-thin slices of truffles over the pasta at the table.

Serves 6 to 8

Article first published in The Wine News

 

Food Editor Carole Kotkin is a Miami-based cooking instructor and consultant who co-authored Mmmmiami - Tempting Tropical Tastes for Home Cooks Everywhere. It provides clear, simple directions for 150 dishes, from the simple (good old Key Lime Pie) to the sublime (Coconut Mahi-Mahi with Passion Fruit Sauce). The wide array of flavors is especially wonderful and startling to those used to monocultural cooking; Miami cuisine is the product of many generations of interbreeding and hybrid vigor. Click on the link below for more details or to order.

Mmmmiami : Tempting Tropical Tastes for Cooks Everywhere